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.
Is it possible that this number could be higher or lower; yes, to SOME degree, but definitely not to the extent that some here are hoping it is (the 20%+ people in particular). Also, it was touched on earlier a bit, but it can actually be FEWER players than expected if a single player has multiple characters in Inferno (though admittedly unlikely). For example, Joe, could have 10 characters in Inferno, but be the only PLAYER at the difficulty.
You're kidding, right?
http://www.wowwiki.com/Legendary_items
How many of those are BiS right now? At one point in time they were, just like every legendary in D3. Naturally as you level up, they will no longer be the best.
Diablo's Legendaries are different in that they have an Unique name and appearance. They also have more Affixes. The "issue" is that the affixes are just as random as the Blues and Rares thus allowing for "crap" Legendaries.
What people want is at least a bit more stability as it were, in their Legendary items. It doesn't necc be best in slot, but it would be nice if it isn't being easily upstaged (though a level 40 Legendary SHOULD be outdone by a Level 60 Blue; I don't understand the people that don't get that; for example, my level 43 Wizard was checking out a Level 40 Legendary chest piece (Azurbel's Robes or some such), and I would not only hope, but expect, that when I hit higher levels, that better blue and yellow items should be dropping for me.
Can't disagree here. I quit by Barb beginning of Hell cuz I was corpse walking all the time. The WD never had a problem in Hell (except Belial, I cannot do that boss very well).
If you think that inferno sounds hard; just give it a try. Really. Yeah, you can get some nasty elite combos, but you can always put them in a corner somewhere and ignore them. That's part of how inferno progression works, I'm sure.
But, really. Once you take down a few groups of elites with 4 affixes...go back to hell and do some 3 affix ones. It's a joke. It's funny how quickly you become accustomed to the kiting and craziness of a 4 affix group.
*YMMV on RNG
I was surprised at the 3 characters number that's how many I've got at 60
though I am disappointed, considering previous blizzard standard, that so much which were obvious and should have been taken cared of before release are being fixed post release.
Furthermore, it's a percentage of characters and not players. Since they also said that players have 3 characters on average, this means closer to 6% have reached inferno, and they probably wrote this before the weekend.
For all I know they could be the only ones, but I doubt that, but that's just anecdotal evidence so it shouldn't be relied on. Regardless, people jumping immediately to 5.7% of all players are on Inferno are assuming too much. Those saying "mathematically this is the maximum possible" are providing helfpul math, don't then add a bunch of unwarranted assumptions in.
And to touch on a different point, Simca is right, if you're in Inferno you're not representative of the general gaming community, you're a statistical outlier. Mind you, that subset does matter, but so does the whole game.
The Jeweler changes are welcome, but gems themselves are very boring...I wish they would give us more opportunity to diversify on Armor and Weapon sockets.
Hopefully after the Legendary buff low roll ilvl 60 Legendaries will still be better than perfect roll ilvl63 Magic items. Legendaries are so rare that even a crap roll (crap in this case meaning stats you can actually use but rolled in the lower range) should outshine any blue only a few levels away.
There is plenty of build diversity, you just lack the creativity and imagination to come up with any.
Maybe because there are people with multiple characters in Inferno? It's been long enough now for some of the more serious players to grind out 2 or 3 60s. Either way they have access to the data and we don't. Really hard to be sure. I'm 100% positive they know the exact amount of accounts that are in inferno. Just not sure why they didn't share it.
You don't see how posting numbers with zero to back them up is an "unwarranted assumption"? How could you not?
Why in such a hurry? If you want to be first with something you can't complain, because you're most likely not going to be playing the game the way it's meant to be played. Go farm the previous act/easy packs/minibosses in the act you're in and you're all set. Look at Kungen, he's doing perfectly fine in act1 inferno on his HC barb, farming gear and surviving like a boss. Can't wait to see him try act2.
The fuck are you talking about?
Yeah, what's up with the constant arguing about how many people are in inferno? Who fucking cares?! I've played 4 chars, 1 of which has made it to inferno. Half of the people on my friendlist is on or below nightmare, the rest on inferno. That's with 1 char also.
People these days have attention spans of 5 year old kids and it can't really be helped. Back in the day D2 was THE SHIT because it had some diversity and there was nothing on the market for years that could compete with it, the same went for other games as well. With so many games out today there are only so many you can actually fall for and keep playing for a longer period of time. That's the way it is and will be for a long, long time.
Cookie-cutter builds and bots leading baalruns for all eternity? Awesome game...
Just to be that guy, and to also post 3 times in a row:
Why call sub-par items legendary instead of uniques? A change I really didn't see as necessary at all. It's a picky detail, but it adds more to the argument that D3 is WoWified (obviously since a large portion of the team worked on WoW).
If you have played WoW, hearing Legendary means it's something really good and hard to retrieve. It may have some flavour-text, but so can unique itmes have.
Unique doesn't sound as glorified as Legendary. It's one-of-a-kind or not at all many of them. It carries the spirit of the legacy games with it and doesn't have to be supreme-OP, such as the case with Legendary items.
Thoughts?