When Diablo 4 launched, it carried the weight of a legacy. The franchise that popularized the action RPG (ARPG) genre was back, and fans expected both nostalgia and innovation. Blizzard delivered a game with a hauntingly beautiful world, a dark and grounded tone, and fast-paced combat that felt satisfying moment to moment. Yet as players dug deeper, one fundamental problem became clear: not all skills—or builds—are created equal.
This reality has haunted Diablo 4 since release. Many players who experimented with its intricate skill tree quickly learned that only a fraction of available abilities scale well enough to be viable at high levels. Even with phenomenal gear, some skills simply fall flat. For an ARPG built around loot and experimentation, this imbalance was more than a minor issue—it cut at the heart of what keeps players grinding.
Now, with the next season approaching, Blizzard appears to be addressing this head-on. Their decisions could determine whether Diablo 4 becomes the endlessly replayable ARPG fans hoped for—or another title remembered for wasted potential.
Why Skills Don’t Feel Equal
Every ARPG has skills that outperform others. That’s normal. But in Diablo 4, the gap between fun, flashy abilities and actual viable builds has been glaring.
The primary culprit isn’t the skill tree itself—it’s loot. Unlike Diablo II or Path of Exile, where skills are often strong in their own right, Diablo 4 Gold ties the majority of a skill’s power to gear. Legendary aspects, unique items, and affixes determine whether a skill can scale into endgame content. Without the right piece of loot, even your favorite ability might hit like a wet noodle.
This creates a frustrating loop. Players don’t just farm gear to become stronger; they farm gear to make their skills functional. If a certain aspect or unique doesn’t drop, entire sections of the skill tree may as well not exist. The problem is less about bad numbers and more about philosophy: when gear is everything, skills stop being a meaningful choice.
The Loot Problem
Blizzard clearly wanted loot to be central to the Diablo 4 experience, and on paper, that makes sense. Legendary items that alter skills are a great way to add depth and excitement. The problem is scale.
Because gear accounts for such a huge portion of character strength, builds without perfect synergy collapse in higher-level Nightmare Dungeons or endgame bosses. In practice, this meant that only a handful of builds dominated the meta. If you wanted to push late-game content, your choices narrowed dramatically.
Instead of celebrating experimentation, Diablo 4 punished it. Players could spend hours leveling with a skill they enjoyed, only to discover it was a dead end without specific loot drops. Worse, Blizzard’s initial loot system flooded players with gear, but most of it was meaningless—either because the rolls were bad or because it didn’t synergize with their chosen skills.
The thrill of ARPG loot comes from discovery and potential. In Diablo 4, too often, it felt like sorting through junk mail.
Why the Next Season Matters
The upcoming season represents a turning point. Blizzard has signaled that it understands this issue and is looking to reframe how loot interacts with skills. The exact details remain under wraps, but several design philosophies are becoming clear:
Reducing Reliance on Gear – Skills should feel impactful on their own, not placeholders waiting for legendary powers. If Blizzard can rebalance damage and utility at the base level, players will have more freedom to experiment.
Smarter Loot Drops – The team has already implemented systems to reduce the avalanche of meaningless loot, but the next season seems poised to refine this further. Loot should feel exciting, not exhausting.
Skill-Driven Builds, Not Loot-Driven Builds – The most promising direction is making skills the foundation of builds, with gear enhancing them rather than carrying them entirely. This would shift the focus back to player choice and creativity.
If Blizzard pulls this off, Diablo 4 could move from a game where everyone chases the same three or four builds to one where diverse playstyles flourish.
Lessons from the ARPG Genre
Blizzard isn’t designing in a vacuum. The ARPG genre has decades of history, and other titles offer valuable lessons.
Diablo II remains beloved because nearly every skill tree had viable endgame options with the right planning. Loot was powerful, but skills themselves carried weight.
Path of Exile thrives on overwhelming build diversity. Its complexity is intimidating, but it ensures that nearly any skill can be made viable with clever combinations.
Diablo III, for all its flaws, struck a middle ground by making legendary items redefine how skills worked, but never to the point of rendering the base skill meaningless.
Blizzard can take inspiration from all of these approaches. The challenge is balance: too much reliance on gear alienates players, but too little risks making loot feel irrelevant.
The Hope for Build Diversity
At its best, an ARPG invites players to express themselves through builds. Some players chase efficiency, aiming to melt bosses in seconds. Others build around quirky interactions, enjoying the novelty of watching a swarm of skeletons do the work or setting the entire screen ablaze with fire magic. Both approaches should feel valid.
Right now, Diablo 4 limits that creativity. Too many skills simply aren’t worth investing in because they lack the loot to support them. The upcoming season’s changes suggest Blizzard wants to broaden that horizon.
Imagine a Diablo 4 where every skill tree has at least one viable late-game build. Imagine if loot amplified your favorite abilities rather than dictated them. That’s the vision many players are hoping for—and what Blizzard seems intent on delivering.
Player Trust and Blizzard’s Challenge
Of course, promises aren’t enough. Blizzard has had a rocky relationship with its community in recent years, and Diablo 4 has already seen its share of backlash. Seasonal content has often felt like temporary band-aids rather than permanent fixes.
To regain trust, Blizzard needs to show that it’s not just tweaking numbers for a season but fundamentally reworking how skills and loot interact long-term. Players are willing to grind, experiment, and theorycraft—but they need assurance that their time isn’t wasted on dead-end builds.
If the next season proves Blizzard is committed to this philosophy, it could mark the start of a brighter future for the game. If not, players may drift back to alternatives like Path of Exile 2, which looms on the horizon as a major competitor.
The Future of Diablo 4
The stakes are high. Diablo 4 has the bones of an incredible ARPG: a dark and immersive world, responsive combat, and a devoted community hungry for content. But its success will hinge on whether Blizzard can fix the core issue of skill and loot imbalance.
A healthy ARPG is one where players feel rewarded for experimenting, where every drop of loot carries the thrill of potential, and where no skill is left behind. If the next season delivers on this vision, Diablo 4 could reclaim its place as the genre’s standard-bearer. If not, it risks being overshadowed by competitors willing to embrace the complexity and creativity players crave.
Conclusion
At its heart, Diablo 4 is a game about choices—how you build your character, which skills you embrace, and what loot you pursue. For too long, those choices have been illusions, narrowed by gear dependency and uneven scaling. But with the next season, there’s hope.
Blizzard seems to recognize its greatest weakness and, more importantly, how to fix it. If skills can become meaningful in their own right, and loot transitions from a crutch to a complement, Diablo 4 Items for sale could finally realize the potential it promised at launch.
The ARPG genre is defined by endless replayability, and that can only happen when diversity thrives. Players don’t want one correct answer; they want many. The future of Diablo 4 depends on whether Blizzard can deliver that vision.