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Diablo 4 - News Roundup

Diablo 4 has been doing the rounds recently with a number of outlets covering it to some degree.

The Blizzcon 2019 Demo

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DSOGaming shared some hi-def screenshots.

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Still, I'm certain that most Diablo fans will find these screenshots interesting. After all, these screenshots are artifact-free (something from which all YouTube videos/trailers suffer). So yeah, they can better showcase the game's graphics. Furthermore, some screenshots are in a 21:9 ratio. As such, we can safely assume that the game will support ultra widescreen monitors at launch.

JustPushStart had some small details on Diablo 4s loot system.

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During the Diablo IV revealed panel, a number of details were shared about the system. The most notable is that loot is based on a number of elements from Diablo II and III. These include, but are not limited to a wide variety of armor, weapons, jewelry, and potions, along with boasting the most legendary items in the franchise and new set items to collect.

Wccftech reports on the 100+ towns you will visit.

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We want to bring back this very very specific vibe that makes Diablo unique and it's not only about darkness, so this is very, very important for us because it impacts almost every layer of the game, every aspect. The first thing is the story. We want to make a much more grounded story [in Diablo IV] than in Diablo III. And we think that the best way to deliver this story is to give you a possibility to discover stories of simple folks and that's why you are watching this movie right now. So imagine this kind of village, this is just an example. It's not about this specific village, we have like over 100 villages or places like this.

OnlySP focused on Diablo 4s monsters and classes.

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Diablo IV will launch with five playable classes, with the first three revealed as the Barbarian, Sorceress, and Druid. The Barbarian utilises an arsenal system that allows them to switch between four different weapon types on the fly.

The Sorceress is described as "fragile but destructive," and can harness fire, cold, and lightning magic. Cold damage will also build up over time, which increases damage and affects more targets.

Thanks Farflame!

More information.

Crossing my fingers hoping the last two classes are the Paladin and the Assassin :)

The rumor says Paladin and Amazon, which is quite possible since their first three heroes are spellcasters and melee, so what's left is party captain and ranged.

My favorite classes are Barbarian and Paladin, so Im half happy. I suppose Paladin will be part of group at some point. It would be great though if they stopped making cashgrabbing DLCs and instead made real expansions for once. Of course, not gonna happen.

What I saw so far makes me interested and I actually look forward to Blizzard game, its long since that happened last time to me. Always online is nuisance from my point of view, but I can live with that, if done well. Of course servers will be down or unstable on release, so I suppose I will not go in day one.

I'm not really a fan of going back to gender locked classes. :/

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Originally Posted by SirJames (Post 1061586406)

I'm not really a fan of going back to gender locked classes. :/

Has this been confirmed somewhere? Sorry if it has, I saw they were saying it was still a long ways off, even for Blizzard's standards, so I haven't really been following news on this game much.

Being able to choose your character's gender was something I liked in Diablo III, along with the transmogrification system. Course, with the way Blizzard and much of the industry as whole has been going lately, I wouldn't be surprised to see these things added later as "micro"transactions. =/

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Originally Posted by Rhawkas (Post 1061586416)

I haven't heard anything solid, but, in the blizcon demo, there was no male option in character creation for "Sorceress".

Having classes done this way is in line with Diablo 2 and it's no secret they're copying Diablo 2, so I fear the worst.

But I would expect to see a transmog system because Blizzard has the data showing that almost all players make use of it in WoW and there's no way they'll be copying Diablo 2 for cosmetics!

As for DLC, my main concern is the Necromancer class.

The original D2 lineup was Paladin, Amazon, Necromancer, Barbarian and Sorceress with Druid and Assassin coming in the expansion, but with Druid already announced, along with the 5 hero lineup at launch, one of the two is going to get cut.

Necromancer has already been a DLC for Diablo3 and it would probably sell better than Amazon or Paladin. But Paladin didn't appear in Diablo 3 until the expansion, either, in the form of a Crusader, so they might follow the same release schedule for the sake of predicting sales.

It's all speculation, anyway. I don't believe Bliz has said specifically that they're only planning Diablo 2 classes but it does look that way.

They're definitely not gender locked. They demonstrated this with character customization - and made it clear that it was very early days, and only had a few options at this time.

But both Druid and Barbarian had female options, so obviously it will be available for all classes.

I'll eat a hat if I'm wrong.

I am sure Blizzard has learned their lessons from recent PR disasters so they are unlikely to gender lock classes as this issues can rile up all sort of different groups from those who cares about aesthetics to social justice types as well. If anything, I think we might even get more than 2 gender choices :biggrin:

after looking at gameplays a bit i'm even more pessimistic about this title : oversimplified gear "atk, def" looks like there is just "defence stat" no resistance, no armor, no absorption or other forms of mitigations. The passive tree looked small and quite bland as well and then i've seen MMO style bosses with timed respawns in areas crowded with players.
I don't know what it is but this isn't diablo anymore.

Wouldnt mind gender locked classes personally. While on Earth in 21st century its unthinkable, I dont think Sanctuary is on such level of emancipation just yet. So immersion breaking … :-D

I just saw these old D4 "leaks" from reddit. Few months old.

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Diablo II Remake/Remaster was planned, but they later realized that it would be much better to give the franchise a complete reset and put majority of the fans requests into 1 giant package.

The world of Sanctuary is MUCH MUCH MUCH larger than before due to the game going the MMO route. The space is necessary to accommodate the players.

A server will hold around 100 or so people at a time as of now.

You can trade items in the game with other players such as gold, basic crafting materials (special crafting materials are soulbound and cannot be sold) and any kind of loot ranging from grey quality and all the way up to rare yellows. Blizzard is not sure yet what to do with Legendary items/weapons yet and if they should be tradeable or not as far as the game's economy goes due to competitive fairness and end-game systems that have a lot of functionalities with the legendary loot.

Paladin, Barbarian, Sorcerer, Amazon and Druid are planned for launch with more coming later. Blizzard wants people to feel like this is Diablo II all over again but in a completely new era of the franchise. Blizzard were also debating whether to include the Druid or Necromancer class at launch of Diablo IV. Blizzard decided put the Druid for launch of Diablo IV and Necromancer for later, since the Necromancer was released already for Diablo III.

Diablo IV will be the new era for Diablo and will be a game as a service. New free content patches will come out that will add quality of life changes, new additions, items and so on. Paid expansions are also possible, but right now its still undecided and Blizzard won't know until the game is launched and until they see if its successful or not. They do not want to announce anything that's regarding to paid content until they are 100% sure of their plans and what they will be adding next post-launch.

Right now the goal is to get the game ready playable demo for Blizzcon's 2019 and of course all the marketing material as well. After that, it will be preparing for the beta in 2020 and then the release.

Release is being debated between late 2020 or early 2021 depending on how things go, but as of now it seems early 2021 is more likely. Will be coming to PC PlayStation 5 and Project Scarlett.

I thought they'd cut necromancer. :(

Amazon it is, then.

Oh well… I want my Assassin :(

I hope Paladin is included within the first 5 characters. That’s always my go-to archetype and not having one (or actually even a plate class) was one of the things that I really disliked about D3 at launch. Slapping plate on a barbarian just wasn’t the same and seemed weird. Actually all of the initial D3 classes seemed a little weird. Crusader and necro from later dlc were MUCH better.

What I didnt like in D3 was that you actually were not using your weapon, but skills instead. Weapon was just placeholder for passive equipment bonus, in similar way like rings or armor. Hope this changes with D4.

I hope that they won't screw up the game with the *Game as a Service* concept for it.
Blizzard likes to show up with weird stuff that can split up the playerbase, like the Auctionhouse in early D3.