Diablo 4 will be released on June 06 and will forego one of the best features: set items – those parts will come later. MeinMMO editor Maik Schneider was initially shocked. Once the dust settled, he sees things differently now.
What are set items? These special items are the divas in every inventory of Diablo 2 & 3. With their brightly colored green elements, they visually stand out from the mundane legendaries, not to mention regular items.
If you place several like-minded set items in the active equipment slots, these parts provide extra bonuses, sometimes even special gameplay mechanics. There are sets that only fully unleash their power with 5 equipped parts.
- Advantage: Powerful, often even unique bonuses
- Disadvantage: Multiple equipment slots and a lot of grinding needed
Combined, they usually represent extremely powerful equipment items, which have now become a staple of the Diablo series.
However, at the launch of the new Diablo 4, there will be no set items, and my recent experiences from the release of Diablo Immortal have shown me – this is a good decision.
For a visual impression of the new Diablo 4, check out our trailer for the game:
Without sets, building offers more freedom
Why is it good that sets are not coming at launch? With the controversial mobile hit Diablo Immortal, the devilish ARPG series returned to my gaming cosmos. Like many other players, I was not satisfied with some design decisions at all.
I don’t even want to talk about the legendary gems. There has been enough discussion about that, and I quickly came to terms with the fact that I couldn’t achieve certain things in the game.
Much worse for me as a free-to-play player were the restrictions on the set items. They were fully implemented in the game but hidden behind heavy level restrictions.
At launch, it was mathematically impossible to quickly obtain a complete set. Yet, you knew the values, bonuses, and advantages of the set pieces. Like a juicy carrot, the unreachable set pieces dangled behind nasty, high level caps.
For my necromancer, I wanted to have the matching set immediately. I also looked for strong legendaries for my class, but the goal was set from the very beginning.
This fixation on strong set pieces also took away some of my enjoyment of the game. By the time I could get the complete set, all build configurations would only be temporary placeholders.
I didn’t even want to construct a strong legendary build. I wanted the set build from the start. And I see exactly this problem for Diablo 4 as well.
Without set items, we are practically forced to build our builds around the legendary effects. After release, this should lead to greater build diversity, which should be a real blessing for me as an avid build creator.
The developers want to take more time for the sets this time. After the release, an equipment meta for the individual classes will develop, and based on the collected data, the sets can be introduced with an appropriate strength, so that they don’t immediately fill all meta builds.
What speaks against it? In Diablo, it’s all about collecting, looting, and power. Set items therefore stand like no other item in the Diablo universe for the foundational building blocks of gameplay.
I love collecting sets. It gives me something. That’s why I was initially shocked when the “good news” reached me.
Moreover, sets often bring fantastic and strong mechanics into the game, which means variety. Even for dedicated build min-maxers, it must be annoying if the set items only come into play weeks or even months after release.
Here you can find all important information about Diablo 4:
When will the sets come? That is still open. It’s clear – the set items will come. The US site GameRant spoke during a roundtable interview with Game Director Joe Shely, who mentioned that they want to introduce the set items as they currently do in the endgame of Diablo 3 (via gamerant.com).
This does not necessarily indicate a quick release.
In an interview with gamepressure, Shely also said (via gamepressure.com): “Sets are an exciting case because when we were developing the game, we realized that we could develop sets in a new direction. But we needed a bit more time to implement them in a way that they play well with the rest of Diablo 4. That’s why there won’t be any sets in the game at launch.”
The set items will probably be a while in coming.
What do you think about the sets in Diablo 4? Leave a comment and participate in our survey in the article. You can find more information about game 4 here: The developers explain the multiplayer of Diablo 4 – How well can I play with friends?
