In Diablo 4, equipping your character is set to become “hard to master” again. To achieve this, Blizzard has devised new affixes and is even making yellow items useful again. We will show you the plans.
What’s new? On the Diablo website, you can now find a new blog post authored by the Diablo 4 team. It discusses the hotly debated plans regarding items in Diablo 4. Some changes have now been made by Blizzard based on fan feedback. For instance, ancient items have been completely removed.
The developers of the new action RPG are now regularly giving insights into their plans for specific areas in the game. This time, the focus is on ancient items, affixes, and the “easy to learn, hard to master” principle.
The Diablo community has loudly expressed wishes regarding items in Diablo 4.
While the developers know that there is no solution that satisfies every player, they presented the following plans based on fan feedback. Keep in mind that these are far from final and are an early version.
Ancient items are being removed
What are ancient items? These are rare, upgraded versions of legendary items in Diablo 3. Those looking to build their endgame character seek every item they wear in ancient form. However, they plan to forgo these in their current state in Diablo 4.
What will change in the endgame? Blizzard aims to increase the usefulness of yellow items. Instead of ancient items, Blizzard is introducing a new consumable item in Diablo 4 that currently has no name.
Slain monsters can drop the new consumable item. It has a random legendary affix and can only be found at high levels later in the game. When you use it, you can equip a non-legendary item with this legendary affix. Players also have a specific wish regarding the endgame of Diablo 4.
The ancient items are being removed from the game due to fan feedback. Blizzard states, “In our last post, we mentioned that we are considering some potential changes to ancient items based on your feedback. Ancient legendary items will be completely removed from the game in their current form.”
What is the goal? This will give you even more freedom in assembling a build. The best yellow items should also play a role in the endgame and not be blindly replaced by legendary items.
Blizzard also points out in the blog post that this is only an early phase and all changes will be extensively tested and discussed. They still look forward to player feedback on these plans.
How does Diablo 4 strive for even more complexity?
These are the 3 new values: Items will have specific affixes. However, you do not use them as usual just by equipping the item. No, you first need to unlock them.
For example, boots can unlock an additional rank for the ability Devastation – but only if you have 50 Demon Power.
- Demon Power extends the duration of all negative effects such as debuffs or damage over time
- Angel Power extends the duration of all positive effects such as buffs or healing
- Ancestor Power increases the chance of effects triggered by hits (i.e. procs)
To unlock certain affixes, you need to reach a specific value of Demon Power, Angel Power, or Ancestor Power with your equipment. These values may randomly appear as affixes like “+15 Angel Power” on an item.
In the shown amulet, you see another example of the new values. The piece of jewelry provides 15% more critical hit damage and has three additional affixes. However, in this example, only the 10% buff on Crushing Blow is active, because the player’s equipment has over 55 Ancestor Power. The other affixes are inactive because the requirements of 60 Demon Power or 55 Angel Power have not been met.
How does this help the game? In Diablo 4, you are not supposed to simply chase after new items wildly that enhance your strength through stats. You have much more freedom and depth through the new values. Choosing a new item solely based on its stats could cost you important Demon Power that you actually need to activate an affix.
This kind of expansion is important, as in endgame dungeons, Diablo 4 really demands everything from you.
Changes to Attack and Defense
What changes? In Diablo 4, you should only find attack values on weapons and defense values only on armor. Jewelry should offer neither attack nor defense.
However, Blizzard explains that choosing equipment based solely on attack and defense is almost never the optimal way.
The overall strength of a character will be distributed across various areas such as skill ranks, character level, talent trees, items, and the progression system. From all these sources, you can draw more power. This is a big difference from the current Diablo 3.
These changes are also interesting for PvP, which Blizzard claims will be unfair in Diablo 4.
How do you find these changes to items in Diablo 4? Do you like what Blizzard is planning? If you do, then check next which class suits you:
