What am I missing??

[Soondead]

My toon just made level 40 and in the 10 or so last levels, the game has gone from hard to damned near impossible; I have no idea why but I need around 7-8 shots to kill even the weakest minions and whenever I encounter "increased health" minions they feel like freaking boss fights. I play on tier 1, I have reasonably good gear after doing a lot of dungeons, side missions etc. and just made it to act II where I am getting absolutely curbstomped.

I have tried to unlock skills that supplement the abilities I use, rather than just put points all over the place, but I have no idea what I'm doing wrong. Meanwhile, I see videos on youtube where people just wade through hordes of enemies that barely slow them down, despite having quite ordinary gear; when I run into a group of more than five enemies I typically have to kite and wear them down or I get overwhelmed and die. Which, as you can imagine, happens quite a lot and causes me to spend a substantial amount of gold on repairs.

I know I'm doing something wrong but I can't for the life of me understand what it is...

[FhqwhTODD]

Without seeing your gear or build there is little we can do but guess. For a start: make sure you upgrade your weapons while leveling. What class / skills etc are you using? Are you using your class ability? Have you leveled up the skills you actually use?

[Soondead]

Originally posted by Gottkaiser Fhqwhgod:

Without seeing your gear or build there is little we can do but guess. For a start: make sure you upgrade your weapons while leveling. What class / skills etc are you using? Are you using your class ability? Have you leveled up the skills you actually use?

Rogue with Heartseeker as primary and Flurry as secondary. Fully upgraded, and I've tried to max out every skill that seemed relevant across the board... all of which are mere bonuses, while it really feels like I'm playing blindfolded with one arm tied behind my back. I imprinted an aspect on one of my swords that improved Flurry damage by 8%, but to be honest I can't tell the difference. I have to spam that attack two or three times to kill a shambling corpse.

My primary weapon is a level 38 rare bow with 676 dps; this is the best weapon I've gotten in a good while, I just reached level 42. It has no gem slots, but even that would only add cents while I feel several hundred dollars short.

Being a total newbie to the game I can only assume by class ability you mean Evade in my case? This can sometimes help me postpone death a few seconds but does little to help me put enemies down.

It's as if I was supposed to switch to a completely different set of abilities at some point, but didn't get the memo.

[FhqwhTODD]

You have 3 class abilities as a rogue, I use Combo points myself right now. They are unlocked via a priority quest (white marker).

Are you using any imbue skills?

The Maxroll Flurry leveling build guide is using poison.
https://maxroll.gg/d4/build-guides/flurry-rogue-leveling-guide

Not a fan of guides myself but if you are completely new these can help build a strong character that makes leveling a breeze. Also the guide is quite detailed and gives you a few pointers.

[Soondead]

Originally posted by Gottkaiser Fhqwhgod:

You have 3 class abilities as a rogue, I use Combo points myself right now. They are unlocked via a priority quest (white marker).

I have Combo points selected, but other than showing three little symbols down there I literally have no idea what they do or how to use them.

Originally posted by Gottkaiser Fhqwhgod:

Are you using any imbue skills?
The Maxroll Flurry leveling build guide is using poison.
https://maxroll.gg/d4/build-guides/flurry-rogue-leveling-guide

Not a fan of guides myself but if you are completely new these can help build a strong character that makes leveling a breeze. Also the guide is quite detailed and gives you a few pointers.

Same... I feel any RPG that requires you to follow guides and play by numbers isn't actually an RPG at all. I'll have a look at it and see if I can at least figure out what's wrong. Thank you for your patience.

[LordOfWarcraft]

I think you can use some of these builds and you'll do better! https://diablo4.wiki.fextralife.com/Builds GL !

[FhqwhTODD]

ewwww. fextraviews. Take that Twitch-botting garbage elsewhere.

[Vlad Yvhv]

The game's difficulty spikes have been a problem since it first launched. The lowest difficulty can be unplayable to high level characters of various classed, due to survivablility. The problem seems to be that the game always assumes you're playing as a group.

[😎Astran😾]

You should start building synergies between items/aspects.

To do so: start farming levels and legion events (for higher stat items) and vampire rep. Vamp rep has a basic ability to damage all nearby enemies for 80% of your hitpoints - this thing alone can one-shot half-the-screen.

Upgrade better equipment to 4* level (5* is too expensive in the beginning)

Don't play on diff 2-3 until you'll get a decent build / items synergy. Then skip tier2 world and got to t3 (at L50 approximately) - for way better L700+ sacred items.

[HeartPurity]

You can try the website I link below, it is beginner friendly and will explain many mechanics in the game especially if you got no time to test and adjust your build.

https://maxroll.gg/d4/build-guides

1. item power is very important, weapons with higher item power deal more damage while armor with higher item power give you higher armor rating. Moreover, higher item power will roll higher stats e.g. instead of 2-5% range, you can roll up to 10-15% if you are 925 item powerl (925 is the current loot cap)

2. resistances play a very important role now in season 2. Need to get all resistances to at least 70%. For lower world tier dont have to worry much about resistances but in world tier 4, 70% is a must.

3. you can put sockets on your gear, good gems can make a difference.

[HeartPurity]

and ya you can upgrade your gear 5 times at the blacksmith BUT only upgrade gear that is worth it because the mats can be expensive if your character is new.

[Soondead]

I ended up using the maxroll.gg rogue barrage build just so I could complete the story and although some parts were still really hard, now everything just falls over and dies around me. The real problem for me was that I did a lot of side quests so I was constantly over-leveled for the area I was in, this causes enemies to scale their damage output and protection to my level but they all still dropped loot 10-15 levels below me. Now I can just wade through dungeons, picking and choosing stuff that's all appropriate for my character.

Still... having needed to use someone elses build, this isn't MY character. It's like I'm playing someone elses savegame and using a bow like an SMG is a real immersion killer.

[Elfaia]

It sounds like you were just pressing buttons and not actually learning how the class skills synergize with each other (you mentioned you don't know what combo points do)

However I do support and respect the fact that you want to play the class the way you want to play it.

Games will always be balanced around the meta though.

[Zefar]

Originally posted by Soondead:

Still... having needed to use someone elses build, this isn't MY character. It's like I'm playing someone elses savegame and using a bow like an SMG is a real immersion killer.

The game is built around you knowing how to build your character. You can't just use random skills and random unique items and think it'll be enough. It won't.

Even in Diablo 3 and Diablo 2 this was the case. You had to build your character properly and use items that works best for your build. Or use the right set items.

Any aRPG game out there that has this type of build system has the same issue. PoE has it too.

[DeLastOne]

I kind of feel you. I wanted to play a fire sorcerer build, around firewally, hydra and ´fireball. Enchantement and all. I had very good gear at level 100... But nearly impossible to clean above ND 90 and takes ages to kill bosses.... And here lies the issue. I had very good survívality . But ♥♥♥♥♥♥ DPS. Then I decided to switch to an electric build with some ice control focus... And all of a suddent I could clear ND 100 and kill Ubers. And I am not even using the build I see where people use the lighthing ball rotating around them. I just went for something a bit special but without fire (beside the enchantement needed to put on fire overtime on mod)

Now my issue here is that the game clearly DO NOT allows any player to get out there and play a build they enjoy and want. You will be stuck playing whatever the meta is. And that is taking a LOT of joy away. Every endgame build will be the same. This is surely very sad