I’ve been playing Diablo 4 extensively, and one of the most common complaints I see in the community (and even feel myself while playing with groups) is this moment in endgame where everyone stops and says:
“Okay… what should we do now?”
Even though the game actually offers several good activities:
- Helltides
- Infernal Hordes
- Nightmare Dungeons
- Boss Ladder
- The Pit
- Undercity
- Dark Citadel
The problem is not lack of content, but rather that these activities feel disconnected and lack a sense of bigger progression. Often, my group finds itself just randomly picking whatever — because none of these activities feel like they build towards something greater.
My suggestion: Turn the Tree of Whispers into the Unified Endgame System
Right now, the Tree of Whispers exists, but it could be expanded into the core hub that ties all endgame content together.
Here’s the concept:
- Unify all activities (Helltides, Nightmare Dungeons, Strongholds, Side Quests, The Pit, Undercity, Dark Citadel) into a progression system.
- Each activity completed fills a track in the Tree, contributing points that unlock:
- Bigger challenges (empowered bosses, massive events)
- Unique rewards
- Regional buffs (example: clearing a Stronghold grants +10% XP and loot in that zone)
- Allow customization:
- Players could specialize their Tree, focusing on the content they prefer (e.g., investing points to make Nightmare Dungeons more rewarding or empowering Undercity runs).
- Similar to the Atlas system in Path of Exile, the Tree nodes could:
- Increase chances for specific loot
- Modify difficulty and reward structure
- Unlock alternate, harder versions of Strongholds or Side Quests
Why this would help
- Gives a sense of continuous purpose, as every activity contributes to a bigger goal.
- Revives forgotten content like Strongholds and Side Quests by giving them meaningful rewards.
- Gives players more agency to shape their endgame path and rewards.
Even if I don’t get a great drop from a Nightmare Dungeon, I’d still feel good knowing I’m building towards something bigger through the Tree.
It would help solve the current feeling that there’s “nothing to do” — not because activities are missing, but because they lack a unified, rewarding progression system.
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I would like to see some kind of mechanics like in POE1 - for example - through leveling phase we are able to do seasonal things like its already in POE1 - there is A LOT of activities to do. In D4 every season its vanishing and we got a fresh start - that’s not good for ARPG games. It would be much better for this game if they left every activites/mechanics and players been able to do it whenever they want to do. In previous season we had Witchcrafting mechanic and it should stay on the every next season. That’s a shame imo that we are forcing to play on “clean” campaing every time when new season comes. Its frustrating and borring that we can’t do anything more instead of skipping campaing and sometimes DLC just to go to the endgame and grind for loot and nothing more. Only thing that we have every seasons are helltides. We would be doing witchcrating helltides aswell. And next season would bring something new to the endgame and we could get like 3 activites to do - that would be really great change for this game. If it comes to items - why don’t we have items that are very rare to drop and their value is really expensive and worth for players like for example again in POE? There is headhunter belt, megablood belt, some kind of armors that are really expensive and valuable for players to obtain. I think they should significantly lower items drop from endgame activities to let us grind more for them and higher their value to be much better when they’ll drop. And maybe make bosses much harder and valuable with their drop. Like make this game MORE DIABLO instead of making it LESS DIABLO. For me the best Diablo game was 3 - I was having so much fun and I loved to grind for items whole day or even chasing goblins for portals and their drop. That game was perfect for me.
I hope you guys understand what I’m talking about and maybe agree with me a little with my thoughs.
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D4 more endgame than every other Diablo put together and it’s hilarious watching people say it doesn’t.
D1 and D2, Literally nothing. Do the campaign again. And again. Laughable when people say it has replayability.
D3, pit and maybe that hellfire amulet?
D4…all those things you mentioned. D4 has more endgame than every Arpg except Poe COMBINED.
It does have purpose.
Pull out your credit card and see how long it takes them to charge it.
I agree with the missing of an overal goal. If we could already plot the given player activities in a map that guides you to an epic moment, similar to citadels in PoE2 that would be so much better.
I think this map should live next to the current systems, so if you want to do bosses, helltides or whatever you can just do it. But via the map you can also do these kind of activities.
By having them live next to each other it will support the different kind of players.
I agree with the Unified part of this. I hate the idea that if I’m chasing a specific thing (not necessarily an item, but those included), it feels like I have to do a very specific task. One that I will naturally become bored of very quickly. Rather than just earning at least in part by doing anything I choose or feel up to at that moment. That and everything being on a timer, god I hate that.
Great post I agree with a lot of things in here.
I think blizzard are at their best when take ideas from other game’s in the genre and make them their own and polish it to a mirror sheen.
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It’s because all of it feels pretty much the same as previous seasons. We just did 3 months of witch powers. Now we’re going to do 2 months of boss powers. Though they are slightly different. The feel is pretty much the same.
If people are bored a couple days in…this does not bode well.
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Op has a good suggestion. +1
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There are no problems with the number of end-game activities in d4, and what you offer may be interesting, but as usual for one season.
The main and most important problem in d4 is at the core of this game, it’s bad. You can add 150 more different end-game activity options, it won’t change the fact that the game will be empty.
Relatively speaking, adding one zero to the hp of a boss will not make it more difficult and interesting, the same applies to GR and other activities.
The problem with d4 is that it uses mechanics that should never be in an ARPG and they will never allow this game to look decent, even after adding a million new activities, because it will always look like a chore.
The foundation of this game is so bad that even if you add 150 more endgame options, it will still get boring after 5 hours of playing.
Mark my words. The only way to improve the endgame of this game, as strange as it may sound, is to completely redesign its entire foundation.
You can thank D3 Ros for this, but in fact it’s stupid to blame D3 for this, because by itself it has always been as simple and primitive as possible, while D4 tries to seem like something serious, which it will never be using the core of D3 Ros.
I agree completely. And I like the tree idea. This is exactly why the endgame feels so vapid.
Think of the monolith in LE. You can customize every timeline. Add maps, push the difficulty up or down. You can target farm.
With the weaver tree you can customize content on each map. More champions, more loot lizards etc. You can affect their drops and map rewards directly. Even target farming specific uniques or affixes.
d4 needs depth, not more shallow content.
Well, to be honest, it’s hard to argue with that, it’s true.
The problem is that when you have a shallow core and try to put something deeper on it, you will eventually end up with shallow content, only more time-stretched.
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My guess and this is just a guess ….blizzard doesn’t want the game to be too complex in its systems so new players don’t feel overwhelmed.
I think blizzard is watching the competition closely and they’re evaluating how to implement an overarching system to tie things together.
Which would explain the fairly lacklustre roadmap we got a few weeks ago….and I hope their cooking something I really do
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