Diablo IV

[mediocrepoet]

About blood magic, we will have the same situation of D3? Where I can siphon blood from freaking skeletons? And the amount of blood siphoned is proportional to the size and sharpness of my axe?

If you expect anything better than that, I'd say you're being fabulously optimistic. They'll probably find something even dumber to do, tbh.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

Some people need to check their eyes or actually boot D3 to see how bad the game looks compared to PoE. They are not even close on the same technical level, D3 still has rubberbanding and actual lag ( 2-3 seconds ) 10 years later. Zooming is even faster then PoE and that is impressive by itself, I can blow up Greater Rift Bosses Torment 10 in 3 seconds with a gear that was emailed to me by Blizzard one hour after hitting max level. I don't even need to use any skill, just walking thru mobs and they die. People that have any hope for Diablo 4 are huffing glue.

1440p max settings, no bloom, blur, dof ( bonus with the white mob having 1,2 billion HP ) :

Spoiler

 

[Fedora Master]

If you endorse this game in any way you are absolutely irredeemably retarded.

 

[Lim-Dûl]

Some people need to check their eyes or actually boot D3 to see how bad the game looks compared to PoE. They are not even close on the same technical level, D3 still has rubberbanding and actual lag ( 2-3 seconds ) 10 years later. Zooming is even faster then PoE and that is impressive by itself, I can blow up Greater Rift Bosses Torment 10 in 3 seconds with a gear that was emailed to me by Blizzard one hour after hitting max level. I don't even need to use any skill, just walking thru mobs and they die. People that have any hope for Diablo 4 are huffing glue.

1440p max settings, no bloom, blur, dof ( bonus with the white mob having 1,2 billion HP ) :

Spoiler

Looks terrible, like zoomed-out WoW. PoE looked closer to D2 in art direction originally, at least.

 

[ADL]

I don't really care what the characters look like.
I'm more worried about how much worse than D3 they can make this...

Everything about this looks significantly better than Diablo 3. Immortal taking the series in a mmo-y direction has already been demonstrated to be a good thing as that's the only good thing about it and D4 looks like that without the bullshit monetization, better visuals, build potential and the fact that it's being developed for current gen consoles and PC exclusively rather than phones.

First time I've actually been optimistic about a Blizzard game in about twenty years.

 

[wishbonetail]

Some people need to check their eyes or actually boot D3 to see how bad the game looks compared to PoE.

D3 looks bad in comparison to Diablo 1.

 

[mediocrepoet]

D4 looks like that without the bullshit monetization

TBD

 

[Sykar]

They will release Paladins/Crusaders as DLC one year after release, titled "Wrath of Zakarum" or something similar. And we/you will buy it.

No.

"I hate this fucking game and I hate Blizzard, everything they do is pozzed shit. Here, let me post more videos of this shit game that we all know we're going to hate." t. Codex

Fear and loathing in Las Codex.

 

[Daedalos]

It's funny how ppl shit on D4 graphics, meanwhile cheering for Path of Exiles banal boring cluttershit fest of a pixel zoomer vomiting all over your screen with dumb shit. Not to mention how utterly terrible the animations and combat flow is.

Yeah okay bro, yeah ok sure. I get that Path of Exile is more "complex" than your average ARPG in terms of builds and shit like that, and that to most autists and spergs is appealing, but dont for a second try to tell me the presentation, combat, animation, UI, graphics, visual queues are better than Diablo 3 or like Lost ark or whatever else.

Now Diablo 4 might be shit because of the story, for being too simplistic for autists, because of a lack of any reasonable end game compared to games like Lost Ark, PoE etc, and because of heavy P2W aspects, but in terms of aesthetics and flow of combat etc., its fucking top notch.

 

[mediocrepoet]

Now Diablo 4 might be shit because of the lack of any reasonable end game like Lost Ark, PoE etc, and because of P2W aspects, but in terms of aesthetics and flow of combat etc., its fucking top notch.

I'm basically just waiting to see what the P2W/monetization scheme on top of purchase is like. Given Blizzard's track record over the last... 10 years or so, I expect the worst.

 

[Kjaska]

Just watched that dev "interview". Poor guy looks like they are grinding him hard to polish this turd. Feels like development of D4 started only recently and as a haphazard reaction to the negative reception of D:Immoral. The 2023 release is very ambitious. I doubt it will have anything of substance beyond the campaign. Overall this feels more like a loss leader type of product. Something "real" to prop up the IP, so they can continue milking it with products like D:Immoral.

