Blizzard has posted a blog covering some important information.
- Statistics on builds and other interesting things.
- Patch 1.0.2, which has been in development since the game launched, should go live sometime within the next week
- In patch 1.0.3 they will be showing the ilvl budget on level 60+ items to make it easier to understand why blues at times are stronger than other level 60 legendaries.
- In Patch 1.1 legendaries will be getting a boost. However this will only affect new drops.
- Blacksmith will have its gold cost and page cost reduced.
- You will only need two gems in order to combine for the next gem, up to Flawless Squares
Originally Posted by Blue Tracker / Official Forums)
(With Diablo III out for nearly two weeks now, millions of players around the world are storming Sanctuary and joining the battle against the Burning Hells. At the same time, we continue to work around the clock to make sure you have an epic online gaming experience.
As more and more players begin to perfect their character builds and progress into Diablo III’s higher difficultly levels, some of the most prominent feedback lately has been about game balance and design, and that’s what we’re here to talk about today. As with any new game, gameplay issues are inevitable, and we hear a lot of feedback regarding what‘s balanced, what’s not, and everything else in between. We recently made some decisions to adjust (or outright nerf) a few class skills, and today we wanted to explain our overall philosophy on design changes -- as well as give some insight into some more changes that are coming up.
Before we get to that, though, we thought it'd be fun to share a few interesting stats we've collected since Diablo III's release:
Regarding the changes to Lingering Fog, Boon of Protection, and Force Armor: we determined these skills were simply more powerful than they should be, and we felt their impact on class balance and how each class was perceived warranted hotfixes as soon as we were able. However, we don't want you to be worried that a hotfix nerf is lurking around the corner every day. If a skill is strong, but isn't really breaking the game, we want you to have your fun. Part of the enjoyment of Diablo is finding those super-strong builds, and we want players to be excited to use something they discovered that feels overpowered. A good example of this is the monk Overawe rune, which many players have identified as being quite good. We agree it's good, but we don't think it's so far out of line that we're going to swoop in and hotfix it out of existence.
Inferno is intended to be extremely difficult, but with some specific skills, a few classes were simply able to progress far more easily than intended. This made the classes, which were about where they were supposed to be, seem very underpowered. It also created the perception that the classes doing well were intended to rely on specific runes in all their builds, and the other classes were just broken. This is the opposite of what’s true. If any single skill or rune feels absolutely required to progress, it means that skill is working against our goal of encouraging build diversity -- and those “required” skills need to be corrected. We know these hotfixes snuck up on people, and it took us a day or so to communicate that they had gone live. However, our intent moving forward is that when there are circumstances where a hotfix is necessary, we’ll communicate changes that could impact your ability to play your class through ‘Upcoming Changes’ posts in the General forum. Ideally, we’ll let you know as soon as we even have the idea that we want to make that kind of change.
That said, we also wanted to let you know we’re keeping a close eye on Inferno. The intent of incoming damage is that it should be a very consistent drain on your health, and mitigating that drain is a major part of what makes Inferno mode difficult. Right now, there’s a lot more damage “spikiness” occurring than feels right, and that’s one major area we’re looking to adjust in patch 1.0.3. While we don’t have any specifics yet, our design goals are to support and promote build diversity; continue to ensure that a mix of champion packs, rare packs, and boss fights are the most efficient way to acquire the best items in the game; and ensure that all classes are viable in Inferno.
From a high-level perspective, we think a more fundamentally fun way to approach difficulty in Inferno isn't seeing how much incoming damage you can avoid or mitigate, but rather to see how efficient you can be while voluntarily taking on a challenge that pushes you. For anybody who's ever died because they chased a Treasure Goblin too aggressively, you know what we mean; dying because you got greedy or overconfident can actually be a lot of fun. Now that the skills mentioned above have been brought more in line, we’ll be keeping a close eye on balance.
We've also seen some people saying our intention with Inferno is just one-shot you to make it difficult. While damage is a bit spikier than we'd like, we're actually seeing a pretty significant number of people attempting Inferno without sufficient gear. There's a good chance that returning to the previous Act to farm upgrades will do the most to help you survive. That said, we’d like to shift some of the focus away from survival and more toward using a variety of offensive tactics to succeed. Survival will still be important, but finding ways to maximize your damage while staying alive is more exciting. We’re not particularly concerned with whether or not a boss is “beatable,” though it should feel epic and challenging to defeat it. We’re more concerned with ensuring that acquiring 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor and taking on as many Champions and Rares as you can remains the most challenging and rewarding way to play.
