Diablo 4 PTR - Balance & Meta: It's Broken

[@gantech7788]

If they want it tested and checked for bugs or bad interactions they should have a PTR vendor with the new items and aspects.

[@lemonjelly]

I don't know why they dont do this. It was the same way in D3.

[@partyrd487]

^this - 100%. Defense rests. Promoted.

[@izaruburs9389]

I love how alot of QoL features from D3 got lost while making D4. It's sadly pretty obvious that Blizzard just rushed the production in order to inflate their value during the Microsoft acquisition.

[@mattb6646]

You'd think they'd know this since they did it in d3 for years

[@SheLuvMeNot]

@@partyrd487 ^x 200% multiplicatively from me"

[@Netsuko]

Blizzard: Opens a PTR to test the new things. Doesn't give us the new things to test.

[@ЕфимМушаков-ъ1б]

But they actually did. That hell arena, new uniques, skill changes...

[@Despond]

@@ЕфимМушаков-ъ1б That's not what they meant, they mean the actual items to test. You going to have people grind 1 month to finally test it when s5 just releases the next day?

[@AtomosFr]

@@ЕфимМушаков-ъ1б Where are the new uniques ?

[@MrDravaah]

And the fact that you dont get all the tempers unlocked on boosted characters. You dont get materials to upgrade gear and summon bosses. You for some reason only get 920 gear from boosting instead of 925 wich makes no sense.

[@Nopeyourewrong557]

@@ЕфимМушаков-ъ1бactually they didn’t … how many bugs actually exist on the main game .. and how many things don’t work right in the PTR .. you know as well as I do you can make a list of things that don’t work right … yes you wanna know why .. because WE figured it out . They rely on metrics and numbers of what works and nobody but us test this game that is proven time and time again through every season .. this was there chance to give us things to test to make sure they interact correctly but they failed at that too . Now when the main season comes out things will be over powered and bugged that they could have realized with this opportunity if it was just to test the new Horde mode well they failed at that too cuz it’s boring af.

[@andregoepfert2745]

To me the most important point: 28:26 - having uniques that are obligatory to run in a build rather than being a good option that makes it hard to choose - makes it feel like the D3 set items that were mandatory for each build...

[@Seanidor]

One thing I did like about the set items is that sometimes they buffed a certain category of skills instead of just one single skill. It gave a bit of leeway to focus on different skills if those skills had supporting legendaries. I think I remember the spider armor for witchdoctors buffing any kind of creature skills, so you had a fairly big selection. I wonder if uniques in D4 should be built more like that, where they usually buff a whole category of skills instead of just one singular skill. The new sword for basic skills seems like a good start? Maybe have a unique that is for all the lightning skills, another for physical skills, and others for the other elements. Maybe another that only works for ultimate, one for core, and so on. I dunno.

[@dominicstark6318]

exactly my thoughts. a step back in my opinion. D3 itemization was horrific.

[@christophluger793]

​@@dominicstark6318💯

[@p0l4r23]

Tal-rasha ring needs to be a legendary node on its own paragon board or even a passive in the skill tree

[@manuelhernandez2017]

Dude! That would be an amazing idea! You can only use so many legendaries. Putting them into Paragon solves 2 problems

[@espertix5839]

No it's pointless. Everyone will have the same board

[@n3zlnluka5]

@@espertix5839 better than everyone using the same ring

[@andregoepfert2745]

@@espertix5839 Everybody to a large degree already has the same board... the only difference is that the board of your build (e.g. fire, frost) has the most points... the rest copy pasta mostly

[@Hjortur95]

it already is for +15% damage

[@YouOnlyLiveOnce...]

Wudijo: Powercreep is out of control... Blizz: Nerf sorc!

[@YM-ex8hh]

Cry about it

[@youdonegoofed]

@@YM-ex8hh you're the only one crying here tho lmao

[@DARKCOP2011]

@@YM-ex8hh Yep literally YouOnlyLiveOnce is joking about it, and YM's state of mind breaks right away, what a delicate flower!

[@TetsuoVN]

@@DARKCOP2011 Maybe he's one of those Sorc devs ??

[@DARKCOP2011]

@@TetsuoVN Good point!

[@cepillito99]

18:25 I couldn't disagree more with the downside aspect. Yes, these items seem to be shaping up to be so universal that they find their way into any build, but I very much doubt the solution would be to make them have extremely punishing downsides, then all of your gearing and theorycrafting would be centered not about optimizing but patching up, specially "4-5 items to make up for it"? jesus christ god no.

[@SuhandiWijaya]

Blizzard: Why do we need to have a test team when we can just throw anything raw to the public, let them test it, and just wait for feedback!