They talk about end-game activities and how they want people to have a lot of choice, but then they go and name only the two obvious ones which is pvp(lmao) and dungeons. "and many more" they say, but fail to name even a single original one.
They also mention how each dungeon will have different objectives. I suspect it's going to be 5 distinct in total. 1 good one, 2 meh ones and 2 which everybody is going to hate. I still remember doing old Forsaken Master missions in PoE. Those were dark times.
Then they talk about how game is a love letter to all of the diablo, but fail to mention one of the core principles of D1 which is the sense of danger and horror (which they eliminate with level scaling) and one of the core principles of D2 which is the feeling that you'll always find something useful out there in terms of loot (which they are also undermining with their mod transfer system).
They also talk about player choice a lot. They use it like a buzzword of course. To these guys setting your resolution is a player choice.

Overall, I feel like this game is going to sell like hot cakes at launch. People don#t want new, they want the familiar. D4 is all that. It's a game for normies who can't into PoE and have jobs/family and are overloaded by the world and just want to play something that takes them by the hand and guides them through a 30 hour campaign in the span of 6 months.

 

[Cryomancer]

. I get that Path of Exile is more "complex" than your average ARPG in terms of builds and shit like tha

No, PoE is not that complicated. It is just the unique mainstream diablo clone that doesn't threat its playerbase as complete retards.

presentation, combat, animation, UI, graphics,

Disagreed. D3 armor and Lost Ark armor doesn't even look like proper armor. Looks more like something from Carnival in Hell de Janeiro than a proper armor.

combat

Combat in D3 is wow style rotation cooldown spam.

 

[Perkel]

Speaking of classes. They are going hard for D2 crowd:

D2: Barbarian, Amazon, Sorceress, Paladin, Necro - EXPANSION: Druid, Assasin
D4: Barbarian, Rogue, Sorcreress, Druid, Necro - EXPANSION: Paladin??, ?

Just watched that dev "interview". Poor guy looks like they are grinding him hard to polish this turd. Feels like development of D4 started only recently and as a haphazard reaction to the negative reception of D:Immoral. The 2023 release is very ambitious. I doubt it will have anything of substance beyond the campaign. Overall this feels more like a loss leader type of product. Something "real" to prop up the IP, so they can continue milking it with products like D:Immoral.

This reminds me of copium people sniffed when POE was in beta and how D3 will be that much better just you wait. This time situation is reversed.

 

[wishbonetail]

Amazon?

Bezos. Main abilites: blazing money trail and slave's fatigue curse.

 

[BlackAdderBG]

It's funny how ppl shit on D4 graphics, meanwhile cheering for Path of Exiles banal boring cluttershit fest of a pixel zoomer vomiting all over your screen with dumb shit. Not to mention how utterly terrible the animations and combat flow is.

Yeah okay bro, yeah ok sure. I get that Path of Exile is more "complex" than your average ARPG in terms of builds and shit like that, and that to most autists and spergs is appealing, but dont for a second try to tell me the presentation, combat, animation, UI, graphics, visual queues are better than Diablo 3 or like Lost ark or whatever else.

How about some examples for your retarded and meaningless marketing platitudes so we know you actually can make a coherent comparison between games. I can give you some examples for every part you claim is superior in D3. Graphics- no dynamic lighting and shadows, no dynamic resolution scale. Animations lock you in place longer and feel very clunky and hard to time skills one after another, like blink or dash- you have to spam them. Ragdolls fly all over the screen comically and every enemy looks and feels like made of paper. UI - can't move while your map is open, can't bind force move to left click, hitboxes of enemies extent beyond their visual model forcing you to attack them when you don't want. Visual queues- red blinking screen when low on health is actual visual cancer. D3 aesthetic and visuals are the pinnacle of banal boring pixel zoomer vomiting on your screen, all you have to do is post screenshot of the game where this supposed better visuals are.

 

[abija]

It doesn't matter how many buzzwords PoE devs implement. IT RUNS LIKE SHIT so people disable most of them AND IT STILL RUNS LIKE SHIT BECAUSE THEY ARE INCOMPETENT FUCKS.

