This shows that there is a third way rather than a binary between the last two games in the series, and that’s the line the development team is trying to walk. The commitment to choosing the best path for D4, which in the blog’s words involve taking “the best parts of previous games and improv upon them while introducing elements to make Diablo unique,” is made very clear here. However, they aren’t going to ignore people who preferred D2‘s TTRPG-like roots of a less-solvable gear paradigm. Overall, this post sets forth a very clear message that Blizzard is not interested in throwing out Diablo 3 entirely for a Diablo 2 remake, as some curmudgeons have suggested. Blizzard wants to show more of their thought process with the community in order to keep folks abreast of what they’re doing, but for good or ill, nothing is guaranteed or promised.

An important caveat which bears repeating, though: literally everything here is early design and could change dramatically during development, so none of it should be taken as gospel.

Lead Systems Designer David Kim came back with the promised post on Diablo 4‘s itemization, and it does not disappoint.

Diablo 3 turn items into ancient