It’s a huge week for ARPG players, with Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2 revealing big updates this week

It’s a very good week to be a fan of hack-and-slash ARPGs. Diablo 4 looks locked in to get some love at The Game Awards next week, while there’s a developer update tomorrow, December 3.

Then there’s Path of Exile 2, which has been in early access for a year and will finally reveal more about its Druid class and other surprises in the coming days, with its 0.4.0 patch arriving next week.

With full reveals just a day apart, ARPG fans will no doubt feel like Christmas has come early – which is just as well after another community favorite, Last Epoch, got into some hot water for its announcement of paid DLC classes.

Diablo 4 – a sleeping giant?

Look, I enjoyed Diablo 4 as much as the next Sorcerer at launch, but the game has been decidedly less exciting each season that’s followed (outside of a couple of exceptions).

The seasonal model has long put some players’ noses out of joint with its insistence that you create a new character every three months, but perhaps a bigger issue has been that each one has added a few new (fairly inconsequential) powers which are then replaced by new ones, and so on, and so forth.

In fact, the impermanence of characters is somehow not as off-putting as the way mechanics are so fleetingly used, and that’s to say nothing of the seasonal activities which always feel thin and all too easy to complete.

In the two years since launch, we did get an expansion, though. Last year’s Vessel of Hatred campaign was solid, added some fun endgame activities, and introduced a fresh class in the impressively modular Spiritborn.

So, what’s going on in December? It’s twofold, actually. For one, Season 11 will make big changes to just about everything. There’s a new seasonal mechanic (read: Powers again), but these have passive effects outside of combat, too, while Sanctification, Tempering, and Masterworking changes will change the way items can be upgraded.

Enemy AI is getting a revamp, too, which should make the game trickier.

Then there’s the likelihood of another expansion being revealed at The Game Awards. Given that Vessel of Hatred was pretty substantial, I have high hopes for Expansion 2.

Expect a new class (possibly a Paladin), new areas, and hopefully some more endgame activities to get stuck into.

Path of Exile 2 – a pivotal patch?

I’ve made no bones about my adoration for Path of Exile 2, and while Grinding Gear Games has continued to maintain the first game, the more action-based combat and dodge-rolling of PoE 2 is something I’ve not seen in the genre to this extent before.

December sees the game’s first anniversary since launching into Early Access, but there’s still much to do. The game still needs additional classes that were promised, and a final story act, while an endgame rework is also expected.

While patch 0.2.0 wasn’t particularly well-received, update 0.3.0 fared much better, introducing Act 4, a Support Gem rework, and a whole host of bosses to fight in a shorter, placeholder fifth act.

Patch 0.4.0, subtitled The Last of the Druids, will introduce the titular shapeshifting class, and I wouldn’t bet against more Ascendancies (class specializations). Some fans are hoping there’s a surprise new class coming, too, but that might be being greedy.

Between both games, the real winners are ARPG fans. I’m excited to get my face smashed in by a boss in PoE 2, or potentially get a look at a fresh class coming for my beloved Diablo.

Fans of the genre are eating well right now, and that’s something to savor.