Some players in Diablo 4 are currently complaining that Blizzard releases a new nerf to classes, items, or dungeons almost every other day. The developers have now spoken about why this is the case and what will change in the future.
Which nerfs are we talking about?
- Since the release of Diablo 4 on June 2nd and 6th, the game has already received 11 hotfixes.
- During this time, there have been some adjustments to classes, including 2 items for barbarians being adjusted because they were dealing unintendedly high damage.
- Dungeons have even been nerfed 4 times, most recently, all dungeons were adjusted to each other. This was a major nerf for the best farming opportunities.
Why is Blizzard doing this? In the ‘Campfire Chat’ on June 16th, Diablo chief Rob Fergusson explained that the team’s principle is class balance. Every build and class should work, even if they may not be precisely equally strong.
As seen in the tier list of the best builds in Diablo 4, this is actually working quite well. However, it requires that overly strong builds are toned down, even if it is uncomfortable for those affected.
Otherwise, the problem arises that the game presents no challenge anymore, and that is not the plan. There are additional difficulties. Game Director Joe Shely explains: If you buff everything else for balance, quickly there will be more balance issues. And you will quickly reach the point where you deal about 64,000% more damage, which is something we actually want to avoid.
The same applies to dungeons. Fergusson draws a comparison to the famous loot cave from Destiny. If good loot is too quick and too easy to obtain, the ‘power creep’ is too large.
The term describes the problem that new items render old ones completely useless. Too much loot in a short time leads to rapid upgrades – until the end is quickly reached, and without new content, nothing can proceed. However, that takes time.
That some builds were definitely too strong can be seen in this barbarian who easily takes down the hardest boss in the game:
Big buffs coming – Until mid to end of July
Game Director Joe Shely and Associate Production Director Tiffany Wat have already spoken about that it won’t just be nerfs, but that buffs are coming relatively soon. Among them are many things that players desire.
One of the most important points is dungeon design. As it currently stands, it is often better to repeat the same dungeon over and over for efficient leveling instead of playing the actually harder nightmare dungeons.
Nightmare dungeons are one of the endgame contents of Diablo 4 and should challenge you. To make it worthwhile, there will be buffs and changes to the system:
- Nightmare dungeons are generally supposed to grant more experience points
- The enemy density in nightmare dungeons is supposed to be generally a bit higher than in normal dungeons
- Keystone stones will teleport you directly to the dungeon, so you can chain them together and grind for hours
This change is expected to come in the next approximately 4 weeks at the latest before the release of Season 1. Season 1 starts between mid and late July.
More information about dungeons, leveling, and XP can be found in our level guide for Diablo 4. We explain the grind in the video:
The developers also want to look at resistances. Here, there was the problem that armor and damage reduction are by far the best stats for defense, while resistance is completely negligible.
According to Joe Shely, this value drops significantly more in higher world tiers than planned. However, this is supposed to change around Season 2. Before that, it is not feasible, especially since Season 1 is already almost finished, as Fergusson explains.
Class buffs are also coming, although Wat and Fergusson joke about their favorite class, the necromancer. However, there were no concrete announcements on what to expect. Further MMO features are also under discussion, where details are still missing. These have recently been a controversial topic in the community:
