I think there is a big discrepancy in the community when it comes to “how much depth should D4 have”, like “should you plan your character”, “how diverse should item stats be” and “choose skills in skilltree once and for all or be able to switch all the time”. So should it be more like an RPG (like D2) or more like a pure action hack’n’slay.
Here is my proposal to a compromise (which I do not REALLY like, because I want D4 to be a D2 sequel, an action RPG, not an arcade version of it), which might not be super elegant, but I think it is effective. I assume the max level to be lvl 40, level ranges should be adjusted for higher max lvl ofc.
Idea: Put in the whole complexity of D2 itemisation, with hit recovery, block rate and so on and “fixed” (see below) active skills in the skill tree, but introduce it gradually with comprehensive (optional!) tutorials in for example 5 steps: lvl 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, 31-39, 40.
Reason/Advantage: Casual players don’t have to figure out game mechanics by themselves and can play through the story with a little bit of thinking, but don’t get overwhelmed by 100 stat varieties in the beginning. While a lot of casual players are not even interested in “hardcore” endgame content and maxing out their char, more sophisticated players could have the whole RPG complexity in the endgame and in max level PvP. RPG fans can also skip tutorials and figure out mechanics by themselves. With the model below, you could switch skills in the beginning to experiment with your char, but have to suffer a lot from reskilling at max level.
Possible implementation: Start the game with similar complexity as in the demo, but with base stats (hello?! It’s still an RPG…). No hit recovery, no crucial punishment for running brain afk into groups of mobs. Every 10 levels, the character does not only get stronger, but also gets more complex (which ofc is a possibility to get even stronger). By max level, the whole variety of itemisation and skill diversity (comparable to D2 PLEASE) is reached. This means, that items are simpler on lower level (kinda makes sense) and get a higher variety on pre- and suffixes as the level requirement increases (the rarity of items would increase the number of pre- and suffixes on an item as before, the lvl requirement increases the number of possible pre- und suffixes). The skills would be like in the demo on lower levels, you spend points and have to choose which ones you wanna play, but you will not have all of them at max level! Instead, you can reskill for free as often as you want during the first 10 levels, but have to suffer for reskilling more and more as you reach lvl 11, 21, 31 and 40. There are a lot of possibilities how to pay for reskilling, I want to explain my favourite below at the end. Cooldowns should be removed for at least 5/6 active spells if you ask me, a lot of experienced Diablo players elaborated in quite some detail, on how CDs actually take away choices for the player to approach fights.
Possible punishment for reskilling: I like the idea of somehow fixing your build, because that way not everyone will have the same one if it’s a badass cool build! But I totally understand, that people do not want to start ALL over again, to try other specs, once they have reached max level. So I would like the idea of a midway thing: pay with levels. During the leveling phase, it slows you down a bit, but not really a huge deal. At max level, you could implement extra quests (only achievable after reskilling, until again being max lvl), which give a lot of xp and send you out to kill huge, random mob groups with bosses at random locations on the map. That way, you would visit areas in the overworld again, not only doing key dungeons at max lvl. One could implement an item, that you get from a max lvl quest, BOP, providing you with the ability to wear your gear at lower levels, so you could always use it after reskilling. And yeah, it would be awkward to level up again all the time, but that’s the point. You would not do it all the time, but only if you really want it. For example if you find a high end super cool weapon, that doesn’t suite your skill tree. It could be for example roughly split like:
Level , Cost for reskilling
1-10 , 0 lvls
11-20 , 0.5 lvls
21-30 , 1 lvls
31-39 , 1.5 lvls
40, 5 lvls
Sorry, super long text, let me know what you think about the whole “gradually introducing complexity” thing. One could also think of having it only mandatory for the first char, but optional for every further char, or only use the first 10 or 20 levels to build up the complexity and have it from there to max lvl.