Hydra Sorc – Open Beta Build

We are seeing some classic Diablo skills remain in play with the Sorceress, one being Hydra, a classic player favorite. This is a flexible build with different options, good for clearing trash and single targets in solo or group play.

Note: I will not cover items in this guide, this is just a simple skill build to get you started in the Open Beta.

Basic Skill

For our basic skill we are taking Fire Bolt. A lot of this build relies upon burning damage, and burning damage is quite powerful in the early game of Diablo IV. Once your enemy is set on fire it will continue to burn after your attack is finished. This is very effective for conserving our mana!

The next skill to take in the tree is Enhanced Fire Bolt. This will allow our Fire Bolt is pierce through any enemies that are burning, which will be everyone we hit. Remember, you want to hit as many enemies as you can to make them burn.

You have a choice to make at the split and I recommend taking Glinting Firebolt. Glinting Fire Bolt increases the burning damage you deal to the enemy by 20% for 4 seconds. If you are conservative about your mana you will not need the extra 2 mana that Flickering Fire Bolt generates.

Core Skills

Image does not depict this particular build.

Core skills for this build are pretty flexible. This is where you can play around with the build and see what you enjoy playing, just make sure it’s still fire. As we are using Hydra, Core Skills are used while the Hydras are doing their thing. My skill of choice was Incinerate.

Incinerate is a pyromancy skill that is channeled, costing 20 mana per second. This skill inflicts burning damage, keeping up with the theme of the build. I noticed that Incinerate was a pretty devastating attack with the burning damage always finishing off enemies. Make sure to use it conservatively, you don’t want to run out of mana.

The next skill to take is Enhanced Incinerate. This skill causes you to burn enemies around you for 15% of the Incinerate damage per second. Again, anything to contribute to the burn.

An option to sink a point in for more survivability at this point would be Potent Warding. This grants you 2% resistance to all elements and an additional 1% of whatever element your core skill is (in this case it is fire).

Defensive Skills

There are two main skills we want to focus on in the Defensive Skills area: Teleport and Flame Shield.

Flame Shield is a new skill for Diablo 4

Flame Shield is a new defensive skill for Diablo 4. It grants us Immunity while active. Immunity is incredibly powerful, preventing characters from being damage and all negative effects are removed and prevented. I preferred to take this over any other defensive skill, as this is the only one granting Immunity.

Take Enhanced Flame Shield for a 25% movement speed buff, something that is always nice in party play.

Add a point into teleport, which is the usual play for any sorceress build. Just remember that annoying cooldown from Diablo 3 is still in place. We don’t know yet if there is a item that will negate this or not.

You can take the skill behind Teleport to give you cooldown per hit, but I found it a waste of a point. Reason being I use teleport to move mob to mob, I wasn’t hitting any monsters, making that point useless.

Conjuration Skills

Conjuration skills are a new classification of skills in Diablo 4. They include skills like Hydra, Ice Blades, and Lightning Spear. For this step we will take Hydra, and this will be our main damage dealer.

Hydra is a pyromancy skill and has a limit of 2 active Hydras at a time. You want to cast two Hydras and then move around using Core Skills while the Hydras melt everything around. I maxed this skill out with 5 points.

Take Enhanced Hydra to gain one additional head. Remember, “Healthy” is a thing now. Healthy is defined as your characters health over 80%.

Summoned Hydra is my recommendation to add burning damage. Hydras do not naturally cause burning damage until this has been taken. All of the burning damage stacks together to make quick kills. Notice when you do damage with fire, the monster health bar will turn dark red and health will continue to lower, while his body turns charred in appearance.

Mastery Skills

I sunk a point into all the Pyromancy mastery skills seen above. This increases the damage of your Pyromancy skills, which is literally everything we are using. Feel free to experiment with this area, remember you can respec for gold!

The rest of the build is totally up to you. The main damage dealer here is Hydra and the burning damage provided by the other skills.

1-25 Open Beta Leveling Guide

The Diablo IV Open Beta is here! If you got to experience last week’s early access weekend, then you undoubtedly know how amazing the game is so far. While there is so much to enjoy about the game, one must remember that this is just the beginning game beta. So much will be left untouched with so many questions unanswered.

The objective of the Open Beta Weekend will be to experience the early game, get a taste of the characters, learn some new mechanics and experience some of the new world of Sanctuary. This guide will help you level from 1-25 (the max in the open beta) as efficiently as possible.

