The Diablo 4 beta was not what I expected from ARPG royalty.
beta weekends, I was more than a bit eager to hop into Sanctuary for last weekend's Server Slam. Initially, the lack of queues and impeccable presentation made me think that the wait was worth it, but after hours of boredom capped off by a dismal boss fight, I'm now mostly filled with regrets.
Switching to a Druid didn't help. Going down the shapeshifting route, I was less effective than I was as a Sorcerer, but the shapeshifting skills are so uninspired—hit things as a bear, charge at things as a wolf—that I didn't feel motivated to continue. There was absolutely no excitement when I got the opportunity to select a new skill, or surprises when I was able to deploy it.
Setting the Server Slam's level cap at 20 while still keeping Ashava at 25 feels like a form of bullying. In one Ashava attempt, I thought I was being very sensible when I teleported back to town to repair the damage, but it proved to be a terrible idea. When I hopped back in the portal, I was deposited in a different instance where Ashava still had most of its health, compared to my previous instance where it looked like we were going to win before the timer ended. I risked one more 'port, but the instance I returned to was one where Ashava had already been defeated.