Today Blizzard dropped a fresh pile of details about Belial's Return, Diablo 4's next season. As it says on the tin, the big bad in Sanctuary's immediate future is Belial, the Lord of Lies, one of Diablo's more powerful demons who's been absent since players kicked him out of Kehjistan back in Diablo 3. And players won't just be fighting him. Season 8's major new mechanic is boss powers, which will let players steal abilities from vanquished bosses—Belial included—and work them into their own builds.
In a group interview with press last week, Diablo 4 lead live game designer Colin Finer said the goal of Season 8 is to liven up the buildcrafting meta by giving players the chance to wield some of the game's most dangerous powers for themselves. And a big part of that work, Finer said, was giving boss powers the proper kick.
"The fantasy of this season with boss powers is really 'becoming the boss,' and those powers need to feel powerful, right? When you imagine a boss, that power better kick some ass," Finer said. "We've really doubled down on making sure that, especially during leveling, a lot of the powers feel really powerful."
Blizzard's example of choice is the Wandering Death's Chest Beam, which players can claim for themselves by killing the associated world boss who you may or may not have watched massacre swaths of public event players with that same death laser. If you equip the Chest Beam as your main boss power, it'll fire off whenever you channel a skill, dealing a hefty amount of damage.
Boss powers can also be equipped as modifiers, adding an additional effect to whatever other boss power you've chosen as your mainstay stolen ability. As a modifier, our good friend Chest Beam will instead cause your main boss power to instantly execute non-boss enemies once they're low on health. Handy!
Boss powers will feed into Season 8's overhaul of Diablo 4 endgame bosses, which revamps boss progression, loot, and unlock mechanics so that fighting an archdemon feels more impactful than something you farm back-to-back for hours in boss milling parties. Boss powers will be accessible soon after creating your Season 8 character, and pursuing them will direct you through the new "lair boss" structure.
"It's a journey that guides players from the most accessible to the most pinnacle bosses, and it's very nice and structured. One of my favorite things about it is you kind of see it as ticking off your stamp collection of, 'Okay, what boss do I need to go get to get this power? I'm gonna go target that one,'" lead Diablo 4 seasons designer Deric Nunez said. "We wanted that journey to be as straightforward and friction-free as possible, so that you know what you need to do to get that power."
As far as motivation goes, giving bosses a taste of their own medicine has some pretty strong appeal.
Belial's Return hits Diablo 4 on April 29.
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