On to items! One of the biggest pieces of feedback we’ve received regarding items is the relative power of Legendaries. This isn’t a simple issue to address, as it involves some intentional design decisions as well as expectations built by other games. First and foremost, Legendary items are not designed to necessarily be the best items in the game. They’re just one additional type of item as you level up, and they are not meant to be the primary items you’re chasing at the end-game. They can -- and should -- be exciting to find, but they’re not supposed to serve as the single driving force of the item hunt. Rare items, for example, have the possibility to roll up “perfect” stats that can, if you’re lucky, outpace the predetermined stats of a Legendary. That’s by design.
One problem we’ve seen -- and intend to correct quickly -- is players comparing high-level Magic (blue) items to lower-level Legendary items as “proof” of an imbalance. To help correct misconceptions of the actual stat budgets allocated to items, we’ll be exposing item levels (ilvl) of 60+ items in patch 1.0.3. Comparing an ilvl 63 blue to an ilvl 60 Legendary will hopefully make a bit more sense afterward. In addition, we’re planning to just straight-out buff Legendary items in a future patch, likely the PvP patch (1.1). These buffs will not be retroactive, and so they’ll only apply to new Legendary items found after the patch. In the long term, we’re looking at simply expanding the affix diversity and unique bonuses of Legendary items, and we’ll be able to share more details after the PvP patch.
Other areas of concern have been both the gem combination system and Blacksmith leveling and crafting costs. The intent, especially with the Blacksmith, is that he’s leveling with you, you’re able to use him as an alternate source for upgrades. Our design goal is that once you get to level 60, his recipes are actually good enough to help fill a character’s potential itemization gaps. To correct these issues, we’re looking to adjust the Blacksmith costs for training (gold and pages) and crafting from levels 1-59, and reduce the cost of combining gems so that it only requires two gems instead of three (up to Flawless Square). Both of these changes are scheduled for patch 1.0.3.
Of course, these are just a few of the more prominent issues we wanted to let you know we’re working on. In addition, we’ll be addressing a number of specific game bugs and other issues through future hotfixes and patches. We’re going full steam ahead on the PvP patch, which will also include a number of game changes unrelated to PvP, and we look forward to sharing more about that as we get closer to opening up a PTR, where you’ll be able to test out our changes -- and enjoy mercilessly slaughtering one another in the PvP arena.
As more and more players begin to perfect their character builds and progress into Diablo III’s higher difficultly levels, some of the most prominent feedback lately has been about game balance and design, and that’s what we’re here to talk about today. As with any new game, gameplay issues are inevitable, and we hear a lot of feedback regarding what‘s balanced, what’s not, and everything else in between. We recently made some decisions to adjust (or outright nerf) a few class skills, and today we wanted to explain our overall philosophy on design changes -- as well as give some insight into some more changes that are coming up.
Before we get to that, though, we thought it'd be fun to share a few interesting stats we've collected since Diablo III's release:
- On average players have created 3 characters each
- 80% of characters are between levels 1 and 30
- 1.9% of characters have unlocked Inferno difficulty
- 54% of Hardcore players chose a female character
- The majority of Hardcore deaths (35%) occur in Act I Normal
- The most common level 60 build in the game is only used by 0.7% of level 60 characters of that class (not including Passive diversity)
- The most used runes for each class at level 60 are Barbarian: Best Served Cold, Demon Hunter: Lingering Fog, Wizard: Mirror Skin, Monk: Peaceful Repose, Witch Doctor: Numbing Dart
Regarding the changes to Lingering Fog, Boon of Protection, and Force Armor: we determined these skills were simply more powerful than they should be, and we felt their impact on class balance and how each class was perceived warranted hotfixes as soon as we were able. However, we don't want you to be worried that a hotfix nerf is lurking around the corner every day. If a skill is strong, but isn't really breaking the game, we want you to have your fun. Part of the enjoyment of Diablo is finding those super-strong builds, and we want players to be excited to use something they discovered that feels overpowered. A good example of this is the monk Overawe rune, which many players have identified as being quite good. We agree it's good, but we don't think it's so far out of line that we're going to swoop in and hotfix it out of existence.
Inferno is intended to be extremely difficult, but with some specific skills, a few classes were simply able to progress far more easily than intended. This made the classes, which were about where they were supposed to be, seem very underpowered. It also created the perception that the classes doing well were intended to rely on specific runes in all their builds, and the other classes were just broken. This is the opposite of what’s true. If any single skill or rune feels absolutely required to progress, it means that skill is working against our goal of encouraging build diversity -- and those “required” skills need to be corrected. We know these hotfixes snuck up on people, and it took us a day or so to communicate that they had gone live. However, our intent moving forward is that when there are circumstances where a hotfix is necessary, we’ll communicate changes that could impact your ability to play your class through ‘Upcoming Changes’ posts in the General forum. Ideally, we’ll let you know as soon as we even have the idea that we want to make that kind of change.
