Diablo Immortal Beta Hands-On Review

Diablo Immortal Beta started on October 28, 2021. I have been playing for the past 41 days, and feel it’s time to share with you my experiences.

Diablo Immortal Beta doesn’t add any of the level 56-60 content, awkwardly enough. It is the same content from Closed Alpha, except for a few new features:

Legacy of the Horadrim — around level 49, you get a quest that explains the foundation of a group of Horadrim 264 years ago when Tyrael brought together members of different branches of magic to hunt for the Prime Evils. They empowered a crystal with a portion of themselves. It is your job now to search for the vessels that activate that crystal shrine. Each vessel is looted from Hell 1-2 bosses, or other sources. Then you can level up each vessel granting you bonus Life, Armor, Resistance, Armor Penetration, and Potency. You can read my article about the Legacy of the Horadrim to learn more.
In-App Store — the in-game store allows you to purchase Legendary Crests, Rare Crests, Reforge Stones, and Currency such as Platinum or Eternal Orbs. You can purchase Legendary Crests with Eternal Orbs, and platinum is used to craft Legendary Gems at the Jewelcrafter or used to buy items from The Market (a sort of an auction house). In addition, you can purchase the Battle Pass (which rewards you with crafting materials, Helliquary Scoria, emojis, Legacy of the Horadrim keys, legendary crests, legendary items and legendary gems — among other items. You can read my preview of the In-App Store for more details.
Dawn of Damnation Event — I’m not sure if this event can repeat every certain amount of weeks or months, but it is at least a taste of potential future events post-launch. At the moment, the event quests seem too repetitive, but it could just be for testing purposes. Like a placeholder of sorts. We get a few intro quests, where Skarn sends minions to attack Westmarch. Then, each day you can complete 6 random quests for two weeks. There is a layer on top of the event that adds a War Effort and reward system where all players in the server complete their 6 quests and the system keeps track of how many quests have been completed server-wide. Every 10,000 quests up to 50,000 quests, the players unlock a treasure chest which rewards Obols of Damnation (a new currency used to purchase items from the Event Shop). The Event Shop’s items include: Legendary Crest x 2 (300 Obols each); Mystery Legendary Item (250 obols), Rare Crest x 8 (30 Obols each); Scoria x 6 (50 Obols each); Normal Gem of your choice (40 Obols each); Sapphire x 10 (20 Obols per 10); and Enchanted Dust (15 Obols each). You can read more about the Dawn of Damnation event and gameplay videos by following that link.

I was a bit disappointed that the level 55-60 content was not available for testing. In closed alpha, the story ended in Frozen Tundra where we finally see Skarn face-to-face in the Ruins of Sescheron. Skarn opens a portal to the Burning Hells and escapes. Leaving the portal open for us, but non-interactive. In Beta, the story ends exactly at that same spot with the Hell portal open but non-interactive.

Whatever happens next is part of the level 55-60 experience. From what we have seen in BlizzCon, one of the content destinations for that level range is the Tamoe Mountains. Blizzard hasn’t mentioned this place since BlizzCon 2019 — when it debuted during a video reel for a few seconds. The video below will take you to that brief glimpse of Tamoe Mountains which has a heavy presence of Monk statues and themes.

There was a major change on the front of character progression. In Tech Alpha and Closed Alpha, the requirement to reach Hell 1, Hell 2 and Hell 3 difficulties were based on your character’s defense rating and offensive rating. By the end of Closed Alpha, my Crusader was in Hell 3 difficulty sporting a bit over 4200 defense/offense rating.

Moving forward to Diablo Immortal Beta, the requirement is based on Paragon instead… and let me tell you, it is a long-journey.

In Closed Beta, these are the difficulty requirements:

Hell 1 — requires Paragon 1-60. 390 Defense/Offense Rating recommended.
Hell 2 — requires Paragon 30-130. 1190 Defense/Offense Rating recommended.
Hell 3 — requires Paragon 90-120. 2150 Defense/Offense Rating recommended.
Hell 4 — requires Paragon 160-300. 3270 Defense/Offense Rating recommended.

I am currently Paragon 89 (2166 Defense rating / 2159 Offense rating) after 41 days of arduous daily work; and that progress has been with the assistance of paying the $4.99 Battle Pass. You can see video and a list of rewards in this Battle Pass article.

Therefore, it might take a while longer for a free Battle Pass player to reach what I have achieved thus far. As you can see, by tomorrow I will be entering Hell 3 at Paragon 90. You can actually kill stuff in Hell 3 if you are farming Hell 2, once you reach a certain defense/offense rating where you don’t get one-shot killed; but the caveat is that you can’t equip the items you loot in a difficulty the system requires you to reach the paragon requirement. At level 89, I can’t equip Hell 3 items. I need to be level 90 to equip them.

