So I've read from so many people here, and not only here, tearing this update totally apart and calling it Diablo 3 with better graphics - which is the worst verdict the game could possibly get.

Its not that I am a total D4 fanboy or so, but I think a lot of those voices are not without reason but still extremely biased.
Dont get me wrong, I am sceptical too, I mean, who wouldn't be after the horrible Diablo 3 experience we all had to go through and overall the last 10 years of Blizzard as a whole.

But let's look at the things this update provided without our biased and preset emotions and opinions.

1. + Skills coming back

Overall thats not a bad thing. I mean, sure, seeing plus +4 to a Skill on some random Axe might not bode well, but I guess that coukd be the maximum which is provided only on magic items. As previous uodates showed us, affixes and suffixes are highest on blue items, just like in Diablo 2. So this is kind of okay for me.
Something that I was concerned of tho, when I saw this Axe was the dps. This is way too high for an item without even a damage boost on it.
The difference between this damage and the damage of a low level is just way too big.
Diablo 2 had a growth of max. around 200% in damage from normal to elite versions if I am not wrong, which is reasonable and also allows reasonable scaling with the affixes and suffixes it provides.
This is especially important because items which are not of very high or max. level should have the chance to stay kind of significant.
I always hated the way D3 handled this. Everything below lvl 70, even level 69, is and was absolutely unusable.
If a lvl 44 Weapon has a base item increase in damage of around 10.000% maybe (if an earlier type of Axe maybe is around 30 dps), I see a problem here.

2. Legendary Affix extraction

This devalues items significantly because trading for a suffix provided on a random shit item will be incredibly cheap and the hunt for those legendary values will be no hunt at all. Thats a cheap D3-like mechanic imho.
But there are ways around that. If its really expensive to do or a very rare item is needed to make this extraction happen, it would be a cool feature for sure.

3. That PoE inspired Paragon thing...

No shame in being inspired by PoE. I am okay with that.

Of course this also supports the feeling of levelling to 50 being insignificant and boring. Levelling to max. needs to be a journey not everyone will ever accomplish.
Thats what Diablo 1 and 2 and also PoE have in common.

The fact that this is only available after reaching max. Level shows how fast and easy this will once again be possible, because they would never let this feature stay behind such a Wall.
I mean, imagine there being a whole new Skill Tree available in Diablo 2 after reaching Lvl 99.....95% of us players would have never seen that Skill Tree in their entire life.
So the only conclusion to draw here is: Levelling to max. Lvl will once again be just an insignificant -Pain in the Ass - labor that everyone wants to get by as fast as possible because the game begins right after that is done.
And thats bad. Hope they will see that.

I still see potential in Diablo 4 and I see a big, in fact very big, improvement compared to D3. But there is still a long way to go, if this game wants to be really good some day.

Looking forward to more updates.

I absolutely hate the idea of legendary extraction and any type of paragon system. D2 was near perfect all they had to do is take that format and make slight improvements with each new game. It’s weird to me they made such drastic changes.

D3 is worse today than it was at launch. At least then they had trading.

Yeah the Name choice "Paragon" is not really understandable as it has a horrible reputation - and rightfully so. Fortunately it has nothing to do with the Paragon System Diablo 3 introduced.

You are right tho, Diablo 2 is near perfect and just adding depth to that exact system, modernising it, including a few things here and there would create an insanely good game.
Somehow no one ever did that. Maybe games moved on and we didnt, I dont know. But overall I have to agree.

Less is more and that is why D2 is so good. Its complex inside of its simplicity.
Thats the genius part about it.

What I wanna add:

I really don't like the way Drops are presented.
This basic Font reminds me immediately of Diablo 3.

Same with this floating yellow numbers.

Feels trashy in a way.

This post was edited by Modulok2405 on Dec 22 2021 12:34am

I think the poe glyph system is fine, but i WOULD have preferred if they have just socketable glyphs that you can mix in charms with a limit (replaces us losing inventory space from charms in d2) - but the glyphs are dropped based and not crazy power spikes like what we are seeing

Lol true, and why they just can't leave it behind, don't understand.