Ideas for Diablo 4
I was lucky enough to attend Blizzcon 2019 and was able to play the Diablo 4 Demo many times. I had put forth some of my thoughts in the feedback station. The only problem is I have so many thoughts and ideas that there was no way for me to get everything on paper before the event ended.
Demon Hunter in Diablo 4-
I’m going to start with my vote for one of the two remaining class slots left. I feel a Diablo 3 class should have one carry over to Diablo 4, and that it should be the Demon Hunter. The Demon Hunter is the only original class from Diablo 3 that can be said to be as iconic as the Barbarian. That being said some changes are needed to bring the class into Diablo 4:
• Demon Hunter’s abilities must be more grounded, and less high fantasy.
• Darker spell effects, less over the top.
• Drop Companions, It’s a Druid thing now.
• Drop Sentries, Grenades, and maybe a few others. Anything that feels out of the grounded ideals.
• Maybe combined Shadow Power and Vengeance. Have Vengeance be a proc or active ability.
Embrace Demon Hunter’s Melee aspect-
The Shadow Set from Diablo 3 wants to be melee, but it’s not. There have been a handful of build that have used melee weapons, and I think we should embrace it. After playing the Barbarian his weapon system gave me some ideas for the Demon hunter. My idea for Demon Hunter weapons slots is to have a Two-Handed Slot for a two-handed bow/crossbow, or a two-handed sword. Then two one-handed slots for a mix of one-handed melee weapons, or two one-handed crossbows. Imagine diving into the think of battle with a deadly blade dealing critical damage dropping a caltrop then vaulting / Evasive Firing out of the fight and cleaning up with two rapidly firing crossbows. Maybe you prefer to stay at range to deal your damage, but a group of demons has closed the distance and a nice two-handed blade to finish them off. I think this playstyle will fit nicely into what the current classes are already going for.
Math, Stats-
Math is not a bad thing. Having math in the player stats is fun it gives players something to think about and work out. Math is rewarding. The issue comes when you hide your formulas, and make it very difficult to work out how you get to “Y”% cooldown when the gear adds up to “X”. Use clean math, and if there is a fun formula let us know how you get numbers when we scroll over the stat. Show your work Blizzard.
Stats have been around since for every it’s a core part of any RPG. Do not remove them. You have watered it down so much from Diablo 3 that you feel its no longer needed. I would suggest to make those stats more meaningful. Get on the track, and go back.
Mythic is a bad word for Diablo-
World of Warcraft has destroyed this word for every other Blizzard game. Mythic raids, mythic dungeons, mythic raid gear, mythic dungeon gear, mythic keystones. The Mythic plus system is a spin-off of Diablo 3’s Greater Rifts. I welcome this type of system, but I would not recommend this being the halo endgame system. My main point is the word Mythic needs to be pull from Diablo’s vocabulary.
Weapon Types-
The weapon types that were laid out at Blizzcon feels copied and pasted. With the only addition being Mythic items. The idea being that the Mythic item will be very powerful, and the player will only be able to equip one at a time. Well, we know how I feel about the word Mythic. So, here are my ideas for that. Delete Ancient versions of Legendary, and Set Items. I feel like these items are not needed. Replace Mythic with Ancient Hell Forged, Ancient Heaven Forged, and Ancient Nephalem Forged.
A player may have up to two Ancient Hell Forged or Ancient Heaven Forged items equipped, but not one of each. Some of these items could have heavily themed abilities from where they were forged. The Ancient Nephalem Forged will be limited to one equipped, and have its own talent tree. I’m expanding on the World of Warcraft Legion Artifact system here. Each Ancient Nephalem Forged item will have a unique talent tree that will be leveled up. The Ancient Nephalem Forged will also have a Hell, and Heaven tree depending if you have Ancient Hell Forged, or Ancient Heaven Forged items equipped. There could even be a few unique Ancient Nephalem Forged items that allow the user to use one Ancient Hell Forged, and one Ancient Heaven Forged together.
The Ancient Nephalem Forged item could take the place of paragon leveling. You would come across these items and level them up. The time to level one of these items should take about as long as reaching paragon level 500.