[@ytubestolemyhandle]

And not provide any of the tools required to test it. No aspects, no tempers, no uniques, no combat log, and unless you actually tape your own gameplay, you can't even notice the numbers because there's way too many of them and only stay on screen for like 0.2 sec at best. At this point, it can't be called PTR, it's just an S5 early access "play now cause it sure as hell won't look any different when it launches" vibe

[@XerXcho]

With blizz track record it's better for pro players to test instead but even after that they don't make the proper changes.

[@irgamaizcool]

I feel like they are so focussed on making "new" content, when we would have been way happier with them just improving the existing content. There were plenty of unique items that goes basically completely unused that could have been redesigned and improved rather than making brand new uniques

[@DARKCOP2011]

Where i hear exactly the same thing, ahh yes in Helldivers 2, stop making new content people said, improve what you have right now, they move from releasing content almost every week or two weeks to hold a single patch almost two months, and when the patch came out it introduce more glitches in the game that all existing glitches combined.

[@Fandelgore]

i agree with wudijo about the powercreep and new uniques design, however i think wudi is too biased towards only legendaries and hard nerfing stuff which i don't agree. I hope blizzard listen some of his thoughts but not too much otherwise we are back at 0 with only legendaries with good tempers and trash an uniteresting uniques.

[@tylerlarrew]

Preach it man. Doing the lord's work as usual.

[@KazekanAgiel]

Regarding the convo about build gaps at 34:25, while the relative tier rating of each given build may not change with the addition of items like the Crown, what likely *will* change is the magnitude of difference between each tier. For the sake of example, let's say Shred is doing 100dps and Bash is doing 200dps. A 50% bonus is going to equate to 50dps for Shred and 100dps for Bash. Because of the initial gap in damage, Bash gets TWICE the benefit relative to what Shred receives, at least from a raw DPS output perspective. It's the same way compound interest works. The more of something you have, the greater net benefit you'll see from percentage increases. So, whichever builds are outperforming other builds without these items are then just going to blow them out the water even more once everyone has their uniques, creating a much larger gap than before. :(

[@p0l4r23]

I think what you are suggesting for the Scoundrel's Kiss should be in the skill tree. Aspects/uniques that modify a skill should be in the skill tree. They could be skill runes or something that modify the skill a certain way.

[@deat123]

At 34:10, I disagree. Barbarians will have more slots for new overpowered unique items compared to Druids and Sorcerers, which will further worsen class balance. but overall, great video, thanks for putting it together!

[@asum7786]

Don't forget Necro, just because they got to enjoy one season of being decent with minions. They have the same slot limitation, and esp. Shadow Builds got hit so hard for no reason - rn it looks like everything but Bone Spirit is going to be way behind.

[@Spacetime25]

I think sorcss should ise 2h staff and focus at the same time :V

[@majinv954]

I really feel like you are overvaluing the amount of people who play or think like you. I would wager the vast majority of people who play WANT these crazy op things. Power creep be damned. D3 got crazier and crazier and still had a solid following. Same with PoE from what I’ve seen and heard. If this is what drives player engagement and shop spending even if for just a few weeks out of a 3 month season then blizzard will keep doing it.

[@AutinPowers]

Power creep is worrisome. Been feeling like this since season 1

[@taks1993]

Go try a non bugged build lol

[@konrah1486]

Haven’t felt it on druid or sorc lol

[@bmark6971]

Power creep is quite easy to deal with tbh. However if you run a normal build and not dealers choice bugged build each season. You'll realize power creep isn't really bad in this game.

[@systemtrend3194]

Go create your own build without using guides instead of using the most optimal builds by maxroll or some other guide. Bet you won’t feel so powerful or just play Druid. lol

[@konrah1486]

@@systemtrend3194 Lol yeah that was my experience. It’s rough

[@TheTabaqa]

Damn you are so much on point its crazy . You do double dip bugged damage on devs with that vid. Wp gg bro

[@AntonLindgren]

oh only 2 legendaries you can brick with tempering? arc lash actually sounds playable in season 5

[@Nemesis-44]

Just ask them to put all the new stuff in a npc like in D3 ptr problem solved

[@DARKCOP2011]

At this point in time i think they should be smart enough to do that on their own.

[@MrMazvaz]

I really think Blizzard needs to rework how they distribute multipliers and get their math in order. Right now its imo just the wild west of multipliers. Everything has one and that things that dont are trash. They need to create a system where they can introduce new items and mechanics without worrying about creating huge imbalances between classes every time. Imo they need to do something like this: [x]% damage multipliers are now only available through the Skill tree, paragon legendary nodes and glyphs, class mechanics and uniques. Aspects and tempers don't multiply damage in any way any more. Tempers cannot give chance for multicast, duration increases to dot effects and other effects that effectively work as multipliers. They instead come from overskilling your abilities. E.g having 8/5 skillpoints in firebolt gives it a 60% chance to cast twice. Regular uniques only give kiss-curse multipliers like you mentioned here. There is always a downside. Unber uniques are the only items that can give flat multipliers that can be used without a condition. I think this would reduce the ridiculous power discrepancy between barbarians and classes who can only use one weapon. It would also open up much more room in buildcrafting as the difference between a kinda shit meme build and a hyper minmaxed build wouldnt be as big. At least not as much as it is today, talking 10000s of % difference in damage output. Its just nuts.

