Blizzard has sparked a backlash from Diablo 4 players after it nerfed some of the best farming spots in the entire game.
A recently-released hotfix, the ninth since the phenomenally-successful action role-playing game launched earlier this month, made further adjustments to elite monster density in dungeons.
Blizzard’s note accompanying the change fuelled the backlash: “We are standardizing the density of elite monsters that spawn in dungeons to ensure that no particular dungeon is clearly more efficient to run through than others.”
What this means is Blizzard has lowered the number of elite monsters in the dungeons it’s deemed are too popular for farming. In Diablo 4, elite level monsters drop the best loot and dish out the most XP, and so players have flocked to the dungeons that have the most elites in the smallest area so they can level up and improve their build as quickly as possible.
“Can Blizzard stop nerfing any fun / good dungeon in the game?” asked redditor StoiaN40. “And instead maybe start buffing like 90% of the dungeons that are so bad people don’t even run them?”
“Dungeons with low monster density (I mean all dungeons lol) are just boring,” said FlayermanX. “We need more density.”
Some players suggest Blizzard is trying to push players to engage more with Diablo 4’s open world, rather than farm the same dungeons over and over again.
“It seems like they don’t want us to do dungeons all day because they built the open world and want us to experience it the way they intended but everything in the open world feels like a chore especially once you are lvl60+,” said Sufficient_Papaya_38. “I’m willing to give that a try but at least spawn more elite groups and more dense groups in Helltides so people would have fun participating in them instead of dreading doing them.”
Part of the backlash has to do with the length of time it takes to level up in Diablo 4, particularly once you hit level 50. This change, some claim, has to do with Blizzard wanting to slow down the rate players are grinding through the game just a couple of weeks after release. The upshot, these players claim, is an even tougher time for those who prefer to play Diablo 4 solo.
“The grind to 100 with the OP dungeons was already a 60-80 hour endeavor and now it’s closer to double that with way less drops across the board,” said Songoku185. “They should have nerfed regular dungeons only and buffed density in NM.”
“Devs, we run dungeons to level because the XP everywhere else sucks!”
AudioRejectz summed up the sentiment in a post that’s had over 5,700 upvotes on the Diablo 4 subreddit: “Devs, we run dungeons to level because the XP everywhere else sucks!
Seriously, what are you doing? Why do you think so many people keep running dungeons?”
Diablo 4 development chief Rod Fergusson revealed on Twitter that Blizzard plans a stream to discuss “hot topics”. It seems likely elite density in dungeons will be addressed there.
Hey @PezRadar, I still find this version of Slack confusing but whatever.
I’m getting lots of questions from players and so was thinking we should do some kind of casual stream this week where we can talk about some of the hot topics.
Whaddya think?
— Rod Fergusson (@RodFergusson) June 14, 2023
Check out IGN’s Diablo 4 walkthrough if you’re looking for some tips, and our interactive Diablo 4 map to start tracking your progress as you play.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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