d4 Unique Class Mechanics for All Classes in Diablo 4

[Starym 3,776]

 

One of Diablo 3's best features was definitely the different resource pools for each class - and while some of them were just different colored globes you need to fill to use spenders, the concept of very different class mechanics is a great one. Luckily for us, the Diablo 4 developers have realized this and we will be getting unique class mechanics for each class in the fourth installment of the franchise, which is amazing news!

We already knew that Barbarians were getting the Arsenal system, where they can use and switch between different weapon setups, but now we know that every class will get a similar and completely unique system as well. The bigger news, now that we've seen the Sorceress unique system, is that all of these systems are actually very, very impactful on how the class plays and how different it is from the others. So let's take a look at the two systems we know about so far.
 

Barbarian Arsenal System

While the system itself isn't very complex and doesn't take long to explain, it is massively impactful to gameplay. Barbarians will have 4 weapons available to them at all times and will be able to switch through them, and will also able to save weapon "sets" to switch through, for those dual-wield enthusiasts. The bigger feature here is that players will be able to bind specific skills to specific weapon sets, so you will be able to automatically bring out your big two-hander when using an expensive spender to get the most out of it.

With 4 weapons available at all times the variety of builds and options here is immense, especially when you consider each of those 4 weapons can be a legendary and each has its own unique and powerful legendary affix. So while it is a simple system, it's massively impactful on the class and especially build options. One thing we're not quite sure of is whether we'll get to actually pick 4 two handers and switch between those, but it seems very likely that we will be able to, and that's just plain awesome. That's 8 hands!!

Arsenal System (source)

With the Arsenal system, Barbarians can swap between different types of weapons, such as from a heavy two-handed mace to a pair of sharp, agile hand axes, depending on the situation, skill, and your player needs.

Barbarians will be able to haul around four total weapons and swap between them dynamically at any time. You’ll also be able to assign specific weapons to different skills, allowing advanced players even greater depths of customization.

Sorceress Enchantment System

The Enchantment system is more complex than its Barbarian counterpart, with more player interaction present. Basically each skill you unlock can be used in 2 ways with the Sorceress, either as a regular active skill that goes on your hotbar and you can cast at enemies, or you can make it an "enchant", which gives you some passive bonus related to the skill in question. With the examples provided for now, it's looking like they're mostly different ways you can proc the skill in question rather than actually casting it, with Ball Lightning appearing when a certain status effect triggers, and  Meteor randomly dropping on top of enemies.

The big takeaway here is that, with the new skill tree system and its limited nature, choosing whether to make a skill active or an enchant will be a very big deal and, depending on how limited our skill tree selection will be, some Sorceresses might even have empty slots on their skill hotbars! For now it's looking like we'll have 6 active skill slots and only 3 enchant slots, but hopefully Blizzard widen that enchant number so players can actually just stack themselves up with passives and have only a couple of active skill if they so choose.

Enchantment System (source)

Many of you might remember the Barbarian’s unique Arsenal system—their ability to carry and smoothly swap between multiple deadly weapons—which greatly increased their power. We’ve also been exploring unique class mechanics for our other classes. The main goal for us here is to have very unique class-specific mechanics in Diablo IV. We have this goal because Diablo is the kind of game where many players try out different builds or classes, especially during seasonal play. We believe that unique class mechanics with very different strengths and playstyles compared to other classes will make exploring the different classes—and playing the game—much more fun.

For the Sorceress, we’ve been trying out the Enchantment System. This is how it works:

 
The Ball Lightning skill. Unlike other classes, each Sorceress skill has two possible effects.

Sorceress skills can be placed into two locations: an active skill slot (that every other class also has access to), and an Enchantment slot. If you place a skill in the Enchantment slot, you can no longer use it as an active skill, but your character instead gains a secondary bonus power.

 

Ball Lightning as an enchantment. You can gain the secondary effect of a skill by placing it in an Enchantment slot instead of an active skill slot.

The power you gain from Enchantments is extremely significant, and you can currently make builds based around your Enchantments, your active skills, or a mix of both.

 

 

Here is an example of this system using the Meteor skill. Meteor allows you to call a fiery chunk of rock from the sky. If you choose to slot it as an Enchantment, you won’t be able to control your Meteors, but they’ll fall onto enemies periodically. This skill is still under development and may be different in the final game.

We’ve been testing this class mechanic for a while now, and the team feedback has been really positive. This new system now empowers you to make some interesting choices to strategize around which skills you would want to slot in as an Enchantment, as you won’t be able to put one skill in both places.

Blizzard also mentioned that the Druid class mechanic is being worked on and we'll find out more about it soon as well. While we still don't know what the final 2 classes are (although there are solid rumors), they'll also get very unique class identities thanks to this new design decision! This is one of the best decisions the Diablo 4 team has made and it's really looking like it will improve the game immensely, especially in conjunction with the limited selection of skills in the skill tree.