Since before D4 released I was hoping it will eventually get to the point of having all of sanctuary, we’ll get a lot of expansion and that maybe with the exception of Duriel and Andy, all Evils will get an expansion centered around them or will have some story content related to them. My hopes were especially high for Belial. I know D3 didn’t exactly show his potential, which is why I hoped D4 would do that.
I mean imagine the storytelling potential, the potential for an amazing expansion story campaign (assuming good writing). He’s The Lord of Lies. A story full of plot twists, mystery, mistrust, manipulation and illusion.
And also this kinda gave me a feeling that the potential scope of D4 is now pretty low, because at this rate we’ll be out of big bad boys to fight by the 3rd expansion, if we’ll even get there.
I was hoping for all evils to have big story presence, ideally for an expansion dedicated to… at lest each of the prime evils, and maybe 1 combined for all the lesser evils, an expansion centered around heaven and maybe Imperius invading us. But well, that’s a different discussion.
we dont know the seasonal story yet. all we know is that hes a boss that joins the boss ladder.
Just like andariel, who has her story.
Only boss i feel they did a little dirty was duriel.
It does say Belial makes his first bid for sanctuary. Suggesting he will make another. I’m thinking all the evils will make appearances in campaign storylines.
hm could be. As of now id assume he gets his story for s8. But you might be right, they indeed said “first bid for sanctuary”. It could imply that there might be some more to him.
All the seasonal stuff gets retconned into the game anyways like the malignant monsters randomly spawning and dropping hearts.
So you wanted to pay for a Belial expansion and we get Belial on Season for free
Duriel was exactly the same as in D2, the only diff is that in D2 he rapes you 0.0001 seconds after you see him, here its a joke in the story.
hmm im not 100% sure, but i think there was a bit more lore in d2 regarding duriel hanging in tal rashas tomb no? its been a while really ^^
No, 0 lore, you go searching for Baal and then you find the worm
yea just double checked, just some deckard cain mentions:
“Duriel is the twin of Andariel. I believe that they conspired together to assist Diablo in releasing Mephisto and Baal, though they had both supported the Lesser Evils in the past. The Lord of Pain was found guarding Baal’s prison — the tomb of Tal Rasha — when he was slain by heroes.”
The rate of expansions is too slow for this - and IMO even if they’d kept to the 1/year goal, it wouldn’t be a good idea for “all” Evils to have their own expansion. Two a year? Maybe. Stuffing them with enough “expansion-worthy” stuff to justify the price is difficult.
I still don’t think they’re creative enough & supported well enough for that rate of development. They’re not NetEase 
and they’re dealing with a product that’s too buggy & too technically difficult for them (apparently) to work with.
That said: D3 gave Belial an entire Act, and spun a fairly cohesive (& a somewhat edgy, considering it’s a child) story around him. Not great writing or direction - but the idea was memorable. As for the boss fight itself, maybe gimmicky, but it definitely punished my noob characters in a way no other boss did (gd random double-slams + meteors). He was also conveniently placed - back when bounties were relevant, you tried to always do Belial for that reason. Idk, they tried with that one.
Andy might’ve deserved more than she got in D4 (her campaign cameo was cool, but the fight was an afterthought… and her uber form is just silly, like most of the ubers). But in D2 she was an Act boss, and I think it suited her well. Duriel was a sillier Act boss, but still memorable (gd demonic Holy Freeze aura, tiny arena… aaaaaahhh!).
Really sad
Do you need a hug? 
Trolling because nothing interesting or clever ever comes to mind.
Belial might be a recurring seasonal story driver. Imagine if he reappears every other season with some new plot to overthrow or decive Sanctuary. After a few seasonal appearances, we get some big seasonal plot to “finally” defeat him.
Could be a good storytelling device within the season framework, and allow for recurring NPCs.
I think they needed to meet OP’s complaint halfway, in this sense: the previous game made a whole soap opera around Belial.
Oh wait… we fought D4 Belial in the campaign, no? This is incorrect… it was Duriel. Doesn’t matter because he was on screen for 5 seconds & for no reason whatsoever. And he was basically a normal mob - no wonder I almost forgot about him. Lmao, nvm, this studio is winging it the whole way apparently.
OP forget it. You’ll get random detritus, and you’ll like it. Ignore the name, ignore the lore, ignore cohesion - this is sandbox mode, by a studio that has more money than it knows what to do with, but they have a mandate from the board to make the margins bigger & to just keep the sludge flowing out of the pipe & the guppies nipping at it.
This team has done worse jobs, Duriel is thrown into the campaign as an elite. Involvement is not their strong point.
I would wait for the Season questline. This is where he is gonna “drop”. Yeah you can get his “mini mes” out in the wild but they will give you a Belial (low health) for the questline. Seen it in a few seasons, they did it with Varshan and others when they “introduced” them.
Duriel now is a joke. My minions basically 1 shot him on T4. Duriel in other Diablo games was much much worse.
Yup. Andariel was at least in the campaign.
Duriel has no story.
As far as Belial, he may appear now as a pop-up boss, but in S9 I bet he appears as a permanent ladder boss.
The only other Diablo game that Duriel was in is Diablo 2.
And the ONLY reason he was dangerous there was the long loading time. You’d zone in, and the boss would start attacking you prior to loading.