This year’s final Campfire Chat with the Diablo 4 dev team was hosted today over on Twitch, and we’ve got some key takeaways on what was discussed.
Is Diablo 4 bringing pay-for-power?
The answer to this was a resounding, unequivocal “no.”
A recent survey that was sent out to select Diablo players spooked the community with questions about if they’d be willing to pay for things like stash space or if a $100 price tag for a new expansion would be reasonable. This led to a deluge of concerns voiced in the chat at the start of the stream, particularly concerning pay-to-win mechanics. Luckily, there are “no plans” to ever bring such monetization to Diablo 4.
Midwinter Blight
Beginning December 12, Diablo 4’s first-holiday event brings an endless storm to Fractured Peaks. A new character, Gilleon the Bard, will task players with assaulting the Red Cloaked Horror and its minions. You’ll gather trophies and resources from these enemies, which can be traded for a number of cosmetics, as well as a new experience boost potion that will persist in your inventory after the event ends. There was also a mention of a brand-new seasonal aspect dropping with the event.
For more info, check out our preview guide on the Midwinter Blight!
Abattoir of Zir
The new endgame activity, the Abattoir of Zir, is coming next week on December 5. This new activity is essentially an uber-difficult Greater Rift from Diablo 3 with 20 tiers to grind through. Essentially, you’ll be trying to kill monsters fast enough to beat a timer and then defeat a boss. These start above the difficulty of a level 100 Nightmare Dungeon, with a Level 1 Abattoir sporting level 155 enemies.
You’ll need to complete the Seasonal Journey to access the Abattoir, which can be entered through new “Bloodforged Glyphs,” craftable at the Occultist. A single-tier increase in the Abattoir is much more difficult than a Nightmare Dungeon, and for the increased challenge, you’ll be rewarded with a new Blood Glyph, with 200 levels that can only be accessed and upgraded via Abattoir runs.
Itemization Changes
Itemization is the team’s “highest priority,” with lots of discussions happening between the devs and select content creators. There were plenty of mentions of item changes, with a massive, sweeping update to itemization coming in Season 4. The developers mentioned that items not feeling quite like they perfectly fit builds were frustrating, and they are striving to address this. There was mention of a new item drop needing to feel like the “start of a journey,” with further alterations and customization to that item happening over a player’s adventure. Expect more information on these changes coming in Season 3.
Item Level 925 Gear Drop Changes
The team mentioned that getting 925 item level gear shouldn’t only come from Duriel and World Bosses and that other sources should be more consistent sources of true, endgame gear. A balance to the sources drops of 925 gear will be coming in Season 3, and you should be expecting to see more max power-level gear from Helltides and other sources at that time.
Q&A
These are paraphrased accounts of the team’s responses with some direct quotes of the Question and Answer segment between chat and the devs:
Gold Trading on console
Gold accumulation has grown, and trading gold on console in particular has become very cumbersome. This is being addressed, and should see a change in Season 3.
Why is Abattoir of Zir considered a seasonal event?
“We want it to go away at the end of the season.” Basically, the team said they’re looking for feedback on it so they can fine-tune the content to be evergreen for later reintroduction into the game.
Will we get any Sigils or Sigil Power from Abattoir of Zir?
Sigils do drop at the end, but you won’t get Sigil power from the runs.
Are we getting some sort of variation of Abattoir in the future?
In Season 3, the Gauntlet and leaderboards are coming. And new content “just like this” is being discussed for Season 3 and 4 in the future.
Any news on a loot filter?
Filtering loot efficiently should be a part of all aRPGs. Planned changes are coming in Season 4 and should “help with that.” The changes are significant enough that adding a loot filter “today” wouldn’t mesh with future plans.
Any plans for the Butcher or others appearing during World Bosses?
Blood Seekers appearing during Nightmare Dungeons is sort of a current example of this. Looking for more interruptions in combat is something the team enjoys and they’re looking for more opportunities to do so.
Is Pay for Power Coming to Diablo 4?
No. There are no plans for any pay-for-power systems in Diablo 4.
Are there plans for new color palettes for transmog?
The people want pink. The team says they don’t get much feedback on this sort of thing, but there are “a lot more things we could do there.”
Any plans to rework skills or abilities? i.e. Necromancer mobility options?
There is room for making these adjustments “over time.” This sort of thing is more likely to occur via Legendary powers or Uniques in the short term.
Will we ever be able to play the campaign on a higher difficulty?
Repeating content has diminishing returns in terms of excitement, but the team was happy to bring back things like Duriel. They seemed open to this suggestion, but tentatively.
And that’s it for the year’s final Campfire Chat. As a reminder, next week is the Abattoir of Zir release, with the week after introducing Midwinter Blight. Enjoy the new content, and we’ll soon be gearing up for Season 3 info!
Published: Nov 30, 2023 03:02 pm