It's been years since the Devil visited the consoles and the public. From the release of Diablo 3 in 2012, the word is spreading that it's only a matter of time when the devil will return for Diablo 4. After years of lurking in the dark, the devil is back and everyone has since been dying to know more about the series and its comeback.
Blizzard, the game creator, announced in BlizzCon 2019 that there would really be Diablo 4, confirming the open secret of the return of the Devil. The game director, Luis Barriga, however, explains that the game will surely take some time in development and that it would not be released soon.
BlizzConline will be on February 19 and 20, 2021 and it is expected that more of Diablo 4 will be announced or at least previewed in the first online conference of Blizzard. Although no guarantees, it gives Blizzard the best chance to give more clarity for Diablo 4.
Diablo 4 is a role-playing game that will see Lilith, daughter of the Lord of Hatred, returning to the Sanctuary. Diablo IV will also be more player-friendly with its open-world map and non-linear campaign wherein three of the five customizable classes have already been announced.
With PS5 and Xbox Series X released last year, it provides an expansion of which console can host Diablo IV from PS4, Xbox One, and PCs.
Diablo 4 Trailer
It is, indeed, one hell of a trailer to introduce Diablo 4 to everyone. A deeper and darker design of the game is presented in the trailer. Considering the story and the loot about to unravel, great stuff waits for players as druids are getting a comeback and the horses one can mount on.
Grave robbers and treasure hunters unintentionally and accidentally bringing back to life the greatest evil, just how better off the world could have been without them. Then again, they're resurrecting it to be Diablo 4, it's still a win-win!
Diablo 4 Classes
Diablo 4 will be having five starting categories and three were already revealed and confirmed: the Barbarian, the Sorceress, and the Druid.
The Barbarian class is just as its namesake: weapons sharp and blunt that are effectively tactless and brute. A wave of energy damaging surrounding enemies and buff attacks covering the barbarian in flaming runes are just some of the special abilities of this class.
The Sorceress attacks with projectile: fireballs, icy arrows, and bolts of lightning. With enchanting skills from a unique enchantment system, passive moves of the sorceress can be aggressive is used properly.
The Druid are having their comeback with a new design and set of skills. In addition to the fire magic, storm, and earth magic, the druids also have shape-shifting allowing them to appear human, werewolf, and werebear.
Diablo 4 New Stats
Diablo 4 will be having three new stats namely Angelic Power for an increase in all beneficial effects such as self-buffs or healing, Demonic Power for addition in the duration of negative effects such as debuffs or damage, and Ancestral Power for a plus on the chance of on-hit effects such as increased proc chance.
Diablo 4 Item Change
The creators of the game would focus on strengthening class identities, deeper customization, and depth of the game as they aim to give more things to discover and ways to build a class. There would also be additions in weapon speed and physical characteristics for all types of items.
Blizzard envisions the game to give more flexibility to players. They hope to increase the potential power of affixes on magic, rare, and better items in the endgame and the legendary affixes would now be rolling randomly. Unique items will also replace mythics.
No mare ancient items as well. This would allow players to, essentially, make their own ancient items. With this, the game creator hopes to encourage a more personal and unique style of the game where players earn consumables that could give them a DIY on their affixes.
Diablo 4 Farewell to Inventory Tetris
There would be no more shuffling around the inventory to make shapes and sizes work to give space for one more loot, no more limits on the inventory space as it interrupts the gameplay just to manage the inventory.
Diablo 4 Monsters are now "Families"
Monsters will now belong to families of the same fighting style. Blizzard already revealed three families so far: Cultists, Drowned, and Cannibal. So far, no ranged family of monsters is in the works as they are intentionally designed to be melee type.
For the Cannibal Family, there would be two standard melee fighters: one with a two-handed greatsword cleaver and one with the lightweight halberd. The bruiser will use a spiked-club for damage and stun, while swarmers will use dual-wield axes.
Diablo 4 Lilith and other returning characters
Lilith will be back as the main antagonist and she is also called as 'Mother of Misery,' 'Queen of the Succubi,' 'Mother of Deceit,' and 'Mistress of Betrayal.' With a creatively animated cinematic backstory as provided for in the trailer, this is, by far, the best look Lilith donned since her appearance in Diablo 2.
It is also confirmed that a lot of previous characters will be returning with a redesign of their appearances. Beloved characters from previous Diablo games would be present in the game with an all-new improved interface in the game.
Diablo 4: An Always-Online Shared World
Embracing more of its MMO side, the internet will be heavily relied upon by players to enable them to play together in this online shared-world. Although not a full-blown MMO, it will still have similar features to incorporate the shared world.
Though some details are still in the works, Blizzard said that they are looking for a way to make this possible without having to compromise the goal of bringing the Diablo 2-like darker atmosphere. Blizzard also envisions cross-play for Diablo 4.
Diablo 4 Skill Tree
It would be divided into passive and active skills. Passive skills can now be unlocked from the rooms and the active skills can be through the branches. A whole different system of "upgrade nodes" will be placed on the tree as well which enables new functionality for powering up existing skills. Square nodes unlock new skills and circle nodes do the upgrading.
Diablo 4 PvP
Blizzard confirmed that Diablo 4 will have PvP which they are improving on as to how they would balance the PvP experience without affecting the PvE players. To date, Blizzard Is looking into having specified areas where players can choose PvP. The goal is to achieve the perfect balance of a mixed PvE and PvP experience.
Diablo 4 Release Date
No, there is no release date yet for Diablo 4, only a confirmation that it will be coming soon. With no exact release date yet, this gives Blizzard the time to perfect the gameplay and work on the things they plan to improve for the game.
Considering that the pandemic took away precious time for almost everyone, it is not as realistic to hope for the release of Diablo 4 in 2021. It takes years to create a sequel of a game like Diablo and using the release of Diablo 3 as a reference, it took four years for the creators to launch the game after its announcement.
Hopes are still high for Diablo 4 and it would be one hell of a wait but it will sure give us one hell of a game.
Related: Blizzard Shares Hopeful Diablo 4 Update
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