Diablo 4! Diablo 5! Not anytime soon...

After more then a week, most players that played during release would have slain poor ol' Diablo at least once (probably making his death count in the millions...), players are now buzzing over the fail end game content that they paid for.

1. Make a character
2. Kill mobs, level up & complete quests
3. Kill bosses and complete acts
4. Reach Diablo, slay the foul demon & advance to next difficulty
5. Rinse and repeat in higher game difficulty
6. and sell/buy junk on gold auction house

Essentially, players are now stuck in this loop that cost them $60 bucks. The end game content for max level 60 players are to load up a game in Inferno difficulty, roam around Act 3 & 4 killing Rare Boss Mobs for items, close the game and reload it again. I feel soooooooooooo excited for them...

Without any additional content coming soon (content will come every 3 months at the fastest as releasing them too often will give players the expectation that all new content will come out that fast), player are now locked in the eternal rinse and repeat cycle above.

With that in mind, there will be no sequel coming within the next couple of years but fret not, there will be at least 1 major expansion and maybe a couple of DLCs (that is if Blizzy goes into the DLC crap).

After going through the lore, stories, content, etc, I have provided some predictions (partially based on game facts) on what will take place in the coming expansions/DLC/sequel.

SPOILER ALERT, prepare your mind.

• Adria the Witch will be involved (yes, like duh!)

• Will involve Black Soul Stone once again
• Clearly shown in the ending cut-scene that it falls back to sanctuary.

• Leah is only physically dead and her soul resides within the Black Soul Stone

• The Evils within the  Black Soul Stone cannot be unleashed without a proper host.
• Either they will introduce a new host
• Or the  Black Soul Stone will be destroyed somehow (player has to seek for the  Black Soul Stone and destroy it at some location using some item)
• All the Evils is though to be destroyed with the Black Soul Stone gone but they are actually sent back to Black Abyss (place in Burning Hell that all demons spawn/respawn).
• Now all the evils are back and once again it repeats?

• Imperius is not shown or heard of after the Diamond Gate collapses on him.
• He has become a partially fallen Angel, feeling sad and weak he couldn't protect the heavens.
• He seeks for the Black Soul Stone and sticks it into himself
• Mutates into some Mega Angel Demon monster (I personally would like this to happen)

• There must always be a balance between Good and Evil.
• All the Evils cannot be destroyed unless all the Good (angels) is also gone.
• Angels all give up their powers and join Nephalems to destroy Evil and Sanctuary is the only world left where Nephalems and humans rule themselves without any Angels/Demons
• Or player finds out that there cannot be only Good or Evil alone and needs a balance, so the player plays the role of stopping and all out ending war between Good and Evil.

• Will feature Fallen/Mutilated Inarius and/or Lilith and their storyline.

• 1 to 2 new class will be introduced
• Sad but Blizzy will probably recycle at least 1 class from Diablo1 or 2.
• Druid is the highest possibility as the rest of the classes in Diablo 1 or 2 already has an equal in Diablo 3.
• Demon Hunter > Amazon / Assassin / Rogue / Druid (summons)
• Monk > Assassin / Paladin / Monk(D1: Hellfire)
• Witch Doctor > Necromancer / Sorceress
• Wizard > Sorceress
• Barbarian > Barbarian / Warrior
• New Class will
• focus more on summons
• use spears / pikes
• throwing weapons (less likely, but maybe)
• use shield (have skills that utilizes shield)

• Players will be introduced to new locations (if Blizzy once again keeps player looking at the same venues, they are truly condemning their own creativity)
• Skovos Isle - Amazon's place of origin
• Sharval Wilds / Entsteig - Druid's place of origin
• Druids were one Barbarians from the north/Arreat and they migrated south, etc etc
• Westmarch, Kingsport - Human city hub
• Xiansai, Frozen Sea - Wizard's place of origin
• Pandemonium Fotress - But this time controlled by Legions of Burning Hell
• Dreadlands - It is supposed to be filled with fun beast, demons, cute monsters, etc
• Eastern parts of Sanctuary - About Sisterhood of the Sightless Eye lore

Here is a nice map of Sanctuary locations that players have been through in the game.

Do know that all this are speculations based on what I manage to scour off the internet and through my reading on Diablo lore (I love their love, wish I could say the same for 3rd installation)

The Future of Diablo 3

Based on what Blizzy has done with Diablo3, here are some of my predictions on how the game will continue to be developed in the coming months. Blizzy will have to continue to churn out new content every 2-3 months in order to keep players coming back so expect bits and pieces of updates every patch.

• PvP Arena
• Yes, this is common news, but what I meant is that it won't just be the standard 2v2, 3v3 or 4v4 arena. There will be variations and objective based arenas
• Large arena up to 8v8
• Free-for-all Coliseum arenas up to 40 players

• Custom Games
• This will surely happen in order to increase player with player interaction
• Capture the Flag
• Hold the point
• Hero Defense 
• DoTA / AoS styled maps (may not happen since Blizzy is making Blizzard Allstars) 
• There will be free basic custom maps and there will be more popular custom maps that players have to buy.

*Since Blizzy plans to sell maps, I highly doubt they will provide any mods for players to make maps. If they did, players will be able to publish and sell their maps for other players to play and Blizzy will take a cut of the profit.

• Pets
• This is already available in WoW and will eventually be implemented in Diablo3.
• Pets will be used to help pick-up gold and loot.
• Pets will have pet based gear
• Able to level up and have skills.
• Pets cannot partake in PvE (Player vs Environment) but will be able to join in PvP and Pet vs. Pet activities.
• There will be Pet vs. Pet Arena where players pitch their pet against another players pet to get top ranking in ladder, etc.

*Introduction of Pet will increase the total number of types of item/gear in the game thus indirectly increase volume in Gold & Real Money Auction House resulting in more profits for Blizzy.

• Gambling / Betting / Stakes
• With PvP and Pet vs. Pet in place, this will follow next.
• There will be intense ranked ladders, weekly, monthly, seasonal, etc.
• You can watch live matches and place bets on a particular player, team, score, player that deals most damage, etc.
• This will be cash only using Blizzard Bucks.

*This may not be implemented in all countries as Blizzy will run into legal issues but if they manage to break the barriers, this will be huge and provide a steady flow of cash to their vaults.

• Improved Crafting
• On top of the current weapon and armor crafting, players will be able to make a variety of temporary buff items
• Scrolls - grants temporary aura or personal buff
• Resource Potions - 5 types of potion for each class
• Enchantments - Used on items to temporarily add effects 

• Vanity
• This is last on my list as it has the lowest chance of actually being implemented.
• Diablo3 has a immense selection of items which players can wear in order to look different and cool.
• But if they did, items like Diablo Horns, Angel Wings (already present in collector edition), Cowboy Hats, etc. could be sold in Real Money Auction House only.

That is all for now till my crystal ball reveals more to me. All the above is based on my observation of Blizzy's direction to continuously turn all their games into a cash cow in order to replace WoW that is scheduled to die in the new few years, my scouring of the internet for information and my years of playing a variety of MMOs.

If you have any predictions, just let me know :)

Only if...