The reason: the loudly advertised “Patch 1.0.3.” that was supposed to change underlying aspects of the game. And it did, it turned the endgame upside down into a state which I would never suspect possible. After all, the opposite of the poorly designed pre-patch inferno should, in all logic, be a well-designed post-patch inferno, correct?
It turns out this is not quite the case, but before I go on, I would like to insert the small note that I am writing this article from the standpoint of a “full defense barbarian”, i.e. a hero that rarely died in Act I Inferno if at all and the most common case for his demise were the enrage timers (put in the game god knows why) and/or being vortexed into the more commonly known as “You/Are/F****d/Now” monster affix combination. With that made clear, let us proceed.
As I said, I logged in today to find Inferno being tuned down to essentially Hell. It felt strange. It felt weird, no, it felt wrong. Last week, I was at the verge of getting enough gear to beat the first quest cycle of Act II and in my mind I was playing the game the way it was supposed to be played. I struggled a lot and I died even more. I ran around looking for elites, I collected gold and purchased gear to accelerate the process. Every powerful item that I acquired through hours of gaming was a large incentive and it meant that I could move even further into the game.
Not anymore. In less than four hours, I was already at the Cave of the Betrayer, meaning I had already beaten around 60% of the Act. This was not Inferno I was playing, I was sure of it, but just for the cause I decided to stick around and see what’ll follow. Who knows, maybe the gear I had acquired was supposed to be enough for Act II all along.
I had my first death just before Maghda. It was not a hard elite pack, in fact it wasn’t an elite pack at all. It was a berserker’s powerful hammer attack which I failed to dodge and if I had, I would’ve cleared everything till and past the first boss without dying a single time. Not quite the Inferno I was expecting and when I got back to town to repair and sell my junk, this realization would be magnified tenfold.
Dying one time had gotten me to a yellow durability and thus I was politely asked to pay over 20K in gold. Two hours of playtime and one death cost me 22,040 in game currency. Because, of course, it’s not just death you are paying for, it’s every single point of durability loss too and both of those have gone up 4-5 times in terms of cost. The game was blatantly stealing my money away just for playing it. With the actual Inferno challenge from before the patch irrevocably gone, it felt even more obscene.
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I’m sorry but what is this? I am drilling through “Endgame Elementary School” while watching my money disappear for no reason? I am one-shotting monsters but I have to pay an hourly fee for this commodity? I am not allowed to break rocks and vases because not only don’t they drop shit but it costs me 70g too? And fighting elites only (as inferno should be) cannot cover the gold costs for the repairs so I have to go through the white mobs as well, hoping they drop that fat 1k gold stack which covers around 3% of the tax?
This may not have been in the design plans for 1.0.3. but sure as hell that’s what it feels like. Of course, Bashiok promised in a blue post that they will look into making fighting without dying less expensive in the next patch but why wasn’t this the case from day one of 1.0.3.? Honestly, this should’ve been the first thing to be considered and not how to make Witch Doctors’ bread and butter skill dysfunctional. There were a hundred and one better decisions to prevent “death zerging” and bot farming but ultimately players got the worse end of the worst option.
Please have in mind that I have nothing against the well thought-out improvements in the patch. The new drop rates are wonderful and they should’ve been like this since launch and the crafting cost nerfs successfully turn the artisans into something more than just a tool you level up for achievements. It’s just below this impregnable on first sight sugar coated surface lay problems which are amputating what should be the right Diablo experience with a blunt claw-hammer.
In the end, I’ll continue going back to Diablo 3 but it’ll not be to progress with my level 60 as I’d rather not spend my family fortune for the luxury of hitting monsters. It’s time for my alts to shine and as for my Inferno Barbarian – I’ll see you in next patch.
This is an editorial opinion piece and the author's opinion does not necessarily represent the opinion of GosuGamers or the opinion of any affiliates.
