Despite the departure of its previous director and a delay past 2022, development on Blizzard’s Diablo 4 continues. In a new quarterly update, the team provided lots of new details and even new gameplay footage, showcasing some of the visual improvements made. Lead system designer Joe Piepiora confirmed that the affix +Skill Rank is returning and in an interesting twist, if the specified skill hasn’t been learned, players will gain access to it as long as the item is equipped.
More changes have also been made to Legendary items. Their powers can now be found on multiple item types like Rings, Chestplates and Helmets, thus reducing the need for a specific item type. Also, if there’s a particular power you like but you want it on, say, a ring instead of an axe, then the new Essence system should help out. Speaking to the Occultist NPC allows for extracting a Legendary power from an item, destroying it and creating an Essence.
You can then imbued that into another item, though it will replace whatever power it currently has. In this way, it’s possible to upgrade Rare items into Legendaries. Unique Items can’t be imbued though.
On top of this, Piepiora also detailed the new Paragon Board which unlocks when a character hits level 50. You begin at a central tile and upon earning Paragon Points, make decisions that advance to other tiles, gaining bonuses along the way. Eventually, you’ll hit a gate tile which unlocks a new Paragon Board. Tiles can have different rarities with Magic types offering more “diverse” benefits, Rare Tiles granting significant upgrades and Legendary Tiles offer new Legendary powers.
Diablo 4 is being developed for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. Stay tuned for more details in the meantime and check out all of the visual improvements that have been made via the trailers below.
