In previous iterations of Diablo, an area-of-effect (AOE) or melee skill would be a single area of damage that is applied on a single frame. To enhance the feel of combat, we have made several improvements to the way damage is applied in our game. The visual effects for each of these components must be readable in all areas and lighting conditions, so you can quickly understand what is happening and use that information to make informed decisions. To achieve this, we must consider things like player skills, monster telegraphs, traps, damage areas, and character states. Moment-to-moment gameplay is the focal point within the composition of Diablo IV: it should draw your attention. One of our core values at Blizzard Entertainment is “Gameplay First,” and this drives a lot of the artistic decisions we make while developing visual effects for the game. It is important to understand the context of an effect, and how it best serves your experience. With Diablo IV, we wanted to step up the fidelity of our effects using Physically Based Rendering (PBR), as well as better support the core pillars of gameplay: deep hero customization, itemization, and combat readability.Įvery effect plays a role in the final composition of our game. VFX is an integral part of the combat experience for all Diablo games. VFX artists collaborate with designers and other art teams to create strong thematic identities for the hero classes and breathe life into monsters, in order to deliver the visceral, gruesome combat players have come to expect. The VFX team gets to contribute to features across the entire game, but today we will focus on the work we do to support combat. Thanks for joining us! My name is Daniel Briggs, and I am the Lead Visual Effects Artist for Diablo IV. Thanks for reading and please share any feedback you have on social media, Reddit, or our forums! We’ll see you in Hell! Though for now that’s all from the systems team. We’re hard at work on these and other features that we’ll be able to share more about in future updates. You may also optionally rotate that newly placed board. Upon selecting from the Paragon Board list, you will be able to place the board down, connecting it to the newly unlocked Gate Tile. The Paragon Board is extended from these Gate Tiles.