The reason they keep nerfing strong builds instead of buffing weak ones is to slow down how fast players progress. That keeps people grinding longer, which boosts engagement stats and makes them more likely to buy seasonal content and cosmetics. It’s not really about balance or fun - it’s about keeping you playing and spending.
Live-service games use frustration because it keeps players chasing progress. By making things feel just out of reach, they boost playtime and spending. In short fun is hard to control - frustration is easy to monetize.
Welcome to the slow road to D4:I. It is all about what the statistics tell them to do. Sadly they have manipulated those statistics so often they don’t reflect reality. The leader of all things Diablo should be ashamed and step aside to let someone competent takeover. What we are seeing is more like it is coming from a kindergarten class not a AAA game company.
They’re not manipulating the stats lol. They just don’t understand what any of it means in a grander picture. Or rather maybe they do but it’s been mandated to push MTX over everything else.
There’s something larger at play here, someone is forcing the devs to do things which aren’t really reasonable.
Really? So in season 6 the new class being insanely overpowered wasn’t doing that? When the goblin event was pointing everyone to Nahantu it wasn’t doing that?
It was ALL to drive the statistic they wanted. They could not risk having the expansion new class and region fail. They do it every season it was just quite blatant in S6.
They introduced an overpowered class and let it sit minus a super bug for a season. There’s no stat manipulation there. You’re crazy, this some conspiracy theory nonsense.
The stats aren’t even public record, they’re all internal…
I wont buy cosmetics because they mostly all look too much, not slim complimenting rogues nice bodyshape and have that omnipresent weaponskirt attached to the chest piece which make it difficult to combine into some awesome armor mashups.
Thats why my character always runs around like Lara Croft and i do not buy new stuff in the shop.
Lets say… if the shop items were awesome looking i only would buy them when im having a happy time. That means: I get nice drops, i do nice events that are fun… BUT NOT BECAUSE the content time is stretched.
The first sentence is obvious, but then you go full conspiracy theory for the next two.
There’s a lot less assumptions if you just keep it simple. “They’re nerfing strong builds to slow down progression to a place that feels more balanced and at their preferred pace.”
I’m sorry you find this ‘frustrating’. So very many of us agree with toning down these OP and broken builds and slowing down the treadmill so we can enjoy the progression ladder. I recognize that blasters want to blast.
But you gotta stop assuming they’re nerfing overpowered skills and builds (or even overpowered overpower) for any reason other than the health of the game.
No no dude but like… you don’t understand dude. They’re up to something I know it! There’s like… secret plan and… guys in black suits with shades and… nah man you wouldn’t understand.
This is 100% Blizzard’s goal, despite what the devs might say. There are so many things in Blizzard’s games that take an unnecessary amount of time. And I don’t mean the loot chase, I mean interactions with NPCs. This is not exclusive to D4, but it’s very prominent here.
If they don’t understand then how well do you think they are at putting it in the right bucket to begin with?
It’s easy to manipulate when they are incompetent. Either purposely or through stupidity. What I hope for is we aren’t dumb enough to fall for it.
Numbers are just a game. Give a boss a metric and they can achieve it. Oh that goes in this bucket? Well technically maybe, but if I put it in this other bucket, I look better. For the short term.
Nope, they finally realized how things should be done (give or take) and started playing for the long term
I still think there needs to be a bit more trimming down but will see how it goes
Also “slow progression” is not a bad thing, in fact is much better than what we had before. They just need to fill it with more interesting/varying events on the road
I never realized this logic tbh, I never subscribed to it and it sounds just super dumb… Yes, you may get “lucky” and catch a “stray walker” here and there that aren’t aware of the intent but on the other hand you’re losing your customers (in this case playerbase) long-term