[@russelllapua4904]

No one at blizzard can math. They can’t even get slides correct.

[@danielradu7491]

all they need to do its change bufff multipliers from skills and paragon for the rest of the classes except barb nothing else

[@feldon27]

A 2-month break between season 4 and the expansion is cool. I might even open my steam library!

[@mattc9556]

Fair play to you Wudijo, this is a honest review. I saw a video a while ago from Bellular about how Blizzard’s number 1 priority is to keep people in the game - at the expense of pretty much everything else - ‘longer engagement leads to higher likelihood of spending in the shop’. Making very OP uniques but giving them the very slim drop chance you have highlighted is perhaps, in their minds, a way to keep players grinding and grinding. The build variety was limited on release but, as you say, it does seem that they are narrowing it further and further. Everyone running the same thing. Yawn fest. For someone of your understanding and creative talents, its got be getting very tiresome. POE2 is on the horizon.

[@Decide-ru2ud]

Sorc/Druids need some big buffs with interesting mechanics and not just 5%[x] here and there, its not gonna do anything. It's quite sad to see that they still struggle to bring back build, the same builds, they heavily nerfed into the ground and beyond on release... i.e Hydra, Rabies, Minions, Shred

[@DARKCOP2011]

Man all Blizzard know how to do its this: Buff? Yeah sure 10% now 11%, Nerf? OF COURSE 500% now 0.0000001%. Barb buff? YEAHH SURE! 10% NOW 9999999999999999999999999999999999999999% Sorc nerf? Just say it! 271% now 0.00000000000000000000000000000001%.

[@sea-drake]

Very good points! Found myself agreeing with all of it. I feel like Blizzard really designed themselves into a difficult spot with the aspect system as a whole, and it might be too much of a challenge for them to fix.

[@Gabranthh]

Excellent takes all around. I hope Blizzard takes a good long look at this video.

[@____GoMeZ____]

Uniques should change your build, legendaries should empower them. Uber uniques should make you want to build around them. I feel like their design philosophy has creeped closer to Diablo 3s higher damage number style, not great.....I completely agree with you Wudi. These new uniques are not designed well at all.

[@Mesoz]

Pretty much, we are going to end up with D3 all over again with 150,000% dmg eventually since it seems no one at blizz has a creative bone in their body.

[@____GoMeZ____]

@@Mesoz yeah the bugged 1,000,000,000s of damage we're seeing certainly makes it feel that way. Idk why they are adding these HUGE multiplier items when theres so many bugs.

[@_Fortyz_]

not all unqiues have downsides. Only extremely powerful ones should. that being said, even in PoE, the iems with large downsides are able to be mitigated since you have 6 stats and an implicit on all non uniques. Diablo has half the stats on legendary gear. If a unique took 4 items to overcome the downside, then the unique needs to always have more power than 4 other items combined. that isnt a solution. Agree that the power here is too high though.

[@chaddrusso8850]

I’ve been skipping all the odd seasons 1,3 (played like 2 hours of season 1) and now 5 lol I think uniques should be busted but they should also be unique lol Tempest Roar is a perfect example of this. It’s build defining, powerful and cool as hell. I want more stuff like that, build diversity is super important for arpgs imo and we needed loadouts yesterday. I want to see more core skill builds and cool items like the Druid has but that don’t suck lol

[@yurisavun3776]

people who balance the game are simply incompetent amateurs. They still haven’t realized that they need to create system rules for how much damage any item can give on a certain slot. They should come up with an interesting balanced system where you have to sacrifice one thing to gain an advantage in something else. The values of benefits and debuffs must match other item options in a particular slot. Instead of a relevant balance, they simply use the pretty numbers that popped into their head, without comparing with the alternative things available in this slot. I'm not a game designer by profession, but having experience playing other action RPGs, I'm sure I could make the balance of the game better. As do many players who have extensive experience in games of this genre. To do this, you need to understand fundamentally important things in the game balance of games of this genre. Unfortunately, the company was unable to hire competent specialists and we received a product that did not meet our expectations.

[@Matt-gf4gd]

Its an odd season guys, what'd we expect? Season 4 was good but obviously season 5, being an odd season, is going to be pretty underwhelming.

[@MajorCooke2]

HAH! It's the Microsoft Windows treatment but inverted. =P

[@Fingolfin1190]

Wudi isn't talking about a seasonal theme. It's the long term direction of itemisation and balance that isn't looking good right now. These issues can easily persist beyond season 5

[@philipadolfsson9991]

s4 was in is riddled with bugs aswell and balance is just as shit

[@artemkoropotkin3047]

Think for a second. How could season 5 be worse than season 4 when season 4 didn't have a theme? The entire reason the odd seasons were worse in the past is because they were either boring or under baked.