And yes, the same brainiacs that designed their pack update system, that designed the original netcode and said a standard one wouldn't work, that feel the need to optimize displaying thousands of effects on screen (instead of having common sense and not trying to render more than you can distinguish) and can't implement a basic streaming system are still working there and probably the leads.
Btw, bonus points, they increased texture size at some point for no good reason and seemed to have removed whatever guidelines the art team had. Very likely not their idea but I blame the same fucks because they're the ones that should have said NO.

The absolute retarded part though... most of their players have the game looking worse than D3 and their business model could benefit if the game ran on a potato and populated hubs wouldn't be in stream hell long enough for people to get in and out without noticing any mtx.

 

[Kjaska]

Amazon?

Too sexy for current internal SJW Blizzard meta. IIRC "people" were getting upset over the armour style of the female ranged class (Demon Hunter?) from D3. Speaking of D3, how pirate-able was it in the end? I don't want to give Blizzard any money, but I'd take D4 for a spin just to play through the campaign.

 

[ADL]

The one thing I'll really applaud Diablo 4 for is it seems no matter how much is going on, it retains visual clarity.
Versus

 

[Kjaska]

The one thing I'll really applaud Diablo 4 for is it seems no matter how much is going on, it retains visual clarity.
Versus

True but also lets talk again about visual clarity in D4 when you're doing the World Boss with a Necro in your party.

If you only compare the campaigns of the two games together, the visual clarity won't be different. PoE starts suffering in that department once your build approaches clearspeed in the screens-per-second realm and stacking multiple league mechanics on top of each other. Does D4 even have league mechanics? It's easy to keep visual clarity when you have literally nothing going on in the game mechanically except right-clicking monsters.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Servers? Online..... continual DECLINE!

How woke will the tampon queen of the demons be?

 

[Infinitron]

https://news.blizzard.com/en-us/diablo4/23816542/diablo-iv-quarterly-update-june-2022

DIABLO IV QUARTERLY UPDATE—JUNE 2022​

Hello and welcome to the mid-year Diablo IV Quarterly Update. We hope you enjoyed last quarter’s behind the scenes look at the art of Sanctuary and its Dungeons. That blog and our previous updates are available here if you missed out.
I’d also like to take a moment to congratulate Diablo Immortal on its launch. The Immortal team worked incredibly hard to bring Diablo to life on mobile, and it’s exciting to have another way to enjoy Diablo.
Today, we’re going to look at the final launch class: the Necromancer. Now that it's been announced on the big screen, we can jump into some of the grittier details and mechanics of the class. You can think of this blog as a companion to that announcement, with our Lead Class Designer Adam Jackson doing a deep dive into the core playstyles of the Necromancer, some of its skills, and its unique class mechanic: Book of the Dead. We'll also look at a selection of the incredible armor and weapons that Necromancers can use.
Diablo IV is committed to the principle of player choice. It shapes how we approach many of our systems, from character customization, to the density and layout of our open world, to the design of our classes and builds. As you'll see below, the Book of the Dead focuses on this idea of choice and what kind of Necromancer you want to be.
We hope you enjoy this update and look forward to your thoughts and reactions. Later this year you can expect to hear more about how we plan to support Diablo IV after launch, including our plans for Seasons. We're grateful to have you with us on this journey.
Thank you for playing the games we make.
-Joe Shely,
Game Director, Diablo IV

---

Greetings, Heroes of Sanctuary!
Today we are thrilled to announce that a fan favorite, the Necromancer, is once again returning to slay and subjugate their enemies with necrotic magics. We had a blast working on this iconic class, and we can’t wait to get it into your hands.
We know that the Necromancer has a storied history in our franchise, and we are taking a lot of care to give players an experience that lives up to the hype. We have also spent a considerable amount of time making sure that fans of the Diablo II, Diablo III, and Diablo Immortal versions of the Necromancer see something familiar with what we have to offer while at the same time creating something unique for Diablo IV. Read on to see what the Necromancer is all about!

TABLE OF CONTENTS​

• Class Features
• Playstyles
• Book of the Dead
• Final Thoughts

---

CLASS FEATURES​

The Necromancer has two different types of resources that they use: Essence and Corpses. Essence is their primary resource, which restores itself automatically at a slow rate. Using Basic skills on the Necromancer will also grant Essence, allowing them to cast their skills more often. Corpses, on the other hand, are the leftover remains of enemies who die near the Necromancer. These remains can be used to summon skeletal minions or to power various other skills, such as Corpse Explosion. In addition to appearing when enemies are killed near the Necromancer, Corpses can also be generated via various effects, giving you additional control over how often you want to interact with them. While there will be plenty of Corpses at a baseline level, we’re aware that some players will want to lean into this resource, and as a result have included plenty of options to ensure that they are not left wanting.

