Hi everyone, I have been a long time fan of Diablo and wanted to weigh in as the managers and D4 team have been showing great communication and listening of the community.
I recently played through an “offline” playthrough of each Diablo and wanted to share some ideas about what may help progress the genre and D4 specifically
I personally found that the system in Diablo 1, although simplistic, has been the best version of the games characterization and Diablo 2 had the best Itemization. Diablo 1 allowed you to focus on a character while leaving you the ability to be a jack of all trades. This game characterization made the experience unique in that you could be a Fire wall warrior, or mana shield rogue, or a melee sorcerer using a sheild, sword and telekinesis.
Diablo 2 presented us with a new unique experience adding more uniqueness in characters but less jack of all trade effects until runewords came. The loot system (which is by far the worst in 2) was nice because it left you hunting for more to complete your character but also allowed your character some customization with end game items like enigma. The detriment here was that eventually many items like Enigma or Hoto were BiS for every build in some capacity.
Diablo 3…Too easy, Too much power creep, Forced customization. The system became terrible over time however there are pieces of this that i think should make it into D4.
The main point of this soon to be long thread is that perhaps designers and players alike have been viewing the development of a character in the wrong manner. Diablo 2 presented us with items that COULD be used as endgame despite being lower levels due to the stat spread that an item could have for you. I think that the formula in itself combined with Diablo 3s unique character skill changing items may be the right direction for itemization on a small scale. I say this because i believe it may be in the best interest that the developers work on the characterization of a character to be on the character itself and have items be a unique addition to your already built character.
For this i want to use the Barb as an example. Looking at the skills across 2-4 i can see that the barbarian has had a lot of options in builds spanning across each game. 2 allowed for many fun builds such as a shout barb, ww, and from an item side; a Werewolf build. 3 Expanded skills giving us, hammer, earthquake, ancients, ETC. What i am hoping is considered is that my character building allows me to really hone my skills through my dedication leveling my character and planning my skills, stats, traits, etc and not having to plan whether or not i find the best version of a rare, legendary or mythical.
The skill tree would be as follows.
Whirlwind --> Option 1: WW with tornadoes, Option 2: WW with earthquakes, Option 3: WW with Bleeding effect
Option 1: WW with tornadoes --> Option 1: Increased damage and size, Option 2, increase amount and decrease size, Option 3: Same size add pulling debris effect.
Option 1: WW with tornadoes --> Option 2 Increase amount and decrease size --> Option 1: Knocks back enemies, Option 2: Stuns Enemies, Option 3: blinds enemies.
Option 1: WW with Tornadoes --> Option 2 Increased amount and decreased size --> Option 1 Knocks back Enemies --> Option 1 Demonic, Option 2 Angelic, Option 3 Ancestral
Option 1: WW with Tornadoes --> Option 2 Increased amount and decreased size --> Option 1 Knocks Back Enemies --> Option 1 Demonic.
Skill would Read: Whirlwind Summons multiple small tornadoes knocking back enemies XX distance and upon killing an enemy, will cause the enemy to explode in a bloody explosion for XX damage in an XX radius
My whirlwind build example could go on but basically my skill building and strengthening of those skills is tied to this tier system. Adding more and more pathways to each initial skill creates uniqueness in builds. What becomes important is that items DON’T add strength to one aspect of the skill but the skill as a whole OR variations exist where the skill can be modified to increase effects based on the build path chosen. Say i choose WW with tornadoes that are smaller and knockback. An item may increase the knockback of the tornadoes when small. Or may increase the radius of effectiveness. This is only an example.
In addtion talents could be used to enhance certain effects of the skill. Increase WW tornado speed, increase duration a tornado lasts, Tornados now travel in a circle or straight line.
In line with the newly added angelic system, the end of each skill tree would have an upgrade that matches Demonic, Angelic, or Ancestral
Demonic: Adds explosion effect when enemies die
Angelic: Heals Barb a flat amount
Ancestral: reduces damage dealt by enemies.
Again just as examples. The main point is that my focusing on a stat on gear is due to the effect it will have on my skill build and not the effect that the item itself is giving me. I also think that a system like this allows me to live a certain build fantasy without being locked into finding a Skorn and or the legendary affix modification item to a rare. The most important piece is insuring balance of a skills performance in the options you take and NERFING skills that have too much power or are over performing to ensure that the overall progress feels gradual and meaningful. Choices shouldn’t be easily rerolled through a simple click and instead either earned through some kind of conquest or created through remaking the character through a prestige like system.
There’s my thoughts please read and comment back. There is no TLDR for this and if you made it this far let me know why or why not a system like this would be good/bad and what else could be done to further modify how we experience Diablo 4.