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They shared thematic concepts but the skills had pretty big differences that affected builds. Expiries on the summons was pretty lame TBH I don't know how much got eventually patched but at launch, but it was pretty underwhelming and felt gimmicky if anything and a much more active class as opposed to the former version which was more about raising an army to fight for you while you provide support. There's a lot of pros and cons but overall it was a different experience. I know a few people that were a bit annoyed with it. All in all, a different beast. If you enjoyed it though, that's good. To me, it just didn't feel worth making one let alone paying for it. 5 classes to start off with is fine but each DLC should add 2 classes. That would be a nice bit of fan service and frankly, Blizzard should be doing a lot more of that to make up for their recent shortcomings. I mean they could make up for it all with words but political action i'm not so sure. Just developing more good shit and not standing by bad politics. I mean fuck, republicans and democrats alike were up in arms over their recent actions. After the repeat backlash, they should stick to making games so it can all blow over. Recapture some of that magic for people. I'm sure Overwatch 2 will go a long way toward that. I'm torn personally. I want new classes and returning old classes. Or at least some of the more prevalent abilities

In my defense, i'm going half off memory and half off shit i've read Regardless, it seems strange for Brack to act like freedom of speech is Blizzard policy when it obviously isn't. IF (and it's a big if) IF they have changed their stance than there is nothing to prove that currently except them not firing the presenter who said "sounds good to me" which amounts to very little. Frankly, if they were changing their approach they'd condemn the posts by netease on the official chinese Hearthstone twitter instead of acting like it didn't happen and unfire those two innocent presenters instead of making bullshit excuses. If this is supposed to be Blizzard "doing better going forward" there is a lot left to be desired, that's for sure. It's sad really that a paltry 4.9% of investor stock can swing a company from being all about freedom and unity to pandering to the likes of an authoritarian communist dictatorship or at the very least, a company that stands by those positions. Either way, their words will forever be empty to me til I see a real example of them standing by their community and the values they've claimed to stand by for years. As it is, it's just sad to see a developer I previously held in such high regard sell out so obviously while making bullshit excuses all the way to the bank. Sad and pathetic. Somehow that interview and the forced takedown of a social media post flew under the radar for the most part so I figured i'd share while the topic was still relevant. I mainly quoted you not to direct that comment at you but because it's a sentiment ive seen many share without knowing about the other stuff. Personally i'm not taking their word anymore. --- As for Diablo 4, what i'd love to see is them bring back all the old classes from 1 and 2 complete with skill trees. It rubbed me the wrong way at first when Diablo 3 broke tradition and just mix and matched/recycled rather than making new classes like 2 did after 1. It grew on me eventually but the Necromancer was way less good. I'd like to see a return to form at least partially mechanics-wise for re-used character classes and if they are going to bring classes back, bring them all back. Variety is always a good thing and the roadmap is already there in Diablo 1 and 2. It'd be nice to have a Warrior, Rogue, Barbarian, Paladin, Sorceror, Sorceress, Assassin, Druid, Necromancer, Amazon, Monk, Witch Doctor, Demon Hunter, and Crusader to choose from and after they overcharged for the Necromancer DLC, they could really make the effort for some fan service because that was pretty damn cheap of them. I'd also love to see some lesser evils come back, like Duriel and such. Maybe bring back Mephisto so he isn't nearly as much of a complete joke

I dunno about that. Seems like an empty apology filled with posturing to me https://www.pcgamer.com/au/blizzard-president-clarifies-decision-to-ban-hearthstone-player-and-two-casters-over-hong-kong-controversy/ PC Gamer: I wanted to revisit the statement you made at the beginning of the opening ceremony yesterday. You said Blizzard is "committed to everyone's right to express themselves in all kinds of ways and all kinds of places," and you made a commitment to do better going forward and that your actions are going to matter more than words do. Are you going to be repealing the punishment against Blitzchung and the two Taiwanese casters involved in this incident? J. Allen Brack, Blizzard president: We are not. Why? So, one of the things that we talked about in the commitment to expression about all kinds of ways and all kinds of places, is the fact that we're huge believers in free speech, and we're huge believers in free expression. We have a long history of that being part of the culture of the company for employees. That's certainly part of the culture of the relationship that we have with the community. And so employees are free to post on their social media accounts. If you think about the people that we have that are esports athletes, our Grandmasters, or anyone who is participating in esports, they're free to say and do whatever they want on their social channels. I feel like we have a far more open set of guidelines and policies than really any other traditional sport that takes a view around making sure that all of the people stay on message. And so, that's how we think about free expression and how we've contextualized it. We want the official broadcasts, which are a small percentage of the overall content that gets created, to be about the games. And we want those to be focused on the games. Again, it's not about the content of Blitzchung's message. It's about the fact that it was not around the games. If we hadn't taken action, if we hadn't done something, you can imagine the trail that would be in our future around doing interviews. They would become times for people to make a statement about whatever they wanted to, on whatever issue. That's just a path that we don't want to go down. We really want the content of those official broadcasts to be focused on the games, and keep that focus. So Blizzard's perspective is that, of course you want players to express themselves, except for when it's taking place through official channels? That's right. Is it fair to say that if Blitzchung had said any political message, it would have incurred the same punishment? It wasn't that he was specifically calling for Hong Kong's freedom, it was that he was saying anything political? That's correct. The content was not the problem. It was the fact that it was not about the game in question, it was something very specifically different. I think, and I don't want to speculate around if he had said this, that, or the other, and how would it have gone—I think that's a difficult thing to think about, but it's not about the content of his message. There are many people that are supportive of him and his message. --- Sounds all well and good right? Exceeeept.. https://www.vg247.com/2019/11/03/overwatch-coach-hong-kong-tweet/ So he's outright lying here. And then also the fact that this announcer is allowed to say things like "Sounds good" when people support free speech and democracy but he doesn't lose his job so I guess those other two announcers who did nothing wrong were only fired to appease Chinese stock holders. Lets also not forget that J Allen Brack is wearing a LGBT pin during his 'faux apology' so clearly certain politics are apparently okay. He's just a hypocrite and pandering to that 4.9% of Chinese stockholders. In summation, Blizzard are outright lying and this 'apology' is worthless. He said actions matter more than words and you know what? He's right. --- I stand by my previous position. I'll probably play Diablo 4 but the magic is dead. There are good developers in Blizzard but the higher ups are just corporate shills who will happily sell out Blizzards morals for Chinese money. Now Blizzard stand beside Activision, EA and Bethesda for useless corporations focused only on making money whatever the cost.

I'll probably play this but the Blizzard magic is def gone for me. Like Bethesda i've just lost that respect and admiration I had for them. Looks like D4 is going to have a similar skill tree to D2 so thats a nice touch and the gameplay does look fun. I'd be a begrudged purchase for sure XD