dreboyDiablo IV | Season of the Malignant | Announce Trailer
Gamingdexter
CthuluVoIPSo this looks dope, for sure. I wish there were more news about when to expect the expansions. This game is so much better than Diablo III in most ways excluding one: It’s a Diablo game without Diablo, which has left a pretty sour taste in my mouth after finishing the epilogue. The seasons will be fun, I’m sure - but I really just want the rest of the story that I feel like should have been part of the base game.
Yeah, after playing it I was like…this game should have been called Lilith, but of course the brand recognition wouldn’t be there. At least put a subtitle like Daughter of Hatred or something. I mean come on, give her some credit at least LOL!
Personally, I actually liked Lilith’s more complicated take on the big bad. I was actually rooting for her against
spoilerInarius and thought her plan of getting rid of Mephisto was better than what we eventually did, which was trapping yet another Prime Evil in a soulstone…again.
Maybe I missed it in the lore/story so apologies if that's the case. But what timeline is this game set in? Is it possible this is the first time they locked Mephisto in the soul stone? Like a D2 prequel?
It occurs 50 years post Diablo III, unfortunately.
It’s a direct sequel to D3 - Cain is dead, Lorath says something off-hand about Diablo’s recent fall.
Oh, that's right. I remember now Meshif talking about it as well. Thanks for the reminder
No, it's decades after Malthael decimated like half of humankind, which is one of the reasons why humans are struggling so much more now.
ChriskiVNah they reference the world stone and invasion of the mountain (Ariat?) way too much.
I need to learn Lemmy’s markdown syntax. But I agree. I really liked Lilith as a character and her motivations were solid.
spoilerBut then you win the fight, go back and the epilogue lasts all of a couple of minutes before the game loop starts over when you hop to World Tier III. It felt unsatisfying not to have a Prime Evil to contend with, and if I’m honest, the Butcher is a harder boss than Lilith each time you run into him.
Motivations yes, how she went about it no. Having the few remaining humans do a sort of battle royal is not going to make them stronger, it will just cull most of them. And I absolutely hated how she just ended up making most people insane. Like when the villagers in the beginning started to have that dumb smile while clapping the priest I just cringed. Real cartoon villain vibes, which is such a shame for such an important character as Lilith, which is now gone forever since she didn't became a prime evil.
Maybe not gone forever…
spoilerDonan did mention that outside of trapping her within the stone, no matter what they did she’d eventually return. I can’t imagine her soul escaped Hell after we merc her.
I doubt it, but we'll see, or not, I guess. I did like her visual design & voice actress though, at least when she did her calm and motherly talks. Maybe IF she returns, and the forces of hell come for Sanctuary proper, then we get another shot at joining forces. But again, I doubt it.
But hey, Wanderer, you made your own choice!
...I really hated how they rubbed into my face the fact that I couldn't choose anything but that :D
...I really hated how they rubbed into my face the fact that I couldn't choose anything but that :D
entropicshartReally wish they let players choose to back Lilith - her plan to fight prime evils was the only one that didn’t lead to a never ending wheel.
Hey you’ve got this option to end an internal conflict of which you’re smack middle of and getting ducked by both sides; but we’ll go ahead and stick to the eternal conflict.
There could’ve been so much follow up to that choice too: fighting angels how ant to stop you from getting too powerful, fighting other primes and their armies as they fear we kill them, building protections into the world to separate it from everything, and more.
SchmedesIf you chose to back Lilith, the eternal conflict would’ve ended…with her winning and everyone else losing. I’m not sure why there are so many Lilith supporters, Guulrahn made it pretty clear she doesn’t care about humans in the end.
Everyone was already constantly losing against the Prime Evils anyways. I think she does care somewhat about humanity in general or at least striving for what she thinks an elevated humanity might be, but she isn’t against doing whatever is necessary to achieve her goals. Her ends definitely did not justify the means. Still I think, given a choice, siding with Lilith still would have been better than what ended up getting in the end, which was
spoilerNeyrelle disappearing and doing god knows what with Mephisto. She’s probably already being slowly corrupted.
Man…Lemmy really needs inline spoilers.
Now imagine Mephisto outside of the soulstone but with another major demon’s power on top of his.
That’s what Lilith would have been after consuming him. The Neyrelle dumb decision is a separate issue.
It’s the other way around. Imagine Lilith with another major demon’s power on top of hers. Lilith being the driver is better than Mephisto IMHO. Mephisto has no qualms saying what he plans for humanity. I think Lilith, having had a major hand in creating Sanctuary and humanity in the first place, would have at least had some overlapping interests that would have worked in our favor.
It’s like picking between one person who says they’re definitely going to kill you and another person who says they’ll maybe kill you if the need arises.
Again, that’s not any better.
If someone tells you they’re going to slap you and another one doesn’t, you’re still getting slapped. And in this case, you didn’t get slapped by either but you might down the road.
Like I said, at least some of what Lilith wants aligns with humanity’s interests. Enemy of my enemy is my friend type deal. I am not saying Lilith is a saint, I am just saying you can at least bargain with her. We’re all just trying to pick the lesser of two evils.
