Hey everyone,
I’m a longtime Diablo player who has sunk thousands of hours into Diablo III over the years… from launch day to the final Seasons, I’ve seen the game at its worst and its absolute best. Naturally, like many of you, I was hyped beyond belief for Diablo IV. But after dozens (if not hundreds) of hours in the new game, I’m left asking a painful question:
Why does Diablo IV feel so empty, boring, and joyless compared to Diablo III?
This isn’t just about nostalgia. There are deep systemic differences in design, player engagement, and sheer “fun factor” that make Diablo IV feel like a massive step backwards. Let’s break it down:
1. Lack of Things To Do – Diablo IV’s Endgame Is a Void:
In Diablo III, you were constantly chasing something:
- Greater Rift pushes for leaderboard glory or personal bests
- Bounties for resource grinding and targeted loot
- Seasonal conquests, achievements, and cosmetics
- A rotating list of Seasonal themes that literally transformed the way you played each build.
Now let’s look at Diablo IV:
- Nightmare Dungeons are… just dungeons with minor affixes.
- Helltides are time-gated and get old fast.
- World Bosses are cool… the first three times you do them.
- PvP? Barely anyone cares. It’s a ghost town.
- Tree of Whispers? Busy work for subpar loot.
- Endgame build crafting? Slower than molasses, with affix RNG that feels designed to waste your time.
The loop is mind-numbingly repetitive, with no real long-term carrot on a stick. Where’s the sense of urgency? Where’s the push? Where’s the variety?
In Diablo III The Legendary gear UPGRADED your build, made you feel like an absolute monster, They made your builds UNIQUE by giving you that little bit of an overpowered push to your build…
2. The Classes Feel Watered Down and Soulless
Let’s be honest, Diablo IV’s class fantasy is extremely weak. Compare these:
Diablo III Wizard – Insane visuals, game-breaking speed, huge AoE effects, meteor spam, archon mode, frozen orbs… you felt powerful.
Diablo IV Sorcerer – Spam chain lightning or fireball until your mana dies. Rinse. Repeat. Slow, mana-starved, boring.
D3 Barbarian – fast and aggressive: good from the start. Whirlwind builds, leapquakes, massive slams, tons of viable sets. lots of fun to play.
D4 Barbarian – A lumbering, clunky brute that feels like it’s dragging chains. Why does it take 40 levels before I stop feeling useless?
D3 Demon Hunter offered trap builds, sentry/turret setups, grenades, rapid fire, vault spam. Dual resource management for different builds,
D4 Rogue is fun early but becomes repetitive: mostly Twisting Blades or Poison Trap with little else.
D3 Necromancer: - Deep summon builds (skeletal mages, Revive, command skeletons).
- Corpse explosion, blood builds, bone spear, and fast-paced cooldown resets with Inarius/Rathma/Trag’Oul sets.
- Every set felt different. even the armor visuals changed your feel and fantasy.
D4 Necromancer:
- Summons die constantly, especially on higher tiers, most builds skip pets entirely.
- Bone Spear or Blood Lance are the only real endgame options.
- Corpses are less interactive, mostly a resource farm for 1-2 key abilities.
D3 Witch Doctor:
- Unique voodoo theme with zombie dogs, gargantuans, spirit barrage, locust swarms, fetishes, and massive AoE curses.
- DoT builds, pet builds, ranged nuker, or spirit bomb setups, tons of identity and creativity.
D4 Druid:
- Great visual fantasy (werebear, werewolf, storms), but very few viable builds.
- Storm builds are clunky, companion builds are weak, and shapeshifting is often just a stat change.
- You’re locked into Earth Bear Slam or Wolf Tornado for real endgame viability.
Even when you’re geared in D4, most classes feel like they’re stuck in second gear until you manage to cobble together very specific gear and glyph synergies. The gameplay doesn’t “pop.” The juice is missing.
I Have Played EVERY class in the game, but it still feels like i’m just playing the same thing on repeat until i get a build that allows me to up the difficulty,
Diablo IV’s classes are shadows of what we had before.
Less diversity. Less expression. Less power fantasy. Just… less.
3. Sub-Par Abilities and Combat Feedback
Combat in Diablo III was visceral and punchy:
- Explosions of light and gore
- Elemental effects flying across the screen
- Enemies exploding in glorious fashion
Meanwhile in D4:
- Everything looks washed out.
- Skill effects feel muted, underwhelming.
- There’s little sound or visual feedback that screams “YOU’RE A DEMON-SLAYING MONSTER!”
And don’t get me started on cooldowns. Every build is choked by cooldowns. Who thought this was a good design for an ARPG, a genre that thrives on tempo and fluidity?
4. Build Variety? More Like Build Choking
In Diablo III, after a few weeks, people were already experimenting with wild sets and off-meta builds. The game was tuned for fast experimentation, fast resets, fast loot.