Mythic Plus Keystones-
I’m going to start by saying I like the Mythic plus system in WoW, and think it will give Diablo’s dungeons some good replayability, but as I said in the Mythic is a bad word section I do not like the Mythic word. I understand that it’s just a word, but words do matter. A lot of players will be coming over from WoW to give Diablo 4 a try, and they are likely to trash talk this due to the face that most of the endgame content in WoW other than raiding is doing Mythic Plus over and over again.
The basic key should be shifted for something immersive while maintaining the same purpose. Dungeons are sometimes just a cave and with no place to put a key. A summoning ritual obtained the same way the keys would be, but with a little lore behind it that could be explained by an NPC in town. The idea would be that after clearing the dungeon the hero has the feeling that evil corruption is still lingering. The player would then return to Town where an NPC would explain that while on the surface the danger is over, but a greater evil lies in the shadows, and would have to be forced out from the depths of Hell where they control their lesser servants.
The Keystone dungeons should be randomized weekly, with each difficulty level being random, but static for that week. Meaning, for that week Difficulty level 3 will be different from level 5, but each level 3, and 5 is the same for everyone that week. This will allow for a better, and more accurate ladder experience for everyone. Then everything will again be randomized the following week. In short an evolution of the weekly Challenge Rift from Diablo 3.
No weekly loot chest for completing a summoning ritual (Mythic Plus). This again goes back to repeating WoW’s weekly reward. The rewards should be earned while doing the run, and not magically shows up in a box after the fact.
This should not replace Rifts, and Greater Rifts. I would like to see Rifts and Greater Rifts in the game still. Maybe not just sitting in town, but out in the world were we have to discover them.
The Ladder-
From Blizzcon if felt like they were going to down size who is included in the ladder. If this is correct it feels like a mistake. They should be going bigger. More sorting options, and pull from a bigger pull. Maybe make an RPG element to it by making me go to a NPC call it the town Seer, lore master, or inn keeper to get the news on whats going on in the world.
Player Versus Player-
I would like to see a loot system that is not unlike Eve Online’s system. When you kill a player, it will drop a random item that they have on. In Hard Core The idea is that most of the items will be destroyed in combat, but an item from each inventory slot could be dropped. For the softer side of things the item would just be lost, but everthing else remains. Maybe, This could just be a feature of Hard Core though.
Arenas, and Tournament Arenas with solo, and team brackets. In each major city or town, there will be an Arena that a payer may talk to an NPC and signup as a solo combative, or signup a team. The standard Arenas would borrow from WoW’s current arena system. Queue up, and battle. The Tournament Arenas would borrow StarCraft2’s tournament system where a set time is posted, and players sign up and then are put into a bracket. Allow players to watch battles within the game, and maybe gamble on battles taking place. This will give the Esports angle.
City reputation drop for killing other players within city limits. When a player kills a player that is not in self-defense within the city limit a negative reputation will be added to the user. After some point, NPC will no longer react to the player. The town may also place a bounty on the player for a reward. There could be small shady NPC camps, inns on the outskirt of town, or player created housing. These can provide a base for players until they are caught, killed or rebuild their reputation.
-Side note: Maybe allow players to support the Hells in this way. Join a cult and become a minion of Hell. Some people only want to see the world burn. Maybe we join forces with a Lesser Demon Lord that has ambitions of taking control, and we join them to fight the current demons in control, as well as the people, and the Heavens. Maybe this demon could be Kabraxis from the novel The Black Road.
Talents, Skills, and Paragons-
I understand that what was shown as Blizzcon was an early demo, but I was disappointed with what was shown. The talent system seemed to me not to meet even Diablo 2’s talent system. I think the Web standard of talent systems has been set by others like PoE, and Diablo will at least need to meet this standard. If not then the risk of disappointment may be high.
I like the system of Diablo2’s talent system where a lower point in one ability would also benefit other abilities in some way down the road. I think that this system should be embraced. I also prefer the abilities being mixed in with stat talents. One well thought out, and well-designed UI for each class.
If a system like paragon points are added other than the weapon suggestion I made. I think a system of being able to put points into subsections of talents would be a good solution; similar to the way leveling legendary gems works in Diablo3. The paragon points will benefit a smaller attribute of a given talent.