[@manuelhernandez2017]

​@@MajorCooke2😂😂😂😅😂😂

[@sabihrashid252]

The only unique we've seen from PoE 2 (the low level belt that drains your mana until you're max health) is way more interesting than any of the new uniques they've added.

[@sidhoover2147]

Finally, someone releases a video with the same concerns I've had the second I started seeing these crazy uniques. It's dangerously irresponsible to release such powerful items and ignore so much more work they need to do looking over all classes and skills.

[@abelgonzalez158]

I just want to know if sorcerer dmg is still 'on a Tuesday' behind cc layers

[@ryan_gaming_hub]

Yes, it is

[@tomtomkowski7653]

Yes, it is. Barb - 140%[x] damage. Others - 4%[x] damage if the enemy is on the left, was frozen in the last 3 seconds, is Vulnerable but you haven't hit it recently, and it is Sunday. Even if all the CC layers match you will do 2% of Barb damage (excluding bugs of course) where Barb hits for 1.5 billion and you maybe will hit for 30 million.

[@ryan_gaming_hub]

@@tomtomkowski7653 as it should be. 😂 Otherwise unga bunga rob will start moaning and bitching about how sorcs are doing more damage than his barb

[@roflBJ]

Reminds me D3. Everyone is forced to play one build because of ridiculous (x). But in worst state. Math in D3 actually works compare to monkeys who are responsible to programming in D4. S2 and S4 were great... hoping to waiting room to S6. Dissapointment

[@thedropbear574]

I stopped when I realised the PTR was missing the D3 PTR buff

[@Wonkoification]

Thanks for the very informative and good summary. Hopefully Blizzard will pay attention.

[@Nemesis0405]

After the whole disaster that was the pre season 1 patch it seems like Blizzard is afraid of bringing the game back down to more reasonable numbers.

[@zsolttoth5876]

That patch was actually a good thing for the game but reddit/youtube had to bitch about it with the stupidest takes (no, it wasn't perfect, but the direction was great)... now we deal million times more dmg because they are not allowed to nerf the overall numbers, because of that reaction to the first nerfs. Sorc and Druid aren't weak because of the nerfes, they are weak because their whole design isn't kinda infinitley dmg scale like barb. Barb is a mistake, always was, and kinda ruining the whole game slowly, becasue they trying to elevate other classes to their levels. We are already at a powercreep level that was unimaginable 1 year ago, not like "every build can clear nmd100" but "everyone and their mother can beat Pit100 if they can capable of reading a guide" it's a joke.

[@XerXcho]

They are, but just applies to sorc

[@Morfus1128]

Uneducated response my guy.

[@Weaver_Games]

PTR is 1 week but it would take 3 weeks to grind out everything you'd need to test stuff. Classic Blizzard move. I can't believe how good D3 PTRs were in comparison.

[@levinium]

The kind of bugs they let on the PTR, and even live, are so blatant they should have been ironed out before end users ever get to see them. It's just clearly massive incompetence.

[@cannabout5735]

What game dev do you work for?

[@calebb.9751]

Its beyond crazy that this remains a pattern by the devs. The previous Diablo games did in fact happen and the lessons learned through their development should not have to be relearned entirely through D4's. It's crazy how many things are like this. I love taking some of the best parts from D3 into D4, its terrible though when those parts are taken into D4 in worse states then those things currently exist as in D3.

[@Seanidor]

They have to relearn it because it's not the same people anymore. Even if they try to copy what was successful in the past, things are still going to be messed up because people tend to only copy what's seen on the surface. 😕

[@systemtrend3194]

Wudijo just wants everyone to deal 17 dmg like Druid and every pit boss is as hard as Lilith.

[@ddwkc]

They need to control how many multipliers exist in the game. It will slowly become like D3 where four to five digit multipliers are normal. Probably should just have addictive stuff with very few multipliers and they should be capped. 300% multiplier should be reserved for something with a crippling downside.

[@konrah1486]

There are druid aspects you can put on two handed weapons for near or above 300% multiplicative damage. The builds that use them are garbage. Your statement is true when referring to other classes (except sorc) and the new uniques though for sure

[@ddwkc]

@@konrah1486 Yeah, same in D3. You have Shadow set with 5 digit multipliers and yet they can't make it as broken as others because the build has like 2 multipliers not counting generic sources unless they give an absurd multiplier to compensate. Meanwhile, Sorcerer always find ways to be broken because they have "hidden" multipliers plus 4 ways to scale their DPS. PoE does it better even after years of power creep. You can get to billion damage, but usually it means you are a glass cannon or super rich. Making it tank and with high damage requires huge resources as a compensation. However, billion may look absurd, but most builds do fine on single digit million or double digit one. Meanwhile, D3 is going to literal gazillions. D4 if it's not tone down, it may go to the same path of using three to six digit multipliers to try balance the game instead of cutting or adding like -10/+10 or -25%/+25%.