That said, we also wanted to let you know we’re keeping a close eye on Inferno. The intent of incoming damage is that it should be a very consistent drain on your health, and mitigating that drain is a major part of what makes Inferno mode difficult. Right now, there’s a lot more damage “spikiness” occurring than feels right, and that’s one major area we’re looking to adjust in patch 1.0.3. While we don’t have any specifics yet, our design goals are to support and promote build diversity; continue to ensure that a mix of champion packs, rare packs, and boss fights are the most efficient way to acquire the best items in the game; and ensure that all classes are viable in Inferno.
From a high-level perspective, we think a more fundamentally fun way to approach difficulty in Inferno isn't seeing how much incoming damage you can avoid or mitigate, but rather to see how efficient you can be while voluntarily taking on a challenge that pushes you. For anybody who's ever died because they chased a Treasure Goblin too aggressively, you know what we mean; dying because you got greedy or overconfident can actually be a lot of fun. Now that the skills mentioned above have been brought more in line, we’ll be keeping a close eye on balance.
We've also seen some people saying our intention with Inferno is just one-shot you to make it difficult. While damage is a bit spikier than we'd like, we're actually seeing a pretty significant number of people attempting Inferno without sufficient gear. There's a good chance that returning to the previous Act to farm upgrades will do the most to help you survive. That said, we’d like to shift some of the focus away from survival and more toward using a variety of offensive tactics to succeed. Survival will still be important, but finding ways to maximize your damage while staying alive is more exciting. We’re not particularly concerned with whether or not a boss is “beatable,” though it should feel epic and challenging to defeat it. We’re more concerned with ensuring that acquiring 5 stacks of Nephalem Valor and taking on as many Champions and Rares as you can remains the most challenging and rewarding way to play.
On to items! One of the biggest pieces of feedback we’ve received regarding items is the relative power of Legendaries. This isn’t a simple issue to address, as it involves some intentional design decisions as well as expectations built by other games. First and foremost, Legendary items are not designed to necessarily be the best items in the game. They’re just one additional type of item as you level up, and they are not meant to be the primary items you’re chasing at the end-game. They can -- and should -- be exciting to find, but they’re not supposed to serve as the single driving force of the item hunt. Rare items, for example, have the possibility to roll up “perfect” stats that can, if you’re lucky, outpace the predetermined stats of a Legendary. That’s by design.
One problem we’ve seen -- and intend to correct quickly -- is players comparing high-level Magic (blue) items to lower-level Legendary items as “proof” of an imbalance. To help correct misconceptions of the actual stat budgets allocated to items, we’ll be exposing item levels (ilvl) of 60+ items in patch 1.0.3. Comparing an ilvl 63 blue to an ilvl 60 Legendary will hopefully make a bit more sense afterward. In addition, we’re planning to just straight-out buff Legendary items in a future patch, likely the PvP patch (1.1). These buffs will not be retroactive, and so they’ll only apply to new Legendary items found after the patch. In the long term, we’re looking at simply expanding the affix diversity and unique bonuses of Legendary items, and we’ll be able to share more details after the PvP patch.
Other areas of concern have been both the gem combination system and Blacksmith leveling and crafting costs. The intent, especially with the Blacksmith, is that he’s leveling with you, you’re able to use him as an alternate source for upgrades. Our design goal is that once you get to level 60, his recipes are actually good enough to help fill a character’s potential itemization gaps. To correct these issues, we’re looking to adjust the Blacksmith costs for training (gold and pages) and crafting from levels 1-59, and reduce the cost of combining gems so that it only requires two gems instead of three (up to Flawless Square). Both of these changes are scheduled for patch 1.0.3.
Of course, these are just a few of the more prominent issues we wanted to let you know we’re working on. In addition, we’ll be addressing a number of specific game bugs and other issues through future hotfixes and patches. We’re going full steam ahead on the PvP patch, which will also include a number of game changes unrelated to PvP, and we look forward to sharing more about that as we get closer to opening up a PTR, where you’ll be able to test out our changes -- and enjoy mercilessly slaughtering one another in the PvP arena.
anyways, good update. the game is a success and it will only get better as they tweak it.
i like where inferno is at the moment. it's hard, but you can progress with gear upgrades and refinement to your play style and build.
when i first hit act 1 inferno it was a jolt. i died a lot, but i upgraded some stuff and changed my spec a lot. now it's practically a breeze. when i first hit act 2 it was another jarring experience. but, after more work i'm doing better than at first just like with act 1. i'm happy with the pace and i'm glad i couldn't just cruise to the end in a week.
So true. : /
Just because you don't have gear yet to use another build you can't judge the build people find easiest without gear to be the only build that is useful
And I have thousands of BS mats that I never used, anticipating a change there too. My inferno WD has 3-4 level 30 items on her still. I refuse to give up my magic find, even if it'll raise my DPS :/.
