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.
Trolls don't possess skills of elaboration.
Bit surprised that 35% of hc deaths are in act1 normal. Where can you die there?
Maybe its because there are few deaths after act 1 because people are playing very defensively and are more careful to avoid death. I know I am
So now I've purchased my gear in the AH. Fantastic. Wait, no it isn't. It completely contradicts the ARPG genre. Instead of being rewarded for my time and effort into killing those shiny yellow and bold blue mobs with an upgrade, I receive a golden ticket to log out of the game and reward myself with a hefty burden of browsing the auction house. Oh fun. Now that I've put the effort into killing these mobs I get to put even more time into rummaging through this annoying storefront. Just fantastic.
Or you could have the willpower to actually farm. Pretty sure you didn't just play through the highest difficulty once in other ARPGs and end up with TEH GUD GEER!
Good god, none of you have any will power whatsoever.
I've purchased like 3 items off of the AH and I'm on the last quest of A3 Inferno, playing legit, by myself. (As in I didn't abuse that stupid ass SS/prep shit)
No, no, no... far, far less than 1%
today:
1.9% of characters have unlocked Inferno difficulty
WTF!!
Let's not get fixated on that. He made a mistake. The point is, it's still an utterly miniscule amount of people, regardless of whether it's over or under 1%.
Fantastic post from Blizzard. Really interesting to see what they're doing and the issues they're addressing. Looking forward to seeing the patch this/next week!
Oh no, an inconsistency (even though Bashiok has stated many times before that he doesn't necessarily fact check before sharing information because it would take forever to respond back)
And 1.9% is ridiculously low anyway. That means 98.1% haven't unlocked Inferno mode. Get over it.
I think another and possibly more fun way to add survivability is to buff lifesteal. Right now it seems next to useless. One of those, "ugh, what a waste of a bonus" on items like thorns and plus to health pots. Thorns would also be another good way to add survivability. Instead of merely just doing damage to attackers they should "reflect" damage. First reducing the damage you take and then doing damage to the enemy (if they do this, though, they would have to nerf the numbers because you can easily get a few thousand thorn damage which would be a ridiculous amount of damage reduction).
As of right now there just seems to be too many problems with survivability and not enough ways to fill that need. Hence the congregation to certain skills and runes.
On topic, I'm looking forward to the patches and even testing out 1.1 on the D3 PTRs. Though I gotta get to Inferno and beat it before even getting the good gear for PvP.
Because... I really need all my 6 skills to survive in Inferno, not dealing more damage ^^;
Because these are all children, raised on WoW, in which their hands are held the entire game. The people I'm seeing post about how cheap this game is are both new gamers to the franchise who don't know anything about the "Diablo" playstyle, or they're old players who are just bitching that this isn't a carbon-copy (mechanics-wise) of their beloved D2. Instant gratification, and inability to adapt, are not conducive to this game. If you harbor either quality or both, then don't play and don't bitch.
I don't see what's wrong with using the AH. You have gold, you can use it. And no one is forcing you to buy the overpriced items right now. In D2 you could hardly ever find the item you were looking for, just as it is now. Except then you had to spend hours looking at game names in order to find someone who was trading what you were looking for. AND ONLY IF YOU HAD THE ITEM THEY WANTED. Now it's standardized with gold so it doesn't matter what you have you can just go and buy it. And it only takes a minute or so searching through the refined list of item to look for something you might want. In my opinion, the AH made it 10x easier to get what you need.
You are aware, actually, no, you aren't since you're too young to know this obviously, but during Diablo II's reign, the community of Blues didn't really exist. When a new patch came out, you dealt with it. There was no direct feedback with Blizzard. Sure, there were message boards of sorts, but on fan sites, not official sites. You at least get an official reply from Blizzard, in depth about what they are changing and why, or what they are thinking or what direction they want to take the game. If you hate the game, then don't play it. Pretty simple. But you won't, you'll keep playing because you cared enough to make an account on here and bitch.
You've got to be kidding. Most players that are discontent with the game are actually Diablo vets. The WoW kiddies are the ones that ruined the game and are praising the game. Way to post a complete misrepresentation.
I'm probably way older than you. An a lot better community existed, called Blizzard North. They didn't have to use colorful and pretty words to make you believe like a dumb little sheepie that you are. They were straightforward technical. I mean look how reluctant they are to fix the horrid itemization in this game, that even after such a sh*tstorm from the user base, they still say it was purposefully intended.
I paid for the game, I have the right to complain it it's broken so that they can fix it so stfu and I'm not playing it now. I made account on here before you were born you little douche. This is my second account I made even before Diablo 3 was released. Damn WoW kiddies everywhere, why can't you just go back to wow and leave the Diablo franchise alone, is it that hard to do?
I don't care if i get a refund because I will make my money bank in 1 day of Inferno. I can clear act1 pretty easily now