With one day left in the Beta, I figured I would wrap it up with an article covering my progress along with a gameplay vid to give people an idea of how the game feels.
As a reminder, Seraph is a Diablo 2 clone with Path of Exile components (mapping/crafting) and web3 features like NFT items and a farmable token.
Yes. Without a doubt it was fun. If you enjoyed D2, you're going to like seraph. It's basically D2 but updated for the modern era. Auto looting pets, navigation assistance, etc.
I really enjoyed the mapping end game. I found it overall easier to understand than Path of Exile, but with enough depth to give you something to work towards.
"Progress" in my mind is measured against the two leaderboards for the beta:
For the Trial, here is the reward table:
I finished with the stats below. Nowhere near the 50 break point, but solidly under 200. There is technically one day left, so I'll check it again before the very end just to make sure, but I shouldn't fall out from here. Also, I'm at the point where I have to clear several levels to move up one rank, so top 50 was out of the question.
The reward table for character level:
Unfortunately, unlike Trial, there is no leaderboard. General consensus is that 70+ should have you solidly in the top 500 range though. I'm calling it done at 78. Again, I don't think I'm anywhere near the 100 breakpoint, but I've secured my 101-500 rewards.
My stat sheet. Got to love damage so high it overflows the text box. 😆 And this is with my magic find gear on! (174%). My resistances are also high enough to avoid being one-shot even in T13 maps. Never got a chance to try higher. T15 is the highest 'normal' map, although there are some special ones that go higher is my understanding.
Surprisingly not! The strongest weapons were not NFTs at all. Just well-rolled rares. Armors/rings were dominated by the unique in the game (also regular drops). The NFT scene felt almost like a parallel path of competition. There is a separate trial dungeon that can only be completed with NFT gear. Doing maps with NFTs makes the token (spar) drop more frequently, and also apparently increases the chance of an NFT item dropping. Still, those NFT items that drop are weaker.
So it operates like a parallel economy, but the nice thing for F2P players is that you still need crafting components to enhance NFT gear. So F2P players can farm maps and sell to whales looking to upgrade their gear, but then the whales go off and compete against each other in their own, separate dungeon. When they enter Trial of Heaven, they equip the same gear the rest of us have because it's stronger.
Of course, whales can afford to buy the best-in-slot gear from us F2P farmers, though, but the top earner in beta was a F2P person selling to whales. It appears then that you can compete with anyone just by playing the game.
My last post on Seraph didn't have any gameplay, so I thought I'd include that here. The video is my Trial run for level 28. Things got a lot more hectic by level 41, but this is good enough to get an idea.
For the Trial, the common/white mobs don't count. The idea is to quickly find/kill the gold and blue elites. Doing so (and collecting the orbs they drop) will fill up your gauge on the left of the screen. When full, the boss spawns and you kill him to complete the level. The time it takes you to clear a level is what breaks ties between accounts with the same number of levels cleared. You want to go fast, but you don't need to be break neck speed. More important to survive.
I have no idea what the value of the leaderboard rewards are, but since I had a great time playing, it's all bonus. I also learned a lot about the game, which will put me miles ahead of new players when the game releases in Q1 of next year.
For a beta, the game was polished and had a ton of content. They need to invest into better translation for sure, and there are some bugs to work out before release. Even still, this is a game I can easily recommend. NFTs and P2E appear to be thoughtfully implemented.
Keep an eye on this one for Q1 release!