Besides, siding with Mephisto just means doing the same shit we’ve been doing for the past 3 games and we all know how that worked out. Even if we’re getting slapped eventually, at least we aren’t doing the same thing that we already know hasn’t worked for us before.
I feel like battling Mephisto and winning at least keeps humanity alive in its current form.
Lilith might actually enslave everyone.
Did you watch the lore videos that Blizzard put out just before Diablo IV released?
Lilith ruthlessly slaughtered every angel and demon that joined her and Inarius on Sanctuary. She did this because some angels and demons wanted to kill the Nephalem – first born spawn of angelic and demonic lineage that also included her son Rathma. The angels and demons feared that the Nephalem had all the angelic and demonic strengths, none of the weaknesses, and would eventually be able to overthrow the angels, demons, or both.
And what do we learn in the campaign?
spoilerLilith wants to destroy Inarius for killing Rathma and the prime evils to become all powerful so she can live in “peace”, but really… this means she would have to be, and rightly so, the supreme ruler.
Now, knowing what you know about the lore and what you learn in the campaign, would you want a ruler that has equally killed lesser angels, lesser demons, and more? Existence under Lilith would be one of totalitarian dictatorship of the worst kind – not really worth living, if you ask me.
Yes, I did watch the lore videos. None of them change my view on the matter actually. Angels and demons have been killing each other since the dawn of creation so I don’t see Lilith’s actions as any different or any more ruthless. Also, she did that in defense of the Nephalem, which humanity descended from so I feel like I have more in common with her goals than Mephisto’s.
Existence under Lilith would be one of totalitarian dictatorship of the worst kind – not really worth living, if you ask me.
So would existence under any of the Prime Evils.
Angels and demons have been killing each other since the dawn of creation so I don’t see Lilith’s actions as any different or any more ruthless.
You think she is the lesser of the two evils, excuse the pun, in this particular situation? She made the same choice, to resort to mass murder of her brother and sisters, instead of letting a mass murder of Nephalem take place – eye for an eye and the whole world goes blind.
Actually, she committed mass murder because she feared her son, Rathma would be killed… she didn’t care about humanity. She only cared about her spawn…
spoilerand now that we know Rathma is dead, what better will she be? that is the point, she has nothing to care about anymore. What little she cared for humanity died with Rathma; and we see that cruelty and malice with how she dealt with Inarius (not saying Inarius is innocent, but…)
Don’t get me wrong, I think she’s terrible in the grand scheme of things. I just think that humanity being descendants of the Nephalem have more interests that align with Lilith compared to Mephisto and that might ultimately lead to a change in the never ending eternal conflict. For example, I think she would have wanted to protect Sanctuary itself, whereas both the heavens and the hells wouldn’t give two shits about destroying it if it served their purposes. I also disagree about the part where she didn’t care about humanity, because humanity is just essentially the children of her spawn. Plus, wasn’t Uldyssian a human who later regained his Nephalem powers? So its there, just hidden by the Worldstone tweaks that Inarius did.
and we see that cruelty and malice with how she dealt with Inarius
If my “husband” murdered my son and then impaled me through a wall with a spear and I was in a position to do something about it after the fact, I’d stab and kill him too lol.
Lilith isn’t great…I just don’t think Mephisto is the answer. That’s what I mean by choosing the lesser evil…he’s the worse choice out of the two. At least humanity has a bond with Lilith through being part of her extended family.
One question for you since you seem knowledeable about the lore: What happened to the Nephalem after D3? In D3 the player character is a nephalem and in D4 we’re just some random human as far as I know. And that’s fine. I just want to know what happened to the player characters of D3 in the transit to D4.
This isn’t known fully…
What we do know, if you read any of the books, is that the Nephalem of D3 and Tyrael continue to go on several missions to thwart evil as part of the new Horadric order that Tyrael revived after Malthael’s reaping which disturbed the balance on Sanctuary and allowed demons to take over, slowly.
Guulrahn made it pretty clear she doesn’t care about humans and is just using them as a tool for her own power.
Uhh, I thought the point was both Inarius and Lilith didn’t care one bit about humans except for as a tool
I’d agree that was the overall point but the choice isn’t between Inarius and Lilith, we can choose neither because they’re both awful.
She actually had made clear the opposite; she wanted the humans to regain their strength, back to the levels of the original Nephalem, that both heaven and hell feared.
Multiple times she references how so much was stolen from her children and how she would return them back to their power.
It was Inarius that gave up on the humans and regretted making them; using them only as a tool to get what he wanted: a way back into heaven.
Oh Inarius was definitely just using humans.
But I don’t really trust a word that Lilith says. I think she’s manipulative as a core trait of her character which was really well written just from how many players she has convinced.
She’s kind of a murderous demon monster though. Lilith in charge of sanctuary does not seem better than demons occasionally trying to invade sanctuary.
