The big Diablo news from BlizzCon this year is, without a doubt, the confirmation of Diablo 4. But Diablo Immortal, the mobile announcement that caused such a furore at BlizzCon 2018, is still in development and Blizzard has some more details to share for it too.
In a much quieter fashion than last year, Blizzard kept Diablo Immortal out of the BlizzCon opening ceremony and instead posted an update on its official blog with a trailer as well as new information on the game’s story, its classes and its gameplay.
The biggest thing Blizzard wants to make clear to Diablo fans is that although Immortal will be an MMO ARPG on mobile, it wants to “include all the things you know and love about Diablo: multitudes of monsters to slay, troves of loot to collect and customize, and powerful classes to play with friends or on your own.”
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As far as new details, Blizzard confirmed that Diablo Immortal players will be able to create a brand new original hero and choose between six classes: Barbarian, Crusader, Demon Hunter, Monk, Necromancer, and Wizard. Those attending BlizzCon this year will have the chance to gets hands on with a demo of the Demon Hunter class through new locations: the town of Wortham and Ashwold Cemetary.
The game will also include a new base game mechanic called Ultimate Abilities. Each class will have its own Ultimate Ability and players will be able to gain charge to unleash that stronger and more powerful ability by using basic attacks.
Players will also get to enhance their power with the game’s Legendary items. These will make it possible to change up combat by doing things like transforming a burning fireball into a Frozen Orb or turning arrows into grenades.
Blizzard confirmed that it plans to support Diablo Immortal long after launch with new areas, stories, enemies, events and character classes. When that launch is, however, is still unclear.
According to the post, “it takes significant time to meet the Blizzard quality level” that the developer and its fans have come to expect and Blizzard wants to take time to meet the “ambitious goals” it’s set for the game. To ease feelings of impatience, it’s possible to sign up to take part in the beta test on the official Diablo Immortal website. There’s no beta start date confirmed just yet but it’ll certainly be before the release date which is a start.
Blizzard stated that it’s also “too early to share details” about how the game will be monetised. Fans have expressed concern over whether or not microtransactions will be included. Although Blizzard hasn’t gone into detail, it’s hoping to assuage some fears by promising that it’s “taking the time to get it right”.
“We want to make a Diablo game players love and to support it for years to come,” the post explains, “We plan to achieve that by creating an ecosystem that accounts for and welcomes every type of player—from our most die-hard Diablo veterans to those who’ll be exploring Sanctuary for the first time.”
