During a Campfire livestream, Blizzard took a closer look at its own cards and announced some interesting changes for Diablo 4
For the last time for 2023, Blizzard heads sat down in front of the camera at the end of November to talk about the future of Diablo 4 in Campfire Chat. It’s about the upcoming activity Abbatoir of Zir (whose name we have to google again and again to avoid typos), it’s about the Midwinter Blight event, but also about one of the biggest criticisms of the community: the current itemization in Diablo 4. Let’s go through the most important findings of the stream
Table of Contents
Where can I watch the full stream?
Well, here:
From December 5: Abbatoir of Zir
The new seasonal endgame activity Abbatoir of Zir (a high on the cache) starts on December 5, 2023, but you must have completed Season 2 before you can start it. In this race against time, you have 10 minutes to kill enough enemies for a powerful boss spawn. The difficulty level corresponds to a Nightmare Dungeon from Tier 104, is clearly aimed at endgame pros and rewards you with powerful glyphs
The event will run almost until the end of Season 2
From December 12th Midwinter Blight
The winter event Midwinter Blight starts on December 12, 2023 in the Fractured Peaks, the gates close again on January 2. After a nasty winter storm, you have to kill a new threat for the new bard Gilian. There are new enemies in the open world who have a lot of fun spreading chaos and destruction. If you stop the nasties, you can earn exclusive cosmetics:
From Season 4: Improved itemization
Diablo’s Associate Game Director Joe Piepiora talks about it himself in the stream: When it comes to killing monsters and collecting loot in Diablo, one of them already works really well. In doing so, he addresses the criticism from fans of the current loot gameplay: The hunt for the perfect loot is too detailed, too laborious, too tedious because so many little screws depend on tiny random chances.
This is set to change. The devs are not yet revealing exactly how, but it should feel more like the start of a motivating journey when you find a good item from which you want to build your build. The hunt for upgrades and better gear should take up less of the player’s mental capacity, be more controllable and motivating
However,
Piepiora also addresses the fact that Diablo 4’s loot mechanics can only be adjusted very carefully because so many factors are interrelated – which is actually part of the problem. He therefore conservatively estimates that these changes will only be implemented in the game in Season 4 sometime in 2024. However, there are a few concrete announcements:
Some content creators already have access to the adjusted itemization for collecting test data and feedback.
Items with a power of 925 will no longer only be dropped by Uber Duriel in World Tier 4, but also by regular opponents.
Helltides will be permanently available in the future with five-minute breaks
What do you think of the announcements? Good? Bad? Let’s see? Blizzard took a step in the right direction with Season 2, but what do you want to see in Season 3 and beyond? Are you confident that the changes to itemization will really help? Let us know in the comments. Blizzard is definitely reading along.
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