“We know that reducing player power is never a good experience,” associate game director Joe Piepiora said in the same live stream. “We don’t plan on doing a patch like this ever again. “It’s not the greatest play experience for players out there,” community chief Adam Fletcher admitted in a live stream meant to address the fan backlash ( via IGN). While that claim will be put to the test throughout Season of the Malignant, Rurikhan also believes that the patch nerfs will hurt gamers’ opinion of Diablo 4, which is probably more important than the nerfs themselves. Forbes kind of echoes this sentiment, although the outlet believes Blizzard nerfed stats to balance out the Malignant Heart buffs. Another Youtuber, Rurikhan, believes the nerfs were intended to frustrate gamers and push them towards seasonal play, where most of the monetization will take place. The popular streamer Asmongold has made no less than five videos on the subject - one of which is a 1.5-hour long rant - and he isn’t alone. YouTube is just as packed with content creators criticizing the patch.

And right on cue, disgruntled gamers swooped onto Metacritic to carpet review bomb the game to a 2.3 rating (and falling). Many posts and thread responses consist of gamers claiming they plan on protesting the patch by either not playing or uninstalling Diablo 4.

The official Diablo 4 forums, for instance, are filled with people claiming that the nerfs have ruined the game’s fun factor.

Needless to say, you don’t have to search very long to find gamers criticizing these changes. Leveling and and Helltide event farming take much harder.The cooldown reductions of many skills are now longer.All classes now deal less damage and take more damage.

Diablo 3 season 13 patch notes