The aftermath of Diablo 4’s Season 1 patch left Blizzard overwhelmed with player criticism, prompting the game developer to confess its mistake and promise ‘never again.’
The drastic reductions in player power in Season of the Malignant’s patch 1.1.0, coupled with an imbalance among classes, triggered a chain reaction of outrage among fans.
Social media platforms were flooded with player protests and criticism. Negative reviews cascaded in as disappointed players openly voiced their dissatisfaction.
Updated Metacritic scores reflect a similar sentiment, with many citing the patch’s nerfs and its lack of meaningful balance changes as the core issues. One disgruntled user wrote, “Patch 1.1 makes me want to uninstall,” while another stated, “I was anticipating season 1 to hopefully [bring] the missing fun, but patch 1.1 is the final nail in the coffin for me.”
In response to the backlash, the Diablo team hosted a Campfire Chat in an effort to communicate directly with the community. During the live stream, Blizzard’s Diablo team admitted their mistakes and laid out their plans to revert some of the changes.
Associate Game Director Joe Piepiora stated, “We don’t plan on doing a patch like this ever again. We hear you loud and clear.” He further acknowledged, “We know that reducing player power is never a good experience… Sometimes we just don’t get it quite right.”
Joe Shely, the Game Director, added, “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.”
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Adam Fletcher, Diablo’s Global Community Development Director, also confessed, “We know it is bad. We know it is not fun. We ourselves know that it’s not the greatest play experience for players out there.”
In light of the backlash, Blizzard has revealed the roadmap for its upcoming patch 1.1.1. The new patch promises to revert many of the changes made, focusing on improving the Sorcerer and Barbarian classes, increasing monster density in Nightmare Dungeons and Helltides, and addressing inventory concerns.
Furthermore, to make the game less of a grind, the patch will also adjust XP gain from level 50 to 100, making reaching level 100 feel more like an achievement rather than a chore. Blizzard has also committed to avoiding drastic changes in the future. Shely reaffirmed, “We can’t nerf those overpowered builds without providing compelling alternatives for players to pursue.”
To improve communication and transparency with its player base, Blizzard will now accompany Diablo IV patch notes with developer livestreams and release them well ahead of the patch’s release day.
There’s no doubt that’ll be a welcome change to the Diablo community, who clearly felt blindsided by these sweeping nerfs.