TLDR 1 = Need way more storage space, would pay for it, and the ability to do so will dictate future engagement.
TLDR 2 = “Technical constraints” really only exist if the DB or UI code is bad and that is essentially a bug, and/or there could be workarounds. This is a design/business decision and I would love if someone made a different one. “TAKE MY MONEY.”
If you care about the rest of this explanation, since I wrote it:
I’ve done my first deep dive on D4 recently after smaller burst after launch and VoH drop mostly doing story. Too many things were wrong with the game at first, so had left, but enjoyed VoH/S6 play more so wanted to come back when I could for a more solid pass. Got back again in the last month and after some messing around on eternal decided to play s7 with necro (which snowballed into 4 necros to hold all my builds) and am now closing in on finishing off season journey in t4. The game still has many problems but at this point is fun enough to play more seriously.
That said my love of Diablo games (mostly 2 and 3, I only played immortal campaign), and A/RPGs more broadly comes from messing around and creating new/different characters and builds. Things are complex enough that I will look up some guides for reference and help sometimes, but I tend to roll my own to make interesting combinations. This is the main draw of the game to me. The problem is that time is finite and (for the most part, unless something is super bad/silly and I toss the build in the dumpster), I don’t like sinking time into things and then losing access to them later. There are too many games that will allow me to save the work I’ve put in and go back to it whenever when it seems like fun.
Before S7 play I had 2 of each class and 1 stash tab dedicated to each class. Space was tight but I had not collected enough gear to flesh out a ton of variants and/or with some classes there were not as many builds I was interested in trying out, so could kind of manage with a single tab. I chose necromancer for a deep dive party because of always liking them, but also because it had a lot more I wanted to try (many version of minions, bone, blood, dark, etc., trying to make use of various abilities and uniques at least once).
So, now I have 4 necros with their armories slowly getting fleshed out with every build I am interested in under 20 (and maybe a couple close variants if they can cohabitate), and eventually their gear. Some gear like uniques can sometimes be recycled, but between stat priority/GAs/crits and temper, the more a build progresses the more each loadout’s gear will be it’s own. This will then take up about 4 stash tabs. Once I get back to eternal with them I will be forced to essentially turn all these characters into mules just in order to not toss out all the work (and/or trash the other classes storage i their favor).
So, I would to need a lot more space if actually making use of any build variety and armory slots. Theoretically I could use more characters slots or build slots as well, but lets just start with what happens if actually using what exists as is, which is 14 characters x 5 build x (9-12) gear pieces each. Even ignoring all the other items that might need some shared space (e.g., runes) this is not even remotely possible.
Side note: While later on in D3 I split 50/50 between SC/HC this game has never been stable enough on client or server side to want to play HC, on top of having much greater penalty for death than D3 and way more one-shotting or lethal mechanics/ground effects that are hard to even see or react to in time. Even as I wrote this the battlenet service is down for some time after booting me out of the game, so just no thanks.
Way back I saw some claims about some wonky code around stash/storage being a blocker. I’m not sure if all of the original/old issues have been resolved around adding more stash, but often “technical limitations” get cited as a blocker for this rather than business decisions. While in the short term a tech problem is possible, in the long term that is nonsense and anyone who has worked as a coder or even plays other games do more more knows it. If a modern CPU is taxed by loading an inventory UI, that UI code is terribad, and if a server is choking on returning a database query for items (when the game also handled way more players near launch anyway), then those areas have some either have inefficient queries/db design or some major hosting problems. This issue is a design and/or business decision, not a technical limitation (of systems anyway, though maybe for specific coders it could be, or bad technical debt could block it temporarily).
Honestly the entire franchise after (old) Diablo 2 has always been weird about selling character slots/storage space. Then you could make infinite characters on one game license even if stuck with their own stash. D2R made the shared stash situation better but then put on an arbitrary character cap that can’t be expanded (though with no account-based systems it is a semi workaround to just buy another copy with a 2nd account - I have done this). D3 was mostly manageable in its design by the end, though had marginal issues and for some reason we were never allowed to buy anything more despite the feature existing in China (different business model, but clearly not a technical limitation). This maybe made more sense in a “no additional purchases” world but not in a live service/microtransaction one. There is no real solid ground for not doing it in D4, just stubbornness or tunnel vision on design choices.
Some other A/RPG games allow for way more space to be purchased, and this spans both freemium and B2P business models and set vs. randomized loot. It is a design decision not a technical limit, and for some reason Blizzard/Diablo has been very hostile toward more space being allowed despite creating multiple games that would call for more if actually exercising your character/build options. Adding things like gear tempering into the game only increases that storage need by specializing your gear for almost every build, so why on earth then constrain the storage space to a degree that you can’t play those builds, or you only can if you have some much time on your hands that you don’t care about deleting character/builds you worked on in order to have space for the next one. Modern item/loot design that is has also evolved in ways somewhat meant to (for better or worse) put the player in situation where they want/need more storage and then buy it. To keep that style of granular/specific itemization but then constrain the storage space is counterproductive to both player and business (and/or MEANT to make you waste massive time and keep up someone’s “engagement” numbers by having the only option to try something new being to delete the old/current, which is probably worse).
If this was more like D2R I could wait for a sale and just make a second account, but there is a lot more account-based progression/unlocks and account bound items these days, so it is not a great option and also not remotely a good one for most people.
There are many possible “fixes” to all this design-wise, but the easiest one is super simple: add stash tabs and sell them. Other possibilities/combinations enabling more builds include adding a single personal tab per character like in D2R (just this alone solves almost everything), more character slots, armory slots, combining armory with storage in creative ways, gem/rune storage (and letting armory swap gems around if available), loading builds (not equipment, but paragon/skills/etc) from templates, and more, but the super-simple braindead simple that resolve most of these issues are just more tabs and/or more characters.
I have zero issue paying for this privilege at any semi-normal rate seen in modern games. If the game is good enough to play more builds in, it is good enough to pay more money for. I’m not the only one like this and I’ve talked to people both in Diablo games and in other ones about this type of thing. Whether they get scared away over time by certain decisions is another story but there are at least SOME of us still around and probably more that show up any time there is an expansion or major changes.
Sticking around more in the long term will largely be dictated by whether continuing to play requires me to delete a bunch of previous work that I can then no longer switch back to without rebuilding. Barring absurd price tags, time is a much more valuable resource than money and that opportunity cost when there are other games out there that would let me experiment freely and come back to old playstyles and ideas whenever desired will outcompete the current state here.
The bright news is for anyone like me there is a super easy solution: add storage space and take my money.
Now hopefully in some anyone sees this and/or cares, but I’ve done my due diligence saying it. Cue a few forum troll types with the urge to exclaim their churn-and-burn is the “right” way to paly a game and why would you ever need more builds than a few meta ones, etc. I could not care less. Many-builds is how I play most RPGs. It has been since the time of OG D2. I am not alone, and people like me also tend to actually pay money. It’s just a question of whether modern-era Blizzard wants to earn money form that/us or not. I hope they do. If not I’ll even play within their confines, it will just be a lot less once I’ve filled up my stash space with the gear for any build I liked playing.
