Is Season 4 Loot Reborn what Diablo 4 needed to be a great ARPG? Or is it perhaps another lackluster attempt by the developers to save a bad game? Here we’ll look at the problems that have plagued D4 since its release. Then we’ll discuss how the game is doing now with Loot Reborn season.

Problems With Previous Seasons

So let’s start with the past. Usually I would install the game at the start of a season, level up one or two characters to level 50, sometimes even 70, and then immediately get bored with the game. The seasonal content and patch changes were so lackluster and the core endgame loop was non-existent.

Diablo 4 Season 3 didn’t even get me that far. I uninstalled the game at level 20! This situation was caused by many of the problems I had with the game before Season 4.

Poor Skill Tree System

The first problem I encountered was the overly complex stats design. Diablo 4’s stats pool is bloated with a lot of useless affixes. I’m reminded of “Damage on Tuesdays” meme, which results in most gear drops being garbage.

Then its skill system is also very bland and basic. Most skill modifications actually come from Aspects in Diablo 4, not the skill system itself. As a result, the skill tree feels very bland, with only two choices per skill at most, and those choices rarely matter to how you play your build.

Paragon Board is also just boring and simple stat boosts that don’t offer any interesting choices.

Aspects Are Scarce

The power and build diversity in Diablo 4 actually comes from legendary powers, aka Aspects. But the problem with Aspects is their scarcity. A really good Aspect can only be imprinted on gear once. This has made me accustomed to hoarding powers instead of using them freely in the game. I often finished my seasonal play through and never actually used that cool power because I was still waiting for the right parts to imprint it.

Also, despite the fact that these Aspects are very important and build-determining, the developers somehow managed to make the loot boring most of the time. I rarely get excited when Diablo 4 item drops. Because unique items tend to feel very bland, and Uber Uniques are so rare that you can play for hours without seeing one.

So in summary, the developers have retained the worst skill tree system in the genre, and in addition, boring loot and ability design prevents players from using said abilities. This is a recipe for disaster in ARPGs.

Boring Gameplay

On top of that, Diablo 4’s gameplay is extremely boring. The game feels like the developers are constantly trying to prevent you from having fun in the game. You want to use some cool skills? Then let your mana-starve bottom out.

There’s also too much running around and too few monsters to fight, especially in the open world. Enemy density on the map is low. And then when you do find enemies, they either die quickly after a few hits, or if not, you’re left with deactivated skills or no mana left, using basic filler skills instead of having fun.

Many classes feel unsatisfying while leveling, as it takes a long time to start feeling the power fantasy coming and your character’s build becoming complete.

Its build variety and flexibility are also pretty bland for an ARPG. This is most noticeable with classes like Barbarian or Sorcerer. Most of their builds use the same support skills, like Shouts or Defensive abilities.

Endgame Content Sucks

Finally, Diablo 4 has no endgame, aside from running Nightmare Dungeons repeatedly. That might be fine if the dungeons were actually fun, but their maps are often boring, require a lot of backtracking, and there’s a lot of downtime without fighting monsters. All of these issues have led to Diablo 4 being an extremely disappointing game since its release.

As hopes for a true Diablo game slowly faded, so did players’ excitement for each new season. After all, even diehard fans of the series have limited patience for their beloved game.

Changes With Loot Reborn

Now let’s turn our attention to the present. Season 4 is called Loot Reborn, and it’s a season filled with hope and anticipation, but also doubt and anxiety.

Fans of Diablo series have been wondering: will this game finally become a quality action-RPG worthy of Diablo name? Or will the developers continue to make lackluster attempts to fix symptoms rather than deal with underlying problems? So how good is this update?

Improved Stats System

Well, there are a lot of improvements to Loot Reborn. First, while not perfect, the stats system in the game is better than before. While some conditional stats are still there, overall, the game offers a more streamlined and straightforward pool of item stats than before. There’s less bloat, resulting in more items with actual value and the potential to upgrade your character.

Tempering

In addition, the game’s stats customization and variety have been improved with the new mechanic, Tempering. Tempering adds extremely powerful stats to your gear, and the 100% damage boost to your character in particular is an absolutely game-changing buff.

The addition of Tempering makes loot more fun because it elevates the power fantasy and gives us the delightful fun we all crave.

