I’ve no doubt this may get people to break out into discussions, which I highly encourage by the way, but this is just my take on why Sanctification doesn’t quite “Fit” with the current state of Diablo 4, and the direction it’s been heading.
Just to clarify I actually like Sanctification, but I feel it does contradict the current state of Diablo 4, and why it’s getting backlash.
For those interested:
For those who like to read instead, I’m going to leave the full script, horrible grammar and spacing unaltered:
Sanctification - Why It Doesn't 'Fit' In Diablo 4 - Click Me
Sanctification and Why It Doesn’t “Fit” in Diablo 4
INTRODUCTION
Hey all, it’s Iggi. Lately, a lot of discussion around Diablo 4 has focused on loot, RNG, and progression. So it got me thinking about why players are so divided.
One phrase the devs use a lot is that new systems have to “fit within Diablo 4.” And I think that idea explains more of this debate than people realize.
At the heart of it, the issue isn’t just randomness. It’s expectation. Should the time you invest guarantee results? Or should it just increase the odds of something exciting happening?
Sanctification has brought that tension into focus. Some players see it as a fun system, others find it frustrating, and that split reveals a deeper design choice in the game.
So let’s break down how Diablo 4 handles progression, what it teaches players to expect, and why Sanctification might not actually fit the game it’s in.
SETTING EXPECTATIONS
First off, a quick point to keep in mind.
Disliking RNG does not mean you want the game easier. Liking RNG does not mean you want suffering or wasted time.
this debate is really about expectation.
Diablo 4 has conditioned players to expect deterministic outcomes given enough time played. You know that if you play long enough, you will get the item you want. Even Mythics follow this logic now. If it does not drop, you craft it. If the roll is bad, there are systems to correct it.
And that’s not by accident. Diablo 4 has always been built around having the right pieces to make your build work. Over time, that reliance has shifted more toward uniques, but the core idea hasn’t changed.
After a while, you just take it for granted that putting in the hours will get you what you need, which sets a specific expectation for all future systems.
THE TWO PHILOSOPHIES
This is basically where the player base splits into two groups.
On one side are players who value RNG as a core part of the genre. Loot is about discovery. You find something interesting, and instead of it deciding your build for you, it opens up new options and nudges how your build evolves.
On the other side are players who want control and consistency. They want their time to actually feel like it counts. RNG is fine, as long as it’s limited or something they can fix over time. If they put in the hours, they expect to feel themselves getting closer to a goal.
And both of these philosophies are completely valid.
The problem is that Diablo 4 leans hard into one of them, and then occasionally does the opposite.
DIABLO 4’S CURRENT DIRECTION
This part matters, because it explains a lot of the frustration.
Over time, Diablo 4 has steadily moved toward deterministic systems. Smart loot prioritizes stats that actually matter for your class. Target farming lets you go straight after the items you need. And recent changes to tempering and masterworking removed the risk of permanent failure.
Taken together, these systems all point in the same direction. The game is built around making sure your time turns into progress.
It’s part of the game’s core philosophy now.
And that context matters, because it completely reframes why Sanctification is controversial.
WHY SANCTIFICATION FEELS DIFFERENT
In a vacuum, Sanctification is not an extreme RNG system. Compared to older ARPGs, it is relatively mild.
But Diablo 4 is not operating in a vacuum.
Sanctification exists in a game that now mostly promises control. Over time, Diablo 4 teaches you that you can fix bad rolls and eventually get exactly what you’re chasing.
Sanctification doesn’t.
For players who enjoy RNG, Sanctification feels like one of the few remaining systems where the outcome is uncertain, and therefore meaningful when it hits.
For players who expect deterministic progression, it can feel frustrating. Not because it is random, but because it withholds power they feel they’ve already earned through effort.
Both reactions make sense.
They’re just coming from different expectations made by the same game.
OPPORTUNITY VS CERTAINTY
This is the core philosophical divide.
Traditional ARPGs reward time with opportunity. The more you play, the more chances you have at something great, not a promise that it will happen.
Diablo 4 rewards time with certainty.
That shift changes how players look at loot, how failure feels, and ultimately whether RNG comes across as exciting or unfair.
Once a game promises outcomes, you cannot selectively reintroduce high stakes randomness without backlash.
That is not entitlement. That is learned behavior.
WHY RNG FEELS DIFFERENT IN D4
And this is the key difference. This is where Diablo 4 fundamentally breaks from that model.
There’s an important disctinction that often gets lost in this debate.
In older ARPGs, RNG didnt block your ability to play the game.
You didn’t need specific items just to function. You could farm anywhere, kill anything, and any drop had the potential to be interesting. Loot could make your build better, faster, or stronger, but it usually didn’t decide whether your build worked at all.
Randomness and progression were mostly separate.
