Okay, time for me to be unpopular. All part of the job, though. Hang tight, this is gonna be wordy.
We did, indeed, remove the Lamentation bonus in the release client build for Patch 2.6.7, which was the build that streamers and BlizzCon attendees were shown on the show floor. In an ideal world, I would have had a chance to contextualize this change before the convention. Unfortunately, I did not have that opportunity between my other job duties for the show and titles I support (including Diablo IV and Diablo Immortal, both which had presence at the show).
Normally, when a change like this happens, I find it when I’m updating patch notes for release. This process didn’t occur until last Thursday, after I got back from the show and being home sick from a chest cold I’m still fighting off. My next step is to go to the developers, have some back and forth, and find out insights and intention behind the change. I add that to the patch notes, get it reviewed for accuracy, then come and make a post as soon as I can. That’s where we are right now.
That’s all just background. Here’s what you came to read, and is what you’ll find in the patch notes once 2.6.7 launches:
While we were very happy with how much better Barbarians are performing, we are concerned we may have overshot it. By removing just one silo’d addition, we can observe how the class performance goes for Season 19 and consider re-adding this change in the future. Remember we still have a patch coming up where Barb will be one of the focused classes, so there will be plenty of time to revisit if necessary!
We’re trying to set up Barbarian to be in a better place with more individual knobs to turn so we can tune it better once we get to their new class set and balance pass. We actually want to maintain this process for all classes, too, so if you continue to have feedback on Monk and Crusader, keep it coming! There will always be opportunities to revisit any of these changes.
It’s okay if you don’t like this answer. It’s awesome if you have feedback on it. And it’s the absolute best when you can present that feedback respectfully and constructively. I’ve seen a lot of that, and I’m grateful for it—I only wish I could reply to all of it!
It’s taken a long time to get to this point. We’ve gone through many phases of balance for every class, and there have been ups and downs for everyone. Balance is nearly never a perfect process with a perfect end, and sometimes, no end at all. I’ve said it often before, and I will say it again: we’re not done yet. There’s more Diablo III left to come, and we’re going to continue to read your feedback, play the game, and bring updates to keep you sated in Sanctuary for as long as possible.
RE: Communication being limited - I’ve kind of already touched on this, but I’m being as present as I can be. BlizzCon and Diablo III’s production schedule lined up in an unfortunate way (and getting sick didn’t help matters), but you have my personal commitment to being as communicative as I can be around patches and PTRs specifically. I wish I could have fulfilled this better around 2.6.7—it just wasn’t possible with the other priorities I had to fulfill.
I won’t make excuses, but I will continue to do my best, and I’m grateful for an understanding, passionate community that I saw the best of just a little over a week ago. It was wonderful to see so many of you in person, to finally share my excitement for the future in an honest and open way, and I hope you enjoy the other things we have in store in Diablo III and beyond.
Now, back to work for me. 