[@nintandao64]

on the topic of making the rapid fire ring generic and not required that kinda actually opens up a neat idea within the design space where a new system is added where we can find/craft a new type of item that augments functionality of specific skills wouldn't that be a neat world where ur lvling up with a build you've always been comfortable with and all of a sudden you find this special glyph/attachment of sorts that completely changes how one ability that u arent currently using works and encourages u to swap builds right then and there

[@Fandolorian]

The PTR was a massive failure, and I'm extremely concerned about Season 5.

[@joelhodoborgas]

Honestly im gonna skip so i dont get mad for the xpac release.

[@tylerj3855]

@@joelhodoborgasthink I’m gonna do the same tbh

[@brawndothirstmutilator5863]

Concerned BTW it's only going to last 2 months...

[@taoday118]

Just skip S5. Only 2 months anyway

[@Fandolorian]

@@brawndothirstmutilator5863 Yeah and? if you get sick, and you continue to get sicker do you wait 2 months and stop being concerned? do you understand what the meaning of the word is. It doesn't matter if it's 2 months OR NOT, there is massive problems with the game, the Season 5 PTR the game feels WORSE than it did in Season 4, not an improvement but a step in the wrong direct. More bugs, more things that are broken in the game, they took away more power from the players and nerfed more builds. You do know that critiquing a billionaire dollar company isn't personal right, like YOU AREN'T BLIZZARD. You do know how many people are concerned about this right? Wudijo, Raxx, DatModz, and all sorts of other content creators are saying the same thing, that Blizzard has major balancing problems, and that they made the game worse. It's been over a year now since the game has been out, Season 4 didn't even have a seasonal theme because they needed to rework ALL OF THE LOOT IN THE GAME. And BTW, tempering still doesn't feel great, which is one of the main mechanics of the game now. So yes, people are concerned, and comments like yours are dogshit. Don't be a dismissive asshole because someone has a different opinion that yours just because you want to simp for Blizzard. It's about time they actually listened to their playerbase and fixed their game.

[@Seanidor]

Indeed, the powercreep does seem out of control. Even when I first played the beta I was honestly surprised there were so many sources of multipliers and additional damage. Do we really need such high numbers right from the beginning? I thought it was somewhat strange and well... boring how so many of the aspects increased damage by X amount instead of doing unique effects, changing how skills worked instead of how much they do. I was originally expecting the paragon boards/glyphs to be the main source of damage increase and leaving our choices of skills/aspects to be how we wanted things to function. I guess it's sorta true, but there are just way too many multipliers from aspects in my opinion.

[@MattiasTheGamer]

100% agreed. Hopefully Adam J watches this! Also ... I miss the balance of NMD 100 pre-season... defenses mattered, not just dmg/glass-cannoning.

[@NfinitGr8tness]

I wish they would allow console players to participate in ptr. I hate the kiss curse system they use currently. Yes, power creep becomes a problem no matter what, but the bigger problem is the majority of players can't make a build on their own that competes. As a primary druid player, I am more concerned with class balance. Everyone that I have seen ask for a harder WB for example, plays barb. When Raxx said the new wb took his team of op barbs a full minute, I was trying to conceptualize how long that would take a druid. If you want a challenge, play a different class. I have been at the WB by myself this season and it was ROUGH. Just wish I didn't have to by a pc to have a voice because people who can play 12 hours a day are probably no longer in touch with the majority no matter how humble or nice they are.

[@eliack95]

Can you ask them to make Barb even easier pls k thx bai

[@michaelb9683]

They need to take more inspiration from last epoch

[@Unknown-xc6wy]

First of all i would Love If everything gets cut in half at least. The Power creep currently is just ridiculus and i dont wont to reach a d3 Level already

[@Zikkar]

This is what you get when they listen to all the whiners about how hard the game was and don’t want to grind for items and rework everything

[@Tobez]

There are so many bugs or undocumented changes that I don't even know how to interpret my testing data on the PTR. On another note Wudi definitely seems to be the voice of reason here. Makes a lot of good points!

[@EpicWiN1717]

this just continues to prove how idiotic the people at blizzard are...... blizzzard has just been trolling all its players, its insulting at this point

[@Syx6sicS]

Harbingers of Ruin. Last Epoch is coming thankfully.

[@ProtoXoa]

Delete all Uniques. Aspects only.

[@dragon_dyce]

What if we could only wear 2 uniques at a time, could that solve many of these problems?

[@HankZhang]

I am a big basic attack enjoyer and yet i hate the basic attack meta so much. i want playing basic attack build to be my choice, not the "right thing".

[@andregoepfert2745]

DUDE! me too - I always try to make some form of basic attack build, then they come with the "lets force everyone into basic attack" and now the last thing I want to make is a basic attack build...

