I like Diablo 4 a lot, and I am not afraid to admit that, as a casual player of ARPGs (including Diablo), I tend to get excited about the little things. This is especially true in cases when those little things are fixes to annoying pet peeves.
With the Season 5 PTR, Blizzard delivered the best solution to a set of visibility issues I’ve always had with Diablo 4 – properly this time.
All the major mechanical overhauls Diablo 4’s Season 4 PTR introduced to the game were exciting and amazing and everything, but as I admitted around the time, it was really the change to the Codex of Power that had me the most eager to launch the game when Season 4 officially started.
And wouldn’t you know it, there’s a similar change in the Season 5 PTR, which kicked off earlier this week, that also has me all giddy. No, it’s not the new horde mode (which is fine) or any of the new pieces of gear, it’s actually a tiny option in the game’s settings menu (with a massive impact).
Diablo 4 has always had a problem with combat text, which is the various alerts you get when fighting monsters. This is stuff like status effects (Vulnerable, Fortified, etc.), damage numbers and so on. It can get so overwhelming that it covers the entirety of your screen and makes it hard to see what you’re actually clicking on. In earlier patches, Blizzard attempted to address that issue by letting players hide it all, show it all, or only hide damage numbers. While that was a welcome change, it simply didn’t offer enough ways to customise combat text.
I, for instance, like damage numbers, but I could do without the constant barrage of text. Until the Season 5 PTR kicked off, there was no way to get just that. But, I am happy to say that Blizzard went above and beyond this time, letting players customise every aspect of it.
In the options menu under Gameplay, there’s now an entire subsection dubbed Combat Text Options. There are individual toggles for all types of damage (normal, crit, etc.), buffs/debuffs, crowd control effects, defensive actions – the whole thing. You can turn all combat text off if you choose, too.
Digging through options menus is one my favourite things to do in games, especially after the release of major patches. Blizzard may not have found those toggles big enough to warrant making noise about them, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say they matter more to me than a lot of what’s coming with Season 5.
If you want to try the PTR for yourself, simply launch BattleNet and download the build. It’s available until July 2.