In March, the Beta for Diablo 4 took place. All five classes in the game could be tested. However, two of them were considered very weak, while the Necromancer was somewhat too strong. Blizzard has now announced changes to better balance the classes.
How will the classes be changed?
- The Druid was considered the worst class and also received the last place in our Tier List for the Beta. Now it will receive a buff for its damage and reduced cooldowns.
- The Barbarian finished in second to last place and will receive a general damage reduction of 10% and more damage for the Whirlwind attack.
- The Hunter will be adjusted slightly and will receive more bonuses from passive abilities, but will also see increased cooldowns on the infusion skills.
- The Wizard will receive a mix of damage buffs and nerfs.
- The Necromancer will receive a significant nerf. This was also necessary, after all, it only needed one button for massive damage and constant healing.
The exact changes have been listed further down in the article.
What else will be adjusted? Blizzard is revising some dungeons, so you have to backtrack less often. Additionally, the chance for an event in the dungeon has been increased from 10% to 60% to ensure more variety. Channeling times for objects like pedestals have been reduced and more potions have been introduced as rewards.
Furthermore, there have been minor adjustments to the UI and numerous bug fixes related to fights, opponents, and quests.
In the latest talk, MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus, Gamestar podcast head Michael Graf, and Twitch streamer Maurice Weber discuss the latest information about Diablo 4:
Necromancers now have to use corpses more frequently
What changes are happening to the classes exactly? Below we have incorporated the class changes from the official Patch Notes from Blizzard:
General
- Effects such as Stun and Freeze can now be applied to elite monsters for twice as long before they become unstoppable.
- We have taken another look at class abilities to ensure that all classes have enough abilities available that remove loss of control effects.
Barbarian
- The Barbarian class has received a flat passive damage reduction of 10%. To compensate, the damage reduction effects of some passive skills in the skill tree were reduced.
- The Whirlwind skill now deals more damage and consumes more rage.
- The skill enhancement Double Strike now refunds its full rage cost when used against stunned or downed enemies.
Druid
- The damage of companion skills has been greatly increased.
- The cooldowns of all ultimate skills have been reduced.
- Rend and Pulverize can now be used more easily.
- Using a skill without shapeshifting will now turn the Druid back into human form.
Necromancer
- Summoned minions now die more frequently, so you will have to use corpses more often.
- The values of many bonuses in the Book of the Dead have been increased.
- The damage of the skill Corpse Explosion has been reduced.
- Skeleton warriors and mages are now darker.
Hunter
- The bonuses from upgrades for deception skills have been increased.
- The bonuses from several passive skills have been increased.
- The cooldowns of all infusion skills have been increased.
Wizard
- The damage of Chain Lightning has been increased and the mana cost has been reduced.
- The damage of Chain Lightning has been reduced and it is now less effective against bosses.
- The cooldown of the skill enchantment Flame Death has been reduced.
- When the enchantment bonus from Fire Wall is used, Fire Walls will now appear more frequently under enemies.
- The lucky hit chance of the skill enchantment Meteor has been increased.
Adjustments to Dungeons, UI, and Bug Fixes
What changes are happening to dungeons in general: The following dungeons have been altered in their structure so that you do not have to backtrack as often:
- Crater Gate
- Desecrated Catacombs
- Decayed Cabin
- Forbidden City
- Decline of the Rim Frost
- Immortal Radiance
- Barracks of Kor Dragan
- Torture Forest
- Runescar Cave
Changes to the gameplay of the dungeons will also be made:
- To ensure that you have to run the same paths less often, monsters in dungeons now seek out players, so you can more easily complete the quest objective of “Kill all monsters”.
- When Animus is collected, players and nearby allies receive:
- 10 resources.
- A cooldown reduction of 1 sec. for all active cooldowns.
- The channeling time for depositing Animus has been reduced from 3 to 0 seconds.
- The time for a rescue has been reduced from 3 to 1.5 seconds.
- After completing all rescue quest objectives, you now receive a healing potion.
- If you carry the Ancestor Statue, Bloodstone, Mechanical Chest, or Stone Carving, you will receive a speed bonus that increases your movement speed and that of nearby allies by 25%.
- The channeling time for pedestals has been reduced from 2 to 0 seconds.
- If you return a portable object to its pedestal, health, resources, and potions will now be fully restored for all nearby players and cooldowns reset.
- When doors are opened, this is now displayed on the minimap.
- All quest objectives for structures in dungeons now have additional combat mechanics that players must handle.
- The chance of an event occurring in a dungeon has been increased from 10% to 60%.
What’s also in the Patch Notes:
UI
- A bug has been fixed that prevented the built-in screen reader from reading hints for buttons, details about game options, and other user interface texts.
- A bug has been fixed that prevented actions from being assigned to the mouse wheel.
- A bug has been fixed that prevented Escape from being assigned to the right analog stick of controllers.
- The chat is now displayed on the left side of the screen when using the centered action bar configuration.
- The values of characters are now displayed by default when you click the button for materials & values in the inventory.
- The inputs for moving and interacting can now be assigned to one key while the input for the primary attack is assigned to a secondary key.
- The sans-serif font used in the game has been replaced by a new serif font.
Fights
- Several bugs have been fixed that prevented interaction with bosses like the Butcher.
- The difficulty of the Butcher has been re-evaluated to make him more challenging at World Tiers III and IV.
- Bosses like T’Chort, Malnok, Vhenard, and others have been re-evaluated regarding their difficulty level for melee characters, resulting in changes to their attacks and mechanics.
- A bug has been fixed that caused Malicious Vampires with the affix Shadow Enchantment to repeatedly impale.
Basements
- The chance for a dungeon event in basements has been increased.
- Basements now always grant a chest after completion.
- A bug has been fixed that marked basements as completed prematurely.
- A bug has been fixed that prevented the guaranteed elite monster from appearing in basements.
General Simplifications
- A bug has been fixed that allowed players to increase their attack speed by prematurely canceling attacks with movement commands.
- A bug has been fixed that prevented characters from being immune and targetable after loading and entering an area.
- The reset dungeon button has been disabled.
- A bug has been fixed that resulted in fewer monsters than intended being present in Storm Valley and Serac’s Rapture until the campaign quests in those areas were completed.
What do you think of the changes Blizzard is making? Are they successful or do you miss an adjustment? Feel free to write it in the comments. Everything about Diablo 4 can be found here:
Diablo 4: Release, Beta, Classes, Gameplay, and Pre-order Overview
