With a spring 2029 release window, Diablo 5 is still a ways off and presumably early in development, and as such there’s a lot we don’t know about it. We know it takes place about 100 years after Diablo 4 and that it won’t have towns or safe zones outside of a Baldur’s Gate-style caravan of traveling companions, but most of the sequel’s core design pillars remain a mystery. Chiefly, we know next to nothing about how combat will work in Diablo 5, and considering Diablo games are almost exclusively about clicking demons to death, the ARPG community is waiting eagerly for more details.
Waiting right there alongside us is Chris Wilson, Grinding Gear Games co-founder and original Path of Exile designer. Wilson recently published a video on his YouTube channel in which he gives his in-depth reaction to the announcement of Diablo 5. Wilson says he’s “tentatively hopeful” about Diablo 5 overall, but goes over a number of concerns he has about the direction Blizzard may or not be taking it. One of those concerns is the combat, which he says has been trending more and more “arcadey and actioney” since Diablo 3. His hope is that Diablo 5 goes back to the completely build-centric combat favored by his beloved Diablo 1 and 2, but he predicts it’ll move even further into action territory.
I mention this in the context of a new tweet from Diablo 5 senior game director Joe Shely, which sounds like a response to Wilson’s questions on combat even if it isn’t intended as such.
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“While Diablo V will continue to feature some DEX (moment-to-moment execution) mechanics, on balance the game will be an INT/STR game (planning and investment),” Shely says. “We are designing to the core tenet of ARPGs that any challenge can be overcome with the right build.”
While Diablo V will continue to feature some DEX (moment-to-moment execution) mechanics, on balance the game will be an INT/STR game (planning and investment). We are designing to the core tenet of ARPGs that any challenge can be overcome with the right build.September 29, 2026
I’ve listened to Shely talk enough to know he’s incredibly media-trained, so it’s no surprise that his written remarks here don’t actually reveal anything specific and substantive about Diablo 5’s combat beyond some level of “moment-to-moment” mechanics. That could literally just mean you’ll have to position your attacks in the direction of enemies and get out of the way of incoming attacks, or it could suggest a deeper embrace of action-like combat, but it’s reassuring that the focus is still on build composition instead of, as Wilson puts it, “a dexterity player focus.”
As a Diablo player from the very beginning, I’m not too worried about Diablo 5 having a slightly more intricate combat system so long as the fantasy is still about constantly iterating synergies between gear and abilities to make killing monsters easier and easier, and it sounds like that’s still the case. I do agree with Wilson that monster scaling should probably be ditched or at least dramatically scaled back to make the world feel uncompromising and dangerous, but I suspect I’ll be waiting a while longer for nittier, grittier details like that.