As far as weapons and other unique gear, Necromancers use Swords, Daggers, Wands, Focuses, and Shields. In addition to these, they are also the only class that can use Scythes.

Additionally, what self-respecting Necromancer would be running around the world of Sanctuary without Curses? We’re happy to say that you will be able to put these nasty debuffs on your enemies to your heart’s content with skills like Decrepify and Iron Maiden making a return.
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PLAYSTYLES​

The Necromancer has four high-level playstyles that players can choose between. These playstyles are Bone, Darkness, Blood, and the Army.

Bone​

Bone skills are relatively physical in nature, and thus benefit more heavily from effects such as Critical Strike. These skills also benefit from having and spending large amounts of Essence, as they have various effects that can cause each of their individual attacks to be even more powerful.
Bone Spirit is back in Diablo IV, and it now has a unique twist that exemplifies what Bone skills are all about. Bone Spirit not only has a cooldown, but also consumes all Essence the player currently has. Once cast, a spirit of bone is conjured that seeks out the nearest enemy. Upon reaching them, the spirit will explode, dealing a high amount of damage to the target and all other enemies in the area. This damage is increased by a certain percentage per point of Essence spent, meaning that players who spend the maximum amount of Essence will deal a significant amount of damage to enemies hit. This skill can also be upgraded so that when it Critically Strikes its cooldown is significantly reduced, meaning that players who commit to generating lots of Essence while also having a high Critical Strike chance will get a lot of damage from this skill.
Another Bone skill that Necromancers will have access to is Bone Prison. When the player casts Bone Prison, they slam their weapon into the ground, calling forth a circular wall of Bone to surround the targeted enemy or area. Enemies cannot move through this space while the Bone Prison persists, which makes it incredibly versatile and able to be combined with many other skills, even those that are not themed around Bone. Bone Prison is great for blocking off hallways, trapping groups of enemies inside to set them up for an AoE attack, or for simply sectioning off a group of enemies to deal with later while you handle higher priority targets.

Darkness​

Darkness skills use Shadow magic to overwhelm their enemies. These kinds of attacks tend to be DoT-based or attack multiple times in a short window, with various benefits and rewards being granted for damaging enemies in this way. Darkness skills also tend to have various debuffs and crowd control elements so that they can keep their enemies at bay while they die a slow, painful death.
Decompose is a Basic Darkness skill that allows you to channel dark magic onto enemies, dealing damage to them while also generating Essence. Unlike other Basic skills, Decompose also periodically summons Corpses, making it much easier to ensure that you have a steady supply on hand to use for summoning Skeletons.
Another Darkness skill is Blight. Blight launches a ball of dark energy in a direction. Upon hitting an enemy or expiring, it deals an explosion of damage while leaving behind a defiled area, dealing periodic damage to enemies inside over time. This skill deals a high amount of damage to enemies who are standing in place, whether that’s due to fighting your undead minions or to being contained via other skills like Bone Prison.

Blood​

Necromancers can also use the power of Blood magic to siphon the life from their enemies. Not only do these skills tend to have defensive-oriented benefits, they also have many ways to turn that defense into offense for the player, empowering them and rewarding them for having large amounts of maximum Health as well as keeping their current Health total high.
Blood Surge draws a small amount of blood from nearby enemies to the Necromancer that then expels a blood nova, dealing damage near the player’s location. The damage of the blood nova is increased per enemy drained, which incentivizes you to be in the middle of a pack of enemies for maximum effect.
Another Blood skill is Blood Mist. Upon activation, the Necromancer disperses into a bloody mist, becoming temporarily Immune to all damage while draining the life of any nearby enemies that they pass through. This is a universally powerful defensive skill that can give you the time you need to regroup in those dire moments where you become overwhelmed.

