Update on all the news in the December 2021 quarterly report on Diablo 4! Paragons, skills, items and visuals!

Legendary items, NPCs and powers

Here is the summary of the announcements:

• the return of the + X affixes to a skill, which does not exist on D3 but is present on D2. The operation will be identical
• legendary powers appear on several types of items, for example not just on a ring base
• New NPC: the occultist, allows to extract a legendary power, which destroys the object and gives you an essence of this power, to put it on another, which replaces the legendary power if existing or transforms it into legendary
• Monsters will drop specific item bases, for example Bandits Maces Crossbows Boots and Drowned Pants

New Paragon system

A completely new Paragon system has been created on Diablo 4. It looks quite a bit like Path Of Exile, but simpler.

• it is available at level 50
• you start in the center of the board, and can unlock a next board by reaching one of the North East West or South ends
• you will be able to choose the board that you will use in this case, in particular to choose your legendary power
• you move step by step to unlock items
• there are several types of tiles, more or less interesting to go for
• normal slabs: gives a small bonus to stats
• magic tiles: better than normal tiles, but nothing super powerful
• rare slabs: gives a very powerful boost, to go find according to your build
• legendary slabs: a unique boost, in the middle of the boards, after the first
• you can insert glyphs, a bit like POE, giving a bonus to surrounding tiles
• you can level up these glyphs to increase their range

Dynamic skills

Details were provided on the skills:

• you will be able to change a skill a lot, a bit like the runes on D3 but much more extensive
• you can change the size, intensity and duration for example
• the visual intensity will be greater the more powerful your spell, giving an effect of power
• you will be able to change the core of the spell, whether it is its function or the type of damage, much like Wolcen this time, where an ice meteor becomes a rain of fiery flame

Improved visual effects

Here's the summary of the visual effects information:

• they want to prioritize the visuality of the effects according to their importance, for example seeing the drop of a legendary object is very good, avoiding this being killed by an animation not visible in hardcore is better
• AOEs are now made up of multiple animations rather than just one, for example Tourbillon comes alive with your character
• On Hit effects, ie when you hit with a spell or attack, are better calculated. If you hit an enemy in the knee, the impact will be calculated on their knee (recoil) and blood will flow from that location. Editor's note: I can't wait to see this system in place, even if I'm afraid it will be a bit greedy for pcs!
• improvement of light effects, and improvements thereof depending on the situation. The barbarian whirlpool reflects the light in broad daylight, but in a dark dungeon much more subtle lights. Editor's note: it looks as impressive, to follow
• buff effects have been improved, weapon that burns for example with a buff sword on fire
• enemy deaths are upgraded based on their death, beheaded, halved, frozen, exploded, eviscerated, burned, etc. It will depend in particular on your class

Source

The Blizzard article DIABLO IV QUARTERLY UPDATE — DECEMBER 2021

By Alchemists, December 2021