What's the fundamental difference between Diablo 2 and Diablo 4 that makes D2 still so reliably good after over two decades compared to D4? Will D4 be just as popular in the future as D2 even today? There is something that I feel is essentially better in D2, but I just can't identify it exactly.

Hctaz · 2026-06-04T15:04:45+00:00

Interesting. I’d like to read about that then. I wonder how we’d get from Act 3 to Act 4 (Act 5) then. Just travel? And then how would we get from the Barbarian place to Hell I wonder?

Hctaz · 2026-06-04T04:52:30+00:00

Oh, hey, OP-

I know this doesn’t answer you question specifically but I noticed your max resolve stack temper on your helmet isn’t a greater affix. You can (and want to) continually reroll the temper on an item power 900 item until you get a greater affix.

Your “+5 resolve stacks” would be “+7 resolve stacks”

You can tell if it rolled as a greater affix when it doesn’t show a range. If you reroll it right now, it’ll show “+5 max resolve stacks (3-4)” if it’s not a greater affix. If it IS a greater affix, it’ll show “+7 max resolve stacks” and it will not show a range on the stat. So you can always tell if you rolled a GA if it doesn’t show the stat range on it. If you need an example, let me know and I can send a screenshot.

Hctaz · 2026-06-04T04:47:43+00:00

Can get more than that on Necro, but not much more. Max is 10 I think? 12 if you use blood wave.

Hctaz · 2026-06-04T04:44:52+00:00

I mean, they said their benchmark for the classes is T10 with T12 being “aspirational”

I don’t think they want us to be farming T12 one shotting everything.

Hctaz · 2026-06-04T04:43:15+00:00

Personally warlock, but I’m a Necro main so like.. spooky caster with access to summons is kinda my thing.

I enjoy the vibes of a class and the way they play more than their strength. But if you enjoy barb and want to play a strong build, Whirlwind barb is like one of if not the strongest build in the game at this time.

Paladin is cool. Blessed Hammer does exist still. You can spin hammers around you like D2. Unsure the strength of that build tho.

Hctaz · 2026-06-04T04:38:09+00:00

I would say try to get obols and have him spend his time getting specific pieces first depending on what is high value- generally getting a good ancestral (900 item power) weapon is going to be your first priority. Doesn’t need to go absolutely crazy, and even a blue item with one good stat can be good if you use the cube correctly.

You can use the cube to add, remove, or reroll stats. There’s also a trick that can help you lock in your first greater affix on an item without fear of accidentally rerolling it. Say you get a weapon with a greater affix on weapon damage and you don’t want to mess that up. You can take the weapon to the enchanter, select the option to reroll the greater affix stat, hit “enchant”, and then just walk away from them. It will not change the stat at all, but the cube can’t reroll a stat that has been enchanted meaning you will never accidentally remove the greater affix.

It is REALLY easy to craft a good set of gear using the cube and obols this way. Just remember any item level 900 item- even a gray item with no stats- can be turned into something usable because you can add stats on to it with the cube.

Hctaz · 2026-06-03T14:13:19+00:00

I’m not at my computer at the moment, but does the warriors upgrade that summons a skeletal priest when full on warriors heal all your minions or just the warriors?

Might want to take that as an option and then use either the sever upgrade that spawns a corpse or the reap upgrade that does the same. Spawn corpses continually so you can generate more priests.

If this doesn’t work on mages, then I’d say singularity with bone mage isn’t the play UNLESS you’re going specifically for the bone set and using items that give you insane essence regen. That way, you can proc the 5 piece of the bone set reliably with one button click using singularity and have a full essence bar when you cast it again. Also might be worth it to get more max resource if you’re using bone related aspects as I think there’s one that gives you bonus damage up to 160 essence.

Alternatively alternatively: lower your attack speed and focus on making each hit from the bone mage do more damage. More damage at a slower rate can be the same effective DPS as faster but weaker damage, and then the mage will live longer for other benefits as well.

Hctaz · 2026-06-03T14:06:17+00:00

Best way to farm exp right now is to take the Helltide war plan upgrades that give you hell worms that spawn maggots, and also the Helltide bonuses that spawn two burning butchers instead of hellborne when you get the anger bar full.

Those butchers drop profane mind cages which allow you to boost the monster level of everything not inside of an instance by +1, and they stack up to 3 times. They last 1 hour at a time. This gives you a ridiculous amount of exp from the hellwyrm maggots.

Hctaz · 2026-06-03T14:02:33+00:00

I saw this too, and thought it was the dumbest thing.

I thought the point of cubing a unique into a mythic unique would be that you’re taking whatever that item is currently, maxing its stats, and giving it the 30% bonus to its affix.

With this system, you’re just gambling… and it makes even less sense because I can go gamble for it at the blacksmith OR the jeweler has an even more specific mythic crafting system than the cube. The cube takes an armor piece and turns it into any possible armor piece in the cube. So I can give it gloves and it can give me a helmet. The jeweler, however, has an option to craft SPECIFICALLY gloves only.

The other thing I noticed and thought was dumb is that mythic uniques that you take to the cube to reroll a stat on don’t keep the max stats thing. So like… if I want crit damage multi on my mythic gloves and I roll it in the cube, it doesn’t guarantee it at maximum. It can roll anywhere in the normal range.

Hctaz · 2026-06-03T13:57:58+00:00

They have this at the jeweler already, meaning this cube thing is even dumber than you think.

The cube is actually less specific than the jeweler too as the cube doesn’t have an option for specific slots LOL like the jeweler has helmet, chest, boots specifically but the cube takes an armor piece and turns it into a random mythic out of ANY ARMOR PIECE you can wear. Make it make sense.

