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Starym

Updated Version of Everything We Know About Diablo 4 So Far

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As 2020 approaches and we're set to receive the next big D4 update in February, we thought we'd update our massive post with all the info from after the BlizzCon announcement with everything that's recently been said about the game, from the official systems blogs, new interviews and more. The new additions are marked with (Updated) and each has a source attached if you want to read more on the subject, or just head to the bottom of the article for a list of the most relevant full posts on the game.

 Table of contents

It's also very important to note that a lot of the things listed below are just the way things are now and the developers want as much feedback on them as possible so they can adjust them to better fit the community. But before we start, we can't waste an opportunity to re-post the impressive opening cinematic.


 Itemization

  • Affixes (full list from the demo, including legendary ones)
    • (Updated) There will be more affixes on each individual item, including magic items and rares (source)
    • (Updated) 3 new affixes (source?
      • Angelic Power, which increases the duration of all beneficial effects (like self-buffs or healing)
      • Demonic Power, which increases the duration of all negative effects (like debuffs or damage over time)
      • Ancestral Power, which increases the chance of on-hit effects (aka increased proc chance)
      • The three Affixes above are also prerequisites for certain affixes, ie you'll need x Angelic/Demonic/Ancestral power for a specific affix on an item to "turn on":
        CO8WLPEGYHLM1575335678970.jpg
      • Each affix is linked to a set of other affixes so you'll be able to choose which type you want to unlock by focusing on either Angelic/Demonic/Ancestral power
         
  • Only 2 base stats: Attack and Defense (instead of Str, Dex, Int Vit etc.)
    • (Updated) Attack will only be on weapons, Defense on armor and neither will be on jewelry (source)
    • + to skill and talent affixes will be very important
    • Many returning and new ones
    • Gold/item find and similar utility affixes won't compete with combat-affecting ones
    • We might be able to customize affixes, they're not really sure how yet, presumably through crafting
       
  • Legendaries
    • (Updated) Ancient items have been removed (source)
    • (Updated) There will be a special new item, similar to Ramaladni's Gift from D3 that will be able to imbue a rare quality item with a legendary power (source)
      • This will make rares much more important in the endgame, as any of them can be turned into a legendary
    • They are the focal point of gearing
    • More legendaries than ever before (hundreds)
    • Not going the huge 300-40,000% buff route
    • 5 types of legendaries so far- skill specific, skill category specific, +x to multiple skills or talents, talent specific, non-class specific,
    • You can stack several legendary powers that affect 1 skill
    • They won't drop as much as in D3
    • Drop rates will not be modified as you get farther into endgame (possibly one drop rate while leveling and another at max, but that's it)
       
  • Sets
    • Won't be as powerful as in D3
    • They will be more introductory items
      • They will be more easily acquirable than a full suite of legendaries (perhaps given through a series of quests?)
    • Heavily class themed, to get you a better feel for the class before you move on to specific builds through legendaries
    • Can be ancient, as in D3
       
  • Mythic items are the best in the game
    • You can only equip 1
    • They have 4 legendary affixes
    • Unclear whether they have existing legendary powers or unique mythic only ones

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  • Runewords
      • Only 2 word combinations
      • Condition and effect runes
        • Conditions we saw: drinking a potion, stunning an enemy, critting, freezing an enemy, when a pet dies, if you stand still for 3 seconds, when you are stunned or frozen
        • Effects we saw: 50% extra crit damage for 7 seconds, 15% reduced cooldown to random skill, random shrine effect for 7 seconds, next thorns hit deals 30% more damage, gain a 500 damage barrier
      • Might have a progression system, probably similar to the one D3 had before release (you can see all the numbers in the rune UI are highlighted yellow, indicating they might change if the rune is leveled or upgraded or similar, just like it was in D3)
    • Gems
      • Only have utility stats (gold/item find and similar)
    • Trading
      • No Auction House
      • The primary source of items should be killing monsters
      • 3 types of items
        • Tradable all the time (consumables, crafting mats), tradable once and then bound, and non tradable.
      • The most powerful items will not be tradable
      • If an item drops for you only you will see it
        • If you drop an item only those in your party will see it
    • Crafting
      • Will mostly focus around item modification and enhancement
      • A lot of the endgame will be item modification
    • You can get more powerful versions of all items even when you're in the endgame (not quite sure what this means, possibly alluding to the ancient legendary system coming back - hopefully it isn't an item level type system)
    • Gambling for gold is back
      • You can get some of the most powerful items in the game through it
    • Shoulder slot item is gone for now
    • All the best items will be available to everyone, regardless if playing solo or group
    • Transmogrification will probably return

