Blizzard is talking about Diablo 4 again, this time mostly about itemization. In the latest Diablo 4 quarterly update, Lead Game Designer Joe Shely gives a deep-dive into weapon types, Affixes for different item categories, and the return of Uniques.
Different weapons in the same class now have unique speeds and characteristics, so wands are faster but less deadly than quarterstaves, and swords and maces should feel distinct from one another as well.
Blizzard wants to make sure Legendary items don't make Magic and Rare items obsolete at higher levels. To accomplish this, the devs are making individual Affixes on Magic items more powerful than on any other item and increasing the max number of Affixes on Rare items to five.
Furthermore, Legendary Affixes will now roll randomly. Legendary items will have four Affixes and one Legendary Affix, so they're essentially Rare items with one random Legendary effect. Like regular Affixes, the new Legendary effects aren't restricted to any one armor slot, so you have a lot more freedom to fine-tune your gear setup. Some Legendary Affixes are class-specific, while others can be used by any class.
Also of note, Blizzard is scrapping Mythic items to make room for Uniques. "We still like the idea of Mythic items, but we don't want to create an item quality that invalidates all others, so they're out for now. One of the things we loved most about them was the promise of getting random legendary powers on an item, so we folded that into our baseline legendary design," Shely writes.
Unique items are "heavily thematic" and come with fully static Affixes and their own distinctive looks. A few examples Blizzard shows off in the update are the Kilt of the Plaguebringer, Stormwalker's Cudgel, and Mad Wolf's Glee.
Finally, as it hinted at in the last dev update, the whole Ancestral/Demonic/Angelic powers system is being canned. Though, as with everything Blizzard reveals in its quarterly Diablo 4 updates, community feedback could always overturn a decision to remove or implement anything, so keep on speaking your mind.
Did you hear Diablo 4 is officially coming to BlizzCon (probably) to reveal a new class?
