Det är fortfarande långt kvar till släppet av Diablo IV men sedan i våras har Blizzard publicerat matiga uppdateringar från utvecklingen varje kvartal. Denna gång snackas det om Sorceress-klassen och färdighetsträdet, som illustreras med just ett träd.

De fyrkantiga markörerna i trädet är färdigheter du låser upp med poängen du får varje gång du går upp i nivå. De runda är uppgraderingar av dessa och mellan dem finns det ofta passiva förbättringar du får på köpet.

The Skill Tree you see above consists of many specific nodes, a sample of which you can see in the screenshots above. If we imagine every single node on that massive Skill Tree affecting different skills in different ways, the path that you decide to take will determine big power increases and playstyle choices.

The Passive part of this system is where you will find more general upgrades to your character. These effects are not specific to particular skills. Therefore, the Skill Tree will have a good mix of all types of different choices for players to make.

One last thing we want to point out is that players will not be able to acquire every Skill Tree node. We’re currently aiming for 30~40% of the nodes filled in for end game, so that players can have very distinct, and different ways they build out their character.

Vidare beskriver man hur Sorceress-klassen hanterar färdigheter, som går att köra i ett antingen aktivt eller passivt läge, där nya typer av förbättringar går att hitta. Som exempel visar de meteor strike, som i ett aktivt läge går att sikta på specifika fiender medan attacken i ett passivt läge sköter sig självt men tycks vara mer intensiv.

Slutligen nämner man end game kort, där planen är att göra ett mer flexibelt system än Diablo 3:s Paragon, med fokus på de enskilda klasserna.

Lastly, we have been hard at work on our end game character progression system. This important feature is going to take a little more time (it won’t be in the next blog), but we wanted to mention it here because it will be the other significant source of power that comes from your class. This system is intended to provide more depth and replayability than what Paragon currently offers in Diablo III. We, and many Blizzard gamers, have talked about the concept of “easy to learn, difficult to master.” We believe that the end game progression system is where the difficult to master component will come in, and should meet the expectations of the most hardcore Diablo players out there.

Så, Dibbe-fans, hur låter allt detta?