I managed to get some time and decided to invest it into Diablo 4 just because I still have a few projects left to complete in this game for Season 3. The big thing I ended up doing is changing my Necromancer from Minions to Blood Surge. Almost immediately, I felt a difference even with bad Aspects. It just demonstrated how bad of a state Minions are in.
While Minions were fun for early leveling, by the time you reach near the end game, they virtually are worthless. The AI wonkiness, lack of AoE, the high Aspect requirements with little return and squishiness of Minions, especially Skeleton Mages make this type of build moot. Upon swapping to Blood Surge, I practically squashed Tier 30 Nightmare Dungeons whereas my Minion build was struggling to get through. Also, for the Son of Malphas boss, Blood Surge did surprisingly well compared to Minions where my skeletons practically would die in a single hit, leaving me powerless.
Part of this also should be recognized by the fact that my Blood Surge build uses the Blood Moon Breaches, Banished Lord’s Talisman and a Lidless Wall. I could probably squeeze even more single target DPS by swapping to a Godslayer Crown but I think that’s unnecessary at this point. I might try that with Duriel at some point but based on the fights with the Butcher and Son of Malphas, I have a feeling that I’m adequately geared. But I will save that for level 100 because I plan to respec my Paragon board one more time.
Currently, I’m leveling up Essence for which upon hitting level 100, I’ll swap in and redo my Paragon board. But the rest of the main glyphs are all at Level 15. I might continue going with this build as it feels quite balanced. I know people the Maxroll.gg site mentions that bossing with Blood Surge isn’t great but after the update, it feels quite good. I still have some gear adjustments but right now the build has been performing very well.
Once I hit 100 on my Necromancer, I might take a break and return to my barbarian. I’ve only hesitated because I read about a bug concerning Charge. They might’ve fixed that issue though but I haven’t checked. If Charge is fixed then I might start doing some Duriel farming on my Barbarian. I still need that helmet and a better Banished Lord’s Talisman. Also, I have to farm a lot more boss summoning mats, which sounds annoying.
The other thing I worked on this weekend was my Rogue. Like my Necromancer, I intend to switch my Rogue’s build in the near future. Currently, I’ve been using the reliable Twisted Blades build. However, Twisted Blades isn’t as strong as Barrage or Penetrating Shot. So I want to give one of those a try soon. First, I’m going to farm a new Condemnation as well as the Skyhunter bow. Since I need the summoning mats, this might be a good excuse to do the Varshan boss.
At any rate, I’ve got a little more to do on this game for the current season. I’m still avoiding the Gauntlet because it has no value to me. But the main content is fine for now.