Many players in the recent demos have found that Diablo 4 will largely depart from the series, removing the gear set system that was prominent in Diablo 2, Diablo 3, and Diablo Immortal.
While gear sets have been a key element in character-building for the past two decades, this departure from the formula doesn’t seem to limit the possibilities of the build.
In a group interview, Diablo 4 Lead Class Designer Adam Jackson expressed the importance of specific gear in obtaining certain playstyles or builds.
Jackson talks about how players will have more agency in designing their builds, as they do so primarily through player decisions within the game system rather than through specific sets of items. However, that doesn’t mean loot isn’t important. After all, this is a Diablo game.
Gear Only Enhances Diablo 4 Builds
Certain builds in Diablo 3, such as the composition of Demon Hunter’s Marauder Sentry build, require players to collect at least 4-6 sets that can only be dropped by killing bosses under Torment difficulty. The build’s playstyle isn’t even viable until that gear is collected.
This also means that players often need to spend a lot of time and energy and perhaps a lot of Diablo 4 Gold to successfully unlock this style of play, only to be able to enjoy it and make this build more powerful.
In Diablo 4, luck is only one of the factors that affect players’ acquisition of equipment, and players don’t need to rely too much on it to change a specific play style.
That doesn’t completely remove the luck factor, however, though chasing coveted drops can elevate builds to new heights and are arguably the most satisfying moments of a Diablo session.
It’s just that players still need to complete all the dungeon tasks in Diablo 4 to successfully collect a series of Legendary Items and Powers, and there is no way to avoid this process.
But if the corresponding loot is really not found, the player still has the possibility to continue to unlock the game style. It’s just that the player needs to find 6 more specific pieces of equipment after that to start, which also means that the requirements for the player are higher.
The Inevitability Of Diablo 4’s New System
Thanks to Diablo 4’s various progression systems, players also have a variety of paths to achieve their desired playstyle. For example, a player looking for damage over time build might find a way to achieve it through Paragon choices, skills, Legendary Powers, or a combination of these.
This is in stark contrast to previous Diablo games. In previous games, certain playstyles were only possible with a highly specific set of gear.
They will inevitably build a meta where certain builds to be discovered require specific synergies between Diablo 4’s Paragon choices, skills, Legendary Powers, but the new system seems more accessible and opens up more for experimentation possibility.
Players can even search for words like “burning” in the Paragon screen to highlight nodes that affect the “burning” state, so finding synergies should go a lot smoother this time around.
These phenomena all indicate the inevitability of the new system of Diablo 4, and after that, players may no longer need to rely on equipment to create builds. This will undoubtedly allow more players to participate. Before that, players need to wait patiently and hope that the results will not disappoint us.