I have been farming Hell 3 dungeons since around Paragon 84, and many upgrades await me once I reach Paragon 90 to equip them. This is something people are doing in Beta at the moment.

There is also another change made to Diablo Immortal Beta that might be a bit controversial. You can’t go more than 5 levels about the Server Paragon Level. For example, at the moment this article was written, the Server Paragon Level is 84. As soon as I reached Paragon 89, my XP bar switched to red text and my XP rewards, Gold rewards, Upgrade Material Drops, and Salvage Material Returns decreased from 100% down to 25%.

This resets when the server resets at 2am EST (New York time). I usually can earn 2-3 levels per day before I reach this daily XP cap.

MY DAILY ROUTINE

When playing Diablo Immortal, I start by completing the 8/8 daily bounties. This rewards gold, and items I can salvage for Enchanted Dust. This activity also rewards XP (Experience) and up to 16 Battle Points.

After this, I head to the Legacy of the Horadrim’s Iben Fahd Sanctum to clear the sanctum’s depths. The mobs there drop up to 4 Iben Fahd keys to open treasure chests that drop currency used to level up my shrine vessels. After completing that small task, I earn 20 Battle Points.

If I joined the Shadows faction, I would complete the Contract which is a 3-4 part quest that might or not lead me to a dungeon. Then I turn in the contract at the bartender who rewards me with XP, marks for my Shadow-Dark House, gold, items I can salvage, and there is a percent chance to drop a Legendary Item.

If I joined the Immortals faction, there are no contracts per se, but you get around 4 daily goals that are simple or with a level of difficulty (such as defending the Vault or joining a Battleground or Kion’s Ordeal). The simplest daily goal is to click the Immortal statue, or click the Wall of Honor. You are rewarded for those daily goals.

Once I have completed all those tasks, I spend my time killing stuff in the southern area of the Frozen Tundra (Plains of Blood) and Ruins of Sescheron. If there is no one in that last area, usually this is the favorite spot to get a 100 Kill bonus, and a few Monster Essence orbs. When you collect 10 monster orbs, you can turn them in at the Horadric Altar to unlock a Bestiary page. There is a Horadric Altar in each zone, including Westmarch. If you unlock a page, there is a chance for one or two Legendary Item to drop as a reward (as seen below).

You can complete the Bestiary 3 times per day for a total of 120 Battle Points per day. To put in context, each time you reach 180 Battle Points, you earn a Battle Pass Rank. This boosts your XP — about 1/3 of your XP Bar. Usually, I earn around 260-360 Battle Points per day (or 2-3 Paragon per day). Doesn’t feel like much, but remember that currently I am 5 Paragon above the Server Paragon Level. What can I say? I play a lot of Diablo Immortal.

There is a weekly cap of 2400 Battle Points. I reach the cap usually around Friday or Saturday if I play daily. After that cap, you can no longer earn Battle Points until Monday when the server resets. So it is wise not to claim Battle Points after the cap so that you can claim them on Monday to earn Battle Points and XP.

Once I complete my three Bestiary turn ins (or 30 Monster Essence Orbs), there is no other source of XP other than farming dungeons. My favorite dungeon to level up at this stage is Temple of Namari. It is a quick dungeon run, and rewards tons of XP compared to other dungeons. Mostly because the Sargoth encounter has 3 mini-bosses that each drop 3 Experience Orbs. Sargoth drops another 3 Experience Orbs for a total of 12.

If you can find a group to spam that dungeon, I recommend it. Unless you wish to hit other dungeons in search of Set items. Another good source of XP once you run out of the main Battle Point sources is Elder Rifts. Lots of Rare Elites there to loot their 3 Experience Orbs. You can fill the experience bar spamming Elder Rifts; but it is best to find a group that doesn’t have rare crests once you have run out of crests. Not everyone likes to have a player without crest, and you might get kicked, or people might leave your group if you are the leader. Sorry.

The reason for this is that each member that adds a crest increases the amount of Fading Embers as rewards — this currency is used to purchase Runes, which in turn are used to craft Legendary Gems at the jewelcrafter.

Other activity I do is to search for Lost Pages in the Library of Zoltun Kulle. When you collect 5 Lost Pages, you can create a Portal Tome. Clicking the Portal Tome opens a portal to Kulle’s Secret Chamber. These chambers are small platforms where a few monsters spawn. When you defeat them, a treasure chest or up to four treasure chests drop gold, salvage items, and 3-6 Enchanted Dust. This is the material required to rank up your primary legendary items up to Rank 20.

The Portal Tomes have a chance to summon the Hydra or the Sandstone Golem instead. Each drops around 6 Enchanted Dust — and both drop a vessel for the Legacy of the Horadrim shrine if you are on that initial quest.

Diablo Immortal feels like a solid game for people who wants to play solo, or combine solo gameplay with party gameplay in some dungeons, elder rifts and/or hidden lairs; or those who wish to go the extra mile participating in PvP. I’m not as fond of PvP, but that’s because my playstyle across all Blizzard games is more on the PvE side. I have played moderately in the Diablo Immortal Battlegrounds, nonetheless.