General Tips

  • Level in a group – slaying monsters near party members grants you 10% additional xp.
  • Progress through the campaign quickly – you and your party should knock the campaign out first thing and as quickly as possible.
  • Craft and Consume Elixirs – Visit the Alchemist regularly to craft and consume elixirs. Elixirs will grant you 5% additional xp for 30 mins.
Craft Elixir potions to gain 5% experience bonus for 30 minutes.
  • Farm Dungeons and World Events – make sure you are stacking the campfire shrine (max 15) for more experience while waiting on the event to launch
Click the campfire while waiting for a world event to obtain more xp. Max 15 stacks.
  • STAY OUT OF TOWN – This one is obvious, but you cannot gain experience while you are in town. Go ahead and level to 25, then you can explore town and see what all there is to do in Sanctuary.

Have Fun!

The main thing to remember… HAVE FUN!! If you are struggling with a character, take a short break and try a different toon. There are pros and cons to each class, finding one that suits your play style may take some time. Also keep in mind the game is in beta state. It is impossible to judge the entirety of the game basis on the first act. This is the equivalent of us playing until Andariel in Diablo 2.

Diablo 4 Open Beta Guide

Brave the trials of Sanctuary for two weekends of Diablo 4 Open Beta. (Image courtesy of Blizzard)

Y’all getting excited?! I hope so, cause I can barely stand it anymore. The Diablo 4 Open Beta is upon us! Here is what you can expect:

Dates & Platforms

  • PC, Xbox (One/S/X), PS4/5
  • Two access dates – First weekend for pre-order customers only
  • March 17th 12pm EDT – March 19th 3pm EDT (pre order only)
  • March 24th 12pm EDT – March 27th 3pm EDT (general access)

Early Game Playthrough

If you were lucky enough to get an invite to the closed beta a few months back, you got to test out the “end game” content of Diablo 4. This Open Beta will showcase the “early game” content of Diablo 4. You can play through the prologue and Act 1 – The Fractured Peaks. Enjoy completing quests provided by townsfolks, clear demonic hordes from dungeons in the world, and loot and craft gear. You will only be able to hit level 25, so make sure to move on and create another character after you this this milestone. Remember, we only have 2 weekends (one if you didn’t pre-order…) so make sure to learn as much about the game as you can until the June launch!

Available Classes

Your favorite heroes await you for two fun filled weekends of Open Beta. (Image courtesy of Blizzard)

If you Pre-ordered Diablo 4 and have access to the early play weekend, you will only have access to three classes: Rogue, Sorcerer, Barbarian.

General access weekend will allow you to play all 5 classes, Rogue, Sorcerer, Barbarian, Necromancer and Druid.

NOTE: ALL CHARACTERS FROM THE BETA WILL BE ERASED AFTER THE BETA CONCLUDES!

Multiplayer

Which class will you start the Diablo 4 Open Beta with? (Image courtesy of Blizzard)

Console players hear this! COUCH CO OP! Diablo 4 Open Beta will have couch co-op so you can play with a buddy at your house. Blizzard is also gifting a couch co-op player the ability to play without having to also own the pre-order (as long as your buddy who owns the console has it, obviously)

Unfortunately, you will still be restricted to a party size of 4 as we saw on Diablo 3. However, it is an open world and you will be able to play with others on the server, even if they are not in your party. I was really hoping Blizzard would listen to us asking for at least 6 people parties. Remember Diablo 2’s party size of 8??

Experience gain with other players will vary based on if they are in your party or not. If you are killing monsters around non party members, you will gain a 5% xp bonus. If you are killing monsters around party members, you will gain a 10% xp bonus.

Rewards

Earn the “Beta Wolf Pack” cosmetic item by playing the Diablo 4 Open Beta. (Image courtesy of Blizzard)

As always, you will gain rewards for participating in the Open Beta in the form of titles and cosmetics. Three awards will be bestowed upon you once you complete the requirements and install Diablo 4.

  • “Initial Casualty” title – Earned by reaching Kyovashad with one character
  • “Early Voyager” title – Earned by reaching level 20 with one character
  • Beta wolf pack cosmetic item – Earned by reaching level 20 on one character

System Requirements

Honestly, we are kind of shocked at the system requirements. Looks like everyone won’t have to go out and buy new PCs for the game after all. The game will attempt to run even with onboard graphics, although the game play experience may stink… literally.

HAVE FUN AND ENJOY!!

From all of us here at Wasted666, we hope you have a fun and memorable Diablo 4 Open Beta experience! Remember, Diablo launches only come around once every ten years (LOL) so make sure to enjoy the entire experience!

-Hawg