Diablo 4 is the next entry in Blizzard’s iconic and highly influential RPG series. While each Diablo game has had its own impact on the industry at large — with Diablo 2 popularizing the genre abroad, and Diablo 3’s real money marketplace not forgotten — Diablo 4 moves towards modernization.
Adopting mechanics found in MMORPGs, the world of Sanctuary has changed in some surprising ways. While Blizzard has shown off World Event Quests and World Bosses that feel oddly similar to Smilegate’s Lost Ark, the developer has gone a step further to change how some pivotal systems in the series work. And some of these quality-of-life improvements have perhaps made the biggest splash in how players can approach their endgame builds.
Here are some of the most significant changes we’ve found in our hands-on experience with the Diablo 4 beta.
Socketing Items Is No Longer Randomized
No longer do players need to rely on RNG to add sockets to their Rare or Legendary items. Instead, with the right amount of gold and materials, the Occultist can add sockets to your weapons, armor, and accessories.
Before, players would need to re-roll one of the stats on an item for a chance at obtaining another gem socket. Those unfamiliar with the Diablo series may be wondering why this is such a huge quality-of-life improvement, but gems allow players to add a specific increased stat to an item based on the gem they are socketing in. Players can stack these stats through multiple gems put into multiple pieces of gear, which result in min-maxing stats for true endgame builds. Now that this element is no longer entirely random, players can immediately work on crunching those numbers and working towards their endgame build of choice.
Removing and Applying Aspects
This is where the meat of some of Diablo 4’s core systems lie. Aspects are attributes applied to Legendary items that can grant passive abilities in a way that can change the way you play the game. For example, specific Aspects will increase the damage or even the rank of a specific skill while others will generate unique effects for each of the respective character classes.
This is fairly stock and standard in Diablo, but what makes it unique in Diablo 4 is the ability to remove and apply Aspects with ease. Talking with the Occultists will allow for players to apply Aspects to Rare or Legendary items with gold and other specific materials. This means the passive you love on a Legendary item won’t go to waste once a better piece of gear drops, which eliminates a level of randomness found in previous games.
It makes creating builds a lot easier, assuming you have good luck and get what you want, and encourages players to run dungeons and obtain guaranteed class specific Aspects as well.
Upgrading Items
Items can be further enhanced in Diablo 4, empowering already great pieces of gear for that extra edge. While finding better items through slaying swaths of enemies is still the best way to obtain highly coveted Legendary and Rare items, players can now boost the stats of their gear through the upgrade system.
It only costs a bit of gold and can give you that slight stat boost to keep your weapons relevant as you progress through the game — this is particularly great for players who find themselves attached to a certain item and want to hold off on swapping out a Legendary for a Rare item with only significantly better stats.
Standardized Cosmetic System
A true cosmetic system has finally appeared in Diablo 4, one that eclipses the cumbersome system that was available in Diablo 3. Instead of needing to run back to town to transmogrify any shiny new piece of gear that drops on the ground, you can effectively create sets out of armor and weapons you’ve salvaged at the blacksmith that will override any item you slap on. Additionally, players can dye these individual pieces of armor free of charge, with the first outfit slot also free.
Players will need to buy additional slots, but this is a huge step up from what appeared in Diablo 3, and will always have you looking your best as you take on the minions of Hell.
Timed World Bosses
Players had their first taste of Diablo 4’s world bosses with Ashava, a massive, grotesque demon with scythes for hands, and it is a promising look of what’s to come. Like more modern, online ARPGs, Diablo 4 has added World Bosses into the game. These fearsome beasts take groups of players to destroy through intense concentration and cooperation. Utterly massive, these bosses are a true test of reflexes, requiring players to be on it and dodge out of devastating attacks and plunge back into the fray at their own discretion.
What makes these encounters so tense is that they are timed. Players only have fifteen minutes to defeat the World Boss, but upon doing so they will be rewarded a plethora of Legendary items, making these encounters the best way to gear up. And it’s great feeling a true sense of collaboration with others as well!
World Event Quests
As Diablo 4 embraces the MMO-lite formula that permeates its new systems, World Event Quests are an exciting new addition to the game. While Diablo 3 did have something similar in its Adventure Mode that allowed for players to enter randomly spawned dungeons at the behest of errant NPCs, Diablo 4 takes this in a broader direction.
World Event Quests can either be triggered or appear at random throughout the world, each having its own objective players must complete in order to receive generous rewards. This can range from protecting a caravan under siege by demons, fighting off waves of enemies before a specific amount of time runs out, or even defeating foes on specific tiles to feed blood to a dubious altar. These almost always spawn Rare enemies, which in turn can drop Rare or Legendary gear. It’s a great way to keep players invested in the game while they move between story objectives or dungeons.
More Cinematic Cutscenes
While the Diablo series has no shortage of visually impressive cutscenes, especially for the time period in which each respective game was released, Diablo 4 has a surprising number of beautifully rendered in-game cutscenes. Unlike Diablo 3, where most of the story was told through stylized motion graphics, or the scant but effective cinematics found in Diablo 2, Diablo 4’s cutscenes makes players feel more involved in the action through having a fully voiced and animated character in these scenes.
Instead of mostly relegating character interaction through one-sided conversation, players feel more like active participants this time around in the events that transpire in the war between Lilith and Inarus. One scene that specifically held my attention was Lilith coming face to face with Rathma — a deeply important figure to the world of Diablo — and her relationship with this pivotal figure as her son.
A Standard Dodge Being Available to All Classes
Perhaps one of the most significant gameplay changes to Diablo 4 is the addition of a standard dodge to all character classes. While this doesn’t sound like a huge change, players will no longer need to wait to unlock a dodge or dash, or dedicate space on their hotbar or ability points to use one. Instead, everyone is given a single dodge which evens the playing field when it comes to overall maneuverability.
Sorcerers no longer feel sluggish compared to the more dexterous Rogue. Even the burlish Barbarian feels infinitely more agile this time around, putting it on even playing grounds with the other classes. This dodge can be used in tandem with actual movement abilities like Dash, Teleport, and Leap, opening up more invincibility frames for players to use to the best of their ability as they dodge waves of devastating attacks thrown their way.
These are just some of the biggest changes we found in Diablo 4 during its beta period, but we’re almost certain that there will be even more once the game releases in full. Let us know in the comments what your favorite changes to Diablo 4 have been.
Performing odd jobs around all sectors of the industry ranging from translation, narrative design, and consultation, Kazuma spends his time playing a variety of games ranging from farming simulators to classic CRPGs. In his spare time he speedruns games from the Resident Evil series as a VTuber on his Twitch channel, and raids with friends in Final Fantasy XIV and Lost Ark. You can find him on Twitter at @JusticeKazzy_.
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