Game director Joe Shely also speaks about buffing other classes instead of nerfing one and how it can “result in more balance issues.”
Blizzard Entertainment’s Diablo 4 has found great success since its release, with over $666 million in revenue in just five days. However, it has flaws, some of which the development team is addressing in subsequent seasons, like moving Gems into the Materials tab. As for balance, players can expect a sizable patch that will affect many classes.
In the latest Campfire Chat (quotes via PC Gamer), associate production director Tiffany Wat said it was a “chonky patch,” with game director Joe Shely adding that it will have “a variety of buffs” affecting “many things across many classes.” Builds having issues with resource generation “should keep an eye out for things that address that.”
Series general manager Rod Fergusson also spoke about nerfs and how they had to be done. “I remember Destiny had the loot cave, and we’re like, ‘there’s a loot cave, let’s just sit here and farm loot, and we’re having so much fun. It’s Christmas morning all day long!’ That can’t persist. For the good of the game, that has to not exist at some point.”
As for buffing all classes instead of nerfing one, Shely said, “In theory, while you can do that, when you have many classes and many builds, and you have one thing that is too strong, the process of buffing everything else: A, is likely to result in more balance issues, because you’re changing many, many things at once, and B, you can very quickly run into a place where you have 65,000% on Whirlwind or something, and it can get sort of crazy. So, yeah, we have to nerf things sometimes.”
Given that one of the criticisms from hardcore fans is that Diablo 3 went a little too crazy with the damage post-Reaper of Souls, Shely’s view is understandable. As such, the nerfs to popular builds like Pulverize Druid, Whirlwind Barbarian and Twisting Blades Rogue did little to stem their effectiveness. Time will tell what other changes are coming.
Diablo 4 is available for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5 and PC.