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     Skills

    • (Updated) We will get 1 OR MORE skill points per level
    • Cannot be respecced
    • Skill tomes will drop/"be acquired in the world"
    • Skills have 15 ranks
      • There are skill rank thresholds that will add new functionality or buff the skill in some way (adding unstoppable (immune to crowd control) to it, increasing shout radius etc.)
    • There are 25-26 individual skills for each character
    • Skills are split into 6 categories for each class
      • Generally they are: Generators, Spenders, Defensive, class specific (Wrath for druid, Conjuration for sorc, Brawling for Barb), Mastery (which is Companion for druid) and Ultimate
    • "Elective Mode" from D3 is on by default, aka you can bind any skill to any hotkey

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     Talents

    • A talent tree with either 2 or 3 branches
    • Can be respecced for free or a low cost
    • Each class has something special about it (sorc has 3 branches, druid can hop from one branch to another)
    • Relatively small % buffs per point
    • Can only pick one of two talents at the bottom of each tree
    • Buffs to talent points from items will add to your progress in a particular branch and can go beyond the maximum ranks listed

    OLSA844LMZO51572717239192.gif

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     The Endgame

    • Key dungeons are the primary endgame activity
      • You will get random keys dropped in various activities
      • The keys will be to a specific dungeon in the world
      • Keys will upgrade the dungeon to a much harder endgame one, which will scale up even in the endgame
      • Keys also have specific affixes that change how the dungeon works
        • Affixes can affect the player, enemies or environment
          • A giant indestructible stone pillar spawns, shooting lightning all around it, following the player throughout the dungeon
          • All enemies are invisible unless they're in combat
          • Double bosses in the dungeon
      • They offer a better chance of setup than Greater Rifts, as you'll probably know what type of enemies are in the dungeon you got your key for, as well as the affixes on the key and how the dungeon will change
      • Many keys will drop, you can dismantle them as well for crafting mats

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     World and Campaign

    • Campaign
      • (Updated) The story of Diablo 4 is just like "the first chapter in a book, meaning there are very big plans for the larger narrative after the game's story ends (source)
      • (Updated) Rathma is in fact, the bald summoner of Lillith from the intro cinematic (source)
      • Non-linear
      • Each part of the world will become shared with other players after you finish a specific part of the campaign. So presumably when you finish act 1 which takes you beyond the Scosglen area, that's when Scosglen will become a shared world
    • Open shared world
      • The world is preset, will not be randomized
      • You'll only run into a few players here and there in the overworld
        • Most of the time you will be alone
      • Towns will be trading hubs, you'll see more players there
      • World boss areas will be where you'll see the most players
      • 5 contiguous connected zones
        • Scosglen (savage untamed foggy forests)
        • Dry Steppes (war ravaged terrain, grasslands, canyons, salt flats)
        • Fractured peaks (snowy mountainous region, dark ruins, ancient cathedrals, Victorian gothic horror themes)
        • Hawezar (poisonous swamplands, disease, despair, swamp witches who worship massive snakes)
        • Kehjistan (last bastion of Zakarum faith, a lot of buried history from the Sin War, Lilith's agents are among the people)
      • Over 100 settlements of various sizes
      • Mounts
        • There will be mount equipment that grants stats as well as cosmetics
        • Special dismount abilities for each class (Sorceress dismounts by turning into an ice ball and rolling off)

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      UAraGPz.jpg


       Dungeons

      • Hundreds of unique dungeons
      • Always private for you and your party
      • Randomized interior and exterior environments
      • Seamless exploration - no loading screens between floors
      • Actions in one part of the dungeon can affect another part
      • Dungeon objectives
        • Progressing the objective increases difficulty and rewards
        • Enemy responds to your progress

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       Classes (All 3 class skills and talents from the demo)

      • There will be 5 classes at launch
      • (Updated) Some credible leaks that had correctly predicted BlizzCon announcements also predict that the final 2 classes will be Amazon and Paladin, making it a full D2 cast (source)
      • There will be a lot of character customization
        • Gender, tattoos, hair color etc.
      • Barbarian
        • The Arsenal system allows them to wield 4 weapons
          • Two 1 handers and two separate 2 handers
          • You switch between them based on the skill you're using
      • Druid
        • Caster (human), werebear and werewolf forms
        • Shapeshifting is seamless - you can transform mid-abilitiy
          • Similar to barbarian arsenal system, you shapeshift when you use an ability from that form
        • Specific mechanics tied to the moment you transform (damage reduction when you change to werebear etc.)
        • Can pick talents from either of two branches as he moves down them
      • Sorceress
        • The main caster class
        • 3 branches in talent tree based on elements
      • All classes have a default dodge ability
        • At the moment it has no cooldown and is spammble

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       Leveling

      • (Updated) The Paragon-like system might be infinite or finite, they haven't decided yet (source)
      • Maximum level is 40
      • There will be level scaling
        • They still want you to feel that you're getting more powerful as you level
        • In a party, the game will scale to the party leader's level
      • There will be something that fills the paragon level role, but they haven't decided on what exactly

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      Combat_Caves_Multiplayer_Drowned_Seahag.


