At the gamescom 2024, we had the opportunity to talk to Rod Fergusson, the head of Diablo, and Gavian Whishaw, the Executive Producer of Vessel of Hatred. In the interview, we discussed, among other things, class balance in Diablo 4 and what it means for the Spiritborn, which is coming to the game with the DLC.
A central theme in Diablo 4 is the balancing of the five classes. With each new season and many patches released in between, the developers make adjustments that have varying impacts on the classes. Recently, the balancing was revised in Season 5 with buffs, nerfs, and new items. This has led to two classes standing out that are currently dominating the endgame with their powerful skills and builds.
MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus spoke at gamescom 2024 with Rod Fergusson, the head of the Diablo franchise, and Gavian Whishaw, the Executive Producer of Vessel of Hatred, about class balancing in Diablo 4. The developers revealed what they pay special attention to in terms of balance. Spoiler: For the head of Diablo, fun comes first.
“It’s about being exciting and fun”
The first expansion for Diablo 4, Vessel of Hatred, will be released in October. Various experts had the opportunity to test the Spiritborn and its skills at an event in July 2024. This led to some theorycrafting for builds, including some potentially overpowered options.
We wanted to know what is most important in maintaining class balance – especially with regard to the new class. Rod Fergusson explains in his answer to the question about what matters to him in balancing:
Well, it has to be fun. […] Balance is something that takes time. […] If you overreact, you will never find the balance because you never take the time to really find out where the power curve lies. For us, it’s really about it being exciting and fun. But we also know that we have to put it in the players’ hands because, even if we put hundreds of hours of testing into the balance, once it gets into the players’ hands, they discover cool ways to create a build within that class.
In the conversation, we expressed that the Spiritborn felt a bit weaker compared to other classes during testing. The question that arose was whether this was due to a general weakening of power or the builds we played.
Gavian Whishaw explained: “Once [the builds] are hardened, you will notice the difference very clearly. It’s like with your first class when you get your hardening – that’s it.”
Previously, the Executive Producer of Vessel of Hatred noted that he was always surprised at how fast the Spiritborn is. He states: “There are so many skills that bridge distances so quickly – that’s why I don’t go all in on Jaguar, it’s too fast, it’s too much.”
The Pit as a Means to Discuss Balance
We also talked about how the classes have been heavily aligned with Season 5. We wanted to know what will change in general regarding class balance. Fergusson believes that the team is aware when there are disagreements within the community over which class performs well and which does not, and what has worked well.
However, for the developers, recent seasons have given a great opportunity to communicate with players. And this is related to an endgame activity:
What I’ve found is that the Pit is a great way to communicate with people, for example:
Hey, the druid can’t get past pit level 90, what’s going on?It has been a great method to discuss balance and how deep one can go into the pit now that the “Holy Bolt” elixir is gone. […] We want to ensure that at least one build for each class has this kind of strength in the game.
However, for Fergusson, it’s not always about how far you get. He himself does not play meta builds. The head of Diablo shares what he has enjoyed the most in the season so far:
As I said, I’m not a meta player, so this season I built a summoning sorcerer. I can defeat bosses, I’ve reached level 100 and got my glyphs to 21, but for me, it wasn’t about dominating the pit; it was about what is the most fun. And summoning 24 hydra heads was super fun (laughs).
In the interview, Fergusson emphasizes that the team eventually recognized that it was okay if certain things are “overpowered” or function differently than expected. Their goal is to provide players with fun. And they want to maintain that fun for the players – as long as the servers remain stable, according to Fergusson.
Regarding the servers, Blizzard recently had to pull the emergency brake and nerfed the strongest build of the sorceress.
In October, it will become clear how the new class fits into the balancing and what adjustments still need to be made to the Spiritborn or the other classes to align them with each other.
MeinMMO editor Benedict Grothaus had the opportunity in July 2024 to test the Spiritborn from Vessel of Hatred in advance. He was able to play around for two hours and try out the skills of the Spiritborn. His impressions of the new class can be found here: Diablo 4: I was at Blizzard and played the new class of Vessel of Hatred – This is what the Spiritborn can do
Webedia Gaming (GameStar, GamePro, MeinMMO) will accompany the large gaming event as the official media partner of gamescom 2024.