In Diablo IV, respec’ing is expensive. Getting one item with the right affixes is a miracle. You can’t test new builds easily. You get punished for trying to explore.
Paragon Boards are interesting in theory, but in execution? They’re spreadsheet-tier dull. The build variety exists, but it’s buried under layers of grind and obfuscation.
And where are the class sets? They were iconic in D3. They gave your build identity, a goal, a purpose. D4 has a few Uniques and… nothing to really chase in terms of build-defining gear.
5. The Seasonal Model Is a Joke (So Far)
Remember Diablo III Seasons? Themes that flipped the game on its head:
- Double goblins
- Free sets
- Stackable kill buffs
- Soul Shard power fantasies
What do we get in Diablo IV?
- Malignant Hearts and Powers that feel like boring passive bonuses
- A side quest chain and dungeon that feel half-baked
- Cosmetic rewards that barely register
Where’s the fun, Blizzard?
6. Spiritborn Locked Behind a Paywall – Are You Kidding Me?
So let’s talk about the Spiritborn. The first new class for Diablo IV - hyped as a primal, jungle-wielding warrior connected to nature and spirits. Sounds cool, right?
Too bad it’s locked behind a £34.99 paywall.
Let’s not sugarcoat this: locking a core gameplay feature like a new class behind an expansion wall is pure monetization greed. Reaper of Souls brought the Crusader to Diablo III sure, but you got it alongside a massive amount of new content and a load of game saving additions:
- A new Act (Act V)
- Adventure Mode
- Rifts + Greater Rifts (core endgame)
- Loot 2.0 (the system that saved the game)
- The Mystic (enchanting/transmogs)
- Seasonal ladders shortly after
That’s not even counting quality of life fixes that fundamentally improved Diablo III across the board.
Now look at Vessel of Hatred:
- One new zone that is just the same thing, (Helltides, Dungeons and whispers, with a few quests along the way)
- A new class
- New story content (Can someone explain to me why after completing the Vessel of hatred expansion, i was asked to do a quest that was just a glorified tutorial?)
- A “mercenary system” (Basically the companion system from Diablo III, Also locked behind the Paywall)
- Some seasonal fluff
And this is again, a £34.99 expansion on top of a full-priced base game, battle passes, and cosmetics that cost more than entire games. What exactly are we paying for here?
Diablo used to be a franchise about slaying demons, not slaying your wallet.
Final Thoughts: Diablo IV Has the Foundation, But No Soul
Look — Diablo IV looks beautiful. The world-building is solid. The atmosphere is top-notch. But it’s a game that confuses grind with depth, cooldowns with challenge, and restriction with balance.
Diablo III may have had its flaws at launch, but it evolved into one of the most addictive, fast-paced, and empowering ARPGs out there.
Diablo IV feels like it forgot why people play Diablo in the first place:
- To feel like gods against legions of hell
- To watch the screen explode with loot and light
- To experiment and rebuild endlessly
- To jump in, destroy stuff, and feel amazing doing it
Right now, D4 feels like a beautiful prison. And until Blizzard addresses these core issues, not just itemization, but feel, fantasy, and fun it will remain a game that’s nice to look at, but dull to play.
I’d love to hear other opinions. Am I alone in this? Have you felt the same disappointment setting in, or have you managed to find that spark? Let’s talk.
-A Diablo III veteran who just wants to have fun again
TL;DR: Diablo IV vs Diablo III – It’s Not Even Close
- D4 feels empty: fewer meaningful activities, no endgame variety, and boring grinds. D3 had Rifts, Greater Rifts, bounties, crafting, seasonal modifiers, and real progression hooks.
- Classes in D4 are bland and limited compared to D3’s deep, flexible, and creative builds.
- Wizard > Sorcerer – D3’s Wizard was a spellcasting god; D4’s Sorcerer is a cooldown spammer.
- Barbarian (D3) > Barbarian (D4) – Faster, more powerful, and more diverse.
- Demon Hunter > Rogue – More tools, more builds, more fun.
- Necromancer (D3) > Necromancer (D4) – Real summoner options and build depth in D3.
- Witch Doctor > Druid – More creative, more unique, and more fun to play.
- Vessel of Hatred is locked behind a paywall, while D3’s Reaper of Souls DLC gave a full endgame rework, Adventure Mode, bounties, new loot systems, and a class. all in one package.
- D4’s first paid class, Spiritborn, is DLC-locked. D3 gave you Crusader with a full game mode revamp.
- D4 lacks soul. D3 may have started rough, but it evolved into a deep, addictive ARPG with style, speed, and replay value.
Bottom line: Diablo IV feels like a downgrade. Slower, shallower, and stingier. both in content and creativity.
Please share your thoughts below! Id love to hear your opinions and thoughts!