Diablo 4
Diablo 4’s first season, Season of the Malignant, launches tomorrow, but fans are not exactly in the best of spirits heading into its release.
Blizzard has unfurled 6,600 words worth of 1.1 patch notes, detailing the nerfs and buffs that have already hit Diablo 4’s classes, along with changes to neutral elements of the game. And for the most part players are… not happy. Especially Sorcerer players, but more on that in a bit.
While on the surface, it looks like there is probably close to a 10:1 buff/nerf ratio for classes, that’s a bit misleading. What it means in practice is that at least four out of the five classes have had some of their strongest builds nerfed, Hammer of the Ancients for Barbarian, Bone Spear for Necromancer, Werewolf Shred for Druid and Ice Shards for Sorcerer.
While many of these classes have alternatives that can be utilized, and some got clear buffs in certain directions like Necromancer minions, this is the least true for Sorcerer players. They probably knew that Ice Shards was going to be hit, but it does not seem like buffs to alternative options are meaningful, and the class was already struggling.
But the real story is probably in the neutral nerfs. Things like Vulnerable, Cooldown Reduction and Critical Hit damage were all nerfed in addition to whatever build nerfs and buffs players are getting. Blizzard effectively said outright that players were too strong and pushing into enemies too far above them.
Diablo 4
What this feels like in practice is that many players feel like they’re doing less damage, but what I and others are noticing is that survivability is much worse right now. Reductions to some Aspects like one that boosts armor on hit are really easy to feel, and with resistances still bugged to barely be doing anything, it feels much easier to die than before, even if your damage may not have totally fallen off.
As for my personal experience, I can certainly feel all this in my HotA Barbarian. My 6-8 million damage spikes are gone, neutered due to a “bug” fix. I think the highest I’ve seen now was 5 million from an Overpower Crit, but generally it’s much lower than that. And I am getting hit much, much harder now. My Rogue is…almost unchanged. Even Twisting Blades Rogue was not hit with a nerf, but they do have to contend with the Vulnerable an Cooldown changes. Still, it doesn’t feel as severe as Barbarian.
There are also other nerfs outside of buildcrafting that players don’t like, namely the increase in cost of the Mystery Helltide chest to 250 cinders. Right now, cinder collection has dropped off a cliff, maybe 30% of what it was before, but Blizzard has confirmed that is actually a bug that will be hotfixed. Players are still not amused, and Helltides are essentially useless until it’s corrected.
In response to the overwhelmingly negative sentiment about the patch, Blizzard is having what has to be considered an emergency Campfire Chat this Friday about it. Director Joe Shely told me a week or so ago that nerfs would be coming, though this seems to be more than people were expecting. I do think it may be a bit early to fully judge everything as you may be able to see which current builds are weaker, but with all the buffs, I’m not sure anyone can say for sure there are no other strong builds that have risen up to replace them just yet. We’ll see.
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