Blizzard has addressed the backlash to Diablo 4’s controversial nerf patch, promising a new patch to revert many of the changes it made.
In a livestream, associate game director Joe Piepiora, game director Joe Shely, and community chief Adam Fletcher discussed the thinking behind the 1.1.0 patch that sparked uproar within the Diablo 4 community for drastically reducing player power.
“It’s not the greatest play experience for players out there,” Fletcher said. “We don’t plan on doing a patch like this ever again. We hear you loud and clear.”
“We know that reducing player power is never a good experience,” Joe Piepiora added. “Sometimes we just don’t get it quite right.”
Patch 1.1.1 is expected within the next two weeks, perhaps just a couple of days after another livestream set for Friday, July 28. This patch hones in on improving the power of the Sorcerer and Barbarian classes in particular after both suffered drastic nerfs. Specifically on the Sorcerer, players can expect a boost to survivability, Blizzard said.
The patch will also increase the density of monsters in Nightmare Dungeons and in Helltides, two key endgame activities. Addressing inventory concerns, 1.1.1 will add an additional stash tab in which players can store items. The elixir stash size will be brought up to 99. 1.1.1 also brings character respec costs down by about 40%, so players feel more inclined to try out new builds.
Crucially, the upcoming patch will adjust XP gain from level 50 to 100 after players complained about hitting a brick wall from around level 70. “We are not trying to slow down the game,” Shely insisted. “We want level 100 to feel like an achievement, not feel like a job,” Piepiora added.
In the shorter term, a hotfix is planned for release later today, July 21, that will reduce the difficulty of Nightmare Dungeons. According to Blizzard, Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeons are “excruciatingly difficult” for most classes and require players lean on specific builds in order to have a chance at defeating them. This difficulty change should result in Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeons feeling more like Tier 70 Nightmare Dungeons currently do.
During the livestream, Blizzard said it had created new processes that should prevent a patch that drastically reduces player power in the way 1.1.0 did from happening ever again. From now on, Blizzard will let some builds be overpowered until it has provided compelling alternatives. “We can’t nerf those overpowered builds without providing compelling alternatives for players to pursue,” Shely said.
Additionally, these big meta-changing patches will always occur at predictable times, such as at the start of a new Season. Blizzard will of course react quickly to bugs that cause game-breaking damage or crashes.
“Ultimately, ARPG games are about power fantasy, and about us inviting players to break the game to some extent, and find fun toys we’ve made, do crazy things with them, and we need to make sure we’re not punishing players for doing that,” Shely said.
Fletcher announced communication changes that mean Blizzard will always provide patch notes through streams or a blog post at least a week before the actual update hits “no matter what”. Blizzard’s next Campfire Chat is set for Friday, July 28, when it will dive deeper into the changes coming in patch 1.1.1.
Despite various issues, Diablo 4 enjoyed an enormous launch that saw over 10 million people play in June. Diablo 4 is Blizzard’s fastest-selling game of all time, and has fuelled record revenue and profits for the company. If you’re still playing, check out our interactive Diablo 4 map to start tracking your progress as you play.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.