05 August 2023 , 18:00
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The long-awaited reset patch fans have been waiting for finally arrives next week, in Activision Blizzard’s last bid to return Diablo 4 to its former glory.
When Diablo 4 first launched on all major platforms back in June, players and critics alike quickly took note of just how impressive an entry it was considering the franchise’s 10-year hiatus. Our own review called it an “intrinsically addictive reinvention of hell”, citing how the transition to a contiguous open world benefited the act of mowing down hordes of creatures as any one of the game’s five character classes. Since then, however, developer Activision Blizzard’s various balance changes – implemented as patches and updates – have only made Diablo 4 a far worse experience.
Since update 1.1.0a’s arrival players have made their displeasure at all classes (but especially the Sorcerer and Barbarian) being debuffed explicitly known. All those hours spent on honing the best Barbarian build were squashed instantly by a reduction of stats across the board. Fortunately, Activision Blizzard has taken note.
The studio’s attempt to get Season 1 and the endgame back on track is set to roll out in Diablo 4 patch 1.1.1, which arrives on Tuesday, August 8 with the intention of rebalancing all of the game’s classes back to a decent standard. As the days roll on, though, I find myself continually wondering whether or not it’s too little too late. Season of the Malignant has been underway since mid-July, after all, and not knowing how effective your class will be against this limited-time endgame content has put a dampener on what should have been a successful debut season. That’s why so much is riding on Diablo 4 update patch 1.1.1
The patch notes have already been shared in an bid to be more transparent, even teased beforehand in a campfire chat livestream. But we won’t know for sure what the effects will be until the changes are implemented next week. Barbarian and Sorcerer players are hoping that specific builds, such as the Whirlwind Barbarian and Ice Shard Sorcerer, will be viable again. Odds are they will be, given the number of balance changes lined up, indicating that Activision Blizzard has learned an important lesson: to communicate clearer with its devout community going forward.
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Fire starters
No online game is perfect, but Diablo 4 being the first true live-service game in the franchise meant that a teething period was inevitable – although I don't think anyone expected it to this degree. The hard job for Blizzard is giving veteran players a big enough challenge in the endgame while trying not to punish newcomers who didn't pick up the game at launch. It’s a tricky balancing act, and one that will only get harder as subsequent seasonal content comes, as well as the two upcoming expansions.
The only positive to such a colossal stumble this early on post-launch is that we’re already seeing how open the development team is to listening to player feedback. It didn’t take long for the community to make their displeasure known on social media, and Blizzard responded with a flurry of hotfixes and smaller patches – as we saw with update 1.1.0b and update 1.1.0c – as well as regular livestreams to address community concerns. It’s even changed practices as a result of the update 1.1.0a’s poor reception, by publishing patch notes prior to them taking effect.
Diablo 4 is a great game at its core, and that’s why it’s frustrating to see Blizzard routinely fumble the good thing they’ve got going. It’s a genuine game of the year contender in my eyes – up there with the Resident Evil 4 remake, Pikmin 4 and Final Fantasy 16. That’s why so much is riding on how well Diablo 4 patch 1.1.1 is received. It will cement the thought in players' minds as to whether Diablo 4 is a good game, or if it used to be one? To have that question lingering so soon after launch suggests something has gone wrong in a big way.
Very few developers are able to establish such a fervent and dedicated playerbase as the one Diablo 4 has cultivated so quickly, particularly for a game that is primarily PvE. Building up a community takes effort, but keeping it engaged even more so; this is the lesson Blizzard has learned in the past couple weeks since Diablo 4 Season 1 got under way.
For as bad things have got for Diablo 4 looking in from the outside, I think we can all agree that Blizzard has handled this better than it has compared to the constant letdowns the Overwatch 2 fanbase has had to deal with.
While I personally don’t believe that Diablo 4 patch 1.1.1 being received poorly would entirely shatter people’s fondness for the game, it's an important turning point in terms of how the game will be handled going forward. Blizzard's mistake was making sweeping class changes that negated the hours spent in-game just to curtail a small portion of the playerbase’s class abilities, and it’s left the game in a worse state than it was on release.
Buffing all five classes close to where they were is a good start, but the goal for Diablo 4 patch 1.1.1 should be to ensure that content in the endgame and beyond is a fun experience to take part in.