The Army​

As you would expect, Necromancers can summon the undead to do their bidding. We also allow players to specialize into empowering their army as much as possible, which includes various kinds of Skeletons as well as the classic Golem. One advantage to this method of playing is that it can easily incorporate the benefits of Bone, Darkness, or Blood skills, allowing you to have a great deal of customization to how you want to interact with your army.
As an example, we believe it will be perfectly viable to have a player pursue a Darkness themed army build with Decompose as their Basic skill to generate Corpses, as there is an obvious synergy there. However, if the player wishes to generate Corpses via other means, they can just as easily take a nostalgia trip to the year 2000 and just chuck Bone Spears at their enemies from a distance while opting for all of the Bone skill synergies that the Necromancer has to offer.
We went through a lot of iteration on how we want the experience of summoning the undead to feel for the player, and how much of their skill bar should be dedicated to this part of the class. To that end, we’ve come up with what we feel is the best possible version to ensure that players have as much customization as possible over not only their army itself, but also in which other skills they want to use to support their own unique playstyle.
If a player wants to have the maximum number of summoned units possible then they will only have to dedicate two buttons to their skill bar: one to raising Skeletons and the other for their Golem. The Raise Skeleton button is a one-stop shop to raise all the different Skeletons a player can summon, and the Golem button is used to command the Golem to use a unique effect that is dependent on the type of Golem that is currently active. With this setup, we’ve found a great balance between having the necessary tools for raising and commanding a Necromancer army while also leaving room for player expression in what additional skills they want to put on their bar.

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BOOK OF THE DEAD​

Speaking of armies, what self-respecting Necromancer isn’t wandering around with one? Well, actually, that might be you! While we absolutely have the full support you would expect to fulfill all your undead summoning needs, we are also giving some love to players who want a more independent playstyle.

Cue the Book of the Dead, the Necromancer’s unique class mechanic. Right from the moment you log in, you will start with an extra skill on your bar—Raise Skeleton. With this button, you will immediately be able to raise undead warriors to fight by your side. In addition to this, you will have access to the Book of the Dead. This is a space where you can customize your army (or lack thereof), with increasing options as you level your character.
There are three customizable summons in this space: Skeletal Warriors, Skeletal Mages, and the Golem. Each summon also has one of three specializations that you can choose from. As an example, you can have your Skeletal Warriors be Skirmishers, Defenders, or Reapers. Skirmishers are a more standard warrior but have increased damage and reduced Health, Defenders have bonus Health, and Reapers have slower attacks, deal damage in a AoE in front of them, and have a special wind-up attack that deals a high amount of damage. In addition to this, each specialized unit in the army has unique upgrades available to them, giving you even more customization over how each unit in their army functions in their overall playstyle. These units and upgrades will have synergies with the various playstyles mentioned above, as well as add other potential ways to play.

In addition to all this customization, we have also added the ability for players to sacrifice different components of their army for personal benefits. Next to each unit type in the Book of the Dead is an extra option to sacrifice the ability to summon that unit in exchange for a personal, permanent buff. These buffs are carefully designed and placed so that players can mix and match having none, some, or all the possible summoned units while still having relevant options to enhance their build.
Our goal with this system is that there should be something for everyone to be excited about. There are relevant, powerful options to choose from whether players want to play with the full army, part of the army, or even for those who wish to forgo their army completely and play solo. We’ve had a blast playing with this system so far, and we’re excited to see the various combinations that you all come up with to push your Necromancers to the next level.
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FINAL THOUGHTS​

We’re so excited to be able to bring the Necromancer to Diablo IV, and we can’t wait to get it into your hands. Whether you’re a veteran player who’s put in thousands of hours over many years, or a new adventurer in the world of Sanctuary, we hope you will have a lot of fun with what we’ve been able to create.
As always, please leave us your feedback on what we’ve shown you so far. While we’re confident that we’re on the right track, we know that the best ideas and the best games are created with input from the community. Thank you all so much for your patience, and for joining us on this epic journey through the world of Sanctuary—we promise it will be worth the wait.
-Adam Jackson,
Lead Class Designer, Diablo IV

 

[Lim-Dûl]

Seems racist of Blizzard to make the cover Barbarian black, a stereotypical Mr. T looking guy. What are they implying here? In D2, a noble knight, the Paladin, was the one who was black. This would be considered a downgrade by the people of Sanctuary.

The one thing I'll really applaud Diablo 4 for is it seems no matter how much is going on, it retains visual clarity.
Versus

You wouldn't know that unless they revealed what endgame builds look like.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

You'd think they'd be customizable by now. No, you'll have to buy those DLCs separately (for each alt).

 

[janior]

still looks better than poe

 

[Softgels]

still looks better than poe

And smoother