Summary
The Season of Blood is in full swing forDiablo 4, and its players are hoping that the developers keep the deadly difficulty of the game’s world bosses untouched. For a title that has endured an array of controversies since launch,Diablo 4broke several Blizzard milestones and established itself as one of the best-selling games in 2023. That being said, many players have since taken a break from the world of Sanctuary asDiablo 4’s popularity experienced a dramatic dropin the wake of its Season of the Malignant debut.
The initial changes that came withDiablo 4’s inaugural season were harshly denounced by its community, as many fans felt their vision ofDiablo 4was at odds with the direction that its developers were nudging it towards. The endgame inDiablo 4was widely criticized for being stale or tedious, with Nightmare Dungeons and poor itemization cited as the prevailing reasons behind the unhappiness and apathy that now permeated in the community. Blizzard realized that something had to change, and thus the Season of Blood focused on course-correctingDiablo 4towards a direction that could better satisfy its players.
Diablo 4’s Difficulty Curve is a Good Thing
Season of Blood introduced several highly-demanded quality-of-life changes to the game, and even rebalancedDiablo 4’s attributes from top-to-bottom. As a result, the difficulty curve for some content such as world bosses has wildly shifted compared to Season of the Malignant. In World Tiers 2 and above, bosses such as Avarice are heavy hitters, andDiablofans are hoping that Blizzard will not nerf them back to their previous state. The community still has fond memories ofAshava killingDiablo 4playersleft-and-right in the open beta, and the world bosses in the Season of Blood feel much the same in spirit.
Though fully-realized endgame builds inDiablo 4still make short work of its world bosses, the difficulty curve is nonetheless welcomed by a significant part of its community. Some players are even clamoring for harder encounters in World Tiers 3 and 4, given that they represent the endgame experience ofDiablo 4’s open world. However, the true star of theSeason of Blood inDiablo 4has been its Blood Harvest events, which many fans think are what Helltides should have been.
It would seem thatDiablo 4is on the right track to fix its major shortcomings, but players should keep an eye out forBlizzCon 2023all the same, as it’s highly likely that Blizzard will have much to reveal about the long-term future of the game during its opening ceremony. It’s not unreasonable to expect an expansion announcement forDiablo 4, and though there is no guarantee that lightning will strike twice for Blizzard,Reaper of Soulshas established a precedent of aDiablotitle redeeming itself through the release of its expansion pack.
Diablo 4is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
MORE:Diablo 4 Tier List: The Best Diablo 4 Classes for Season 2 (Patch 1.2.0)
