Diablo III: Incoming Fixes

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Diablo III has been live for 2 weeks, and I’ve been enjoying every second of my journey through Sanctuary to stop the Prime Evils. And Blizzard has enjoyed watching me and so many others, about 6.3 million others, play through their wonderful game aswell! However, as is to be expected, there are some balancing issues to be dealt with. Last week Blizzard rushed a patch that “nerfed” a few abilities that they felt were over performing. Of course this was met with contention by forum users who argued “How are we supposed to complete Inferno mode without these skills?!” Blizzard sort of responded to that with a post on the Diablo III website. The post details changes that have been made, and changes being made to Diablo III in the coming months.

Some of the coming changes of note are:

1. Cheaper Artisan and Crafting costs – This includes gold used to upgrade the Artisans, fewer materials needed to craft weapons and armor, even some gems will only require 2 like gems to upgrade, as opposed to 3. I’m not sure how I feel about this one… I don’t craft often, but not for the lack of in game currency, mainly due to the randomness. I could make 4 chest armors and not a single 1 could be useful for my character. That just seems like a waste to me.
2. Inferno Difficulty changes – There will be no changes in difficulty, but rather changes to characters so they react better to Inferno. As of now it is being reported that damage is too erratic, and not constant enough. Blizzard wants to fix that so you’re always in danger, not breezing through until something get’s a nice one hit kill on you.
3. Item changes and Legendary Item buffs –  This one doesn’t affect my characters at all so I don’t have a lot of input, but I do remember that in Diablo II my goal was to get the best Set items, or the coolest Unique gear. In their update post Blizzard refers to Unique/Legendary items as “just another item category,” and stating that these items aren’t meant to be the ultimate equipment. I would have to disagree, as do others, and it looks like the set/legendary equipment will be receiving buffs in the future.

 
Alright, there are a few other things like PVP, and the inclusion of Item Levels – to help players determine why their Legendary Sword of God is weaker then the Lame Barbaric Club of Seals. The best part of the article is the little facts sheet. Just 7 bulleted items that give you a sense of what statistics Blizzard is looking at.

Here’s what they had:

• On average players have created 3 characters each
• 80% of characters are between levels 1 and 30
• 1.9% of characters have unlocked Inferno difficulty
• 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)
• The most used runes for each class at level 60 are: Barbarian – Best Served Cold; Demon Hunter – Lingering Fog; Wizard – Mirror Skin; Monk – Peaceful Repose; Witch Doctor – Numbing Dart

 
So what I gather is that most people have about 3 characters. Majority of the characters haven not made it through Normal. Of those that have, less then 2% of the 6.3 million users overall, have made it to Inferno mode. Nerds like to play as Ladies. Act I Normal is difficult, despite what the forum users would have you believe. Oh, and here’s a good one. There is a lot of Skill Diversity! How so? Of those users who have made it to end game, level 60, the most common skill build is only used by .7% of a specific class!

Wanna do some math? Sure! 1.9% of 6.3 million is about 131,100 people, who have made it to Inferno Difficulty. Let’s assume an even split for all 5 classes, so we get about 26,220 per class at level 60. Out of any single class, only .7% of the players are using the same skills in their hot keys. That amounts to… about 184 people. And you all thought every character of the same class was going to be exactly alike!

Pretty exciting stuff! Tell us what you think about Diablo III and the changes coming in the comments below!

Eric is not a boss. You can Email Eric or follow Eric on Twitter @EricSweeten or Facebook

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