What armory features may come to Diablo 4 in future patches?

During the first day of BlizzCon 2023, Blizzard Watch had the opportunity to sit down with Diablo 4‘s Production Director Tiffany K. Wat and Associate Game Director Joseph Piepiora. While Wat spoke mainly about the coming expansion, Pieipiora fielded questions on the live game’s short-term efforts for improving player experience and quality of life, such as itemization, seasons, and PVP. Early on, one media member asked a question that may be one of the most commonly posed on forums, Reddit, and beyond: Are there any plans to implement an Armory feature similar to Diablo 3 so we can change builds and gear with a button click?

Excellent question. How incredible would it be to change from a push build to a PVP build with a button click? That would be such a quality of life improvement. Turns out both directors agree that would be exciting, and can envision it in Diablo 4‘s future.

Here’s what we know about an armory feature, which may be coming to Diablo 4 in the future.

During Saturday’s Campfire Chat, Wat fielded a similar question: “Will we have a system to save and switch between builds?” She confirmed that such a system is under consideration, but reiterated that they are not announcing anything during BlizzCon. With all the recent quality of life changes, perhaps we can expect it in a future Seasonal patch?

Now, don’t expect an Armory feature to look exactly the same from Diablo 3 to Diablo 4. Even similar systems, such as using enchants to change a particular stat on gear, have their own Diablo 4 flair that makes its implementation unique to the game. D4 may have borrowed some ideas from earlier iterations in the franchise, but the execution remains mostly unique to the title.

And remember, there is a factor in D4 not present in D3: respec costs. Right now, we pay gold to refund all skill and paragon points allocated fully. Would an Armory-like setup mean paying every time you change builds? Or maybe there’d be a flat, but reduced cost to change your build to something you have saved.

Piepiora noted that one of the difficulties of negotiating player feedback is that while the details of player experience are incredibly helpful, suggestions can be difficult to navigate because of all the underlying, interconnected systems involved that are invisible to the player experience. The Armory suggestion sounds like a clear example of this — while it may sound simple to us in the community, to the developers it represents a tangled knot of Gordian proportions. And yet, it’s definitely up there in community asks.

Saturday’s BlizzCon 2023 events included a Diablo 4 Campfire Chat with even more about the short and long-term plans for the title. There are tons more improvements coming down the pipeline with quarterly seasons and multiple planned expansions starting with Vessel of Hatred, regardless of whether we get a D3-esque Armory, or something entirely new to store builds. For now, we’ll see you in Sanctuary for Season of Blood and beyond. Happy Hunting!