Summary
Blizzard, the developers behindDiablo 4, have admitted that the changes introduced in the latest patch are excessively punishing for players and that the studio is already working hard to remedy some of the damage in the next patch. Balance patches are notoriously difficult to manage, even for studios like Blizzard which have been working on theDiablofranchise for decades. While there have been instances ofoverpoweredDiablo 4builds trivializing the game, the latest balance patch seems to have accidentally hit a few classes too harshly for players to enjoy properly.
Diablo 4, the latest installment in the franchise, was released back on June 5 and quickly became the fastest-selling game in Blizzard’s history. InDiablo 4, players can choose between any of the five classes and the myriad of skills to lay waste to swathes of enemies, take on challenging bosses, and engage with the various endgame activities once the story concludes. As a live service title,Diablo 4will receive seasonal updatesintroducing new endgame activities, mechanics, gear, and much more to the existing game. A big part of this seasonal update includes a balance patch that addresses existing class balancing issues and introduces positive changes to encourage more innovative play styles.
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The latest 1.1.0 patch introducing theSeason of the Malignanthas become ahotly debated topic among the largerDiablo 4community, thanks to the heavy-handed nerfs to all the classes. The drastic changes and the community’s poor reception prompted Blizzard to announce a Campfire Chat a mere day after launch. In the Campfire Chat livestream, the developers acknowledged the faults and claimed that the studio doesn’t plan to create a similar future patch. The developers further acknowledged player frustrations over leveling characters in the new season, the lack of survivability for Sorcerers, and much more while detailing some of the changes in the next patch.
Players can expect patch 1.1.1 to arrive in the next two weeks, bringing changes to the aforementioned issues of leveling and survivability of Sorcerers. The patch will also include an increase inenemy density inDiablo 4’s Nightmare Dungeonsand Helltides, alongside XP gain rebalancing across the board. Patch 1.1.1 will also introduce a new stash tab to address storage concerns and increase the elixir stack to 99 to reduce inventory clutter. The developers announced a hotfix for July 21 that will address the difficulty spike in Nightmare Dungeons to tone down the grueling Tier 100 runs to the scale of Tier 70.
The developers explained that the upcoming Campfire Chat on July 28 will address patch 1.1.1 in detail. For futureDiablo 4patches, the studio will release the patch notes at least a week before, so players will have ample time to prepare and theory craft for new builds. While these meta-rebalancing patches will be less frequent, the studio will continue to address game-breaking bugs and glitches at the soonest.
Diablo 4is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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