Blizzard developers Colin (Systems and Combat Designer) and Zaven (Associate Game Director) joined Rob for another Diablo 4 interview. The team discussed everything from XP scaling and boss improvements, to the Tower mode and future endgame plans!
You can watch the complete interview on Rob’s YouTube channel:
However, if you just want a quick rundown of the key highlights, we’ve got you covered!
Leveling and Difficulty Rebalance
The developers acknowledged that early leveling (1-20) currently feels too fast, making the early-game power curve too flat. In Season 11, experience will be slowed slightly in the early levels, but much faster between 50-60. This way, progression should feel smoother and more rewarding.
The Campaign is not being nerfed, but other content, such as Whispers and Nightmare Dungeons, will be buffed to offer more XP. Even the Season Journey will now grant XP rewards alongside skill and Paragon points, opening more ways to level outside of the usual grinding.
Difficulty tiers (Normal, Hard, Expert, etc.) will scale XP more aggressively, giving better rewards for players who push harder content. Monster HP has also been significantly reduced, by as much as 60% around level 50.
Boss and Dungeon Reworks
Bosses and elite encounters are being completely reworked to feel faster and more engaging. Dungeon bosses will have around 60% less HP, and world bosses receive smaller (~10%) changes.
The goal is to have less tanky, but more dangerous enemies. Blizzard wants boss fights to feel intense and deadly without dragging on. Capstone bosses are also losing their resilience stat, making fights more dynamic.
Itemization, Enchanting, and Sanctification
Enchanting & Affixes
The expanded affix pool has made targeted crafting more frustrating, and Blizzard knows it. Cooldown Reduction (CDR) will now appear on gloves and rings, with the goal to make rerolling less punishing.
The devs emphasized a desire to “restore the crafting fantasy,” focusing on horizontal improvements, meaningful item changes, rather than just vertical stat upgrades.
Sanctification
Sanctification is intended to be a “final gamble” step, not a mandatory system. The indestructible outcome is being removed, replaced with something more useful.
Bad rolls will still exist on lower-tier gear, but high-end items will get less “bricked” results. The devs confirmed that post-Sanctification editing (like socketing or aspect changes) will not be possible, that is by design, in order to keep the system “exciting and dramatic“.
Stat Simplification: Toughness and Attack Power
Two major stat systems are getting changes in Season 11:
- Toughness is being added to simplify defensive scaling, avoiding confusing armor and resistance caps. The team also plans to improve UI feedback and may even add suggested toughness ratings per world tier.
- Attack Power will soon show raw weapon damage only, removing misleading or snapshot-based calculations.
These changes should make it easier for players to understand their actual combat power.
Tower Mode and Pit Overhaul
A highlight of the interview was the in-depth look at the Tower, Diablo 4’s new endgame activity that comes with the Leaderboards:
- The Tower will indeed have prestige cosmetics for top players
- Leaderboards will refresh every one to two weeks, with titles, halos, and milestone rewards for clearing tiers like 10, 50, or 100
- All leaderboard builds will be publicly viewable
Meanwhile, the Pit will remain the game’s chaotic sandbox. Blizzard confirmed that the XP issues seen in PTR were a bug, and Tower map tech will eventually be backported to improve the Pit’s layouts and reduce backtracking.
Expect more experimental content there in the future, like goblin-filled rifts, for example.
Class Balance and Gameplay Philosophy
Blizzard continues to refine its approach to balance, especially around snapshotting and power creep.
They want to remove Snapshotting (stacking temporary buffs through gear swaps) where possible, and move more towards duration-based buffs. Movement speed caps (currently 200%) are under review as well, they want to improve it.
After PTR feedback, Pit scaling will also be reduced by 5-10 tiers, so more builds can hit their intended power levels again.
The team confirmed that Sorcerers will remain fast, but overall speed farming will be better balanced.
Long-Term Plans and Quality of Life
The devs also shared several long-term goals and QoL improvements:
- Under Consideration or Planned
- Rebirth system to preserve original characters
- Stackable boss materials (as untradable currency)
- Clan improvements, especially tied to Tower progression
- Massive gold buff
- Loot filters and better map generation
- Not Planned (Yet)
- Auction house or player trading system
- DPS meters (Tower will serve as the performance benchmark)
- Post-Sanctification item editing
Teasers and What Is Next
The devs closed the interview with a hint:
“Everyone should be watching The Game Awards on December 11.“
That strongly suggests a major Diablo 4 reveal during the game awards, likely the next expansion or maybe the Paladin/Crusader class announcement.
They also noted that mechanics like Chaos Rifts and Chaos Armor could return in the future, but only if they fit the new itemization philosophy.
And finally, the team made one thing clear:
“There is a very long development ahead for Diablo 4.”
Blizzard is not slowing down, and Season 11 is only the beginning of a much bigger evolution for the game!
