Diablo 4 has recently released its Patch 1.1.0 update alongside Season of the Malignant, and some fans have voiced their disappointment and upset over some of the changes made. This includes nerfs to classes and changes to certain stats and aspects of the game.
In a Campfire Chat Livestream, game director Joe Shely, associate game director Joseph Piepiora, and associate director of community Adam Fletcher sat down to talk and address fan concerns over the update. They provided insight into their decision and how they will approach these big patches and changes in the future.
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Diablo 4 Developers Were Candid About Their Intentions and Reasoning Following Latest Patch
The latest Campfire Chat Livestream proved to be a very frank and candid conversation with the community. The developers took some time to detail their reasoning behind the controversial nerfs seen in the recent patch for Season of the Malignant, and detail an upcoming patch to address some of these issues.
They explained that the recent patch was meant to address some outlier builds and abilities affecting the overall experience. The changes were meant as a way to bring these aspects more in line with each other and encourage more build diversity and options, reinforcing their focus on player choice.
However, they acknowledged that this has caused the game to feel less fun, and caused certain classes, like the Sorcerer, to feel very underpowered, with Shely saying, “If the game is not more fun for players, if players can’t believe that as the game evolves it will get more fun, then we’re not accomplishing our goals.” This is on top of fan feedback regarding certain changes made, such as cooldown reduction and Vulnerable Damage nerfs, which they explained were too overused or needed to be bought more in line with other stats.
They also detailed their plans going forward on how they will address the community and approach these big patches and changes to the game. For one, the developers made it clear they do not plan to release a patch of this sort ever again, and in the future they will be providing details like patch notes much more in advance. This will mean players have more time to digest and offer feedback on changes coming to the game. They also stated that these big changes to the game and meta will occur at predictable times, such as the start of a season.
They also clarified that when they plan to make changes to increase build diversity and make adjustments, these will not be down until they can provide compelling alternatives. This means some builds will be overpowered for a little longer until they can make others feel just as fun and powerful to compensate.
On top of that, they also addressed several other fan concerns, including Nightmare Dungeon difficulty, which will be adjusted in a hotfix today, and detailed some of the changes coming in Season 2, such as resistance reworks, a new endgame activity, and more options for target farming unique.
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They also announced patch 1.1.1. will be coming in the next few weeks, addressing several points of fan feedback. These include Sorcerer and Barbrain buffs, monster density, additional stash tab, Elixir stack sizes, respec costs being reduced by 40%, and changes to make the level 50-100 experience a bit easier. They will detail these changes more in a Campfire Chat Livestream next Friday.
With the developers being so upfront about their intentions and mistakes, fans will likely welcome it. While they may be disappointed in the game’s current state, they can rest assured that the team is listening and seems to be doing all they can to address fan feedback.
Published: Jul 21, 2023 02:55 pm