Blizzard has planned some changes after the PTR for Season 4 of Diablo 4. This is thanks to player feedback. One of these changes: Masterworking can no longer fail. The community is responding extremely positively to this.
What is this feature?
- “Tempering” and “Masterworking,” or in English: Tempering and Masterworking, are the new crafting system in Season 4. This means you can create your own God Rolls.
- The idea is: You collect materials and use them to upgrade found items to perfect them. Items have fewer but stronger affixes in Season 4, and through Tempering and Masterworking, you customize the items to your preferences.
- Crafting is part of the completely revamped item system. You can find all information about Season 4 in our overview.
This is what Blizzard is changing now: On the PTR, Masterworking had a chance to fail. This meant: You could use materials, and with some bad luck, they could all disappear without achieving the desired effect.
For most players, this would be quite annoying, as farming the materials is extremely time-consuming in the long run. In the large interview about Season 4, the developers revealed that this grind will constitute a large part of the gameplay loop in the endgame.
However, there are finally the official patch notes for Season 4. There is a point that specifically refers to this system:
- There is no longer a chance of failure with Masterworking.
The change may seem small at first, but it brings great joy to the community. Because they feel heard and say: Finally, their time is respected again.
The developers have already summarized in a video what they learned from the PTR:
“I want to see big numbers and great loot, not fail due to RNG”
In a thread on Reddit, hundreds of users participated in the discussion about the change. It was stated that the failure chance with Masterworking had been a major issue.
People want to have fun in Diablo and not waste their time. The original system was terrible: “That’s the kind of time-wasting, that crap that does not respect your time, that we beg to be removed.”
However, the discussion goes a little further, as at least the expert Raxxanterax is said to have criticized the new change. For him, the game is now “easier,” which has led to great misunderstanding in the community.
Professional players might have all day to farm materials and try repeatedly to upgrade an item. The casual player does not have that time, and even if they do, they do not want to invest it. A similar discussion recently arose about big numbers and OP builds: Experts demand that the heroes in Diablo 4 be made weaker.