Lilith got way too much of a minor role to name the game after her. She's a minor villain at best and already dead after a short campaign where we once again make weird ass stupid decisions. I wish we could've joined her, instead of her becoming another cartoon villain that makes people mindless and insane for "reasons". Even her becoming a prime evil would've been a way cooler move. But now they fired that bullet and it's never going to be able to come back. Real shame for such an iconic figure in the history of the game lore.
I agree. During the whole section
spoilerwhere she traps you in your mind, I was like…no, I don’t want to say no to you. Let’s break the fucking cycle and actually DEAL with the prime evils instead of just doing the same old soulstone trick. But alas, it’s not that type of game.
Only way I can justify it: Mephisto is a prime evil. Lilith a lesser evil. Both clearly already have influence over the entire party. Mephisto manipulating the hero into imprisoning him has to be part of his game plan.
Killing Lilith and imprisoning Mephisto is really the only logical choice. You were really going to side with a Lesser Evil, the daughter of Hatred, and think it was going to be all dandy candy?
I have no reason why they would let a child walk around with a prime evil soulstone though lmao.
Lilith isn't a lesser evil. And yes, I'd side with the one power that actually wants to fight for Sanctuary instead of being just caught between the two bullies of the eternal conflict, which already brought humankind to almost extinction. But besides her motives, I just would've found it so much more exciting to have a new force like this in the game / lore, one that isn't just your stereotypical angel or demon.
Why we let Neyrelle go off like that? I don't know. One of the many stupid things in the story. I also don't know why Lorath told Inarius about the soul stone and even showed it to him. Or why we told Elias about his lacking immortality instead of just dealing the death blow for a last time. It's all not quite as bad as the bullshit from D3 but I am really not a fan of what they did with the story. With the MMO aspects they could've even introduced factions. Let people join Lilith (could've been an introduction of the Lilin in D4), or Inarius, and have their forces mangle it out in team based pvp zones, or helltide like open world events with lots of NPC enemies that maybe even take over ownership of the settlements. Both factions could've been used to also unlock specific classes, like some holy warrior class for the cathedral of light and something else for the followers of Lilith. But I guess we rather do stupid weird seasonal paid FOMO events.
Very hyped. I hope they keep the lore and fresh stories coming out. D4 has been the game that finally sold me on the entire world of Diablo.
Also hope this season brings some fun and interesting new ways to play at the end game. I’m starting to feel a bit burned out on nightmares and helltides.
cottardAre there existing plans to expand the end game? My arpg friends have suggested around launch it was lacking a bit, so I’ve put off grabbing d4 despite tons of time in earlier titles & poe.
The upcoming season is adding a new “gem” type very similar to Diablo 3 legendary gems that will (presumably) result in more robust endgame builds. They also mentioned a new boss being added, though I’m not sure what level/World Tier it will be at.
We don’t know much about future plans yet. But from their marketing, it really sounds like they’re counting on seasons to provide that replay-ability factor in the short term.
D4 is still a solid game. My gaming time is limited these days, so once I got accustomed to the gameplay loop at WT3, I did start to feel a bit burned out. But it’s a game that I know I will always come back to and already feel like I’ve gotten my moneys worth
That is looking pretty cool. Cant wait.
ThaolinFor a reveal stream they really didn't reveal much of anything. Let's hope we get more info about the season mechanic like PoE does leading up to launch. Excited to get back into diablo!
So the premium battle pass will include actual armor sets; wasn’t it advertised as transmogs only?
Where did you get that info from? Didn’t see any details about that in the video. But as far as I’ve been able to see online, they haven’t changed anything.
Premium battlepass will only be cosmetic armor sets (those are the transmogs. It isn’t exclusive battle pass gear), horses, titles and emblems.
I think they also said emotes.
They did explicitly say that premium armour rewards were transmog only, and that not paying for the battle pass won’t put you at a disadvantage gear wise.
Hoping it is; wording seems a bit vague
dvlsgThey were very, very clear in the livestream that they are only transmogs.
Explicitly clear and stated it multiple times
Yes but it’s identical regardless of class outside of body type changes.
I wonder if they will reveal more hearts and uniques as we get closer, or have us discover them when the patch comes out. I want to know how much they will actually change builds.
I was just thinking about how much we don’t know about season 1…and I guess we still don’t know much of anything.
Man, I haven’t even beat the game once yet. Guess I gotta hurry. Assuming I’ll have to make a new character for each season?
Yeah, everyone starts at level 1 for new seasons. Map reveals and altar of lilith finds are permanent though. And you could technically just keep playing in the eternal realm if you really wanted to.
So hyped that they kept the map open. I created a sorc to mess around and it’s such a hassle the unexplored map.
What do you mean by “map open”?
I think they mean the lifted fog of war. The patch on the 18th is supposed to lift the fog of war for any new (incl. Seasonal) toons, but you have to log in on the toon with the most map progress for it to populate across.
Currently creating an alt only shows main towns on the map with everything else under the fog as undiscovered.
Looks great! Excited to see how much hearts change builds… and how broken they will be.