Blizzard is using feedback from the community to improve the Diablo 4 player experience. The company revealed changes made to the upcoming production, which were prepared thanks to fan feedback.
The beta of Diablo 4 enjoyed record-breaking interest, and although players experienced various errors during the tests, the developers emphasized that all situations would allow them to fine-tune the game for the premiere.
The company checked not only the network infrastructure, because the developers decided to use the players’ feedback to make fixes and updates to various systems. All changes will go into the game at launch, so players can rest assured that their voice has been heard and feedback has helped improve Diablo 4.
Blizzard has published a full list of changes and the developers decided to improve, among others, the gameplay in the dungeons, the layout of dungeons, classes, interface and general gameplay. Many players will be happy to see barbarians and druids buffed, because after testing I read a lot of comments from IP supporters who complained about these specializations.
The developers emphasize that they would not be able to make these changes if it wasn’t for the fans’ “involvement and love” for the Diablo universe.
Diablo 4 – changes in the game after beta testing
UNDERGROUND
Dungeon layouts
One of the most common criticisms in your comments was the need to backtrack in some dungeons. We have optimized numerous dungeons in all zones to minimize this issue. Here is a list of Shattered Peaks dungeons that have had their layout changed:
- Caldera Gate
- Defiled Catacombs
- Abandoned Cottage
- Forbidden City
- Hoarfrost Doom
- Immortal Emanation
- Kor Dragan Barracks
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- Hoarfrost Grotto
Developer Comment: Changing the dungeon layouts is primarily to prevent the need to backtrack, which negatively impacts the player experience. For example, players used to have to go into side rooms to interact with structures, which forced them to go back down the same path. Now, many such structures have been placed closer to the main path of the dungeon to make it easier for players to reach them. After dealing with the building, nothing stands in the way of exploring the rest of the underground.
Underground Events
- Increased the probability of a dungeon event from 10% to 60%.
Underground entertainment
- To reduce the need to backtrack, a few lone monsters will spawn. They will search for the player to help him complete the task of killing all the enemies in the dungeon.
- Upon gathering Animus, the player and nearby allies:Gain 10 health. resource.
- They will have all active cooldowns reduced by 1 second.
- Reduced the time it takes to deploy animus from 3 to 0 seconds.
- Rescue time reduced from 3 to 1.5 seconds
- All Rescue Objectives now grant a Healing Potion upon completion.
- When carrying a statue of the Ancients, a bloodstone, a clockwork box, or a bas-relief, you’ll gain a bonus to your Momentum that grants you and nearby allies a 25% increase in movement speed.
- Pedestal sustain time reduced from 2 to 0 seconds.
- Returning a portable object to a pedestal restores all nearby players to full health, resources, and potions, and resets their cooldowns.
- The opening of each door will be indicated on the minimap.
- All dungeon objective structures now have additional combat mechanics that players must contend with.
Developer Comment: There are various objectives to complete in the dungeons. Your comments show that the activities related to their implementation can be burdensome. We hope that the bonuses we give, such as increasing the mobility when carrying certain items, will improve and diversify the experience of completing objectives. This change is just the beginning. In a future update, we intend to apply this philosophy to keys as well.
CLASSES
General
- Effects such as stun and freeze can be used against elite monsters twice before they become unstoppable.
- Class skills have been reviewed to ensure all classes have sufficient access to crowd control removers.
- Adjusted the effectiveness of many legendary powers.
Barbarians
- The barbarian class has gained a permanent damage reduction of 10%. To balance this bonus, some skill tree passives have had their damage reduction effects nerfed.
- Tornado now deals increased damage and consumes more fury points.
- After using the Double Strike buff against stunned or downed enemies, the player recovers their full fury cost.
Druids
- Companion abilities will now deal much more damage.
- All Hero Powers have a reduced cooldown.
- Increased the utility of Maul and Ravage.
- Using a non-shapeshifting ability will return the druid to human form.
Necromancers
- Summoned minions will die more often, forcing players to use corpses more often.
- Increased the stats of many of the bonuses provided by the Book of the Dead.
- Reduced the damage of Corpse Explosion.
- Reduced the brightness level of Skeletal Warriors and Mages.
Rogues
- Stealth skill bonuses increased.
- Increased the bonuses of many passive skills.
- All Imbue skills have an increased cooldown.
Wizards
- Lightning Beam damage increased and mana cost decreased.
- Chain Lightning damage and effectiveness against bosses has been reduced.
- Reduced the cooldown of the spell bonus on Incinerate.
- Wall of Fire will now appear under enemies more often if the spell buff is in use.
- Increased the Chance of a Lucky Chance provided by the Meteorite enchantment bonus.
Developer Comment: Whenever we make changes to character classes, we want the impact of champions and their abilities on gameplay and power to be felt. Your comments help us get closer to this goal. Expert players noticed that some skills were too strong. We want skills to be fun to use and feel interactive in terms of the items you use and your combat experience. We have made changes to strengthen these aspects. The exception is the necromancer’s minions, who will now be even more vulnerable to damage in combat. This will make frequent resurrection of the dead an even more important aspect of Necromancer gameplay.
The launch of the game will be just the first step in class balancing. You can expect more updates that will modify this foundation of Diablo IV.
INTERFACE
- Fixed an issue where the built-in screen reader would not read key notifications, game option details, and other UI elements.
- Fixed an issue where some actions could not be assigned to the mouse wheel.
- Fixed an issue where Dodge could not be assigned to the right analog stick on the controller.
- The chat will be displayed on the left side of the screen if you choose to center the action bar.
- Hero stats will be displayed by default when the player clicks on the materials and stats button in the inventory.
- Movement and interaction can now be mapped to a single button, while basic attack will be mapped to the alternate button.
- The sans serif typeface used in the game has been replaced with a new serif typeface.
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- Fixed multiple bugs where bosses like the Butcher would not react.
- The Butcher has been re-rated for difficulty and will be more challenging at World Rank III and IV.
- Bosses such as Czorta, Malnok, Venarda, and others have been revisited for the difficulty of melee characters, resulting in changes to attacks and combat mechanics.
- Fixed a bug where Vampire Brutes using a Shadow affix would cast Pierce in bursts.
BASEMENTS
- Increased the chance of the dungeon event happening in the basement.
- Cellars will now drop a chest upon completion.
- Fixed an issue that caused basements to be prematurely marked as completed.
- Fixed an issue where an elite monster was missing from the basement.
GAMEPLAY IMPROVEMENTS
- Fixed an issue where the player could increase their attack speed by canceling attacks through movement early.
- Fixed an issue where heroes were not invulnerable and untargetable after loading a new area.
- Dungeon reset button disabled.
- Fixed an issue where there were fewer monsters than intended in Windvalley and Serak’s Ascension prior to completing a campaign quest.
As you can see, the team listened to the comments in detail to fix bigger and definitely smaller problems – ultimately Diablo 4 should provide a much better experience on the day of its debut.
Source: Blizzard