Weapon types and damage ranges (Diablo IV)

General Discussion
1

During the Diablo IV deep dive, they mentioned that

“when you pick up a sword in Kehjistan it’s a scimitar. If you are up in Scosglen, it is a broad sword. Different armors that fit different regions, look like they are from the place.”

This raises some questions, especially when combined with the December update.

  1. Do these different looking items from different regions actually change the stats at all, or are they just cosmetic?

If so, it almost hurts the feeling to me. To find a scimitar that does the same damage as a broadsword and has the same inherent characteristic (since it is a sword) as well, makes it seem like, why are these even portrayed as different weapons?

  1. Are there different inherent characteristics across various weapons of the same type, or are all swords given the same inherent characteristic and even damage amount?

  2. Are damage ranges still in the game, or are they flat numbers now? These helped provide diversity among weapons and spells, providing a different feel and playstyle for various builds.

Personally, I don’t like the way Diablo 3 implemented the item types (or lack thereof), having legendary items drop as just “Sword” in orange text. The sword is not scimitar, or broadsword. It gives you no indication of what kind of sword it is and if you know the game well enough, what unique item it might be once identified.

2

I think for balance reasons these changes will just be cosmetic

3

That is what it sounds like. Not sure I like that. That means that a broadsword, scimitar, etc. will all be the same. That then does the opposite of enhancing the immersion and breaks it.

4

Well if they are designed with about the same length and mass, it is plausible that one would hit as fast and hard with either weapon
Do you know these youtubers testing different weapons against each other
Sometimes the results are rather surprising and close

1 Like
5

I have never seen that. That makes some sense, but I am not asking for them to be wildly different. They are all swords, they should be somewhat similar. But to have no differences in damage, speed, or inhereant charcteristicis suggests they are identical.

More concerning to me is the lack of damage ranges. These help differentiate not only weapons of the same type, but weapons of different types. I want to know how they are going to make a two handed axe much different from a bardiche, from a maul. is it just going to be the inherent characteristic, and is that enough? Will range make a comeback?

6

It’s true damage ranges would help to not let everything seem the exact same
I just think they want to be as consumer friendly as possible thus not making ANY decision that might confuse anyone^^

7

That mentality is the reason I am scared for Diablo IV. Gamers have mostly moved beyond needing everything spoon fed and dumbed down. If they need that, they will be playing other games, like mobile games. Part of the fun in finding new weapons is trying them out and seeing how they feel. Weapons not only have different stats/speeds and so on in other games, but they also have different swings, combos, throwing, etc. Even Nintendo did this in Breath of the Wild. We see it in Dark Souls series and a number of other games, including Diablo 2 with damage ranges, actual weapon length range, and speed.

I think the inherent characteristics are a great start, but we need more than that.

8

  1. I think the idea is just to reinforce the lore fantasy of regions, which I really like.
    If the game starts compartmentalising drops, it will force people to farm specific regions for specific items. Some games do that, like Grim Dawn, but it’s not the Diablo way.

  2. There is an inherent characteristic for each weapon type, plus specific attack speed.

  3. Only skills inflict damage and they have a range.

9

Right, I get that and I like that too, but you don’t find it odd that you will pick up a scimitar, broadsword, and rapier, cutlass, rapier, and they will all have identical inherent characteristics, damage, and attack speed?

I am not sure if I would like having different regions drop different weapons that have different stats, however what the result seems to be at the moment is that all swords have the same inherent characteristics, attack speed, and damage, the only thing changing being the artwork and the higher level sword the higher the attack on it. So instead of being like Diablo 2 and having numerous weapons within a type, there is essentially 1 weapon per type. Sword. Doesn’t matter what type of sword, it is just a sword.

In Diablo 2 weapons had so many differences that set them apart, even within the same type.

Damage range (tighter or more wide spread)
Durability
amount of sockets possible
stat requirements
attack speed
reach distance

All of these things were considerations in picking a weapon. Mind you, Diablo 2 was not perfect in its execution of this, but it was way more in depth and interesting than what we are seeing in DIV so far. Now I could have 5 different looking swords that all do the exact same thing.

