Diablo 5 will rethink monster scaling to make your character feel genuinely stronger

Diablo 5 is still three years away, but director Joe Shely has begun outlining how Blizzard plans to handle one of the most divisive mechanics in recent Diablo games: monster level scaling.

In Diablo 2, each area had a fixed level range that determined enemy difficulty relative to your character's power. Diablo 3 and Diablo 4 switched to a system where monsters scale in difficulty as you level up. While this maintains consistent challenge, it reduces the power spikes players feel when they find strong items or gain new levels.

"Diablo is a game that, in many ways, is about your character getting stronger," Shely explained in a recent interview with PC Gamer. "When the monsters get stronger at the same time, especially outside of your control... sometimes automatic scaling can get in the way of that feeling, which is so core to it."

Shely described what the ideal moment should feel like: leveling up, seeing monsters die in waves around you, and then moving forward still feeling powerful. He acknowledged the team hasn't finalized the approach yet but confirmed Diablo 5 will "take a somewhat different approach" to scaling.

The shift aligns with other decisions Blizzard has announced for Diablo 5. The game will return to procedurally-generating dungeons and open world zones, a core feature from Diablo 2 that suggests the developer is revisiting elements from the series' foundation.

Blizzard plans to share regular development updates beginning next year and says it will incorporate player feedback as production continues. Diablo 5 is set in a post-apocalyptic world where the demon lord has won.