[@emilyletzin9626]

@@andregoepfert2745 same.

[@thesssainentertainment]

bro its so true... how they want us to test out stuff when we have to grind so long to even get the items lol

[@fruitdealer_R34L]

The only thing Blizzard didnt break is my disappointment.

[@BlackBull614]

🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@CyrusBlack404]

go play POE :) it`s nice you have REAL DOWNSIDES ... FORCED Mechanics ... nerfs every league ...

[@drdynanite]

Are you really disappointed that test realm doesn't work as intended?

[@fammud1192]

@@drdynanite It's waaaay too broken, how can we test things when nothing works? Also doesn't address the continued poor design decisions and lack of vision, it's like everything they do disregards every other part of the game and how it fits together.

[@drdynanite]

@@fammud1192 Again, it's PTR. Yes, it's a shame some of new items are broken, but it is what it is. And devs still can make appropriate changes to their design philosophy and vision, that's the point of PTR. So I don't share this doom and gloom sentiment about PTR. If they leave everything as it is and push it to S5, then I'll be upset, but at the moment you're just overreacting at least imo.

[@pultulf2462]

it is almost like blizzard uses the excuse of "thats what the ptr is for" for not testing their own changes.

[@troyk2443]

Thank you for bringing up rapid fire and scoundrels kiss. Rapid fire has always been my favorite go to skill, but I don't like the way it works with the ring. So it ruined my favorite skill for me because all balancing for the skill will be based on using the unique.

[@fingers_7311]

Sorcs a super bad example because the class is just broken. Aspects are all trash, damage is missing so we end up leaning into anything that stacks damage over aspects for builds. This helm is Sorcs only multiplyer don't take it away.

[@kirkhodges1946]

Raxx mentioned that the devs told him that most players are hyper casual and just blindly put five points in basic attacks. This is why.

[@S34Mii]

I wish they'd fix everything that doesn't work or doesn't work as described currently before they introduce new stuff to the game that also has a 50%+ chance to be broken... Smh...

[@espertix5839]

Why dont they let us have an extra ring slot if they won't give us 3rd enchantment slot?

[@alexcho7513]

Welp this season looks doomed, PTR is so broken I cannot fathom them fixing this in a month. Hopefully POE next season will be good.

[@dok2k33]

The “odd numbers” (1, 3, 5…) devs team must be fired.

[@gbasso666]

Along with the Sorcerer team, if there is anyone lol

[@konrah1486]

Yup that would totally fix all these issues. Firing people lol

[@asum7786]

Numbers are getting way too high and impossible to parse, like three zeros+ too large at this point.

[@christophluger793]

They should also expand the PTR to at least 3 weeks (or why not 5 weeks?), updating it halfway through to fix bugs etc. Also add a vendor where you can test every single new item and updated items like some others said in the comments.

[@Cyamre]

For once I disagree with this take on Unique items. If nerfing Scoundrel's Kiss wouldn't hurt the Rapid Fire build, then why is it a must to use as it's being said here? It's either mandatory to make the build work, or it's not. If it's mandatory even with such a strong proposed nerf, then the build is not viable without it, that's the key problem. You can't say "this item is mandatory for this build, so we should remove all the buffs on it to allow using something else instead". 'Let's make a build unusable instead of relying on a unique to make it work', is this really what you are proposing? Other builds need to be buffed, not all builds need to be dragged down.

[@eddyram4932]

Idk if it’s just me but after the PTR update my Necro is getting one shot in the pit way too much. Not even high pits either, at 71 it’s been happening and at 81 is a damn near guarantee🤦‍♂️

[@dongusminimus9999]

How are you still enjoying this? I couldn't play one class in this game for 40 hours let alone hundreds.

[@jart372]

Great video. I was really hyped after s4. I thought they are heading in right direction with this game, but mid season patch and now ptr shows they are completely clueless. Game balance is non existence. Instead of trying to fix that they are making it even worse. What a pity.

[@NikoWrex]

I’m glad you’re saying this as well. They need to just give us infinite resources, tempering, and access to all items. In my opinion, all of these new uniques should be held back until the current uniques are addressed. I also find the new uniques to be just bland damage multipliers. Uniques need to be far more transformative.

[@taks1993]

It's crazy they are making regular uniques better then mythics, crown over shako so far

[@dylankelley7335]

Great video! I will sy this seems so hard. Like I really like the Basilisk Staff for druid because it sounds interesting and changes something but ppl complain that's its not just damage. All complain about both side and it sucks.

