Five Big Features That I Would Like to See in Diablo IV

by Hotstreak - 4 years ago     show comments

With Blizzcon less than 24 hours away, the speculation of what Diablo IV could be have peaked and the hype train is full speed ahead. Just a few days ago I talked about five changes I would like to see implemented into DIV. Now I’m going to take some time to talk about five features that I would like to see as well. So let’s get into it.

Bring Back the Druid

Now I didn’t play the Druid that much in Diablo II but, I did really enjoy the class and did multiple playthroughs with it. Druid was also, in my opinion, the second most highly requested class to be added to DIII next to the Necromancer so to say its a fan favorite would be an understatement. There’s also been a few teases for the Druid’s return which leads me to believe an appearance of this class for DIV is highly likely. There’s so much you can do with this class a long with some great class fantasy. There also isn’t nearly enough shapeshifting classes in the ARPG genre so shipping DIV with something as unique as the Druid, could be really cool.

To be clear though, I would like to see every class that’s been in DII-DIII make a return over the course of the next game’s lifespan. I absolutely need the Necromancer personally and my seven sided strike Monk.

More Open Environments with More Dynamic Activities

This is something that I really think they could improve upon for DIV. The environments in DIII were smaller than it’s predecessor but even DII didn’t have a whole lot going on in it’s larger zones (it did have more dungeons and way more random generation though). I feel like they could really start filling the zones in each act with more dynamic events, dungeons, world boss encounters, and more online/co-op content. I would even love to see some areas of the game that function as “persistent” zones where you can encounter other players. I’m not asking for full on MMO but, I think Destiny 2 does a really good job of seamlessly phasing you in with other players out in the world no matter what you’re doing.

I just want DIV to push the social elements further. If this ends up being an always online experience like DIII, then why not take advantage of it?

Group Based Boss Encounters

Now I don’t think any act bosses or story bosses should be designed for a max group of players. I also think everything in the game should be able to be done solo. So what am I getting at? I think there should be world bosses in the game that are designed around a group of players but can be done solo if you are geared and powerful enough for it. I get this idea from how Borderlands 2 handled their “raid” bosses.

They were world boss encounters that were designed for a max group of players at max level, but if you were geared enough and had enough build synergies, you could solo them and reap the rewards. This helped create yet another end game objective that had players chasing certain gear and progressing certain builds so that they could solo these end game encounters.

I personally think something like this could fit really well into the Diablo franchise and I would really like to see it. Whether they be accessed through a small dungeon or encountered out in the open game world.

An Actual Mapping System

Now this is something that has been asked for a lot by the community over the whole course of DIII’s lifespan. Greater Rifts were meant to give that same feeling of constant dungeon progression that got harder the further you went, but they weren’t seamless.  It didn’t feel like a truly fleshed out mapping system. It just felt like you were hopping from one Greater Rift to another.

I would like to see an addition similar to the endless dungeon in the first Torchlight game mixed with Path of Exile’s map system. Something with different affixes, enemies, and bosses during every playthrough with varying rewards and difficulty. Maybe even a way to augment each map with different positive and negative effects.

Player Versus Player Game Modes

I used to be in the camp that believed the Diablo Franchise should just strictly be PvE focused. I realize now that a PvP metagame can be very good for an RPG’s health and longevity. With PvP you also attract a whole other audience to your game and which can really help the game’s population and community representation. Back in the early days of DIII pre release, they showed off an arena PvP mode that would have it’s own matchmaking. The idea of the mode sounded really cool as PvP players from DII would have a dedicated mode that they could sink their teeth into.

It never came to fruition and instead “brawling” was added in a patch near the end of vanilla DIII’s lifespan. But it wasn’t really balanced or implemented very well. Just kind of thrown into the game to try and appease players who had been dying for some kind of PvP.

Now Blizzard and the DIII Dev Team had been very open and honest on why they felt a PvP mode could detract from the main bulk of the PvE portion of the game. They didn’t want to have to nerf or buff certain items for PvP when those changes could potentially hurt the PvE metagame. I completely understand their reasoning but I feel like there has to be a way to make it work. Whether it be introducing PvP specific gear, or a PvPvE mode, or just changing the way stats and effects scale against other players.

In Conclusion

There’s so many possibilities of what kind of game Diablo IV could end up being or what kind of features or changes they implement. With less than a day left until the opening ceremony, we don’t have long until we finally find out.

So what kind of features would you like to see make their way into the franchise? Leave us a comment below!