Blizzard heeded the call of Diablo 4 fans. Taking all the feedback from the recent early access and open beta weekends to heart, the team has laid out a slew of tweaks and balance changes to be incorporated in the full release of Diablo 4 on June 6, with a major focus on class balance and ease of progression.

In terms of progress, the first hurdle to be overcome was the issue of backtracking. There were numerous objectives that required replayers to revisit rooms and engage with structures in order to complete them.

This made Diablo feel like a series of interconnected replica compartments rather than a cohesive world. As our own Rob Zak noted in his Diablo hands-on, it lacked the allure to entice you to explore and uncover new elements, as repeated visits to the same locations didn't yield any meaningful narrative or aesthetic rewards.

Dungeons will undergo revamps to eliminate such sentiments, right down to the nitty-gritty details. Monsters will now seek out players in dungeons, making it easier to complete kill-all-monsters objectives.

There is also a greater influx of helpful resources, bonuses, and fewer active cooldowns getting implemented. Additional combat mechanics will be added as well to diversify the challenges and prevent the game from ending up boring and repetitive.

Dungeon layouts. Class tweaks. Fonts and UI.

See how the dev team used your feedback to update #DiabloIV before release:https://t.co/fHkXWEhZMd pic.twitter.com/16HSlkZ06h

— Diablo (@Diablo) April 14, 2023

Regarding the Classes, most of them will undergo a nerf of sorts. For example, the Necromancer now has a higher minion death rate, which encourages players to rely more on corpses, thus rectifying the overpowered nature of the class.

Our Matthew can testify to how overpowered the necromancer was, as he simply called it the best as well as the most fun. Other classes are to receive a mix of buffs and nerfs to ensure they feel powerful but not omnipotent. Additionally, the team teases that it will be honing this facet of gameplay much more as it heads toward release.

Last but not least, a pleathora of technical and quality of life improvements are in the pipeline. Display issues for chat, stats, and fonts are getting fixed, and interactive inputs can now be assigned to a single button, with the primary attack button assigned to a second button.

Bosses are also reevaluated to level the playing field for everyone, especially melee characters. In addition, on April 20 at 11 a.m. PDT, Diablo 4 directors will host a live stream to showcase the endgame content and provide more details on the class and dungeon changes made after the open beta.



Posted: Apr 17, 2023 8:44 pm
Related Forum: PC Gaming Forum

Source: https://www.dualshockers.com/diablo-4-to-revamp-objectives-balance-classes-feedback/