Diablo 4's Barbarian Lacks A Piece of the Puzzle to Repeat Diablo 2's Success
Diablo 4's classes have received a fair amount of praise ever since the first beta, and even in the face of some balance changes that still need to happen, they are mostly a better and more successful spin on past iterations used by the series. For example, Diablo 4's Necromancer differs from past games in many ways, with its Book of the Dead class specialization making all the difference, even allowing players to have a free skill right off the bat and summon up to four skeletons. There are differences between Diablo 4's version of each class and their past entries, of course, and what is arguably the most blatant one comes from the Barbarian losing Find Item compared to Diablo 2.
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Diablo 4's skill tree system is a full-fledged take on the original Diablo 2 abilities and their upgrades, this time offering a more complex character customization process that relies more on passive nodes and skills than it does stats, with gear also playing a big part in the process. While Diablo 4's loot is by no means stingy in terms of rewards, and even though the Barbarian is arguably the best support class to have in multiplayer instances, its losing Find Item is a blessing and a curse.
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The Argument For and Against Diablo 4's Barbarian to Have Find Item
Diablo 2's Find Item was a rather peculiar skill that didn't work passively, but rather it had to be cast on an enemy's corpse to basically make it drop loot once more as if it had been killed again. Normally, defeating enemies in Diablo 2 while playing in a party increased the chance of getting better loot, which also occurs in Diablo 4, and it could reward Rare items or even better, Set and Unique items. Find Item didn't rely on the number of players to work, and instead, it had its own 1% bonus chance per skill level.
The fact that Find Item could be used on command on any corpse was great, as enemies that already had increased chances of providing good loot and still had a corpse upon death could be used to obtain even more gear. This made Diablo 2's Barbarian a must-have party member in the endgame experience, as players could easily capitalize on some encounters to get double the loot - at times with incredible results. Yet, Diablo 4's Barbarian went in a different direction for better or for worse.
Find Item was never a balanced skill to have in Diablo games simply because one could argue that every class, every adventurer could have it, and the fact that it was exclusive to the Barbarian created a power imbalance that's now a vacuum in Diablo 4. The Barbarian remains arguably the best class when it comes to support in Diablo 4's endgame, though, and that is due to the sheer power and utility of shouts, all of which empower both the caster and their allies. Barbarians are still very much shining in the endgame, albeit in a different capacity.
One could argue that Find Item had no place in Diablo 4, but it was also one of the defining features of the Barbarian in Diablo 2. The class has many great damaging abilities, passives, and utility skills as is, but it's also true that Diablo 4's Barbarian builds mostly gravitate toward the three shouts precisely because they are such a powerful addition. Find Item could have given endgame builds some much-needed variety, at least when it comes to making impactful choices in the buildcrafting process, offering a valid alternative to what is already a powerful class.
Diablo 4 launches on June 6 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.
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Source: GameRant