That’s no longer the case in Diablo 4.
In diablo 4, builds are defined by specific items, aspects, and affects. Miss one key piece and your build can fall apart. Because of that, the game can’t afford to leave core progression up to chance. It has to make sure you get what you need.
That’s why smart loot exists, why target farming exists, and why tempering and masterworking became deterministic. Diablo 4 is built around giving you the right pieces, not around hoping you stumble into them.
Another big difference is progression pacing.
In older Diablo games, like Diablo 2, each difficulty tier acted as a step forward. You’d farm one level of content, level up, improve your gear, then move onto the next. Random drops felt like bonuses along the way, not requirements you were stuck waiting on.
Diablo 4 flattens that structure. Once you hit level 60 and step into Torment 1, every piece of high end gear is already on the table. (pause) Higher difficulties just improve your odds at better versions of the same items, not entirely new layers of progression.
Because of that, randomness gets pushed to the very end of the item journey.
That’s where Sanctification comes in.
Sanctification is the final step. Once you apply it, the item is permanently locked. There’s no rerolling, no fixing it later, no adjusting around a bad outcome. It’s permanent.
So when randomness shows up here, players can’t interact with it or work around it. And that’s why it feels different from Classic Diablo RNG. Not more punishing just out of place in Diablo 4 specifically.
HOW THIS EVOLVED, AND WHY Path of Exile IS DIFFERENT
This also helps explain why games like Path of Exile handle RNG so differently.
In Path of Exile, both PoE 1 and PoE 2, gear is extremely random, but the game gives you tools to influence outcomes instead of promising results. You can reroll items, modify affixes, use different currencies, target certain bosses, or lean on crafting systems to improve your odds. None of that guarantees you get exactly what you want. It just lets you push probability in your favor.
That keeps randomness at the center of progression. You are rewarded for knowledge and effort, but there is always uncertainty. Even when you do everything right, the outcome is never locked in. That is the expectation PoE sets from the start.
Diablo 4 takes the opposite approach.
Over time, it teaches players that if they put in enough hours, they will get what they need. If an item does not drop, you can target farm it. If the roll is bad, you can fix it. If a system feels too punishing, it usually gets smoothed out. Eventually, most players get their builds working.
The one real exception is how far a build can push into The Pit. At that point, progression stops being about finding better items and becomes more about tuning, scaling, and balance rather than loot itself.
That is not a mistake. It is a deliberate design choice.
But once a game commits to that philosophy, a system like Sanctification stands out. It brings high stakes randomness back in at the very end, in a game that has otherwise trained players to expect control.
WHERE RNG STILL FEELS BAD
Even with smart loot and all the deterministic systems in place, some friction still slips through.
Amulets are the clearest example. For a lot of players, they’re still disproportionately painful to roll well, even compared to other slots that have improved over time.
When most of your gear feels reasonable to chase, the slot that doesn’t stands out immediately.
That feeds right back into the expectation problem.
When nine systems reliably move you forward, the tenth feels broken, not challenging.
WHY BOTH SIDES ARE STILL FRUSTRATED
This is why nobody really feels satisfied.
Players who enjoy RNG feel like the loot hunt has mostly disappeared. Too many rewards are predictable. Real chase moments are rare. When you know everything will eventually be handed to you, the excitement just is not there.
On the other side, players who prefer deterministic systems get frustrated when randomness blocks required power. Sanctification rolls feel less like tension and more like a setback, because the rest of the game trained them to expect control over their progression.
So you end up with the same system annoying two completely different groups, but for opposite reasons.
That is not a player problem.
That is a design contradiction.
Season 11 doesn’t change the debate, but it makes it more visible because Sanctification is the only major RNG system in the spotlight.
THE REAL ISSUE
The divide in the Diablo 4 player base isn’t about RNG versus no RNG.
It’s about whether the game guarantees results for your time, and how gear defines progression.
Diablo 4 makes this clear: you can’t reliably progress without the right items. Loot is abundant, and targeted farming makes it easier to eventually get what you need, but progression is still defined by gear. Specific builds require specific items to function, and the systems in the game have been designed to make sure you eventually get them.
Recent patches have reinforced this deterministic approach, shaping exactly what players expect from their time investment.
Sanctification is the final step in the item journey, where RNG decides whether your item is fully usable or not. That clash with the rest of the game is exactly what players are reacting to.
OUTRO
If Diablo 4 wants to bridge this divide, it doesn’t need to remove RNG or fully commit to determinism.
It just needs to be clear where each belongs.
Core progression should respect player time. Aspirational power can embrace uncertainty.
Until that line is drawn, systems like Sanctification will keep sparking arguments—not because players hate RNG, but because the game hasn’t clearly decided what it wants to be.
And that is the real issue.
I mean at least they are consistent with flip flopping.
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