Blizzard published a blog that takes a deep-dive behind the gameplay mechanics the team has been working on for Diablo IV. It explains everything from literal skill trees and sorceress enchantments to legendary items and endgame progression.
In the blog, Blizzard published several photos and gifs of menus and gameplay. However, keep in mind that it's all pre-alpha content, so the final product could very well look different. Although, I'm loving the dark-edgy style of everything shown so far.
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Diablo IV deep-dive
Blizzard showcased The Sorceress skill tree, and it's more in-depth than anything we got in Diablo 3. The publisher explains the emphasis put into the skill tree was because the "skill system progression felt too simple, which created issues where a player would have no meaningful reason to spend their skill points."
In this new system, you'll unlock skill points earned by leveling up, which you can spend on the upper part of the tree. You can also unlock passive points by making your way up the tree. These are spent on passive skills located on the roots of the tree. It seems like a weird system, but we'll see how it actually works in practice.
Each class will get a unique ability or trait that gives them a certain edge in combat. Previously, it was revealed that Barbarians would be able to switch between weapons on the fly, which increased their power. But for The Sorceress, Blizzard is introducing the Enchantment system.
This gives you three Enchantment slots that you can fill with spells that you aren't actively using. These Enchanted spells will act autonomously, attacking your foes with slightly different effects. This system seems pretty badass -- I'm excited to see the other unique features for the rest of the classes.
The last thing Blizzard briefly touches on is the end game progression system. "This system is intended to provide more depth and replayability than what Paragon currently offers in Diablo III." The developers are aiming for an “easy to learn, difficult to master” system, which seems interesting, but we'll see how it actually looks in the final product.
