Remove all ads & support the site - Go PurePremium!

Diablo 4 Classes and Choices – Are they Getting it Right?

Diablo 4 Classes and Choices

This past week we got a barrage of updates from the IGN interviews with Joe Shely and Rod Fergusson.  Today I’m going to discuss the Diablo 4 classes and choices video.

Classes play a major part in how we as players interact with the game as a whole and directly impacts our desire to play the game. For any new readers, I prefer hardcore with many self-imposed limitations, often through tournaments hosted in the SPF here on PureDiablo.  So, when I hear them talking about choices and abilities that can vary wildly within your class depending on your loadouts, I get extremely excited.

Passives can diversify build without additional complexity

Just before the 4:00 minute mark, Rod explains the complexity that goes into passives and some of their abilities that cause triggers to occur for players’ skills.  The team decided to focus on increasing the complexity on a fundamental level, not by having more skills to actively use.

I’ll be honest.  I love the MA assassin, but it is a mind-numbing character to play for a long time due to the excessive number of keys I’m pressing to do simple things.  I think 6 fits.  It feels good because on top of that we know we have a dodge key (probably space bar) and a potion key at least.  That gives us 8 keys during combat at a minimum to press, not including actively moving around to avoid damage.

Over the next few minutes, both of them are covering the skill tree, and although I’m not a huge fan of the way it looks, a keyword search can really help.  They mentioned they don’t have pre-requisite skills like Diablo 2, but have to place a number of points in total to access a new tier.

Diablo 4 Classes Skills Tree

They introduced a search bar so players can find skills that synergize with others in different ways.  This provides a lot more depth, and as Rod stated, allows a player to find what they are looking for without leaving the game to read reference material online. My question is, how open is it and does certain skills work better with certain damage or weapon types?  We’ll have to wait for another video or an item content update to see how diverse it is.

Refunding skill points?  Nah

Around the 9:30 mark, Rod throws Diablo 3 under the bus. Big time.  It was glorious adding,  “Once you get to a certain point, the difference between one build and another is, I have to go change my clothes.”  Hot damn.  Rod, you are the anti-Diablo 3 spirit animal to me now.

That statement was so on point about Diablo 3 and its lackluster variety or attachment to a character that it will forever be etched in our minds.

Your build is defined by your choices in point placement and that also becomes more expensive as you level up.  This allows the tree to feel more organic and specific to your character, so you’re not like every other class.  Granted, later on, you’ll probably be able to afford to refund all points often, but it may be also a system that increases greatly.

Respec-Points-Click

Hopefully, Paragon boards don’t allow refunds at all, since they didn’t say if they did or not.  Maybe until 20% of the maximum points are gained you can refund them?  I’d say when you get a new board you can mess with it a couple of times before some choices are locked in or just become too expensive to want to do it often. With any luck, this will be fleshed out so it feels right.  Diablo 2 gives you a couple of chances without having to go grind to make another, but isn’t that part of the fun in Diablo?  Making a new toon using and doing the journey in a new way?

+Skill levels and access to some skills earlier than usual?  Awesome!

This is what I want to see.  As shown in this Diablo 4 classes and choices video,  the skills tend to have a level 5 cap in points.  I think that should be 10 maybe, depending on the total points a player can place.  Is +skills a major boon?  Is there going to be tiers of bonuses like in Diablo 2?  Hit that level 7 and 8 goes up more exponentially?

I sure hope so.  That would mean more desire to focus on the perfect equipment than just oh, this is level 70 and provides more of a boost than the previous.  This item provides +2 skills to my main damage dealer and that provides more of a bonus than all the other modifiers I can find, so I need those on an item with other mods.  I’m excited about that if that is how it is.

Wrapping this week’s article up, I’m excited to find out the full release date, and hopefully April as I predicted in the last podcast I was on.  Unfortunately, until we are in the open beta with the community as a whole won’t know if that is a good date.  Here’s to  getting something in the next few months after this end-game beta wraps up on the 18th and an open beta right after the 2023 hits.

For everything on Diablo 4, head to The Diablo 4 Wiki


Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
0
Share your thoughts Nephalem.x
()
x