Although each of the 5 classes in Diablo 4 plays completely differently, experienced players say that starting from level 70, each of them relies on 2 effects. Without these, a build would not be competitive. MeinMMO explains vulnerability and ‘Unstoppable.’
What are these effects?
- In Diablo 4, there are abilities that make you unstoppable or make enemies vulnerable.
- Almost everyone from the best builds in the tier list relies on these abilities.
- If you do without them, you are putting stones in your own way, says the community. The effects are far too strong – and that is a problem.
That’s why the effects are so important: Due to vulnerability, you deal more damage to enemies. This alone is a reason why many builds rely on the effect. One of the strongest builds for the Necromancer is even completely built around the effect.
You can find equipment that brings multipliers for vulnerability. This means: You deal significantly more damage to vulnerable enemies, so that the numbers can go into the millions overall. Since vulnerability already causes more damage, the effect is its ‘own multiplier.’
Skills that make you unstoppable remove control effects like ‘frozen’ and ‘stunned’. This is especially important at higher levels and in most endgame activities like Nightmare Dungeons. If an enemy stuns you there and you can’t prevent it, you are as good as dead.
Anyway, good defense is indispensable later in the game. Many players only rely on armor, as it is the best defensive stat. Everything else is hardly worth it. According to the players, this has major disadvantages.
Even my off-meta build for the Blizzard Sorceress relies on the two effects. You can see gameplay of that here:
“Everyone has to play the meta”
In several threads on Reddit and also in the forum, players complain that they are forced to incorporate both effects into their builds. This greatly restricts their build diversity. Everything that is not meta can be forgotten directly.
A very prominent example is the Sorceress. She has very few abilities that reliably cause vulnerability or make you unstoppable:
- Frostnova is the only skill that makes enemies 100% vulnerable
- Teleport and Fire Shield are the only skills that guarantee to make you unstoppable
- Deep Freeze even makes you invulnerable, but also binds you in place
According to players, this leads to almost every build for Sorceresses needing 3-4 of the possible 6 skills for defensive abilities. From there, you can still vary one or two spells – typically the ultimate skill and one for main damage.
Builds that are based on the Fire Hydra can be forgotten right away. Abilities like Ice Shard and Fire Wall are so much stronger in comparison that you knowingly hinder yourself if you don’t level them up.
This only affects players who want to achieve a lot, and that wouldn’t be a problem. However, you are forced to eventually play at World Tier 4. World Tier 3 only scales up to level 70. And without vulnerability and ‘unstoppable’, you are pretty quickly in trouble there.
You can find an overview of the endgame content here:
Diablo 4: Overview of endgame content – These activities are available after the campaign