I just hope the developers add more variety to PvP modes for those who prefer something other than Battlegrounds. More balanced PvP experiences without having to push or hold back walking statues. Usually the ones pushing win in the current iteration.

CONCLUSION

Diablo Immortal needs a few overhauls. No one likes the Charm upgrade system. Basically, you have to roll the RNG for a chance to apply the Skill you want on your charm — but to do so you have to roll your class’s skills plus every class’s skills as well. This is a huge problem. Each class has 12 skills. Say you are a Necromancer, and you want a +2 Corpse Explosion bonus on your Charm.

When you roll to upgrade — or in this case “Imbue” — your Charm with a Skill Stone, you can see this awkward wheel of fortune-like animation scrolling down each of the 5 skills of the Skill Stone until it stops at a random one. You can choose to imbue that skill, or keep the current one. The skill stone is consumed in both cases.

The RNG math here is absurd because you also roll skills for Monks, Crusaders, Demon Hunters, Barbarians, and Wizards — not only Necromancer’s.

There are 6 classes which means that if you want +2 Corpse Explosion, you have to roll odds against 72 skills. 60 which belong to all other 5 classes.

To add insult, once a new Class is introduced to the game, That 1 out of 72 skills RNG odd grows to 1 out of 84. Add a second new class — and you see why this system sucks. By the way, to see in your mind how bad this is … extracting a Charm costs 500 Platinum. If you are going to Imbue a Charm you purchased in the Market — it probably cost you above 20,000 Platinum. Imbuing is a wheel of fortune roll. No guarantee you will get the skill you want out of 5 options. We are talking about a lot of gambling layers here with the potential to cost a lot of real money if your source of platinum is from Eternal Orbs — which are purchased with real money from your credit card or PayPal. This system needs to be sent to the trash and reworked into something more fair and less damaging to your real-life bank account.

PvP Battlegrounds needs more balancing. At the moment, there are better chances to win in the attack team if you are pushing the statues and destroy the crystal at the end. More PvP modes would give players options — especially to those who aren’t fond of the current Battlegrounds.

Another flaw I think needs to be overhauled is how you upgrade Legendary Gems. You have to cannibalize a lot of legendary gems to obtain gem power — a material needed to upgrade your Legendary Gems. The worst part is that when you click auto-fill, it puts together all legendary gems in your inventory and also from the stash. There is no way for you to safeguard or lock specific legendary gems from being added into the auto-fill materials to upgrade a legendary gem — this is not good because you could accidentally salvage that 5-star gem you thought was safe in the Stash.

You would have to click the Gem Power icon to open the UI that displays all the legendary gems that will be salvaged to obtain the Gem Power x 40 (for example). You can’t see the name of the Legendary Gem nor read the tooltip. So you are salvaging them blindly.

A player who wishes to remain anonymous donated $99.99 for me to test the Legendary Crests in the Elder Rifts. Out of 45 Legendary Crests, I looted four 5-star Legendary Gems. All had 3 stars full. The other two stars were empty — which need to be upgraded for full 5-star potential. Imagine accidentally salvaging these costly gems.

I think there should be other sources for materials other than salvaging legendary gems. Materials that we can farm outdoors, in dungeons, or raids over a period of time. Hopefully, the developers listen to the feedback.

I can’t really say there are many flaws in Diablo Immortal beyond these three flaws. The game feels ready. The amount of hours I play this game throughout the day, and that there are so many Paragon 88+ players out there still testing proves it is a fun game. I divide those hours throughout the day, though. I watch a lot of TV series, and read different types of news and articles throughout the day and evening in between.

I can’t wait for Diablo Immortal to go live to experience the remaining story, and to see what new content the developers add to the game. I look forward for more new classes — confirmed at BlizzCon, new events, new zones, new dungeons, and so far we haven’t seen outdoor raids; or raid dungeons beyond the Helliquary bosses: Lassal and Vitaah.

Diablo Immortal Beta is slated to end somewhere around mid-January based on the Beta announcement Q&A:

“We are aiming to keep the Closed Beta running under three months. We’ll be testing more late-game systems and controller support this time around, so we’re keeping it up longer to make sure players have enough time to play through all of them.“

My calculation is based as well on the comment that Beta will last longer than Closed Alpha. Closed Alpha lasted from April 21-June 30, 2021 (or 70 days).

Beta started on October 28, 2021. 70 days later equals January 6. For Beta to be longer than Closed Alpha, the minimum would be January 7; but under 3 months, the calculation would be before January 26. So Beta should end any day between January 7-25.

Release date has not been announced. It is slated for the first half of 2022. Any day between January 26 and June 30.

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Diablo Immortal Beta Hands-On Review