Diablo 5 Game Director Promises a Return to Methodical Character Builds, but Players Don't Believe Him

Diablo 5 is still a couple of years away, but that hasn't stopped the speculation on how the game will actually play. People certainly expect a lot of elements from Diablo 3 and 4 to carry over to the new game, but Game Director Joe Shely has suggested a return to more methodical gameplay.

Seemingly in response to the video Path of Exile's Chris Wilson released about Diablo 5, Shely took to Twitter where he promised "while Diablo 5 will continue to feature some DEX (moment-to-moment execution) mechanics, on balance the game will be an INT/STR game (planning and investment)."

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.— Joe Shely (@JoeShely) September 29, 2026

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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). We are designing to the core tenet of ARPGs that any challenge can be overcome with the right build.

There has been a lot of discussion around Blizzard invoking Diablo 2 when debuting Diablo 5 at Blizzcon, and how the team needs to shift away from the modern itemization and game design of the last few Diablo games to make that happen. According to Shely's post, it seems like Diablo 5 is heading in that direction. We'll just have to wait and see if Diablo 5's moment-to-moment gameplay is meaningfully different from Diablo 4's focus on infinitely scaling content that you clear in seconds. However, the community seems skeptical.

Over on Reddit, the top comment from user /u/Steve_Cage is simply "they said all this before 🤣🤣," and the top reply to that one is from /u/Tragedy_Boner who said, "They ALL say this. And when the game comes out most people want to blast and not be methodical. No modern ARPG ever stays slow." Some people seem to think that even if this is the goal from the start, Blizzard will reverse course after launch. User /u/Usernameasteriks says, "They won’t follow through, if they even try in the first place. Once the first wave of people complaining they can’t blast through content quickly they will restructure it all."

On Twitter, though, people seem a little more optimistic. User Dagon5 replied with, "I'm happy to hear this. Honestly this is an opportunity to try the other direction from what D3/D4 was trying to accomplish. Just go all in on itemization depth etc, and skill systems." And that certainly seems like what Shely is setting out to accomplilsh.

I've personally never had a problem with Diablo 4's approach to itemization, and I like jumping in and seeing just how far I can push in the Pit each season. But, I also jump back to Diablo and Diablo 2 occasionally when I want to play something that focuses more on creative itemization. Luckily, even if Diablo 5 does lean towards Diablo 2's way of doing things, it sounds like the team will keep adding new seasons to Diablo 4 after launch, so you can always just stick with that game.