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Blizzard Talks Diablo III Rebalancing
Diablo III has been out for a few weeks now, and Blizzard is now talking about tweaking the Demon Hunter, Monk, and Wizard classes. The studio is tempering those comments by saying that they won't be adjusting class balance unless it determines that a particular skill is game-breaking.
Regarding the changes to Lingering Fog, Boon of Protection, and Force Armor: "We determined these skills were simply more powerful than they should be, and we felt their impact on class balance and how each class was perceived warranted hotfixes as soon as we were able," Blizzard wrote in a post on the official Diablo III forums. "However, we don't want you to be worried that a hotfix nerf is lurking around the corner every day. If a skill is strong, but isn't really breaking the game, we want you to have your fun. Part of the enjoyment of Diablo is finding those super-strong builds, and we want players to be excited to use something they discovered that feels overpowered. A good example of this is the monk Overawe rune, which many players have identified as being quite good. We agree it's good, but we don't think it's so far out of line that we're going to swoop in and hotfix it out of existence."
Blizzard says that the first hotfix, version 1.0.2, is coming next week, and will address server issues. The following patch, 1.0.3, is designed to focus on class balance.
In addition to talking about the upcoming changes in class balance, Blizzard released a series of Diablo III facts. Here are some highlights; check out the post for the complete list.
- On average players have created three characters each
- 54% of Hardcore players chose a female character
- The majority of Hardcore deaths (35%) occur in Act I Normal
- The most common level 60 build in the game is only used by 0.7% of level 60 characters of that class (not including Passive diversity)
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