Diablo IV Interview – Making a Modern Rogue

During this BlizzCon, we got a new trailer for Diablo IV showcasing the Rogue, the game’s latest playable character. And if you’d like to know what Diablo IV’s Rogues are all about and how they fit into the game’s world, you should check out this recent VentureBeat interview with the game’s executive producer Rod Fergusson and lead game designer Joe Shelly.

Apart from the new class, the interview covers Diablo IV’s development, Blizzard’s plans for this latest entry in the legendary series, its connections to other Diablo games, and more.

Here’s a couple of sample paragraphs:

GamesBeat: You mentioned some of the other classes that have been similar. Are demon hunter players going to see some abilities or aspects that they recognize in this interpretation of rogue?

Shelly: One of the things I like about using the word “rogue,” about naming a class the rogue, first, it hearkens back to the history of Diablo and the start of the adventure. But it’s also a term that can encompass the breadth of things that players expect from this kind of class. Our rogue, for example, has at all times a bow or other ranged weapon and melee short range weapons equipped in their inventory. We did that because we wanted the rogue to appeal to players who when they think of themselves as a rogue, when they put themselves into the game, some people who play that kind of class think of themselves as getting in close, stabbing monsters in the back, moving quickly around monsters, being evasive, those kinds of things. Some players think of themselves standing at a distance, throwing lots of arrows, keeping monsters away from them, using caltrops or other things to slow and impede enemies so they can constantly stand off from them.

With our rogue class, we wanted to speak to both of those fantasies. This decision to have both things equipped at the same time allowed players who want to play a melee rogue to live that fantasy, and players who want to play a ranged rogue to live that fantasy, but it also means that you can have a mixture of those abilities equipped at any time. You can be shooting at range, dash in, do some quick melee damage, dash out. Or you can focus more exclusively on one of those two things.

Rod Fergusson: What’s also nice: There’s a layer of magic on top of it when you look at the things the rogue can do as well, in terms of using shadow magic, being able to imbue your weapons with poison and use poisonous attacks, or imbue your weapons with ice and frost. What’s great about the rogue is its versatility. You can go into a situation, the situation can change, and as a rogue you can adapt. You have crowd control, area of effect, damage over time. You can fight close and from the back. You can put down traps. The ability to react to how battles play out is exciting, because it’s so adaptable.