All my friends are dead.
Since the release of Diablo III, my friend list has gotten noticably emptier. Where I used to see fifteen to twenty people playing the game, there are now three or less; instead of playing games with a full party, I am now either playing on my own or with the one friend who still enjoys grinding her way through Inferno with me. A huge amount of people who expected to stick with this game for months to come have thrown in the towel, at least until something fundamentally changes about the game they were looking forward to for so long.
And now it has.
Blizzard's recent blog post about the changes introduced in Patch 1.0.3 has addressed a lot of issues players claimed to have with the game (some of which I mentioned in my article last week) and has been met with a lot of positive feedback. As you will find out, I certainly fall in line with the praise for Patch 1.0.3, but that is not why I am writing this piece; in my opinion, Blizzard is turning Inferno into Hell - Part 2 and while that is certainly a welcome change for the majority of the playerbase, I can't help but think that Inferno has failed to exist in the form Blizzard intended.
Before I go into that however, let's have a look at the changes in detail. Since Blizzard decided to lead their blog post with the new drop rates, it stands to reason they they consider this to be the biggest announcement, and I agree. I mentioned last week that I actually miss the completely random nature of Diablo II loot, where the bottom level for drops wasn't capped in the same fashion as it is in Diablo III. Similarly, the same base type of armor (a Sash, for example) would have a different item level depending on its origin. Looking at the upcoming changes, it seems that the current model is here to stay and I am not sure I am happy with that. While I applaud the changes made to the higher end of the drop tables, I would like to see at least lower level legendaries drop throughout Inferno.
Being able to find max level items from Act 1 onwards however is a hugely positive development, as it gives every player stepping into Inferno the chance to potentially find the best items the game can create. Part of what made Diablo II's farming mechanics work so well is that there was a niche for everyone; while for example Nightmare Mephisto runs were relatively easy, they provided some chance of finding powerful items. In comparison, Baal runs in Hell were considerably harder but offered better chances; we're seeing the same risk/reward scheme return with the upcoming patch. After the patch, every skeleton in Act 1 can drop an item worth eight figures which should go a long way towards keeping players motivated.
The focus on killing Act bosses with a full stack of Nephalem Valor will be removed in favor of a new model where five stacks guarantee a rare drop from every elite pack you kill, further underlining the idea Blizzard has of how their game should be played; instead of the current meta game of gaining five stacks and then killing an Act boss or quest mob, players are encouraged to keep on trucking through an Act for as long as they can. Whether or not the outcome equals the vision remains to be seen, but coupled with the increased death penalties and the new drop rates it should lead to more players staying in the Act they feel comfortable playing instead of feeling forced to glitch their way into higher Acts to kick open chests for hours at a time.
Apart from these blockbuster announcements, the patch includes a lot of quality-of-life changes, such as the lowered cost for gem/item crafting, the removal of extra damage in multiplayer and the ability to cancel your auctions before they run out (the latter potentially having a huge impact on the economy; look forward to an article on the Auction House soon!) as well as a nerf to the Attack Speed mechanics as Blizzard considers it well over budget (and I agree). A few of the more problematic mods on elite packs, namely Shielding and Invulnerable Minions, will be altered or removed entirely; baby steps in the effort of equalizing the seemingly random difficulty of modifiers I bemoaned last week.
So let's take a step back and look at what this patch is offering us: Inferno will become easier (though it is yet unclear to what degree), drops will get better and, potentially still within the first month of the game's lifespan, players will once again have to come up with new ways of efficiently hunting for better gear if the changes to Nephalem Valor have the desired effect. What this patch doesn't do is change the class mechanics to offer more Inferno-viable builds or alter the random modifiers on elites in order to bring them more in line with one another; supposedly, these issues will be addressed in the upcoming Patch 1.1.
So while I am sure that my friend list will become noticably more populated after patch day, I can't help but feel like Blizzard is once again slapping a band-aid on the (so far) faulty design of Inferno. Their original intentions aside, even extreme challenge can be fun if it's done well and the players feel like they can overcome it with sufficient strategy. However, it seems to me that instead of increasing the entertainment value of Inferno mode, and thus the lasting appeal, they are decreasing the challenge, which will lead to players eventually being able to run through Inferno the same way they were able to run through Hell in Diablo II, effectively removing the entire point of having a fourth difficulty setting in the game altogether.
I like a challenge. I like facing ridiculously hard bosses and eventually overcoming them; sometimes I even like not overcoming them. When Inferno was introduced as a concept, I was looking forward to Diablo III having an actual PvE "endgame" that didn't just consist of running single bosses over and over again, something that was supposed to come after Hell mode; not replace it. Making progress in Inferno was supposed to be the goal you strive for after having played Hell the same way we played Hell in Diablo II. It was supposed to stretch out for a much longer period and most importantly, playing Hell was supposed to be a viable endgame for those not yet geared enough and those who simply had no interest in grinding the Inferno endgame alike. Instead, Inferno is being brought in line with the other three difficulties and I don't think it is a stretch of the imagination to assume that characters will be able to flawlessly move from Act I Normal to Act IV Inferno within the next few patches.
Blizzard's experiment of creating a super-hard, "proper" endgame has, to that extent, failed. It has failed to provide players with a reason to stay in Hell mode, as the current itemization favors item level over everything; aside from a very small amount of legendaries, there is simply no sub-60 gear worth using and thus farming. Since every player feels like they have to progress through Inferno, Blizzard has no other choice but to make it possible for them to do so, which further highlights the pointlessness of the other difficulties. Ironically enough, Inferno could have been fine the way they had intended it to be if they hadn't forced every single player into it; by making it the only thing worth your time once you hit 60, they left themselves no choice but to reduce the difficulty, thereby invalidating their own idea.
But at least my friends will come back.
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