Blizzard Is Making A Lot Of Changes To Diablo IV Following Beta Feedback

Blizzard says it’s making some changes to Diablo IV based on early feedback from the game’s successful open beta weekends in March.

The publisher has outlined its plans in a new blog. Titled ‘Diablo IV Open Beta Retrospective, Transforming Feedback Into Change.’ It’s a little bit of a corporate “these are our learnings” moment, but the gist is that some feedback came through much more frequently than others. Feedback was drawn from reports lodged in-game, but also from community spaces on Discord and Reddit.

So! What’s changing?

Dungeon Layouts

One of the most frequently lodged items of player feedback was around the amount of backtracking players felt like they were doing in dungeons. Those players that enjoy poking around in every corner of the map and uncovering all its secrets might not understand the impetus behind this: ARPG fanatics are, at heart, engineers. They want to build a powerful character as quickly and efficiently as possible. That usually means focusing on a specific enemy with a chance to drop a specific item that will supercharge the build. As a result, if there’s one thing these players detest, it’s a lot of unnecessary backtracking because it slows them down on their way to that enemy. It’s a very Ludacris mindset.

Those players will be pleased to know that Blizzard is makes changes to Diablo IV dungeons to allow for less frequent backtracking. In the Fractured Peaks zone that appeared in the beta, Blizzard says the following dungeons have been updated:

• Caldera Gate
• Defiled Catacombs
• Derelict Lodge
• Forbidden City
• Hoarfrost Demise
• Immortal Emanation
• Kor Dragan Barracks
• Maulwood
• Rimescar Caverns

Among the changes to help keep dungeons moving are things like making straggler monsters seek out the player, helping them knock over the Kill All Monsters objective a little more quickly. Nearby allies will now gain 10 Resource and have all their active cooldowns reduced by 1 second whenever Animus is gathered. All Rescue objectives will now drop a health pot on completion, and the time to Rescue (or the time it takes to untie a captured quest NPC) has been halved from 3 seconds to 1.5. Carrying the Ancient’s Statue, Bloodstone, Mechanical Box or Stone Carving now grants a 25% move speed increase for you and your allies as a Momentum bonus. All doors now create a minimap ping when opened, so, if your friends are like mine and run invulnerably into the dark ahead of you, you can see where they are.

Classes

All of the game’s five classes have had some changes after the beta period. Here’s the full list of changes, straight from the blog:

General

• Effects like Stun and Freeze can be applied to Elite Monsters twice as long before they become Unstoppable.
• Reviewed class skills to confirm that all classes have access to sufficient skills that remove control impairing effects.
• Many Legendary Powers have had updates to their effectiveness.

Barbarian

• A flat 10% passive damage reduction has been added for the Barbarian Class. Some Skill Tree passives had their damage reduction effects reduced to compensate.
• The Whirlwind Skill now deals more damage and consumes more Fury.
• The Double Swing Skill Enhancement refunds its full Fury cost when used on Stunned or Knocked Down enemies.

Druid

• Companion Skills will now deal heavily increased damage.
• All Ultimate Skills have had their cooldowns reduced.
• Usability improvements have been made to Maul and Pulverize.
• Using a non-Shapeshifting Skill will transform a Druid back into their human form.

Necromancer

• Summoned Minions will die more often, requiring players to utilize Corpses more often.
• Many bonuses in the Book of the Dead have had their stats increased.
• The damage dealt by the Corpse Explosion skill has been reduced.
• The brightness of the Skeletal Warriors and Mages has been reduced.

Rogue

• Upgrades for Subterfuge Skills have had their bonuses increased.
• Multiple passive Skills have had their bonuses increased.
• All Imbuement Skills have had their cooldowns increased.

Sorcerer

• Charged Bolt’s damage was increased and the Mana cost to cast has decreased.
• Decreased the damage of Chain Lightning and reduced its effectiveness against Bosses.
• Decreased the cooldown for the Incinerate Skill’s Enchantment bonus.
• Firewalls will now spawn underneath enemies more frequently when using its Enchantment bonus.
• Increased the Lucky Hit chance for the Meteor Skill’s Enchantment bonus.

There are four more game factors that have been changed as well, from UI to quality-of-life stuff, that I’m sure will surprise and delight plenty of players. What’s clear is that, while some more fundamental dislikes the community had during the beta are effectively set in stone — the online component, the real money transactions, demands that come from the publisher level — the team is still trying to listen to player feedback and make requested changes to Diablo IV in the systems that are within its power to control

Diablo IV launches June 6 for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms. You can read the blog in full here.