Came here to say this. The new player experience is an awesome upgrade in terms of getting people into the world and narrative, but you’re still thrown into an ocean of systems and content without a map. If you’re not following a guide or piecing things together from the wiki it’s very easy to get totally overwhelmed.

I would look at some of the tech demos for Unreal Engine 5 and its capabilities. We’re at the point now where the engine itself, with sufficient art assets, can look photorealistic more or less out of the box.

Where this is still hardest- and likely always will be- is in faces, because our brains are so thoroughly wired to spot micro-expressions and subtle facial and body language as social animals.

That said, for a game like Doom or Path of Exile, sure, I think we’re way past the point of diminishing returns. But for games where you’re actually experiencing a story and interested in the relationships and characters involved? Things like Death Stranding, RDR, Cyberpunk 2077, or more recently BG3? All of those same nuances of expression can definitely add to the experience- it’s the difference between a mediocre actor and a good or great one.

Unless they’re the oceangoing variety, in which case they just hide it under their sea beds.

I mained druid in pre, and while I enjoyed it enough, it was annoying having pretty much all of the build diversity locked behind unique rng. Similarly, while I enjoyed HotA barb, the fact that literally no other build is appealing makes that a non-starter.

So consequently I’ll be going with necro for S1. Sever, spear, surge, and lance are all solid builds not locked behind uniques (though they can absolutely benefit from them), so I’m covered both from boredom and balance changes.

I’ve got barb and necro to 60ish too.

Barb is pretty limited imo. HotA is fun, but upheaval is weak and looks dumb, never liked ww, and bleed builds are the exact opposite of what I look for from a barb.

Necro has a ton of good options though. Sever is a fun melee monster, spear is a complete wrecking ball, blood surge will be awesome if it’s ever buffed / supported… I’m not big on minions or bone spirit, but still, necro looks like a solid pick.

Druid has a ton of build variety, I just hate how so many of them are unique locked.