The Diablo 4 open beta period has ended, and players were given a taste of what they can expect in the full release of the game. While Blizzard has been sharing more information about certain systems through periodic developer livestreams and videos, not much has been revealed about the end-game, if certain game modes will be making a return, or even whether certain features from previous games will return to help add more depth to general gameplay and character builds.
Here are some things we would like to see potentially make a return in Diablo 4.
Adventure Mode
Adventure Mode was an optional game mode available in Diablo 3. This mode allowed players to skip the story and dive right into the action and tackle different quests set in the different locales available to the game’s main campaign. Objectives included defeating major story bosses, killing a set amount of enemies in a specific dungeon, opening curses chests, and more. Completing the objectives would net players experience, gold, and special chests when clearing all designated quests in an area.
These chests would drop recipes for Legendary gear and Set pieces, which incentivized tackling these objectives before heading into other end-game content like Nephalem Rifts. While engrossing, not everyone is interested in the narrative the Diablo games have provided for well over a decade, and an Adventure Mode is more than appealing for those that simply just want to play the game and not be barred by story progression.
Given Diablo 4’s pivot to being more like an MMO, perhaps Blizzard will hand out story skips through its battle pass or other avenues if Adventure Mode doesn’t make a return.
Return of the Crusader or Paladin
While offering a decent roster of playable classes with the Rogue, Barbarian, Druid, Necromancer, and Sorcerer available to choose from, Diablo 4 is sorely missing the Crusader or Paladin. Unlike the Barbarian or Druid, the Crusader and Paladin fill a unique niche as a warrior-type class that utilizes a range of holy magic, capable of tanking absurd amounts of damage while also providing valuable buffs to party members.
While this may sound similar to what the Druid can offer, and to some extent, the Barbarian, both the Crusader and Paladin were more or less powerhouses in this regard to being one of the tankiest classes available in the Diablo series as whole, while still capable of doing large amounts of damage. Overall, it was a nice hybrid that never felt weak if you chose to favor one type of build over the other. It would also add more variety in general in terms of what more melee-focused classes could offer, providing a nice middle ground between a solid DPS and a tank.
Rifts and Greater Rifts
Nephalem Rifts and Greater Rifts were introduced in Diablo 3 as content that appeared in its Reaper of Souls expansion. These seemingly endless procedural dungeons may not have the same attention to detail as the ones in Diablo 4, but were a great source of end-game content. Rifts allowed players to farm Legendary items and Set pieces consistently, with Greater Rifts more or less a “high risk, high reward” version of the standard Nephalem Rifts.
The core gameplay loop of the Rifts features players fighting waves of enemies in order to spawn a “super boss” of sorts, that when defeated would reward players with gear and unique gems for their gear and end-game builds. While we don’t know what Diablo 4’s end game looks like right now, Nephalem Rifts were a great way to not only obtain highly coveted Set pieces and Legendaries but allowed players to test out builds against hordes of enemies, which in turn would shape the meta for seasonal content.
Runes
As introduced in Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction, runes are a unique type of socketable item that are different from gems. While gems allow for passive upgrades to stats such as increased barrier potency or damage to Elite enemies, runes could change entire builds.
By combining runes on pieces of armor to create rune words, players could add more than one incremental stat change. These words would effectively generate Legendary passives onto items such as creating a Nova when killing an enemy or even generating Charged Bolts or Frozen Orbs when striking. While this could create passive skill bloat given Diablo 4’s Aspects effectively serve this function, seeing runes and rune words come back would be interesting — mostly because it would give players an even greater way to customize their builds to create something wholly unique.
Free Respecing
While not the most well-regarded of the Diablo games, Diablo 3 allowed players to change their builds at a whim and for no cost. Diablo 4 will require players to spend gold in order to change their skills and accompanying passives. This didn’t cost an obscene amount during the open beta period, but it can quickly add up. Especially since removing and applying Aspects to weapons and armor can also get pretty expensive.
Forcing players to spend gold to respec feels like a way to keep the grind going, but could be counterintuitive to finding new builds. And Potentially leaving experimentation to players who have massive quantities of gold could alienate more casual players. While it seems like Blizzard has made up its mind regarding whether or not this feature will come at no cost, it would be interesting to see them potentially walk back on this in the future if reception is less than favorable.
Pets and Companions
Pets in Diablo 3 were unobtrusive, if not immersion-breaking, companions that would run out and collect gold for you. This meant you wouldn’t need to run your character over or around gold in order to pick it up. It’s more or less a modern convenience that isn’t required for the overall game experience but is something of a smaller quality-of-life feature that was surprisingly missing in the Diablo 4 beta.
Since Diablo 2, players could recruit NPC companions to join them as they explored the world of Sanctuary. Diablo 3 allowed players to pick from a total of three different companions — the Templar, Enchantress, and Scoundrel — that you could choose to build in a few different ways depending on what skills you picked for them and what gear you equipped them with. Since Diablo 4 is leaning towards a more open world and MMO-lite experience, it wouldn’t be surprising if companions didn’t make a comeback.
The Return of the Angiris Council
With Diablo 2’s Andariel returning in Diablo 4, it isn’t out of the question that major characters from previous Diablo games could potentially make a return — either as bosses or major characters in the narrative. The conflict between Inarius and Lilith could see members of the Angiris Council return, which would lead to more elaboration on the leaders of the High Heavens. While players were given a taste of these stories in Diablo 3 (where Lilith and Inarus’ relationship and subsequent creation of Sanctuary were very briefly elaborated on) and its expansion Reaper of Souls, Diablo 4 has the chance to elaborate on the inner workings of the council itself. And maybe even allow characters like Imperius or other members of the council to make an appearance after the open-ended nature of how that particular narrative wrapped up. Either way, it would be great to see more lore about the High Heavens appear in Diablo 4, especially since one of the game’s key figures used to reside there.
These are just a few things we’d like to see make a return in Diablo 4 after our extensive time in the open beta period. Let us know in the comments what you’d like to see come back in Diablo 4.
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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