Cartwheeling past the end of D4's expansion

So, first off, I've completed the story campaign of the Vessel of Hatred expansion in Diablo 4, and I’ve moved on to the endgame grind. What’s weird is that I didn’t even realize I’d finished the story until a couple of sessions later. And that left me feeling... odd.

The feeling is mutual, sir.

Apparently, I'm not alone in this. Others seem to share that anticlimactic feeling like I did. I read Belghast’s post the other day, and he was far more animated about it than I am. For me, the story just didn’t feel like enough. I expected to face Mephisto himself, not just his shard. But looking at it now, I figure we’re being set up for something bigger—maybe a future release or seasonal goal where we get the full Mephisto battle.

*sings* Here's . . . where  . . . the story ends

What really stood out more than the story was the pacing of progression in the new expansion. I was leveling up like crazy—two or three times after finishing some quests. It felt great, but the cynic in me wonders if maybe the story got trimmed down somewhere, leaving us with a more straight-to-the-point narrative.

After finishing the story, Ormus from the Nahantu Council sent me into the grind—endgame dungeons and events to gain the trust of his people. Looking back, I thought I was gearing up for one final, epic battle that would test my build before earning my way into the higher Torment levels. But nope, it was more like, “Hey, congrats, you’re done!” No big test. No final boss fight. Meh.

Ormus likes to talk in third person

But on the upside, I stumbled into a pretty fun S-tier Spiritborn build. I’m running the Infinite Eagle Evade build, and it’s wild. You grab a unique staff (Sepazontec), and suddenly, every time you evade, you’re shooting out thunder-spikes and storm eagle feathers. And you can spam this indefinitely. So basically, I’m just endlessly cartwheeling around enemies, turning everything into a feather-filled storm of pain. It’s ridiculous and fun in the best of broken ways.

I do cartwheels, everyone dies . . .

Now that I’m past the story and into the grind, I’m not sure how long I’ll stick with this character. But for now, I’ll keep cartwheeling my way through Sanctuary. Maybe something exciting will shake things up.