10

i respect your opinion but it sounds something like
dont complain about freebies?
like, they could have had every single weapon of a “type” look the same and go with it
they added like 5-6 times more designes and now people complain about they are not acting differently xD

11

It really is not so much about the designs as it is, they highlighted an issue I had not thought about before. Designs or not, the issue remains that a sword is a sword is a sword. Once you have found any 1 handed sword, right from the get go, the only difference between it and any other 1 handed sword is the attack going up and the artwork changing.

I am genuinely surprised more people are not being vocal about this. Not only that, but I find it confusing. Looking in an inventory and seeing several different swords that look different, but all do the same thing. This feeds into different types of weapons having different themes/requirements. Are there any stat requirements to holding different weapons or wearing armor? I don’t think they have said so or shown that. I assume it is just level based. So there is no requirements to using a short sword vs a broadsword or a long sword. Shouldn’t those have different strength/dexterity requirements? Which also leads into the fact that a level 40 wizard can hold a maul regardless of strength. That is just silly.

12

i actually dont think this is necessarily the case
like, d2 had very different kinds of swords being heavier, lighter, longer, shorter
just because you have different skins for different regions doesnt mean that you cant have different types?
like the small, fast sword will be the glaudius/rapier/machete/short sword
and then theres the broad sword/saber/scimitar/…
and then theres the long sword/katana/bastard sword/…
you can go on

13

Perhaps. Maybe I am jumping the gun, but so far, it appears to be much like D3 in that the only difference is the damage increasing. And in the case of Diablo 4, they don’t even have damage ranges.

You look at both these links below, first one for one handed swords and the second one for 2 handed swords. They have different art and increased damage, but that is the extent of it. The attack speed is the same across all of them, having 1.4 for 1 handed swords and 1.1 for 2 handed swords. There is no difference in the amount of sockets they can get, the distance the weapon covers, or the attributes required to use them.

Okay, I guess I cannot post links, but if you just google Diablo 3 swords, it pulls it right up on the Diablo 3 page

Then looking at Diablo 2s swords, you can see a variety of swords that have not only different damage ranges, but different weapon speeds, socket potential, durability, range, and requirements. Then there was also differences in weapon speed based on your class that was using them.

Now looking at Diablo IV so far, it looks basically the same as Diablo 3, except we have yet to see there by any damage ranges, just flat numbers. Looking at the December update, there is sort of an example, but they are not swords and it is kind of different since these are magic - legendary item examples, but you can see here that even though they look different, the magic staff, rare staff, and legendary staff are all just “staff”. They have no extra cool name, no differentiating inherent characteristics, no difference in damage, no damage ranges, no durability differences, and no requirements to use them.

14

Actually I think it’s better this way. Having a lot of different weapon types means it’s harder to drop the one you need. From there, 2 possibilities :

  • You can’t find an upgrade and get stucked, like in D2 sometimes
  • You get drown in loots ^^

That being said, we don’t know how many different types they’re planning. But I’d say 20 would be quite enough. Imo affixes are much more important and they seem to do a decent job in this area (with a few jarring exceptions…)

That’s pretty much 100% sure there won’t be stats requirements for items. They tried a lighter version with the ADA powers before switching to Attributes Breakpoints.

15

Don’t forget that D4 is being made for casuals. Weapons won’t have D2 properties because of that.

16

It doesn’t matter IMO. Outside if attack speeds, damage done, and animations, I never felt there was a difference in weapons in previous games. You just beat in a mob slow or faster while using abilities until it died. Didn’t matter if it were a dagger or a 2H axe.

17

D2 was made for casuals as well. See the vast majority who played it.

18

Going to guess, assuming we get the Paladin and flails, 17 at minimum. 1h/2h versions of axes, bows, crossbows, flails, maces, and swords for 12. Staves, halberds/polearms, wands, spears, and daggers to make 17.

There can be derivatives of each weapon class, with scimitar, broadsword, cutlass, gladius, and so on for cosmetic differences. No need to make them all different.

19

I dont think different types of swords need to be mechanically different to be honest. I mean, it is fine if they are, but not needed. That dev time could be spent better elsewhere (such as making different armor types mechanically different!). If you make items too different and specialized, you might also risk limiting our options.

However, yeah, weapons should have dmg ranges. Even if all swords have the same dmg range, dmg ranges should still be a thing.

20

I’m sure they will since every gsme seems to have had damage ranges. So two swords cannbe the same level and have different stats and damage ranges even if they are the same sword from the same zone.