https://diablo5.blizzard.com/en-us

At the announcement of Diablo 5 we got the debut cinematic, which revolves around the return of The Lord of Terror himself, Diablo, to Sanctuary. "Sanctuary falls," is the tagline. It's set 100 years after Diablo 4. You enter a world in which Diablo has already won, with no towns or safe places waiting to protect players. "What must you become when the world has already fallen?"

Spring 2029 Release

Stealing a page from Brandon Sanderson, it seems.

Lathspell said:

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Stealing a page from Brandon Sanderson, it seems.

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A few games have definitely explored this concept as well. Elemental: Sorcerer King, AI Wars, and Tyranny all come to mind. All pretty damn fun. It can work really well.

I should be way more excited for a new Diablo entry than I am. Total wait and see mode on this one for me after III and IV disappointed me in different ways. Pretty shocked they announced V so soon though. Is this a little of bit of an admission that IV was meh? Or just easy money?

This feels like them throwing in the towel on 4 and resetting tbh.

Kinda the vibe I'm getting. They're at least claiming the loot is D2 inspired, screenshot they shared on a blog even had runes which is cool. I'll be preparing myself for the rug pull before launch still.

Not gonna lie I think d2 has a god awful loot system for a normal player. Requiring powerful rune words to unlock so many builds is a terrible design. I love it for the nostalgia but I hope they stay far far away from anything like that

Whomever decided to put both rings on one side should be slapped. But it's probably because it would look a whole lot like PoE

Hopefully D4 itemization is their baseline for what NOT to do. But I believe before D4 release they were talking about D2 itemization inspiration as well, the. They went off the rails.

Y'all think this means Diablo will not be in D4 at all, or does the last expansion have him "win" to setup D5?

Isn't the final D4 expansion out? I only played after the first expansion and it was considered a big improvement. So I think 4 has righted the course, kinda like 3 did after Reaper of Souls.

Could be wrong though!

4 was hot garbage. Blizzard has lost all of it's goodwill and bringing in the abysmal narrative director from Dragon Age 2 makes this one a no go.

I personally dig the rune system, but I won't argue that they've left it in a severely flawed state. Enigma and Grief in particular are just completely broken. Take those two (I'm sure there's another runeword or two I'm forgetting that would qualify too) out of the game and I think it opens up a world of possibilities.

I don't enjoy teleporting all over the map so I've always avoided Enigma and I've never felt like it was required for me to crush end game on any build I've ever done.

The issue with rune words is there was literally no way in game to know what they were. I played D2 back in the day and, because i didn't play online, I had not idea what runewords were until jumping in again 5-6 years later and looking at a build guide.

I just want someone to translate that Spring 2029 timeframe from Blizzard time to real world time, because we all know that isn't a good date.

WGann3 said:

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I personally dig the rune system, but I won't argue that they've left it in a severely flawed state. Enigma and Grief in particular are just completely broken. Take those two (I'm sure there's another runeword or two I'm forgetting that would qualify too) out of the game and I think it opens up a world of possibilities.

I don't enjoy teleporting all over the map so I've always avoided Enigma and I've never felt like it was required for me to crush end game on any build I've ever done.

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It wasn't the rune system.

It was drop rates equivalent to winning to lottery.

Just absurd.

When was the last time you played? There were periods of it feeling like that, but high rune drops were buffed quite a while back. I'm a 40 year old dad of two so my time isn't what it used to be, but I've played D2R off and on since it launched and always found probably 4-5 high runes per season, and that was online with a couple buddies in players 3 games typically. If I was playing offline and able to set that to players 8 I'd expect those numbers to be even better.

It was too rare for my taste at times, but I enjoy the rarity they currently have for high runes. It really makes for some awesome dopamine hits. D3 and D4 just bored me to tears with how easy it was to gear up a character. I'm not saying my taste is right, just what I enjoy personally.

agdoc2001 said:

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4 was hot garbage. Blizzard has lost all of it's goodwill and bringing in the abysmal narrative director from Dragon Age 2 makes this one a no go.

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Dragon Age 2, woof!

It still sucks I've been playing d2 for 25 years and never found a jah/ber including d2r.

Wild to me, I usually find at least a couple Jah/Ber+ per season since D2R launched. Definitely have to be doing pro-rune finding activities like terror zones, cows, horking travincal, arcane sanctuary, etc..

What's the point of announcing it so early? Investors I guess?

flakrat said:

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agdoc2001 said:

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4 was hot garbage. Blizzard has lost all of it's goodwill and bringing in the abysmal narrative director from Dragon Age 2 makes this one a no go.

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Dragon Age 2, woof!

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I had to look this up, yep it's true.

At least it isn't from the newest dragon age

Also I don't remember dragon age 2 being a horrible game.

