Rob2628 Talks Class Balance, Game Difficulty, Itemization in Interview with Diablo 4 Developers

Posted 2025/11/06 at 5:29 PM by Whispyr

Raxxanterax InterviewRob2628's YoutubeTwitch ChannelInterview HighlightsReward and Difficulty ScalingExperience ChangesStat CapsMiscellenous Notes

Capstone Dungeon Bosses

Bosses were definitely overtuned, and Capstone Dungeon Bosses will not have resilience in the future.

Cooldown Reduction Affixes

With the changes to Tempering, Cooldown Reduction was feeling a little weak, so hands and rings now can roll the Cooldown Reduction Affixes, letting players build into the known archetypes

Sanctification Updates

Indestructable is Removed from the pool of outcomes

Sanctification is meant to be the final gambling step, not a required step for upgrading gear. The goal is for players to pick up multiple items and refine them over time, aiming to achieve an upgrade through the random system.

Sanctification was tuned with Eternal in mind, rather than being a big flashy seasonal mechanic like Chaos Powers or Horadric Powers. It's not as exciting as it should be currently, and Blizzard is looking into how to engage players more

Higher Rarity Items such as Harlequin Crest shouldn't have their defining stats like Cooldown Reduction removed through Sanctification. These are handled and removed on a case-by-case basis to avoid moments that are particularly annoying for the player.

Rewards from The Tower

Past the initial implementation of the Tower in Season 11, Blizzard is looking to add two reward tracks to the Tower for players to aim for

For players not interested in pushing to be rank 1, there will be a milestone/reputation style reward track that will give functional rewards to aid the character in progression

For players that are pushing to rank 1, Leadboard rewards are going to be cosmetic, and planned to only function on the character that earned the rank. These will not be account-wide, as the achievement is tied to the power and journey of that character specifically.

Clarity of Stats

Toughness is unclear currently, but it is a necessary evil to remove the caps on Resistance/Armor moving forward in the game. Blizzard is actively looking at ways to add clarity back to defensive stats in the future

Attack Power has long been a stat that doesn't accurately depict the true power of a character, and this is changing only to show the damage of the Mainhand Weapon instead, which should at least be more accurate. In the future, Blizzard is exploring ways to enhance clarity on this stat as well.

Melted Heart of Selig

Melted Heart of Selig was a massive discussion on PTR, and it is receiving changes that will allow it to be tuned appropriately. As a result, resource caps on other items are also going away. The idea of Selig being a shielding defensive item is something Blizzard loves, but the resource generation it enables is too much.

Gold Drops

Gold should primarly drop from monsters, not from selling gear

There is no Sell-All button, but gold drops have been rebalanced and players should not feel the need to sell nearly as much as they did before, which should alleviate the problem

Comment by AlustrielGold is the only thing players need billions of as masterworking and then resetting when the item fails to give the affix you want costs ridiculous amounts of mats and gold. Most of my gold comes from selling gear, that is what March of the Goblins events are for. If they plan on reducing gold drops, then reduce costs too!

I know they plan to rework everything but in the end, if a player does not have enough mats or gold to craft their gear to a better status, then they feel like the game is a grind for resources, not an enjoyable time for anyone and it is why so many turn to the Black-Market third options to get gold or gear for real cash. For those who have strict Ethics on this subject, it puts us in a place where others spend their mola and get better while we get pissed off at this being allowed to happen. I understand that Blizzard has no authority to stop other people in other countries from doing this, but a line should be drawn in the sand on consequences, like deleting accounts.

Experience should scale better between torments/difficulties as it is now, attaining that 300 paragon in seasonal or eternal is a slog fest that just deters anyone from wanting to be on the game. I personally have tried to figure out how to record a macro to just run in circles in a helltide killing everything as I have a snowblower (Frozen Orb) build that destroys everything, but the exp earned in T3 or T4 is peanuts! Taking hours to go up a portion of the experience bar.

Immortality for the characters... hell yes, that is the point of us being Nephilim, we are all demigods in the game and once we have sufficient gear, there is no way our characters should truly face dying in the game. Only super bosses, like Lilith, should ever really make us push up daisies. The idea that we should face challenges that stand a good chance to kill us means we are under-geared. I really enjoy never dying unless I am foolish enough to bring the map up in a boss fight by accident, but fingers tap keys sometime that cause a hiccup every now and then.

Sanctification, you can keep it, I'll never use it as the risk of losing something I worked for dozens or hundreds of hours to get is not worth it. Another stupid customization that has flaws. In our world if we are paying for something and we don't get what we want for that exchange, as I said before on this subject, that business goes down the drain, and likely gets sued, goes broke and has no more customers. You want Sanctification to be catchy, let us pick what we want, anything to upgrade, no risk at all. Afterall, it sounds like we have to grind this special currency to do so, just like sparks in Warcraft, it is a weekly quest to get one at a time and we need 2 minimum to craft high end gear with any type of stat we have mats to put on it. That is a good starting point to build on, use what you already know about and that actually works with satisfaction rather than the evil RNG god of doom looming over us.Comment by FlanellWith itemization changes I thought about things like getting rid of lucky hit and these whole stupid low procs in low procs.Comment by HistoryxGotta stop listening to these Youtuber/Twitch streamers if Blizzard wants a better game. All they did was make D3.5 because of these idiots.