To begin, I must say that for now, I am very positive and optimistic for Diablo 4. The demo already seems very promising in terms of atmosphere and graphics. But, what struck me during the announcements of Blizzcon is the opening of the design team. They have asked many times for feedback and opinions from fans. In addition, one of the lead design talked about bringing a lot more diversity and customization of builds. He mentioned that his point of view for a frost sorceress is not necessarily the same as another player. Everyone has their own vision and the game need the creativity to permit that!
Before talking about D4, I want to highlight the two biggest problems of D3 in my opinion and Blizzard must learn from these mistakes. There was no diversity and no endgame content in D3.
No diversity : For every class, everyone had the exact same build / items. The Blizzard team created 2-3 viable sets and play styles per classes, and then everyone was forced to play these builds. It was impossible to try anything else. Players had absolutely no space to try creative builds.
No Endgame content : Farm Rift and Greater Rift … that’s it. An infinite and boring loop of repetitive Rift + GRIFT… After getting your sets pieces and some legendary boosting the set, there was nothing else to do except levelling Gem and trying to get the same items but “Ancient”. Nothing new, ever! The only changes between 3-4 months were … Double treasure goblin? A passive buff? A few times we got new legendary.
These 2 aspects are the most important for the long-term survival of an ARPG. Even if the story is rich and the graphics are beautiful, if there is nothing left to do at the end, the players will go around the game once and will not play after.
Here are my opinions and ideas on what should be in Diablo 4.
Stats : Bring back classic stats like Str, Dex, Vit / Consti, Intel. They should not define a build, but be part of it. They add diversity. We could place X at all levels or per 2 levels. They would give bonuses, but without being exaggerated. In addition, I would bring back the stats requirement on the legendary items. In our build, we should take into account the stats requirements of the items we want to use and adjust to be able to equip them. This creates a restriction, but in exchange, all items (except sets) could be equipped by all classes. No plate / mail / leather / cloth / weapons type restrictions. Traditional items for barbarians would require more strength or constitution, and the more traditional items for sorceress would require more intelligence, and so on.
- Str : Increase physical dmg, Armor penetration, AOE radius, etc…
- Dex : Increase critical chance, critical dmg, Dodge, Attack speed, etc…
- Constituton : Increase Life, Resistance, Life regen, Armor, etc…
- Intel : Increase magical dmg, Increase mana/resource, mana/resource regen, Resistance penetration, lower CD, etc…
Skills : I like the idea of being able to put several levels in the same skill to improve it and give it extra effects. We shouldn’t be able to maximize all skills. Maybe add a talent tree for every skill that could improve or modify the way that skill is played.
Talents : The talent must be much more complex than during the demo. It’s very linear with very few choices. There may be fillers such as + X% dmg to Y attacks. But the best way to create different builds is to have Key talents (or items) that completely change the gameplay of a class. Example : “ Fire damage deals 200% more damage but it deals its damage over 5 seconds (Stackable) ”. That talent creates a Damage over time build that can be completed with others Legendaries / Talents that could boost DoT damage or add effects such as: “ When a creature with a damage over time effect dies, it explode and deal the remaining damage to other nearby creatures ”. This single effect can create a multitude of builds with poison, bleeds effect and any other DoTs.
Class identities : I like the class identity and the unique look they bring (More classes = More fun!). This is part of the Diablo philosophy. But I like the idea of allowing players to gain access to almost all skill (Even other classes’ skills) by using the proper Legendary item. In the D4 demo we can see a Legendary Ring that gives: “ Chance on hit: You have X% chance to spawn an Hydra ”. Imagine if Blizzard create another Legendary that would give “ Increase the proc chance of Chance on hit effect by 500% but your attacks and skills can’t deal damage anymore” . Then, if I want to play a frenzy barb with some of my skills / items that boost my attack speed to attack super fast and another part of my legendary items to boost the Hydra skills. Example: “ Whenever you summon an hydra, summon an additional one ” or “ Your hydra now deals cold damage and slow ”, etc.). I will have a barbarian who can no longer deal damage with his attacks and skills, but can summon a swarm of Hydra by quickly attacking enemies.