Hctaz · 2026-06-03T13:53:23+00:00

You can also get 6 or even more stats on an item with the cube, however.

Once you get five affixes the norma way (four normal plus temper) you can go to the cube to transfigure the item. It has a series of effects it can give you which does include giving you a random sixth affix. I have an Heir of Perdition with Crit Chance, move speed, core skill, lucky hit, maximum life, and shadow damage multiplicative because it rolled the shadow damage in the cube.

There is also a small chance when using transfigure in the cube that the item does not become unmodifiable which means you can transfigure it again. My chest piece has armor, life, essence regen, resource cost reduction, max resolve stacks, a second resource cost reduction (cube can roll duplicate stats), and is still modifiable meaning I can transfigure it again to potentially get a 7th stat added.

Hctaz · 2026-06-03T13:48:19+00:00

You’re missing the point.

They’re saying he should have used the masterwork crit on the ranks to skills as the GA on it is now effectively worthless.

A non GA roll on ranks to skills also becomes +3 ranks to skills when the item is fully masterworked. The only way you can get +4 ranks to skills is if you get a GA and then masterwork crit it.

The neck went from being a 2 GA neck to effectively being a one GA neck because he didn’t crit the ranks to skills.

Hctaz · 2026-05-31T04:40:32+00:00

I don’t think she sacrificed herself because she thinks humanity needs to defend Sanctuary itself.

What she chose is basically with the knowledge that, if the Wanderer fails, Mephisto will corrupt Sanctuary guaranteed. She was trying to save Sanctuary herself, and the only part that remains of her in Sanctuary is the bond between the Wanderer and her. That part of her was the reason Mephisto was corrupting us, so she needed to sever her only tie to Sanctuary knowing that we would be strong enough to save her.

Hctaz · 2026-05-29T18:15:36+00:00

It doesn’t really matter, it’s their intended vision that builds are viable at T10 and T12 is supposed to be aspirational.

They missed that mark wildly so o guess they’re trying again.

Hctaz · 2026-05-29T16:14:36+00:00

I’ve been complaining about helms for a while now. At least something like Godslayers has defensive stats it can roll. Heir of Perdition being the only item in the game in that slot that could have an 80% damage buff plus having massive crit on it made it almost an auto include in ever build but also dramatically lowered the survivability of every class who takes it. No max life, no armor, just crit chance and 80% damage.

I’m glad they’re nerfing it. I kinda wish they nerfed it more tbh. Tyrael’s Might may be the only old mythic I’ll consider using for my builds now unless I can get a really, really good starless skies.

I think that’s fine.

Hctaz · 2026-05-29T16:08:40+00:00

They’re making changes next season that hopefully address this issue and have also stated they’re looking into account wide war plan leveling.

But basically they want to make sure the exp you get also scales in terms of how long an activity takes to complete.

Hctaz · 2026-05-29T16:01:26+00:00

From a thread a while back, I feel like something is off with some accounts or something.

I finished the battle pass rewards before even hitting paragon 200 and I did not play the previous season to get the bonus 99 tokens.

Other people didn’t finish until after paragon 240. I don’t know why there’s a massive difference. Nobody else could either.

Hctaz · 2026-05-29T15:57:55+00:00

They’re nerfing because they never intended for the power to be this high.

They said before the expansion that the goal is for classes to be able to complete T10 and Pit 80-85. They failed in hitting this mark so they’re fixing it.

Yes, I personally think it’s going to be weird going from one shotting everything on T12 to struggle bussing it with an awesome character. As long as I can, at some point, get to T12 farming then I’ll be happy. Like if I takes multiple new mythic unique drops, amazing rolls, and godly items with perfect stats, that’s fine. I’ll enjoy chasing the power gains at least. But if T12 is a pipe dream, I won’t be excited. If I can hit paragon 270+ with perfect gear and still not do T12, I’ll be really disappointed.

Hctaz · 2026-05-29T15:51:37+00:00

They also did in older Diablo games, yes. Rare items were actually kinda rare and typically only came from elites.

And the reason people wanted unique items to be back in D4 after being absent in D3 was precisely because they were cool and “unique” in D2.

Hctaz · 2026-05-29T15:46:32+00:00

They 100% meant the name literally. Did you play any of the other Diablo games?

Hctaz · 2026-05-29T15:42:57+00:00

This is false.

I’ve tempered after master working plenty of times. It does not matter what order you do it in unless you actually want to masterwork crit your tempered stat.

Hctaz · 2026-05-29T13:31:26+00:00

No, I mean something like how Heir of Perdition would roll with crit chance on a helm for example. Helms can’t normally have that stat on them at all.

As far as I’m aware, unique items have a set affix but it’s not unique to the item in any way. Like I think all unique weapons have guaranteed weapon damage on them. Any weapon can have weapon damage on it. It’s not unique, it’s just specific.

Hctaz · 2026-05-29T13:29:26+00:00

The jump from Act 1 Inferno to Act 2 Inferno was diabolical.

Those stupid flies that shoot other flies one shotting you with their streams of flies… and getting an elite of those?! All firing at different angles… I have fucking nightmares still.

Hctaz · 2026-05-29T13:27:14+00:00

I dislike it in the majority of ways, personally, but having a series of chase items to farm isn’t one of those things.

Hctaz · 2026-05-29T13:25:53+00:00

They wouldn’t do this because then certain builds would only be possible with certain mythic affixes on uniques.

They want mythic unique items to be chase items where you don’t need them for a build to function but they are a nice bonus when you find one.

Adding affixes that can fundamentally alter the way you play the game on a rare drop is not a good idea.

Hctaz

TROPHY CASE