Blizzard has recently addressed the Diablo IV controversial nerf patch backlash and has now shared plans for its redemption.
Diablo IV Nerf Patch Admitted by Blizzard
The newest Campfire Chat was hosted by Associate Game Director Joe Piepiora, Game Director Joe Shely, and Community Chief Adam Fletcher to talk about the newest patch and the backlash that followed. They explained how they developed patch 1.1.0, the latest version, and what sparked the uproar within the Diablo IV community, which drastically reduced 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.”
Plans for Next Patch
Blizzard is planning to release patch 1.1.1 later, which is within the next two weeks. This patch could be released just a few days after another livestream on July 28, 2023. It is planned to improve the power of the Sorcerer and Barbarian classes specifically which have been nerfed a lot in the current patch. It is expected to improve the survivability rate of the Sorcerer.
The next patch will also increase the monster density in Nightmare Dungeons and Helltides, which are endgame activities that are popular to do. A new additional stash tab will be included which will allow players to store items. The elixir stash size will be brought up to 99. Character respect costs will be decreased by 40 percent.
XP gain will be adjusted from level 50 t 100 after players complained about hitting a wall when they reached 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.
Hotfix Soon
A hotfix will be released later today to reduce the difficulty in Nightmare Dungeons. Blizzard says that Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeons are extremely difficult for most classes and would need players to lean on specific builds to have a chance at defeating them. The hotifix will make the Tier 100 Nightmare Dungeons feel like Tier 70 Nightmare Dungeons.
“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.
Diablo IV is now available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.