What tweaks? I kinda like that Belial is like a 10 minute butt muscle work out. In seriousness, he's the boss that needs some work done. It's stupid that you have to be 100% correct in each decision or you fail. No other boss is even close to that.
That makes us think about the fact that the more angered minority is always the loudest.
Curious that some people "estimate" numbers about more than 6,000,000 people.
Bah. There is lots of diversity. Just because most of them will take smoke screen or whatever, doesn't mean other things aren't in there. My WD is using a build I pretty much did before release and is doing quite well. Only tried Zombie Bears once and didn't like it. Hit n Run is far more effective for me.
Try something else if you don't want to be the same as everyone else. Other combinations work.
Tell that to Barbs where everyone is forced into 1h/shield. There's no point in going 2h or dual wielding because you'll be insta-gibbed. They're all using pretty much the exact same skills because of it; compare that to D2 where you had at the very least 4 builds that were viable in Hell.
Yea his stats seemed way off. I myself only play one character yet I have like 6 others at very low level. Combine that with the fact that if you tried logging in on launch day chances are you filled up all your character slots.
I also have a feeling his stats for skills used is way off. They're probably looking at stats for something like in skillslot 1 we have x skill, skillslots 2 we have y skill and counting that differently than y being in slot 1, and x being in slot 2.
Then post you're Inferno build, prove it
So I'm very happy to see they plan to address the damage being too spikey, and hopefully as they said we can use some more offensive tactics to survive.
2.) Nerfing the Blacksmith was needed. I don't know why they changed it during the beta as it was fine the way it was. It's just stupid to put 10 pages and 8k gold (Not sure if exact just saying for arguments sake) into an Axe that gives me Intelligence. Was just a stupid waste of gold and would cost 60k to get a decently itemized piece of gear. Could go to the auction house and spend 20k and get geared to the teeth. Again another concern the community has about the game, while not as big cause of the Auction House.
And really people? You guys are going to argue about how many people are in Inferno? I have 26 people on Real ID and 3 of them are in inferno. I think Blizzards statistics are accurate. Not everybody has played the game every hour of every day.
I also know many people from all different backgrounds who are playing right now, some who were hardcore D2 guys that are loving D3, and a few of them that have already stopped playing. Also know a few WoW people who both love the game and have stopped playing. Not everyone who bought the game is going to fall in love with it regardless of their background.
Problem with games now is that people instead of looking to go have fun with it and see what is has to offer, they try to find everything wrong with it and rip it apart and give it no chance. They won't compare pros and cons and see if X con really outweighs Y pro and vise versa. I think a lot of people wanted D3 to be carbon copy of D2 and the problem is the gap between releases, not who's making it. You can argue Blizzard north vs Blizzard Activision all day if you want, but what your failing to look at is 2000 vs 2012.
Anyways, just wanted to add that the biggest problem with this game in my opinion is the Auction House. It should just be removed.
Also, it specifies characters, not players (Which I believe Bashiok's original post covered). I have two inferno characters, I'm sure other alt grinding folks do too.
LOL. You have no perspective about any kind of gamer other than yourself (hardcore/skilled gamer) if you honestly believe what you just said.
Most of the people clear Normal and never continue. The other people probably couldn't make it through Nightmare.
You have to understand that most people are not you. We are the 1% (well probably more like top 5%) of gamers, and it wasn't hard to get here. It just happens because there are so many other gamers gaming for so many different reasons.
Blizzard may or may not be inflating their statistics but the real % in Inferno is not even half of what you suggested. Not even close.
It has nothing to do with feeling elite. I always feel like I'm a bad player (I'm hard on myself when I make mistakes), but way to pretend you know me.
I've played a LOT with causal and/or bad players over the years, and you just do not understand how vastly they outnumber us. There are metric crapton of WoW players with annual pass subs that are just going to clear Normal and level alts. Nearly all of my friends have just leveled multiple characters through Normal and haven't even started on Nightmare. One of my friends is playing with her entire family in 4-player coop and they're still in Act 1 Normal because she's still having to teach them the controls because they're slow learners. THAT is the general population.
You just don't have any perspective on the gaming population if you honestly believe anywhere near 40% of accounts have unlocked Inferno. That's just absurd.
Have you at least thought for a second that people in hell act 4 just don't want to go inferno seeing how hopeless it is? A little more than 1% that made it to inferno is nothing for blizzard to boast about. They think it means, 'oh you didnt make to inferno, then you have no reason to complain', wait what? DAFUQ? Need a slap, blizzard? There are so many messed up things in Daiblo 3 right now, that it's not just inferno. Almost everything is f*cked, except for graphics and pretty WoW spells. Even at that graphics are kiddie.