Diablo 4 will be released on June 6th and does without one of the best features: set items – the parts will come later. MeinMMO editor Maik Schneider was shocked at first. Now that the dust has settled, he sees things differently.
What are set items? These special items are the divas in every Diablo 2 & 3 inventory. With their bright green elements, they stand out visually from the mean Legendaries, and from normal items anyway.
If you pack several like-minded set items into the active equipment slots, then these parts bring extra bonuses, sometimes even special gameplay mechanics. There are sets that only unfold their full effect with 5 parts.
Combined, these are usually extremely strong pieces of equipment that are now an integral part of the Diablo series.
But there will be no set parts at the start of the new Diablo 4 and my recent experience with the release of Diablo Immortal has shown me that this is a good decision.
For a visual impression of the new Diablo 4, check out our trailer for the game:
Diablo 4 takes the best features from its predecessors – This is how it looks so far
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Without sets, build crafting offers more freedom
Why is it good that the sets are not coming to release? With the controversial mobile hit Diablo Immortal, the devilish ARPG series was back in my gaming cosmos. However, like many other players, I was not at all happy with some design decisions.
I don’t even want to talk about the Legendary Gems. There was enough discussion about this and I quickly came to terms with not being able to achieve certain things in the game.
Much worse for me as a Free2Play player was the set item restrictions. They were fully implemented in the game but hidden behind heavy level restrictions.
At the time of release, it was not mathematically possible to get a complete set quickly. But you knew the values, bonuses and advantages of the set pieces. The unreachable set parts dangled like a juicy carrot behind nasty, high level caps.
I immediately wanted the right set for my Necromancer. I was also looking for strong Legendaries for my class, but the goal from the start was the set.
All set items in Diablo Immortal with drop list – how you farm them, what they can
This fixation on the strong set parts also took some of the fun out of the game for me. Until I could get the full set, all build compilations would only be temporary stopgaps.
I really didn’t want to put together a strong Legendary build. I wanted the set build from the start. And I see exactly the same problem for Diablo 4.
With no set items, we’re pretty much forced to create our builds around the Legendary effects. Post-release, this should result in greater build diversity, which should be a real boon to me as a passionate build builder.
The developers want to take more time for the sets this time. After release, a gear meta will develop for each class and based on the data collected, the sets can be introduced with an appropriate power so that they do not immediately pack all meta builds.
What speaks against it? Diablo is about gathering, looting, and power. Set items are therefore like no other item in the Diablo universe for the basic building blocks of the gameplay foundation.
I love collecting sets. That gives me something. That’s why I was only shocked when the “good news” reached me.
In addition, the sets often bring fantastic and strong mechanics into play, which means variety. Even for dedicated build-min-maxers, it should be annoying if the set items only come into play weeks or even months after the release.
Here you will find all important information about Diablo 4:
Diablo 4: Everything about the release, classes, beta and gameplay
When are the sets coming? That is still open. One thing is clear – the set items are coming. The US site GameRant spoke to Game Director Joe Shely during a roundtable interview and he said they wanted to bring in the set items as you currently see them in the Diablo 3 endgame (via gamerant.com).
That doesn’t necessarily indicate a quick release.
In an interview with gamepressure, Shely also said (via gamepressure.com): “Sets are an exciting case because as we were developing the game, we realized that we could develop sets in a new direction. But it took us a little more time to get them into the game in a way that they play well with the rest of Diablo 4. Therefore, there will be no sets in the game at launch.”
So the set items will probably be a long time coming.
What do you think of the sets in Diablo 4? Leave a comment and take our poll in the article. You can find more information about Game 4 here: The developers explain the multiplayer of Diablo 4 to us – how well can I play with friends?