New information regarding Diablo 4 is likely months away, with the next obvious time for it being BlizzConline in 2021. That hasn’t stopped fans from debating and speculating, though. A recent aggregate poll tallied a bunch of votes from the community, particularly on classes that fans wanted. On it were some obvious points, like how Necromancer is the most demanded Diablo 4 class alongside the Amazon, but there were often odd requests: classes that didn’t exists, races that didn’t make sense, and quite often, a dedicated Healer class request.
Now, that may be an odd request to some. It doesn’t really fit the playstyle of any of the Diablo games, but those who want it make a few compelling points. With that in mind, here’s just a few arguments for and against Diablo 4 having a dedicated healing class.
First and foremost, it would add a new layer of gameplay to Diablo. Many classes have had ways to heal themselves and there’s always potions, but this would mean that healing abilities among any classes could be replaced with something else. This would give, for a broad example, the Barbarian more ways to smash, the Druid more ways to fight and cast, and the Sorcerer a whole new thing too. Nonetheless, it would indeed change the gameplay, which could be refreshing.
On the other hand, those healing abilities would need to be changed out of typical Diablo gameplay. However, they’re already in Diablo 4: Barbarian has undying rage which will heal and revive the character, the Druid’s werewolf form can heal it, and so on. It’s unlikely that will change now, and if it were to be added, it would make the Healer class feel like a token addition without them.
Many argue that even a dedicated Healer class could deal damage, almost as if it were a White Mage of sorts: something that dealt damage that turned to heals, buffed others with spells, and cast holy magic. It sounds like a solid addition and, once again, would be something that changed the world of Diablo. However, this sounds an awful lot like the Paladin or Crusader, who are unlikely to appear for lore reasons, and what’s worse, it would be a more magic-inclined version of the class essentially.
That would cause a big problem: the Barbarian is a melee class, the Druid is a shapeshifter that can fill in a tank/up front role with magic support, and the Sorcerer is a caster class. Adding another dedicated magic class, even if it were a damage-dealer, would heavily sway Diablo 4 toward magic classes. That would mean the last class would have to be a dex-based class like the Amazon, instead of there being more of a split between the various types of classes. On top of all that, a Healer-based class would offset any balance in terms of encounters, as too weak and the encounters will be incredibly tough or two overpowered and the encounters won’t really feel engaging.
As aforementioned, adding a Healer-focused class would change a lot about Diablo‘s gameplay, to the point it may not even be Diablo any more. In most games with a Healer, even ones capable of some damage output, they have to hang back. This is the case for healers in World of Warcraft, Overwatch, and so many more games because, as any enemy naturally will, Healers will be targeted. In Diablo‘s case specifically, this would mean that there would need to be a fundamental change where hanging back and healing, while somehow dealing damage in spurts, was possible. But the gameplay is far too fast-paced from this, and a change of this magnitude would upset many.
On top of that, it can be easily seen why those who like to heal would like some form of representation in Diablo 4. A lot of games have classes that focus on healing, but these games are often forced co-op or multiplayer games. As a result, a Healer class would be largely weakened in terms of solo play, as their skills may be focused on healing themselves and even others, but keeping up with the damage output would be tough unless the class was overpowered. This would mean the Healer class would only work for those with dedicated groups to play with, and dedicating one whole class to such a small niche (as there oftentimes see to be more of those who DON’T want to play heals than those that do) would only bring down more than it brought up.
Ultimately, no one can fault those who prefer this playstyle from wanting a role in a Diablo game, and it’s certainly possible within a well-defined set-up for it. But the changes that would bring to Diablo would not only see a massive blowback in all likelihood, there would be a huge number of limits and balancing acts for the class that it’s hard to see it being worth it. A healer class for Diablo 4, at least in the most-defined terms of the class, isn’t going to happen, and the same can likely be said for all future Diablo games.
Diablo 4 is in development with PC, PS4, and Xbox One as confirmed platforms.
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