Patching 1.0.2c -- potentially nerfed mob damage

[MongoJerry]

There are huge skill discrepancies across the classes, however, which are to be rebalanced in 1.1.0. There are many skills that are either underwhelming compared to other options (eg Vault vs Smoke Screen), not as effective as they perhaps should be (eg Witch Doctor pets), and skills that boggle the mind completely (eg Arcane Torrent). Not to mention how certain game mechanics force players to use certain skills (eg Jailer). The fixes coming in 1.0.3 will address many of the fundamental issues with Inferno, but you will find they have very little impact on the overall balance of skills.

Sure, there are some skills that need some significant buffing or alterations like Arcane Torrent and Energy Twister. Other skills could use some minor tweaking like Meteor/Comet should have its AP cost reduced and Diamond Skin and Galvanizing Ward should have their effects based on the players' maximum health in order to make them scale better in the end game. However, considering the number of arguments I see on Wizard boards about what the "best build" is and what the best passives are, I think Blizzard should be commended for creating classes that allow for a number of paths to success even as I hope that Blizzard continues to improve and balance some of the less used skills.

Regarding certain game mechanics that "force" players to use certain skills, I've seen lots of arguments on Wizard boards about whether the best counter to Jailer is Teleport, Mirror Images, or Diamond Skin with various rune combinations (and Frost Nova isn't bad, either). So, there are quite a variety of Wizard defensive skill combinations that are being utilized. I think your comment may reflect your experience with the Demon Hunter, and in that I will have to take your word that there is only one viable counter available to the class. In that case, then yes, I hope that Blizzard adds some more defensive capabilities to the DH in order to add the kind of variety that is already available to the Wizard class.

I think some people here try to pigeon hole me into saying that the game is perfect. It's not. There are improvements that can and should be made to the game. However, contrary to Lissa's comments, I think the game was very well QA'd and balanced up through the end of Hell difficulty. There are many variations of classes that can complete the game up through the end of Hell difficulty (and none are so overpowered as to make the game trivial) and the item drops and crafting possibilities are more than enough to enable a person to complete hell difficulty. The problems arise in Inferno where Blizzard admitted they didn't QA or balance very carefully. The mob damage and health spike too fast and the drop rates on items that would enable you to deal with the rising difficulty don't drop enough. This has led to people to use non-fun mechanisms including graveyard rushing and dropping any skills that involve negating damage in favor of cheese builds like low health Force Armor builds (because why bother if the mobs are going to 1-shot you anyway).

My wish would be that instead of having level 61 (Act 1), 62 (Act 2), and 63 (Acts 3 and 4) mobs that they change it to level 61 (early Act 1), 62 (late Act 1), 63 (early Act 2), 64 (late Act 2), and 65 (Acts 3 and 4) with a more gradual increase in difficulty as you progress. However, that would probably mean going back and redoing a lot of the end game item design work, too, so it's probably not possible to do that quickly enough for a patch just a month after the game's release.

However, the foundation for the game is there. The game was well balanced and designed up through Hell difficulty. The only differences between Inferno and Hell difficulty are that boss packs have one more affix and all the mobs have more health and deal more damage. Allow better items to drop more frequently and tune down the extra health and damage, and the game will return to the well balanced realm that we all experienced in hell difficulty. I think that would be a good thing.

Then, we will be able to turn our attention to complaining about how useless Arcane Torrent and Energy Twister are, because after all, we have to have something to bitch about.