The same build could be modified with an item that gives Chance on hit: Cast a lvl X Fireball . If every time I attack with my barbarian, he cast a fireball in front of him, I can go for other items that boost my fire dmg, or items that increases or changes the effects of fireball. Example :”Your fireball split into 3 but deal X% less damage ”, combined with “ When your fireball hit a mobs, two additional fireballs will be launch from the mobs and deal Y% less damages, etc.” I will have a barbarian who creates an apocalypse of fireball everywhere in the screen. That’s only an example of the infinite possibilities!
Level : You have announced that you want to create an open world much larger than D3 and with more than 200 dungeons. That’s great! You must allow players to explore and enjoy it every season new season. In D3, we went from lvl1 to 70 in 15 minutes … The leveling and the story is completely useless and unused. I believe the lvl max should be 100, but practically unreachable. Ability to reach the lvl for a season of about 4 months: Easy 1 to 60, Normal 61-75, Hard 76-85, Very Hard 86-94, F*cking Hard 95-98, Nearly Impossible 99-100 . If a season lasts about 4 months, a pro-gamer / streamer should take less than 1 week to reach the Endgame content. A good player should take about 2-3 weeks to reach it, while an average player should take between 3-5 weeks.
Endgame content : There cannot be too much Endgame content! Never enough! It’s very important to have a lot of diversity and offer a package of options to the players. I believe that some items must drop in specific places and allow players to focus their farms.
Keystone : Really great idea! Since you are going to build a LOT of Dungeons, it’s important that you can recycle and reuse them during the Endgame farming content.
Boss : Yes! Real hard Boss! You should integrate several very difficult bosses to the game. It would be necessary either to find them or to farm items to have a chance to face them. They would offer unique loot that cannot be found anywhere else (Like Hellfire amulet in D3). A limited number of deaths would be allowed to successfully kill the boss, after which it will be necessary to refarm to have a chance to face them again.
Final Boss : The last boss! The goal and ultimate challenge of each player at the beginning of each new season! Create a build to try to kill the most difficult boss in the game. It would drop the best loot in the game and very few players will be able to defeat him every season. An epic fight, long, with a lot of mechanics to know. A real challenge, which could even give special rewards such as Title, skin, portrait, mount, follower etc … different every season.
Others farming stuff : Crafting, enchant, gem, rune, gold, treasure goblins, special event, timed runs, exploring map, finding special chest, cursed evens, maze, world boss, hideout and customisable stuff, etc…
Trade : I like the idea of an auction house with Bind on Trade for Legendary/Set/Mythic and always tradable for the rest. If you create hundreds+ of unique like you said, and lower the drop rate to make them harder to find, we will need a way to trade a high valuable Legendary (But useless for us) to get an equivalent for our build
Items : First of all, bring back shoulder and belt slot please! More items slot = More possible builds. Like many, I believe that we must find usefulness for normal items, magical and rare. Maybe in the crafting system? With the return of the runes, if the majority of the legendary torso gives 4 max socket, but a normal torso could drop with 6 sockets and then be transformed into a rare torso with 6 sockets. If the other affixes are rolling well, it could be a BiS. A rare item very well rolled could be more useful than a legendary for some builds. Even a chest with 6 sockets and good runes alone could create a unique build. Rare items that are well-rolled should be competitive and complementary to the different builds.
Respect : I am not in favor of full respect, but there may be some flexibility. For example, being able to earn respect points during the storyline and by some farm / drop / gold.
Seasons : Seasons should last around 3-4 months, but I prefer less seasons per year if they are more impactful. You should wait the end of a season to nerf/buff items. Seasons are really important and must bring new stuff everytime. (Items, Dungeons, boss, rune, new challenges etc…)
In conclusion, remember that your target audience is not 7 years old and that it is not Fortnite. Do not simplify the game! On the contrary, it needs deep complexity and a multitude of choices. ! I would like to be able to play a barbarian 5 seasons in a row and still be able to fine tune my build or be able to try completely new build everytime without feel bored! Anyway, casual player like me will find community guides to help me to find the perfect build suited for me. I have a lot of hope for Diablo 4 and trust in the team. The game must take the best elements of D2 and D3 and add new content inspired by other ARPGs. Even more important, Blizzard must create completely new and original contents that cannot be found anywhere else. Become again the Leader and innovator that Blizzard was in another era. I want the game to be so good that in 20 years it’s still playable