Diablo 1 is the only good Diablo game.

Madmarttigan said:

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It still sucks I've been playing d2 for 25 years and never found a jah/ber including d2r.

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Same.

The best I have found is a couple of VEX runes on D2R and I think a ZOD rune back in the day.

It is a trading simulator if you want the best gear.

One season I picked up everything and was determined to work my way up to the runes I needed... that didn't work either.

The drop rates in D2 is what made the game just great and not the GOAT.

YouBet said:

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Diablo 1 is the only good Diablo game.

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You are absolutely entitled to your incorrect opinion, but I will say, the setting and vibes of Diablo 1 are unmatched.

WGann3 said:

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YouBet said:

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Diablo 1 is the only good Diablo game.

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You are absolutely entitled to your incorrect opinion, but I will say, the setting and vibes of Diablo 1 are unmatched.

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I was lightly trolling. I've only ever played 1 and 2. I did not like 2 at all. After playing 1, I found 2 to just be more non-stop click fest which does nothing for me. Never had desire to go beyond 2 afterwards.

I figured you were, I think you and I have crossed paths in a topic or two in this forum that resulted in a D2 discussion at some point. I was just playing around myself, I'm never going to try and tell people what they should or shouldn't enjoy. But also D2 best game.

Very loosely related to all this Diablo talk, there's a new sandbox ARPG of sorts that just dropped into early access on Steam I've been paying close attention to called Dimraeth that I'm going to go make a post about right now, some of you might be interested.

Madmarttigan said:

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At least it isn't from the newest dragon age

Also I don't remember dragon age 2 being a horrible game.

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I was mixing it up with the Veilguard one, I retract my previous statement and at least feel better she was part of THAT one.

Madmarttigan said:

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At least it isn't from the newest dragon age

Also I don't remember dragon age 2 being a horrible game.

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And Dragon Age Origins and Inquisition I believe were also very well received. It was this last one that made gamers want to puke.

Ok, I am considering jumping back in for this season. The nostalgia is real.

I see I can also build a blessed hammer pally.

Some many questions though. First how long is the season? Second, will I have to complete the two expansion campaigns to do the season stuff?

You do have to beat the campaign and two expansions at least once on your account.

D4 is made for casuals and seasons cam be completed relatively quickly. Having to complete the expansions is what will take some time.

I love D2 but a few years back I played through 1, loved it, then played 2 and totally lost interest. I can't put my finger on why. If I go straight to 2 I'm fine but back to back like that, 1 stood out to me as more fun.

Dragon Age 2 is hot garbage. Veilguard isn't great either but it's better.. Origins > Inquisition > Veilguard > 2.

rhutton125 said:

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I love D2 but a few years back I played through 1, loved it, then played 2 and totally lost interest. I can't put my finger on why. If I go straight to 2 I'm fine but back to back like that, 1 stood out to me as more fun.

Dragon Age 2 is hot garbage. Veilguard isn't great either but it's better.. Origins > Inquisition > Veilguard > 2.

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Did the same. I was (and am still) a D2 truther, but actually playing through it these days? Just not the same. I've experienced better gameplay at this point and it's hard to purposely go backwards. Even for nostalgias sake.

Never played any DA except Origins. It was incredible. Not feeling left out not playing the others either.

Lathspell said:

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You do have to beat the campaign and two expansions at least once on your account.

D4 is made for casuals and seasons cam be completed relatively quickly. Having to complete the expansions is what will take some time.

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D4 is made for causals?

I ask this, how long does it take to get all gear pieces you need for your targeted build?

Not with perfect stats, just the gear pieces to start working on the stats.

For example, go the maxroll.gg and look at the blessed hammer pally.

Eliminatus said:

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rhutton125 said:

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I love D2 but a few years back I played through 1, loved it, then played 2 and totally lost interest. I can't put my finger on why. If I go straight to 2 I'm fine but back to back like that, 1 stood out to me as more fun.

Dragon Age 2 is hot garbage. Veilguard isn't great either but it's better.. Origins > Inquisition > Veilguard > 2.

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Did the same. I was (and am still) a D2 truther, but actually playing through it these days? Just not the same. I've experienced better gameplay at this point and it's hard to purposely go backwards. Even for nostalgias sake.

Never played any DA except Origins. It was incredible. Not feeling left out not playing the others either.

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Compared to DA Origins, DA2 felt like something they turned over to the summer interns to knock out in a few months.

One thing that still stands out in my mind, they recycled indoor spaces like caves and dungeons. To make them "unique" they'd plug some forward and unplug others. The plugs paltry was off and didn't blend with the wall, so it was obvious.

All that said, I went and looked it up on Steam and I played that "horrible" game for 70 hours! I'm downloading it so I can give it another try.