[@rmbeavers]

Agreed...I want a challenging game that gives me some choices in gear (and every build can perhaps be viable to a degree). Personally, I'd love to see some crossover gear (like maybe sorc's can shapeshift, or rogues can get a barb shout from a unique helm, etc)

[@joshcopshoes2232]

LOL at the Northwar build "this is the future"

[@joshcopshoes2232]

PREACH WUDI, man is doing the developer's job for them

[@klooks]

The unique are SUPPOSED to be OP and suppossed to BE RARE. You HAVE to you a legendary affix build to get to the end game at lvl 100 and then start getting unique drops so you CAN change from a leveling legendary build to a mythic/unique OP builds for the 100+ gameplay

[@konrah1486]

Lol when your entire build is uniques it takes zero effort to make. Boring.

[@klooks]

​@konrah1486 you have to make a solid build of legendary affixes to even get to the point to farm the uniques which enables you to SWITCH to a new OP build just for the Endgame grind. Having a rare unique drop would be like upgrading legendary to 4 stars after grinding endgame. Did you even read my original comment?

[@konrah1486]

@@klooks It really doesn’t. Not sure how much D4 you’ve played but non uber bosses have next to no health. Killing them all at level 70 is not an issue. Having all my endgame gear at level 70 just makes the game absurdly easy.

[@Exakan]

It would help Sorc if some of the new strong uniques would only be usable by Sorc chars, the other classes already have enough good ways to boost up their damage. What do you think about that wudi?

[@nuadai]

Remove all Multiplicative Damage from Legendary Aspects across the board. Maybe remove it from normal Uniques too, and maybe also from Skill Tree Passives. This will help with: 1. Closing the gap between Barb and other Classes to make balancing them easier, instead of having to give everyone crazy multipliers for no reason. 2. Reigning in the Power Creep/Gains to some extent, they're already leaning into, and avoiding the fate of D3 where we have x100000% multipliers. 3. Promoting greater Build Variety, because we won't be forced to stack multipliers for the same skill. There are probably other benefits too that I cannot think of right now, but these 3 ought to be enough. For me this is the root of all current problems in D4, so I hope you'll find some merit in it and help spreading the word a little bit @wudijo Like, imagine if these damage bonuses in the hundreds were Additive and not Multiplicative. A lot smaller problem, no?

[@jasonlucia6682]

No, multipliers are fun. They give builds identity and are not the bad guy. Base weapon damage, skill coefficents, and additive damage are equally potent tuning knobs. Having items with 350-400% additive damage is stupid and making people think multipliers are a bad thing. Not to mention, you can't really get rid of multipliers. Aspect makes your skill hit twice as fast? that's a 100% multi. Stripping multipliers would mean additive damage has to be stupid high to feel impactful once you have gear. I don't want to see items with 500% additive damage that practically amounts to a 20% damage increase. barb is NOT difficult to balance regardless of multipliers. At the end of the day you look at output and adjust, they just refuse to. barbs are hitting 500b bleeds on ptr. If you have 10x multi you're still doing an obscene 10b damage base. Base+additive is too high.

[@nuadai]

@@jasonlucia6682 that's an awfully wrong notion and I'll tell you why. You're saying that if we remove Multipliers, Additive damage bonuses should be in the hundreds, so that you can feel impactful. No! This is just reskinning power creep. They do not and should not be so big. Instead monsters will need to be nerfed, so they're adequately placed against our new and weaker power levels. This way you'll still be impactful. A simple number with an "x" in front does not give your build identity, or anything. It just gives you plain power. Bigger damage. And the identity of a build is supposed to be something else imho. Barbs ARE difficult to balance. Even if we leave Uniques aside, they have access to 4 more offensive aspects, 8 more tempers, and a lot more stats/affixes. This is an exponential advantage when these bonuses are Multiplicative. And most of these Aspects are also universal, so if you weaken them for Barbs you weaken them for everyone. And in that case, if they're still Multiplicative, guess what! Barbs will keep their exponential advantageand it'll still be a considerable power gap. By making at least the Legendary Aspects Additive, we'll come a long way towards closing that gap. Sadly, I know Multipliers cannot be fully removed from the game. But imagine if multipliers are present only on a few things, such as: 1. Attack Speed and Skill Ranks in terms of affixes 2. Mythic Uniques and Legendary Paragon Nodes/Glyphs in terms of items/mechanics If this is the case, it should be a lot easier to balance them, because on one side everyone will have equal access to them, and on the other you'll have a lot smaller sample size.

[@konrah1486]

Man am I glad you aren’t balancing the game. All damage being additive sounds straight up horrendous, even worse than the way the game is now.

[@nuadai]

@@konrah1486 if it still sounds horrendous after you think about it for just a little bit, please do let me know why. Some reasoning would only help the discussion. Tell why the benefits I listed are not important, or beneficial. Or tell me why you think the measures I propose wouldn't work to achieve those benefits. Additionally, I'm quite interested to hear if you have any constructive idea of your own. Just for the sake of the discussion. Who knows, maybe some dev will see it and take away something good from it.

[@konrah1486]

@@nuadai Because you want to flat out remove multiplicative dmg from the game. This only nerfs every build in the game including ones that are already terrible. Removing some multiplicative dmg from aspects used in builds that don’t need it, I agree. Removing it from shred druid as an example- huh?

