Blizzard should call the next season of Diablo 4 Diablo 5. Because the coming changes are so radical and far-reaching that it will feel like you are playing a complete sequel.

After months of teasing a major overhaul to Diablo 4's core design, Blizzard used today's Campfire Chat steam to discuss the changes in Season 4 (which will be reflected in the game permanently thereafter) along with loot and other core game Many of the systems were explained in the nearly two-hour stream.

The changes touch nearly every aspect of the game, which is probably why the stream began with game director Joe Shely defining the most important aspects of Diablo 4 as decisions before and during combat.

The reworking of Season 4's loot redefines the way characters are built through loot, adding much needed complexity and creativity to Diablo 4's character progression.

Items in Diablo 4, and consequently characters, will be flexible in a way that they have never been since release. Gloves, for example, can drop several stats and affixes, and through two new crafting systems, can be made to align with the build you want to play; Blizzard has clearly taken a cue from Last Epoch and Path of Exile and added a loot added a tremendous amount of customization to the loot. The days of searching through mountains of equipment to find the perfect item are finally over, and Blizzard believes it can be done without a loot filter.

Now let's look at a theoretical example of how loot upgrades could work in Season 4 and beyond:

Of course, this is a very special case. I don't think most players would want a 40% movement speed bonus on their gloves, but you get the idea. And some stats would radically change the way skills work. For example, maxing out the Bone Splinters status would probably fill the entire screen with bullets. And this is just one example. There are still other classes to discover in Season 4.

The variety of gear that can be created through "tempering" and "masterworking," which replaces the basic blacksmith upgrade system, is vast, and as a result, no two builds will probably work exactly alike. Diablo 4 will never escape having a meta-build, but its diversity will force you to choose the parts you like best and should make upgrading all your gear exciting.

To support this new system, Blizzard has made many other significant changes to the way items, affixes, and aspects work in Diablo 4. The difficulty, of course, is that there will never be a definitive end to the pursuit of the best status and the best gear, as there is now. We just have to decide when we are satisfied.

All of these improvements will give Diablo 4 the extra energy it needs for its latest endgame activities:

Class changes (some aimed at justifying weaker builds like the Minion Necromancer) are coming, the camera can zoom out a bit more There are also a lot of quality-of-life changes, such as being able to zoom the camera out a bit more; Blizzard says the full list of patch notes will be released next week, and it is expected to be war and peace-themed.

To ensure a smooth launch of Season 4, Blizzard will conduct a week-long playtest (PTR) beginning April 2 for PC players using the Battle.net launcher. Then, on May 14, the most important season of Diablo 4 will begin, ushering in a whole new era of action RPGs.