But Tempering also brings a problem. Unique items are weak by comparison. This is because unique items can’t be tempered, which is frustrating, especially since Ancestral items only allow two Tempering stats on one item.

Another concern I have about Tempering is that while the system is fun, the stats from Tempering are ridiculous! This makes their importance disproportionate to anything else on the item. It reminds me of how powerful set items were in Diablo 3, where they increased the damage of certain abilities by 1000%, making sets a must-have for many builds.

Enhanced Early Leveling Experience

Loot Reborn also improves the feel of the early leveling experience in Diablo 4. Thanks to the introduction of Iron Wolves, whose rewards are seasonal items in Loot Reborn, which give you nice Legendary and Unique items early on, making early leveling smoother and faster than before.

Leveling up your alts in particular is especially easy and fast, and this is because Tempering Manuals are available account-wide, which can give your alts a huge boost in stats. For example, you can put a few thousand Thorns on your set and make enemies one-shot kills.

There are now more ways to earn resources like mana, making leveling more fun than before. Unfortunately, early leveling isn’t smooth sailing for all classes. Some classes, like Necromancer, level up easily, while others still struggle to generate resources and end up relying on frequent casting of basic skills.

Overall, for leveling, I hope the developers can balance the flow of the game by balancing classes. As it stands, your leveling experience will be very different depending on the class and build you decide to use.

Gameplay Diversification

Now let’s talk about the flow of the game in Loot Reborn. It flows much better now, and the density of enemies has been greatly improved, both in the open world and in Nightmare Dungeons. On top of that, Helltides is now basically a continuous activity, and it also applies to World Tier 1 and 2. This makes the open world more interesting, diverse, and intense in both the endgame and leveling process.

Nightmare Dungeons seem to have a better design now, with less backtracking. Additionally, side events and Corrupted Shrine challenges are now worthwhile activities to do, offering a ton of Diablo 4 Gold and XP as rewards.

Redesign Of Codex Of Power

It’s worth noting that this season also saw a much-needed redesign of how Codex of Power works. Extracted legendary powers are finally no longer a onetime consumable item! Now, when you extract power from an item, it’s added to Codex of Power at the highest value you extracted, for you to use infinitely.

Honestly, this change might be my favorite part of the entire season. Unlimited use of extracted power promotes experimentation and actually using those powers! The game doesn’t make you question using those powers; it tells you that you can use it as you please.

Addition Of Pit

Finally, the endgame in Season 4 feels better for one simple reason: it now exists as Pit.

Pit is similar to Greater Rifts in Diablo 3, with short instanced dungeons with theoretically infinite scaling. The goal of Pit is one thing: kill enemies.

But is Pit enough to make Diablo 4’s endgame interesting for years to come? I don’t think so. Adding features similar to what the series already had a few years ago doesn’t seem like an achievement worth celebrating. And Pit system is nowhere near as deep as the endgame in Path of Exile, or even as robust as the one in Last Epoch.

But the addition of Pits is certainly a step in the right direction. It adds something worth pursuing, especially for those who like to push their builds to the limit.

Pit also adds an element of variety to the endgame gameplay loop. As it stands, we essentially have three major activities in the endgame: Helltides, Nightmare Dungeons, and now Pit. So far, these are a good number of activities, but who knows how we’ll feel in a few weeks when we’re doing the same three repeatedly?

Does Loot Reborn Make Diablo 4 Better?

So is Diablo 4 now an ARPG worth playing in 2024? The answer is: kind of? Objectively speaking, it’s a better game now. But Diablo 4 isn’t the best in the industry in any way.

None of Loot Reborn’s changes sound particularly impressive if taken in isolation. Pit is not a revolutionary endgame system for ARPGs. Tempering and Masterworking don’t make loot in Diablo 4 the most fun in the genre. And the changes to how Legendary Powers work and the number of powers available don’t make build crafting the deepest on the market. They didn’t even address the flaws of the skill trees in Diablo 4.

But when you look at the big picture, when you put all of these additions and changes together, the improvement in the flow of the game and the increased fun it provides is pretty clear.

Loot Reborn is the biggest step the developers have taken since the release of Diablo 4, and it’s a step in the right direction. It moves their game toward better stats, loot, and tons of QOL changes. As a result, Season 4 is definitely the most fun I’ve had playing the game since the release of Diablo 4. What do you think? See you next time!