Being a truly insufferable dweeb, I immediately gravitated towards the Sorcerer class in Diablo 4, and had a pretty good time turning the legions of hell into sparking pools of electrified sludge. But it seems not everyone had quite the same power fantasy. People who elected to play as the closed beta’s rippling, musclebound Barbarian have been lamenting that the class feels weirdly weak (opens in new tab), unable to weather the blows that its up-close-and-personal, melee-focused combat style exposes it to.
But Blizzard tells GamesRadar (opens in new tab) that it has plans to change that. Diablo’s game director Joe Shely says Blizzard doesn’t “want a player who creates a Barbarian to feel weak at low levels,” and that the devs will be using feedback from the beta period to “balance the class so that their strength at the end game is realised in that they are powerful, but without making the game unfair at low levels.”
Shely makes it sound like the really difficult part of rebalancing Barbarian will be threading the needle in such a way that it doesn’t upend every other class in the game. Because the game’s various classes aren’t all equally powerful at any given level, it can be a bit of a fine-wire act to tune them up or down in a way that doesn’t end up making other classes feel more or less useful.
In other words, I imagine it’d be pretty easy to just amp up the Barbarian’s damage output or defence abilities, but you could just end up making some other class feel as relatively underpowered as the Barbarian does right now.
That’s probably why Shely didn’t go into huge detail about how the Barbarian would be pepped up, but he did at least note the Hammer of the Ancients skill as one that could do with a little more oomph. On the flipside, he remarked that the Sorcerer’s frost abilities were “really strong” at the moment—although he added that lightning leaves something to be desired—so that probably heralds an end to my go-to tactic of just hurling frost orbs in every direction whenever I enter a room.
We’ve only seen three of Diablo 4’s five announced classes so far: the Rogue, Sorcerer, and Barbarian, with the remaining two—Druid and Necromancer—set to become playable in the open beta coming this weekend (opens in new tab). That kicks off this Friday, March 24, at 9 am PT / 12 pm ET / 4 pm GMT, with preloads becoming available tomorrow.
Какие масштабные изменения должны быть внесены в броню Варвара, чтобы соответствовать ожидаемой мощи?
Inch up the Barbarian’s armor, bringing it more in line with the kickass prowess we expect from the class. “We are actively working on tuning and adjusting the Barbarian’s skills to ensure they can take on the enemies in Sanctuary with the ferocity we expect from this classic class,” a spokesperson said.
Будучи настоящим неистовым долбоёбом, я сразу же склонился к классу Чародея в Diablo 4 и получил от этого достаточно приятные впечатления, превращая легионы ада в искрящиеся бассейны заряженной слизи. Однако видимо, у некоторых людей моя радость не проявилась. Те, кто выбрали играть за сильного свежака-Варвара в закрытой бете, жалуются на то, что класс кажется странно слабым, не могущим перенести боль от ближнего и личного сражения, на которое оно активно склоняется.
Однако Blizzard рассказал GamesRadar, что они имеют планы по укреплению брони Варвара, обеспечивая большую силу, от которой мы ожидаем. Представитель компании сказал: “Мы активно работаем над настройкой и настраиваем навыки Варвара, чтобы они могли браться за врагов в Санктуарии с той мощью, которую мы ожидаем от этого классического класса”.
