Diablo 4 devs planning “really big update” for loot but there’s a catch

The steady progress of Diablo 4 continues as its development team promises a huge shift to the game’s loot systems. Unfortunately, players will be waiting until 2024 to see it implemented.

Diablo 4 has made some massive strides since the ironically maligned Season of the Malignant. The current Season of Blood constituted a big shift in content and player perception.

Newly added features like targeted farming of endgame bosses and the Blood Harvest seasonal events have addressed some major issues that saw Diablo 4 hemorrhage players and Twitch viewers.

Not content to rest on their laurels, the Diablo 4 development team has been hard at work on more changes they think will improve the game. In a recent Campfire Chat, they teased some exciting changes to the game’s loot systems, players will have to wait until next year to see them though.

Acknowledging some existing issues with the current itemization and loot in Diablo 4, Associate Game Director Joseph Piepiora gave some hints at their plans to address it. He spoke more on the philosophy the team had adopted to direct the overhaul rather than concrete changes.

“One of the things we want to think about more as we get into 2024 is having items really be a start of a journey,” Piepiora explained. “When something drops for you as a player, you want to be able to get this and say ‘This is awesome, I can’t wait to do X, Y, and Z to this and make it really, really great,’.”

Presently, customization of loot in Diablo 4 is a little limited given that players can only reroll a single stat on any one item. Piepiora has suggested that the team is focusing on ways to expand this and reduce the amount of time players spend finding viable gear.

“If Diablo is a game about killing monsters and getting loot then killing monsters feels pretty good right now,” he declared. “I think getting loot has places where we could make improvements. We need to make sure that’s holding up its end of the bargain.”

Game Director Joe Shely revealed that some underlying changes to the game to facilitate this new overhaul for Diablo 4’s loot would arrive in January’s Season 3. Reading between the lines, it appears that the major changes will be saved for a later Season.

Shely explained that the slower rollout of these features isn’t a stall tactic and they’ve already been workshopping them with Diablo 4’s sponsored content creators. “It’s more about getting it right than keeping it a secret,” Shely explained.

He told players to look out for more elaborate details on these new systems in the new year. Hopefully, with the time they’re dedicating to these changes, player feedback will also play a role in their implementation.