First of all, where is the balance? The classes and builds that have been mediocre since season 3 are still mediocre, these are my reasons for this:
1.- The Barb problem with extra weapons = “more stats, more tempering, more broken”, no class can compete with two extra aspects, and stats of 4 weapons where two of them are two-handed, this is a core problem of balance from the design.
2.- Sorc and Druid, how manny builds of these classes continue to be garbage for several seasons, they add new unique items and it is not enough, the difference between the best builds of other classes is abysmal, the majority of builds are tier B or less , it’s crazy bad balanced.
3.- The lack of good builds for the endgame content is poor, the fact that there are classes that only have a single Tier S build except for the Barbarian is terrible, other classes do not even have a build in tier S or even in tier A, the The difference is horrifying, and exaggerated even in builds of the same class where you can only have one tier S build and all the alternatives are garbage, forcing you to play the same thing over and over again.
I hope that soon there is even true class balance, where various builds of all classes compete closer to each other.
Yes, but it is an illusion, as you say, to make very bad builds seem a little stronger, not because they improved the build but because they made the pit weaker, but the true balance is at the top of the end game, imagine how poorly balanced are the classes and builds that couldn’t even do a Pit level 61, they had to make an emergency “balance patch”, which didn’t really balance anything, it just nerfed the Pit.
I will call it unbalance patch, but, it is intentional like this. devs clearly said they will define what players must play. is called “shifted meta” concept, and this patch was to balance the “shifted meta”, meaning improving basic skill builds in this current “shifted meta”.
Yea i know, but for example season 3 the meteor build was promoted for the sorc, and it was disappointing, in this season 4 they promoted the frozen orb build with the new ammy and it is not competitive at the levels expected.
We have a sapling instead of a proper skill tree, a generator meta and a bunch of redundant aspects/glyphs. Rumor has it D4 will never come out of beta. I really want them to succeed and I am wondering what are the inhibiting factors here… Is it the salesman mentality ? Acting in the background interfering with game design choices, to make the game more accessible to so called causals ? coming up with short term strats to maximize engagement without real sustenance ? Is it the particular convictions of the devs on the aspects of the game design ? Or the fact that the game was too hurried during the development cycle and came out as half-done ? I know good things take time… hopefully not too much fckin time.
yea, the balance of classes is a big issue, i know is very hard to do, i hope in the expansion, the Devs make a true balance patch, where all build can compete at a slightly closer level.
Its hard to do but they have had a year plus to understand possible builds and, but more importantly, how to refine/buff/tweak them so they all are consistently playable from season to season. Gaps will always exist, but not by multiples of 100s…
S4 is a disaster in this regard. Absolute shambles
Season that was supposed to overhaul and improve loot, but gutted the game. Happy as it made me set on not purchasing the xpac.
They are lost and have no clue how to control their own dmg equation
Blizzard isn’t interested in balancing builds. Diablo series has always been shifting meta from time to time. Theres no build diversity, you are offered whats favorite of the month builds each season. The artificial play your way is for low tier farmings, which in the sense of helltide and nmd 100, all builds are viable.
In terms of Blizzard builds it’s always about efficiency vs your playstyle. If it overlaps, GG. If not, pick one to sacrifice. They are blindly stubborn to refuse all builds can be on par with their own strengths and weaknesses.
The problem is that most devs seem to play each char to 100 in a season but never really experience the end game/scaling and they dont seem to check social media? Like Flay was known to be extremely strong but it somehow came out of the patch with a massive buff.
I’m just glad they buffed the hell out of THORNS for druids.
You know…to help out all those druid thorns builds out there that nobody has and is playing whatsoever.
And so glad they buffed Pulverize!!! Now we can go from 68 to 71 pit level!!! All our other core skills are totally fine, right?
I’m so fed up with this garbage.
I feel like Gilbert Grape outside in the cold, all dirty and filthy and starving, at a restaurant looking into the window watching Barbarians and Necromancers feasting and having a lovely time.
Every now and then Blizzard, the restaurant manager, comes to the door and throws a little scrap of a side dish out for me to eat to distract me from what’s going on.
…and then a Barb and Necro from inside the restaurant come out and complains that the manager made it too easy for me to get a scrap and it should stay difficult for me to get food.
You know. Since THEY are having fun with the current version and that’s all that matters.
Also paragon boards for Sorc and Druid are a joke. theres maybe 2 multipliers if you’re lucky as a Sorc and a very weak enchantment boost. Everything else is mostly useless besides a glyph socket. Druid is the same, a couple useful boards then trash because everything is for specific elements/build types. Other classes can make use of much more and get many more multipliers. Add 2 extra 2handed aspects on barb or 1 2handed on rog and you can easily see why they’re always so much better. Available aspects is also an issue, every Druid having to use companions because there’s just not much for damage is a bad design. Sorc options are pretty bad also. Rogue has alot of useless stuff that needs completely revamped like arrow storms that can’t do anything in any tier. That damage should scale somehow. Imbuement aspects are also garbage and need revamped but at least Rogue can make due with 2 builds though ones always bugged.
Having unique weapons is just a complete waste now with tempering. Any skill with a temper is better than any unique weapon. They either need to be way more powerful or somewhat more powerful and allow tempering of uniques. Even uber uniques are way to weak for being so rare. 2 are pretty solid and maybe a couple are ok for a specific build but they aren’t very exciting.
Take every aspect nobody uses and revamp it and give each class the same number of multipliers. Might be alot closer if they do.