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.
You want tactics please play Hardcore, see how that changes wither or not you care about dying. Blacksmithing was suppose to fill in for low drop rates thru Nightmare and Hell. People seem to think it's useless, therefore it's their fault for "not wanting to waste gold" to upgrade the Blacksmith, not Blizzard's.
For those who are wondering how, refer to the following for statistical proof:
Allow me to put this to rest using ONLY what has been stated.
Facts:
Average # of Characters = 3
This means, total number of characters = 3 * # of Users
% of Characters in Inferno = 1.9%
Let us hypothesize there are 100 users (100% of users).
Therefore, there are 300 characters (Average 3 Characters * 100% Users)
2% (Simplifying) * 300 Characters = 6 Characters.
At most, there can be 1 Character per Account (Some people could feasibly have greater than 1 inferno character. This would decrease this %)
6 / 100 = 6% MAXIMUM USERS IN INFERNO
All of this ^ is statistically significant providing the average characters per account is accurate (Which is credible).
For conjecture, I would suspect that it is ~6% because grinding 2x Inferno level characters (60s) takes a significant amount of time barring outliers (Those able to devote lots of time) for the normal population.
For further applications, using only day 1 sales + WoW annual passes, there are AT LEAST 5,700,000 Subscribers (Source:http://www.ingame.ms...h-issues-790219). Based off expected sales trends, I would suspect this is probably higher and not lower (though some could argue that not everyone who bought the WoW Annual Pass is playing D3 techincally).
Therefore there are estimated to be AT LEAST 342,000 players (users) in Inferno (Given the population size is >5,700,000 users and that ~6% of users are in Inferno). While a large number, this is only a small part of the total player base.
Potential Biases:
Inactive Accounts - We would expect these to actually bias against # of characters in Inferno because we would expect inactive players to have only made one character.
Confirmation Bias - http://en.wikipedia....nfirmation_bias
I wonder what the percentage of people in act 3 is or act 4.
I hope they reduce the number of blacksmith pages required for leveling by at least two (although I'd prefer by three) in the upcoming patch. The reduction in the amount of gems needed to upgrade to the next level, though, doesn't mean squat. You'll still need a jewelcrafting page to upgrade a gem past flawless.
I also understand where Blizzard is coming from with their philosophy regarding legendary items, but my feeling is that they took it to an extreme for Diablo III by injecting too much RNG into a legendary's stats. Certainly, a legendary should not automatically qualify as BiS but neither should it be reduced to vendor trash in most cases. That does not sound "legendary" in the slightest.
All I was trying to say is that people have to think beyond their own perspectives when dealing with stats. I see many players with multiple Inferno 60s but all that tells me is that I have a small sample size I can't make conclusions from. If I only knew players who had 0 or 1 Inferno character I would not assume that therefore the number is close to 5.7% or 5. I'd simply know that the people I see don't have more than one.
Anyways, on to the post itself. For me the most reassuring part is that they are looking into improving the Blacksmith. I genuinely find making random items fun, even against stupid odds, but even I stopped after a certain level because of the cost. I also think the numbers on different builds being used is pretty impressive, though I would love to see the number based on - skills only, then skills + runes, then skill + runes + passives. I think that information bodes well for the longevity of the game.
He says on a site called "Diablofans".
Well I completely trust your statistics over Blizzard's. How did you extract this data from their servers? Was it SQL injection:
SELECT (Biased_Personal_Opinion) AS Fact
FROM My.Anus
WHERE Supports_Personal_Agenda = 'Y'
P.S. I have a job and didn't want to take a week off to level, and I'm only up to Act I Hell as a result. Also I'm taking the scenic route and enjoying the game at my own pace, doing side achievements, etc. I imagine I'm far from the only one.
IKR... does anyone else get the strange feeling that most of the people complaining that it's not as good as D2 either never actually played D2 or it's been so long they've completely forgotten what it was like?
Played a hell of a lot of D2 (think I had 30ish toons) and I find it hard to think of a single respect in which D3 is not superior. You're welcome to your opinion but don't presume to speak for everyone.
Heh, not the best example - the Rogue legendaries are horrible, they draw even with No'Kaled for Combat. I have a pair, got them server first... only thing I really like about them are the wings
Not maths so much as logic really.
I guarentee I played Diablo 2 more than most people on this forum. There is no way to prove it, but I devoted a huge chunk of my life to it and this new piece of crap is far less superior. It's shinier, that's about it. It's just not Diablo anymore and it's such a shame. They can't please everyone though. I just sure wish they could of pleased me.
Personally I think it's the same as D2 only better, but you don't have to like the things I like. You don't have to go around saying everyone who likes different things than you is blind either.
I'm so far away from Inferno I can't comment on it.
Just hope they don't nerf it, I want to try it as it is!
Play on HC. There is no threat level on SC, just like there is no threat level if you quicksave every 3 seconds in an FPS. The difficulty you cry for is in the game, you just choose not to turn it on. And then whine about it.
Exactly my thoughts. I started a DH and a WD these days. I will no longer buy any items for my Inferno Barb before this patch is released and likely not play him that much until that time.
A lot of these statistics are simply that, they do not tell the real story.
I would expect Blizzard to understand this... it's not rocket science.
Also, how could they have not intended Inferno to be so spikey damage wise unless they didn't test inferno AT ALL? Once you hit act 2 you're like huh.... I guess I'll kite every mob.
Also the 1.9% of characters figure is a little cheesed. But given that it's gaming I'm going to just use basic common sense here and say about 5% of accounts are sitting in Act 1 Inferno. WoW had it's 5%, which were people who during Classic and TBC were in the highest echelon of raiding at any given time. Given I'm a veteran Diablo player, that also means I'm older than dirt to most of you, so I have real responsibilities. If you have time to play a video game more than 3 hours a day then that's great for you, I unlocked Inferno late last week. Most of my friends of similar age are in the same boats. But I guarantee you we're not complaining at all about the game play right now, we're all working the Auction House because it makes trading so much easier. If you never traded in D2, you have absolutely NO right to complain about the state of getting gear.
It's only been 2 weeks and the game takes a while to get through - unless you are just blowing through the content and not bothering to clear the zones.
Didn't think about this, completely agree.
In the best case, each Inferno player has a maximum of 8 characters (assuming same game mode/server), while all Non Inferno players have only 1 character. In this case, 1.9x8% of the characters belong to a player that has unlocked Inferno, which is 15.2%. On average (3 chars per player) 5.7% have unlocked Inferno.