       PvP

      • Dedicated PvP zones, similar to the World Boss zones
        • You have to opt in to PvP in those zones
      • The game and classes were designed with PvP in mind from the ground up
      • There won't be separate PvP balance for items and skills
        • But they expect the builds to be very different from PvE
      • Specific PvP modes are being explored, as well as PvPvE modes

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       Mechanics

      • No crowd control diminishing returns
        • Makes the "unstoppable" buff very important, as it ignores CC
      • Death penalty
        • You have to corpse run and you drop a pile of gold you have to reclaim
      • The stagger system for bosses
        • Crowd control effects don't affect bosses directly but deal damage to their stagger bar. When it's depleted the boss goes into a unique state for each of them - the world boss Ashava has one of her blade arms destroyed and is less dangerous after that, and can lose both.

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       Social

      • Leaderboards
        • Will go more in the direction of activity-specific ones, similar to the current Diablo 3 seasonal conquest leaderboards
        • Will also focus more on leaderboards between friends and not more broad ones
      • Group play vs. solo play should be completely balanced in terms of rewards
        • If they can't quite achieve that balance, they will choose group play to be more rewarding
      • Couch co-op on consoles (2 players only)

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       Monsters

      • New Enhancing affix
        • Improves a skill a specific monster type has (skeletal ballista now fires 3 shots instead of one, Fallen shaman resurrects multiple allies etc.)
      • Monster families have synergies
        • They work together to provide a bigger challenge
        • The Fallen
        • The Drowned - undead from the oceans, created by maritime curses and similar
        • Skeletons

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      Scosglen_Goatmen.jpg.00200ad50c7096e4c72


       Monetization

      • (Updated) There will be microtransactions (source)
      • Base game + expansions
      • There was a mention of cosmetics only in an interview but was not mentioned again when the question was asked elsewhere
      • You will not be able to buy power

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       Post-launch content

      • Seasons
        • Seasons might not require you to roll a new character
        • They will shake up the meta and perhaps focus some less used builds or items
        • New legendaries

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       Platforms

      • (Updated) Cross-play between platforms is one of the big goals for the game (source)
      • PC, PS4, Xbox One and probably next gen consoles as well
      • They're looking into cross-play

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       Progress updates

      • We will be getting quarterly progress updates starting in 2020

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       Misc

      • There's an auto-walk toggle, so you just have to move your mouse and not click it for movement
      • Contextual interaction with the world (you can climb or drop by clicking on a prompt in the environment)
      • Animation-cancelling (you can instantly back out of a skill you're in the middle of)
      • Controller support for PC
      • The game is full 3d for the first time in the franchise (D3 had some 2.5d trees and other assets)
      • Hardcore mode will return
      • No offline mode
         

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       Release date

      • Not even "Blizzard soon"
         

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      That's about every significant piece of info we gathered from all sources we could find. The story details and constant mentions of "darkness", "gothic" and "gritty" we decided to skip and focused on the game part. If you've run across anything we missed, do let us know in the comments!

       

       

       

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      Related Diablo 4 Articles:

      • Thanks 1

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      i like the updated parts very much, just not sure what to feel about the angelic and demonic thing, with requirements on items. I hope that they cant appear mixed, like on one item one affix needs angelic, and one demonic. So that an item is completely, either for the angelics, or demonics.

      But in general i like the "generic" stats, that are good for all classes. angelic for buff builds, demonic for DoTers and the general attack and defense values, instead of main stats. Looking forward to hell. ?

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      I am skeptical on a lot of the itemization changes occurring, and culling of runes/gems seen from previous games.

      I am hyped for more character customization though.

      And I am hopeful they stay somewhat respectably true to treating solo players with the same care as group players.

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      On 1/1/2020 at 11:21 AM, MZLICH said:

      If there gonna be controller support for PC,why there won't be couch co-op for PC?

      It's because of the inventory char screen etc, it's radically different for consoles, which would mean they'd need 2 whole UIs on PC and to be able to switch between them seamlessly which is a problem. Maybe they can pull it off though who knows, but I wouldn't bet on it.

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      9 hours ago, Starym said:

      It's because of the inventory char screen etc, it's radically different for consoles, which would mean they'd need 2 whole UIs on PC and to be able to switch between them seamlessly which is a problem. Maybe they can pull it off though who knows, but I wouldn't bet on it.

      I'm not professional about details but I just know PCs these days have better specs than consoles and if they did it on console, they can do it on PC too. I'm playing many couch multiplayer games on PC from all genres(even like diablo ) whether they're split screen or not, online or offline etc but I'm sure if they did it on console it shouldn't be a big challenge for them. 

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