Diablo 4 Developer Livestream

April 20th, 2023

With the Diablo 4 developer livestream behind us, we learned a ton about what is to come in the endgame, class changes, dev philosophy going forward, and even got a surprise announcement.

World Tiers and Capstone Dungeons

One area we got more info on was the world tier and capstone dungeon system. As players progress to the end of the base game, they will gain access to a capstone dungeon. These dungeons serve as the final gateway standing between players and the next world tier.

These dungeons will scale to level 50 and will be no small feat, challenging even the most experienced players. Content creator Rhykker, a well-known Diablo vet, commented on how he was “humbled” when attempting the capstone at level 45.

Needless to say, the capstone dungeon will be filled with bosses and mark a major milestone for players. The devs commented on how the focus won’t be on farming these dungeons, but instead on climbing the mountain and earning your right to set foot in the Nightmare World tier.

Difficulty and Enemy Scaling

Diablo 4 will feature an improved focus on enemy scaling that steps beyond the traditional slap with a stat stick. In addition to scaling in health and damage as difficulty increases, players will also notice how enemies’ interactions will change. Enemy AI and combat strategy will adapt depending on the difficulty – they will become more aggressive and strategic on higher difficulties.

This might mean that at a higher level, players will see enemies move faster, group together and engage as one, and use attacks more frequently and accurately. New enemy Champions will also spawn with a host of new challenges for players to face. In return, players will be forced to think on their feet to improve how they engage with the world as it continues to grow more hostile.

Items

Once players get to the Nightmare and Torment World Tiers, they will gain access to new features that can potentially drop new powerful items including Sacred and Ancestral items. Once a player hits level 50 and sets foot into the Nightmare World Tier, Sacred items can drop. The drop chance of these items will scale directly with the level of the creature you have defeated.

Sacred items have a wide range of power that can drop from roughly level 50 to level 70. However, the level requirement to wield a Sacred item, regardless of its power, will be the level at which you were when it dropped. This means that you might get a Sacred ring or an amulet at level 51 that you wish to keep for the entire World Tier. This also means these items can be incredibly valuable to trade as their low-level requirement combined with their potentially high power can make them useful to almost any player.

Legendary items can rarely drop at any point, with an increased drop rate as you reach higher-level content. Once you reach Nightmare and Torment World Tiers there will be more legendary aspects available that can drop on these items. Unique items will only appear starting at the Nightmare World Tier and are incredibly rare items that players will have to chase.

However, these unique items will open up all-new play styles and build paths like an item for the Druid that allows him to permanently stay in Werewolf form. There will also be some returning items like The Grandfather and Shako.

Helltide and Farming Legendary Items

The new Helltide activity will allow players to farm legendary items. When a Helltide begins, the sky will turn red and new monsters will appear. These enemies will be incredibly challenging and, when killed, will drop a new currency called cinders along with other random drops. These cinders can be used to open hell-caches that spawn around the Helltide zone. These caches will remain in a fixed location throughout that specific Helltide, and each will be tied and labeled with a specific item slot.

Each cache will cost a varying amount of cinders reflecting the item slot that it can drop, but opening one will guarantee a legendary. While this serves as a supreme time to get some awesome gear, players should be careful because the stakes are high. Upon death, players will lose half of their cinders and cannot retrieve them. Furthermore, the Helltide will only last an hour, and once it ends, or the player leaves the zone, all cinders will be lost. So, players need to scout caches, kill enemies, and loot quickly!

Alongside cinders, players will also be able to farm crafting materials tied almost exclusively to Helltide such as Fiendroses. Finally, make sure to keep an eye out for your good friend The Butcher, as he can occasionally be seen wandering the Helltide.

Nightmare Dungeons

Players will gain access to Nightmare Dungeons through Sigils. As you reach the Nightmare World Tier and beyond, Sigils will begin to drop. Sigils will have various afflictions making dungeon content far more difficult. Players can also make Sigils by grinding down existing Sigils into Sigil dust.

When activating a Nightmare Dungeon, the Sigil will open a portal next to the entrance of the regular Dungeon. Within a Nightmare Dungeon, players will find new and stronger enemies and Hell portals that allow non-native enemies to pour in and attack the player. Nightmare Dungeons feature a death limit that will fail players who fail too much. These dungeons can scale up to level 150 so there is a lot to grind.

Paragon Boards

When players finish a Nightmare Dungeon, they will earn a glyph that can be applied to their character to receive a huge benefit. This glyph can then be upgraded to become more than legendary powers and other stat bonuses.

This plays into the improved Paragon Board system. Here players will have tons of different nodes to unlock, with some nodes getting boosted when new ones are found. Rare Nodes will have powerful effects immediately, with an even better effect locked behind a stat requirement and activate automatically when players reach it.

Many different boards will be available at launch so players can choose how they progress with different nodes. However, jumping from board to board will not be efficient as the cost requirements will increase dramatically in each subsequent board. Players will be able to respec for a gold cost.

As players progress through the normal and rare nodes they will reach more powerful bonuses. Legendary nodes can be found on every board, granting a legendary effect unique to each board and class that fits with the style conveyed by the board. Players can also unlock sockets within their Paragon Boards.

This is where Glyphs from Nightmare Dungeons begin to shine. Upgraded Glyphs can be inserted into Paragon Sockets granting special effects, most importantly, as a Glyph is upgraded, it will give off an aura boosting the nodes that fall within it, the more upgraded the Glyph, the bigger the aura.

The devs commented on how they want players with identical skill choices to feel as though they have many different paths on the Paragon Board. Therefore, one incarnate sorcerer will look very different compared to another. In total, there will be 220 Paragon points by the end of leveling.

Further Beta Learning and Changes

The class changes from the Beta were posted.

The reset dungeon button was removed. Instead, players will be able to reset dungeons in a few different ways.

If a dungeon has been completed, players must exit the dungeon and wait roughly 60 seconds for it to reset.
If a dungeon was partially completed, this timer will be about 150 seconds.
Players will still be able to reset dungeons consistently, just without a dedicated button to do so.

Bug fixes regarding spell casts for ultrawide screens were also announced during the stream.

Surprise Announcement

For players who want to experience Diablo 4 again, or for their first time, there will be a server slam event on May 12th through May 14th where players can check out the game. Players will have another chance to earn cosmetics from the beta weekend. The level cap will be set at 20 and legendary drop rates will be consistent with the live game instead of the higher drop rates present in the first 2 beta sessions.

Class changes from the public patch notes will be in effect, and players will be able to fight and kill Ashava. Players who reach level 20 and do so will get an exclusive mount trophy in the form of a horn ripped from Ashava.

That covers all that we learned from the Diablo 4 Developer Livestream, I hope you are looking forward to both the server slam and the launch just as much as we are!