BlizzCon 2019 Diablo 4: Unveiled Panel Transcript

DIABLO IV CLASSES

Tiffani: Alright, let’s take a closer look at these classes, starting with the Barbarian. There is a reason we keep bringing this class back. The barbarians are the embodiment of visceral, brutal combat that is just so core to Diablo.

So when reimagining this class for Diablo IV, we drew upon classical barbarian imagery, as well as art from our own past. So one common theme that kept cropping up was the physicality of these warriors, and how armed to the teeth they are with weaponry. Every time you take a look at a picture of a Barbarian, they’ve got axes, swords, polearms — as many weapons as they can carry. We really love this fantasy for this class; and with that in mind, we’ve added the arsenal system. So, the barbarians will have four weapon slots, and will be able to use both one-handed and two-handed weapons in the same build, and I’m so excited about this level of customization, and being able to equip four legendary items at the same time.

John: Yeah, it’s pretty much every Barbarian’s fantasy to finally see that Arsenal that you’re used to seeing unlike those classic barbarian paintings come to life.

Tiffani: So, actually to be able to assign items to each skill slot to add yet another layer of a customization, and depending on what skill you use the Barbarian will automatically pull out the weapon that he or she needs. So combat will continue to be seamless on the battlefield. We’re carrying forward Fury to power the aggressive physical fast-paced attacks of the Barbarian, but they’ll also continue to pull the ancient magic of their ancestors to give them all that strength and combat on the battlefield. So, let’s take a look at the barbarian in action and some art.

John: I love this piece one of my favorites.

Luis: Some of the legendary sets we’ve found that works.

Tiffani: Built on blood.

John: This guy is ready for action.

Tiffani: Alright, wait for it you know what he’s gonna do.

John: It’s like almost a hammer down moment.

Luis: It’s a Barbarian player. I love that. The team’s taking some of the things that were formerly elemental magic and now it’s just more blood.

John: Yeah, I think this is like every Barbarian paint that I grew up with come to life, where it’s just like wading into the crowd of enemies and just wreaking havoc.

Tiffani: Ok, lets look at our next class.

Luis: Next up we have the Druid. Who got to play a druid in Diablo II? Any wild Druid players? I think you guys are gonna like this guy; but first I don’t know if this little tidbit I’m gonna give you is going to reaffirm your faith in us, or shake your faith in us; but we got something to share with you.

The Druid was not part of our really original lineup for Diablo IV. I know, my bad. That lasted about a day; and basically one of our artists did this amazing piece of art, and then we went from like I don’t know, Druid maybe we got— no, we’re making a Druid, 100% starting tomorrow, right now.

John: The power of art.

Luis: It’s so great. It is a theme. The art inspires the design in this game. You see it with the Arsenal system, you see it with the Druid. So one of the things that we said it’s like: “Hey, we love the idea of the Druid, how do we move it forward?”

One of the things that we did is we took some of that fire magic that didn’t feel like it met the fantasy of being someone in tune with nature, and we replaced it with storm magic and earth magic; and we feel pretty great about that; and we have it in the demo if you guys want to check it out.

We kept this nick-nack nature companions like the wolves, the ravens, the vines, all of that. Then the thing that we feel is the kind of special sauce is, he’s always been able to be this master shapeshifter. You can turn into werebear, he can turn to a werewolf, and (you know) it’s pretty cool. You’d be a bear and spam some shockwave. That was pretty awesome.

So, but we decided to move that forward in Diablo IV, and now we have something we call seamless shapeshifting. What that means if you truly want to embrace the hybrid nature of the class, you can start an attack in one form, and you’ll begin animating as smooth and fluid as the Diablo III combat you’ve enjoyed so far. We’re leveling that up.

So mid-swing, you will transform into the correct form, so you’ll press a button for a werewolf attack, you’ll start animating caster form, finish it in werewolf form. If you’re surrounded by enemies you can conjure up a boulder, push those enemies away, and then turn back into a werebear and charge into them. It’s really, really cool. I really hope you guys have the time to play the demo, check out the Druid, but enough of me talking. Let’s see that stuff in action.

Tiffani: That guy is not having a good day.

Luis: I love these sets.

John: Yeah, this was one of our first pieces we did for him when we were trying to figure out what was gonna be so cool about them.

Luis: Crazy mountain man.

Tiffani: Alright, look at those good boys.

Luis: Send your pets in, summon up some storm magic. Don’t worry if (you know) you’ve got a preferred form. You can just assign all your buttons to that form and be a bear all the time if that’s your fancy.

John: And of course, Cataclysm just wrecks the battlefield.

Luis: Master of nature magic right there.

John: Yeah, you made a good choice about that art. I guess. They worked out. Alright, the Sorceress, the Sorcerer is back. How exciting is that?

Tiffani: I guess

John: Yeah, she is elemental carnage on the battlefield whether it’s chilling enemies and smashing them with a fireball; or transforming into a chaotic ball of lightning, and just completely destroying the battlefield teleporting around and just wreaking havoc.

She is an unstoppable wrecking machine wading through the hordes of monsters with the power of elemental magic. In a dark oppressive world of Sanctuary, the sorcerer lights up our dungeons. Like when we say we’re returning to darkness, our dungeons are really dark, and the sorceress lights it up in an amazing fantastic way with our new engine and our new tech; and we’re gonna take a look right now.

Luis: That guy is about to get a fireball to the head.

John: He’s definitely questioning his life choices.

Luis: Pentagrams, of course

John: Yeah. That classic D2 sorceress.

Luis: I love that in addition to bringing the light show, gameplay-wise you feel like a dungeon boss when you play a sorceress. She has basically control over the battlefield with abilities like Blizzard, like Firewall that basically make you feel like you are doing area of denial attack on enemies. Really cool.

NEXT: CHARACTER CUSTOMIZATION

BLIZZCON 2019 DIABLO IV: UNVEILED PANEL TRANSCRIPT
1. Intro	2. What is Diablo IV?	3. Classes	4. Character Customization
5. The World	6. Dungeons	7. Monsters	8. Legendary Items

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