Blizzard to Address Disgruntled Diablo 4 Community After Patch Backlash

Blizzard will address the backlash to Diablo 4’s latest patch in a livestream set for this Friday, July 21.

Game director Joe Shely, associate game director Joseph Piepiora, and associate director of community Adam Fletcher host the Campfire Chat livestream on July 21 at 11am PDT.

Diablo 4’s long-awaited pre-Season 1 patch, 1.1.0, sparked vociferous complaints from the game’s community, who accused Blizzard of turning the action role-playing game into a “slog” with a slew of heavy-handed nerfs to all classes, experience point gain, endgame progression and more.

In a tweet (below), Fletcher said the Campfire Chat will address this “feedback”.

“We have been hearing feedback from players regarding some of the changes in 1.1.0 for Diablo 4,” Fletcher said. “We are going to have a Campfire Chat later this week on Friday to talk more about it. We will have more details/timing in the next day. Thanks again for the feedback!”

We have been hearing feedback from players regarding some of the changes in 1.1.0 for #DiabloIV.

We are going to have a Campfire Chat later this week on Friday to talk more about it.

We will have more details/timing in the next day. Thanks again for the feedback!

— Adam Fletcher (@PezRadar) July 19, 2023

Blizzard has already issued a hotfix for Diablo 4 that sorts issues caused by the patch. This addresses the reduced drop rate of Aberrant Cinders in Helltide, which was lower than intended, and re-enables the Hatred’s Chosen buff.

Fletcher also confirmed Blizzard intends to remove the level requirement for World Tier 3 (40) and 4 (60) that were stealth introduced with this week’s patch.

We will be removing the level requirement for World Tier 3 & 4.

— Adam Fletcher (@PezRadar) July 19, 2023

Diablo 4 players hope Blizzard rolls back a number of the controversial changes made by the patch, but in the meantime Season 1, dubbed Season of the Malignant, kicks off tonight, July 20.

Despite various issues, Diablo 4 enjoyed an enormous launch that saw over 10 million people play in June. Diablo 4 is Blizzard’s fastest-selling game of all time, and has fuelled record revenue and profits for the company. If you’re still playing, check out our interactive Diablo 4 map to start tracking your progress as you play.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at [email protected] or confidentially at [email protected].