With Vessel of Hatred, Diablo 4 got a new class for the first time, the Spiritborn (or: “Spiritborn”). What many have already predicted has now happened: Spiritborn are the strongest class in the game and many players are demanding nerfs. A user defends himself and thereby hits a nerve in the community.
This is how strong spirit-born people are right now:
This is the discussion: The Evade build is obviously extremely strong and perhaps too strong in the opinion of many players and even experts. They expect a nerf, sometimes even demand it, because it’s simply not in line with other builds – not even remotely.
But a user on Reddit now warns: If you call for nerfs, they will come. Blizzard listen. And that’s true, Blizzard often uses feedback to improve Diablo 4 – most recently by adding more Forgotten Souls to the game. The user says:
Instead, call for buffs if your class is lagging behind so that it can be leveled up to the same level as the Spiritborn. So will people who have already invested 12 hours or more equipping their spiritborn […] not feel like their time was wasted. And you can enjoy buffs for builds that you have already built.
The argument sounds coherent and the post received over 1,700 upvotes in a short time – but also triggered a discussion with almost 900 comments. Because many users warn against such a setting.
This is what the Spiritborn looks like in action:
Diablo 4: This is what a Spiritborn Jaguar Eagle build looks like in Vessel of Hatred
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Leads to insane levels of power creep
The top comment already harshly criticizes the opinion and receives great support. The user Correct_Sometimes thinks this is a stupid idea and writes. “What you describe leads to insane levels of power creep.”
Power creep describes the fact that characters become increasingly stronger, which quickly leads to absurd numbers through a spiral. And even in testing, barbarians could literally do infinite damage. Nerfs are the right approach:
You don’t buff everything in the game to bring it up to par with something that’s obviously too strong. You’re bringing the one obviously too strong thing down to where the game should be.
Hundreds of users agree and explain that it also makes more sense from a developer’s perspective. It is easier to ensure equality by adjusting one thing downwards than dozens upwards. People are just too sensitive when it comes to nerfs.
The problem, however, is that Blizzard often overshoots the mark. Buffs and nerfs are often far too strong, so that the thing in question becomes completely useless or completely OP. However, many agree that outliers should be nerfed upwards.
Behind the decisions as to whether something will be nerfed in Diablo 4 or not, there are often long discussions internally at Blizzard. But often they simply cannot be avoided, as Rod Fergusson explains: “It’s for the best of the game” – bosses explain why Blizzard nerfs all the good stuff