Diablo 5 needs to return to it's roots AKA Diablo 2 LOD

General Discussion
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We were told D4 would be returning to it’s roots now we know it’s just marketing nonsense.

It is apparent to everyone by now that the reason they removed runewords in D4 and eliminating whatever depth the game had is because the devs simply do NOT understand how runewords worked in D2.

It may be time to hire the old Blizzard North team to salvage this franchise

Diablo 2 is the GOLD STANDARD of Action RPG for very good reasons and that is because the team that created D2 were extremely GIFTED people, they knew what made ARPG work and had a PASSION for what they were doing. It was quality games and gamers FIRST, shareholders and profits come second.

You simply cannot replace a team like that with people who thinks that mobile gaming is the same as PC Gaming and fans genuinely confused as to if a serious announcement is an out of season’s april fools joke or something genuine.

This is the 3rd Diablo game released in 10 years and is suffering the exact same problem an incredibly shallow game, serious lack of depth and poor itemization.

With all due respect I know the D4 team worked hard on this game, however not understanding what made Diablo 2 work and why it is the GOLD standard of ARPG why to this day decades later it is still played by so many people means you do NOT understand how the ARPG genre works.

I would love to see the old D2 team back on development of D5 even if as consultants.

If you do NOT understand how D2 runewords worked then you need to request help you need to hire someone who does to assist the team.

Cancellation of D4 Runewords is no excuse, this game should NOT be released until this matter is addressed because you will now be going further down the distrust hole.

Relationships are built on TRUST and Blizzard has almost completely lost all Trust from the gamers.

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Returning to Diablo, not 2, wouldn’t be unwelcome. Possibly.

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Says you.

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And that’s all OP can say apparently, well that and whatever opinion he is parroting from his YouTube crushes.

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That’s just your opinion. It however is not a fact.

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The only hope for this franchise is Microsoft acquires Activision Blizzard, fires the current Diablo team, hires the original developers and puts Obsidian in as a supporting developer to help reboot the franchise.

The problem with Diablo 4 is predatory game designed pushed by investors to exploit the fans for one final cash-in before they sell the company.

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i feel like D4 was the last straw and there wont be much care for a d5 after d4 fails.

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Diablo is a strong franchise it’s just lead by terrible developers. When the Microsoft deal closes I suspect a reboot.

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Post from 2028:

Diablo 6 needs to return to the series roots. We were told Diablo 5 would be
for the hardcore PC gamers but is just a crappy mobile game. What an excuse for a PC title from Blizzard. It shouldn’t have gotten a iOS, Android, PS5, XBOX, Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch release, it is too casual with too many microtransactions. Diablo 6 should be PC only and go back to the series roots and be in the vein of the gold standard for ARPGs which is Diablo II LOD.

In other words I think it is a lost cause at this point expecting anything more from this series from Blizzard. Cut your losses and look out for Path of Exile II.

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Every night before I go to sleep I watch this POE 2 trailer every single night right before putting on my Resident Evil Save Room OST because POE 2 gets me so hyped I need something to calm me down.

Seeing that Javazon build makes me cream my pants everytime and ooh that sweet smooth new animations and character rigs. Gotta love GGG taking the money but sticking with their baby and not running. Making sure they keep building relationships with their fan base via TRUST.

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D2 is history. Its golden because there were no competitors at the time. The slow pace and rare drop rates, terrible battle sequences are outdated in today’s standards. You do not backtrack to obsolete gaming styles, there are no roots to return. The genere moves forward. D2R was a wrong project, wasting precious resources hoping to win what? Fans who should be spending their time with grandchildren rather than games?

If any fault with D4 that the slow movement and mobility, too easy battle scenes that doesn’t pressure player performing accute moves or high reflective maneuvers. aRPG is action first then RPG. Not the fake action title toxically reflected in D2 which too heavily leaned towards RPG. D4 leaned too much towards D2. What is nostalgic? Products can’t attract new markets turns nostalgic and that’s a move for dieing franchises.

Forget the past move forward. Leave the old folks spending times with their great grandchild.

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True. GOLD standard for being a dull, boring and unfun ARPG. :+1:

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The Itemization and depth of D2 LOD is infinite.

In D3 and D4 it is as deep as a puddle of water on a newly paved road.

You can deny this reality but it won’t make it any less true. Oh and it is very much objectively true.

VERY few games on the planet can compare to something like that, Tekken 7 and Street Fighter 4 has infinite skill ceiling due to 1 frame links among many other things

POE 2 is on track to surpass Diablo 2’s itemization and depth.

Rumor has it David Brevik is a consultant for POE 2.

^ Why is this trailer better than anything Blizzard can put out “By three they come, by three we lie to fans with useless cinematics”

Because in POE 2 this is ACTUAL gameplay trailer, one thing you have to admire about those devs they don’t believe in fooling people with cinematic pre rendered rubbish.

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I say we take this a step further and go back to the real roots of Diablo 1.

Single dungeon with no running, baby.

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Modded D1 is impressive very impressive.

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Most of them are glorified stat sticks. Good thing they are changing it with new runewords. :+1:

Is it? It looks extremely mediocre here. :laughing:

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D2 was and always will be trash, and POE is just the hottest of hot garbage…I’ll stick to non-trash games with trash stories and trash char builds and trash people…

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Looks like the d2fanboys are worried and sweating now. So much that they have to come to d3 forum to spam. They dont want more ppl to leave d2 for d4.

If it surely was as great as the ppl with rose tinted glasses believe they wouldnt need to trashtalk d4 none stop. Accept it. Alot of ppl will enjoy d4 no matter how much u hate it.

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Diablo 3, Immortal, and D4 just suffer from being turned into end-game grinders, whereas D1 and D2 didn’t even have end-game.

You also don’t need to hire old developers to save the game, you just need to go back to seeing the path as the goal and thus change the whole game, which happens quite automatically as soon as this is done.

If you see the end game as the focus and build a game around it, you won’t be able to serve the RPG and its content, or only in a rudimentary way, and as a result every game will be shallow and meaningless and revolve around the simple end game content.

This is a law of nature, so to speak, and cannot be ignored.

Once you take the path as the goal, you take the world and its mechanics as the goal.
What will this automatically entail?

First of all, it will dramatically decrease the speed of the game and the value of the development.
Suddenly it’s back to playing the world itself and reintroducing survival mode.
Details will be considered necessary and important. You will have to expand the co-op model much more.
You can say that immediately every mechanic becomes valuable again, because it enhances the game experience and underpins the journey as a goal.

If I just want to get through the game and then finally go down the path of increasing numbers, we have a very different foundation. Here, you’re going to feed completely different mechanics to underpin that principle.
But that doesn’t fit with RPG content, it gets in the way of it.

As an example, consider balancing. In the end-game comparison, it takes balancing and in the end everything is the same, just with different effects.
The classes are all progressive and play similarly.
In an RPG that has the path as its goal, the classes are completely different and play totally differently. It allows for the difference and separation and depth and allows for classes like supporters, CCers, and mixed classes because there is no balance needed for comparison, but classes complement each other on many levels and you are free to give classes their own particular flavor.

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Do you ever get tired of being a troll?

Go post this garbage on D2R forum, no D3 fan here cares.

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