Diablo IV Is the Most Casual-Friendly It’s Ever Been

Having been introduced to the series with Diablo III, I’ve never been the most hardcore Diablo fan around. Though I’ve logged about a hundred hours into its third entry, and double that in Diablo IV, I still wouldn’t consider myself a series expert by any stretch of the imagination.

For the most part, Diablo IV is my “shut the brain off and just watch numbers go up” game. When I’m just in the mood to play something mindless yet satisfying, I put on Diablo IV. I pick a class, follow a build guide on Mobalytics, and just go. This season, I’m playing a Rain of Arrows/Heartseeker Rogue, and if you asked me what the key defining feature of my build is, I really couldn’t tell you as I just haven’t put in the work or effort required to understand how the build works.

I was grateful to be able to play Diablo IV with minimal brain usage, not realizing that the game has actually been catering to players like me since basically its inception. With the release of Season 7, it’s become even more clear that Diablo IV is very much the ARPG built for the casual crowd.

This realization first came to me late last year when Path of Exile 2 launched into early access. With so many hours logged in Diablo IV, I figured, you know what? I’m no stranger to ARPGs. Maybe Path of Exile 2 can be my new mindless game while I wait for the next season to start in Diablo.

I was, of course, dead wrong. If Diablo IV is the ARPG for casuals, then Path of Exile 2 is very much the ARPG that was meant to target the hardcore crowd. Path of Exile 2 is punishing; while it’s not necessarily a difficult game, it was clear right off the bat that I wouldn’t get by just spamming my basic attacks and waiting for the boss’s health bar to deplete. This game demands a higher degree of precision and strategy that Diablo IV never did, and because of that, it feels like a much more satisfying and complex game to master. Even gaining a single level in Path of Exile 2 feels hard-won in the early hours, whereas Diablo IV is content to give out its early levels like candy while you beat up on some weaker mobs.

Season 7 of Diablo IV, titled Season of Witchcraft brings back a few familiar mechanics from the game’s earlier seasons — the most notable one being power collection, where you can farm up a new currency to unlock and equip powers. The system has been refined, allowing you to deal plenty of passive damage just by being near enemies. You can summon a frog and fire bats to deal damage, you can have a little poisonous aura around your character that poisons anyone who gets close to you, and you can even unlock powers that help with Overpower and Lucky Hits.

In addition to that, there are now only four Headhunt zones (areas for you to farm new Elites and the Witchcraft currency) as opposed to five in the PTR, and you don’t even need any special key items to activate events or bosses there. All of this is to say, it’s clear that Diablo IV wants to make its gameplay experience as smooth as possible for all players, especially newer folks who might be just dipping their toes into the ARPG genre.

In a couple of weeks, I expect to be well into the Paragon levels with my Rogue build, with maybe two Paragon boards complete and a third one in progress. I’ll drop the game around then as I eventually get bored of farming Pits and Nightmare Dungeons, then come back to the game in another couple of months when a new season starts and repeat the process all over again.

Blizzard seems content with letting Diablo IV be a relatively easy, casual-friendly game that you can pick up and play stress-free, and that’s exactly the kind of game I’m always happy to go back to in my spare time.