Diablo’s rival ARPG, Path of Exile, has inspired fans of the Blizzard franchise, and they’re hoping to see some PoE systems implemented in upcoming Diablo seasons.
While it’s no secret that Blizzard’s Diablo defined the ARPG genre in many ways, subsequent games from rival developers have built upon the foundations of the frightful franchise’s gameplay and taken it one step further.
From Smilegate RPG’s MMOARPG, Lost Ark, to Grinding Gear Games’ Path of Exile; there’s a whole collection of games inspired by the iconic series.
Diablo players, however, are hinting at Blizzard to cross-pollinate ideas from PoE and adapt some of their in-game systems to mirror Grinding Gear’s effort.
Diablo fans want Path of Exile-style League updates
Just as Diablo 3 has its seasons and ladder system, Path of Exile has its Leagues. However, the fundamental difference is that a new mechanic is added for every League, whereas Diablo removes Seasonal features.
For example, the highly coveted Ethereal Weapons from Season 24 were removed coming into Season 25, where the current batch of Soul Shards will then be replaced in Season 26. These entirely changed up how each season was played, as well as the abilities available to your character.
“I personally think that the overall ‘league mechanic’ mindset, where they add in a new mechanic each league is a really good idea.” writes one fan on the game’s official subreddit. “Of course, it doesn’t need to be taken to the same extent where every single season is left in the game, but I do think it can be fun to still have remnants of other seasons that cycle in and out and are iterated upon.
“A season could be comprised of the new mechanic, and then three or four older mechanics to create a new dynamic each time. This keeps the seasonal gameplay fresh, outside of just new items,” they note, concluding that “you still shouldn’t be slamming the door shut on innovations from the title [PoE] either.”
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Immediately the community was divided over the comment, with some expressing interest in the idea, while others completely shut it down.
“Finally someone said it and didn’t get buried for it,” writes one supporter. “I just can’t believe Blizzard when they make excuses like ‘we don’t know how certain changes would impact the game.’ Like, what do you mean you don’t know?!”
“Hard agree!” echoes another. “Even all the ‘purists’ who cry about changes to the game are not admitting that they themselves were playing mods like PD2 and PoD instead of vanilla D2 LoD before D2R came out, so they too want more endgame variety.”
On the flip side, another simply writes that Blizzard has “no need to reinvent the wheel, especially for the father of the modern ARPG where everything is done extremely well.”
Blizzard have remained staunchly against any changes to their remaster of Diablo 2, Diablo 2 Resurrected, but as Diablo 3 continues to chug along it’ll be interesting to see if they adapt the Seasonal feature to include their own twisted version of PoE’s League mechanics.