[@rnjesus9950]

I wish they would bring back set gear. One of my favorite parts of d3 was theory crafting different combinations of set gear combinations. It gave you something to hunt for, had a massive payoff, and made the game that much more fun. Sets that fired basic skills with core skills took care of mana problems and made the basic skills actually usable. They could rework it and get creative, but I think it’s a massive opportunity for fun farm-ability.

[@sonkieu-tc6ty]

yeah the combo lucion, starless , verathiel is just brain dead.

[@stephanos.rempel7490]

What he thinks about Storm arrows and Rain of arrows sinergy? I do like that style.

[@MaksReveck]

I got PTR seen that its not setup like PTR on wow with no vendors and insta left because of this - not grinding PTR to TEST something

[@Mb_Blender]

personal opinion, power creep sucks, the milions, bilions of damage we deal is stupid, I was watching the stream at one point and you said that level 200 bosses have like 1.6 bilion health.. why? its like they want us to do that much damage to even be able to touch those bosses, lower the values, a lot! its not even power creep at this point. its just boated numbers for simingly no reason except for " i did lots of damage"

[@konrah1486]

Outside of the ptr and sorc’s infinite flame shield, numbers are too high. But don’t tell me non flame shield sorc builds or any druid build is dealing too much damage. I agree with you completely about the other classes though

[@connorsmith2059]

I genuinely don’t like crown of Lucian. It’s an insane item. But it’s also not very interesting. It’s simply a couple broken stats. It’s not good to design an item that overshadows literally everything

[@Gabranthh]

When in doubt slap 300% [x] on it!

[@DARKCOP2011]

My godddddddddd Blizzard never fail on being pathetic, make people grind in a fking PTR ????????? Let me use my time machine called "what Blizzard ALWAYS DO" and go back to you in a sec, done, now i can tell you all this broken builds are going to be nerfed so bad that are going to be just average normal or worst when next season start and they are going to be like "OOHHH OPPPS we forget to nerf the barb ??" and then on season 5 mid-patch they will buff him more and nerf the sorc and the druid.

[@oosnyt]

I am founding this actually to be great news, instead of farming insane ammounts of GA legendaries, i can just focus on few GA legendaries. Like i get this is prob bad for streamer like your self, but blizz insists diablo 4 is to be casual game, and right now it kinda is not...

[@Blood-Lord]

If Season 5 is a flop I'll just wait for Last Epoch's new season, and PoE 2. No reason to waste $40 on VoH.

[@12deathguard]

Does it HAVE to have a downside? What was Shako's downside? Grandfather's downside? Starless skies? Most of these crazy uniques don't have a downside or at least not one worth considering when tou consider the buff they give.

[@Drakonian277]

Hears is a question I asked in feedback. Since season 5 is the return to hell why not bring back a classic weapon from d2/d3 and that weapon would be the demon machine crossbow since there is not a unique crossbow and 3 not so great unique bows

[@thompsn42]

I really hope they listen to people like you or raxx. And I hope even more they stop giving everyone everything for basically free. The most casual casual player can get a fricken harlequin now and blizzard wonders why everyone is using it. Creating a new even more OP helmet thats even easier to get your hands on wont change the "everyone uses the same helmet" meta....

[@MrThebigfreak]

Easy solution bring d2 style items wich were more simple and easy to use and put a d3 skills systeme that was was more fun turn your hydras into whatever you want or turn your arrow into a frost arrow or explosive arrow. Anyways i miss that from d3

[@chetbudreau5232]

the only ptr d4 needs is someone to test the dev's they lack many many skills ..seem to be missing

[@zingy1914]

i dont want downsides, i just want them to offer unique gameplay to aspects. change how i interact with skills/enemies with comparable power to what your giving up

[@flowqi212]

Very good summary of the PTR. I agree 100% 👍

[@justdust9089]

great video! perfectly explained what is wrong with the insane powercreep.

[@st3ppenwolf]

seems like I won't be playing s5

[@discodisco360]

Problem with sorc is that they want you to combine different elements and that becomes the builds instead they should give us more option to run just fire, or just lightning or just cold

[@enchibla]

D4 lacks a strong direction in almost every aspect. Blizz has become headless chickens….

[@joelhodoborgas]

Theres no talent in the diablo team. They are literally throwing shit around to see what sticks.

[@DARKCOP2011]

@@joelhodoborgas Sadly i agree to this, if this continue the way its going and i hope not this franchise its going to CONTINUE dying slowly, right now i will say a lot of veteran diablo players are leaving and more will follow.

[@sonkieu-tc6ty]

yes you're right. for example bone prison with path of trag' oul x2 3 the radius of it but the aspect that creat blight inside bone prison, and the aspect that make it explode still have the small radius as before and cannot hit the monster inside the bone prison, therefor the aspect become useless.