The latest major patch for Diablo 4 nerfed the every living hell out of several key abilities across every class in the game. The update, version 1.1.0a that came out on July 18th ahead of the start of Season 1: Season of the Malignant, has been heavily criticized by players for days now. The update nerfed several abilities across every class that, for many players, made the game just unfun to play.
Blizzard has certainly heard the complaints, which have been made far and wide, and took to a livestream on Friday to try to calm the waters. In the stream, associate game director Joe Piepiora, game director Joe Shely, and community chief Adam Fletcher all talked about the ideas that went into the 1.1.0 patch.
"It’s not the greatest play experience for players out there," Fletcher said. "We don’t plan on doing a patch like this ever again. We hear you loud and clear."
"We know that reducing player power is never a good experience," added Joe Piepiora. "Sometimes we just don’t get it quite right."
That said, Blizzard also added that they are readying a 1.1.1 patch, which should arrive in the next couple of weeks. This patch may drop right near the time Blizzard will hold their next livestream, which is currently scheduled for Friday, July 28. The upcoming 1.1.1 patch will make further adjustments to abilities, specially the abilities for the Sorcerer and Barbarian classes. It probably won't be a full buff to the abilities that were nerfed into oblivion, but it should add back some survivability and power.
The 1.1.1 update will also apparently increase enemy density in Nightmare Dungeons and Helltide areas. This update will also add in an additional tab in players' stashes where they can store items like gems. Elixer stack size will also jump to 99 and character respec costs will be cut by 40%, which should help players adjust more quickly to any future tuning Blizzard makes to builds.
Blizzard does also note that 1.1.1 will make some changes to the amount of XP players gain from levels 50 through 100. Several players noted that leveling kind of hits a brick wall around level 70, where it just becomes an absolute slog. Joe Shely says, "We want level 100 to feel like an achievement, not feel like a job."
In an effort to avoid a massive wave of nerfs from happening in future patches, Blizzard says that they have adopted a process that will let some builds be overpowered until they are able to provide compelling alternatives.
"We can’t nerf those overpowered builds without providing compelling alternatives for players to pursue," Shely said.
