'They Destroyed Them All,' - Gamers Criticize Diablo 4 After Update

Source: Blizzard Entertainment.

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Released yesterday, update 1.1.0 for Diablo IV proved to be quite a disappointment for the players. First of all they complain that instead of making weaker characters stronger, Blizzard weakened them even further, thus destroying them all.

Recall that Blizzard intended to slightly nerf the game's more powerful builds. The community liked this on average. There were suggestions that the developers should approach the balance issue from the other side.

The worst wizard now even worse

The devs, however, nerfed not only the better characters, but also weakened those that definitely did not require it. This is well illustrated by the example of the wizard.

1. Although this class can wield three elements - lightning, fire and ice - basically no build, especially an endgame build, could do without the passive fire skill Devouring Blaze.
2. Until yesterday, at the maximum third rank, it made the wizard deal critical hit damage increased by 30% to burning enemies, and if they were also immobilized, the bonus rose to 75%.
3. Currently, these bonuses are 21% and 30%, respectively.
4. The wizard has thus become much weaker than it was - and it was still considered the least effective class in combat.

Other classes have also suffered

Although the wizard has been hit the hardest, he is not the only one to have suffered. For example:

1. the necromancer's popular build, based on the use of the Bone Spear and Corpse Explosion skills, has been noticeably weakened - it still "works," but players are noticing that the essence is consumed frighteningly fast, making the configuration almost pointless (especially in PvP clashes);
2. the barbarian build known as Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian - based on the Hammer of the Ancients skill and the Ancestral Echoes aspect - no longer allows for inflicting more damage than intended (this was a bug, so all in all it's good that Blizzard fixed it);
3. there is no shortage of critical voices concerning the changes that the rogue - supposed to now have "neither healing, armor nor damage" - or druid have undergone;
4. some believe however, that patch 1.1.0 has let rogue and druid get off rather easily.

What about season 1?

All this makes many players are wondering whether they want to start playing the first season at all in, starting tomorrow in Diablo IV. A considerable part will probably do so, even though the changes are not to their liking.

The more frustrated Internet users remind however, that such a decision means as much as to say to Blizzard: "It's fine."

"I don't feel any progression"

Another problem compounded by yesterday's update relates to the pace of progression in the game. Up until now it has been moderate, but the nerfing of individual character classes, combined with the weakening of many items and a reduction in the amount of experience awarded for killing monsters - and thus the speed at which we gain levels - has reduced it even further. This makes the players complain increasingly louder about the boring, unsatisfying endgame.

Growing problems

Thus, it can be concluded that instead of following community feedback, Blizzard is pursuing its own strategy. Whether it will prove effective, time will tell. There is no doubt that Diablo IV has sold brilliantly. The question is whether players will be interested in it for as long as Blizzard assumes.

For the moment, many of the new features and changes they are demanding, are met with silence from the developers. One can mention, for example:

1. armory - allowing for changing character builds on the fly, similar to what was possible in Diablo III;
2. adjusting loot so that level 100 items don't drop at level 65.

Currently, however players are primarily concerned with making each character class playable without feeling that it is weak due to the changes introduced by update 1.1.0. Unfortunately, it may take a while to properly balance the game - especially since, as part of the first major patch, Blizzard was not kind enough to fix the side quest "When the light grows dim" from Act III, which has been messed up since launch...