Blizzard explained its decision-making centered around the tiny drop rate of Diablo 4’s coveted Uber Unique item, arguing that it should be “the moment you fall off your chair” to get it. .
Diablo 4 players have criticized Blizzard for the sheer rarity of these Uber Uniques, with some saying the odds of finding a single drop are lower than winning the lottery or being struck by lightning.
Originally, only six of these items were included in the game, but after the release of the highly controversial Pre-Season 1 patch, there are now seven. Blizzard has warned players that this seventh Uber Unique of his, a World Tier 4 staffer called Ahavarion Spear of Lycander, is a “very rare drop.” “Good luck getting it back from the Burning Hells army,” said Blizzard.
In an interview with IGN ahead of the start of Season 1, Associate Game Director Joseph Piepiora defended Diablo 4’s Uber Uniques drop rates. “We want the players to have a moment when these things actually fall. We want it to be the moment they fall off the chair,” said Piepiola. “We want it to be very important.”
Piepiora said Blizzard wants to keep these items extremely rare to prevent them from becoming mandatory in builds. “Suppose then that in 10 hours, or even 5 hours, you can be sure that you will have this item. It’s going to be like equipment, ‘build your body to feel successful,’ explained Piepiola.
“We don’t want these items falling into that space. When you have them, the characters will just feel overwhelmed.They will feel very, very strong.That’s how the balance is maintained.”
Earlier this month, Blizzard added a unique item to the Helltide Chest loot pool. The Helltide Mystery Chest is a special chest that can be obtained by participating in Helltide events. (For more information on Mystery Chest locations, see here. interactive map. You can filter the Mystery Chest locations at the bottom to remove clutter. )
This change diablo 4 Because Uber Uniques at least gave players a clear and unique farming objective, even if the chances of getting it from the Helltide Chest were small.
Blizzard has left room for changes based on community feedback, but Piepiora suggested the developers plan to keep Uber Unique’s drop rate policy, so no major changes there. Better not expect it.
“Right now, we’re looking at the feedback and seeing how much feedback we’re getting down to our players around the world, and about things we want players to be able to do, but we don’t want players to feel. We think internally, this is very easy to target and farm them,” said Piepiola.
“We don’t want our users to feel that they are required to get their builds online. These are the cherries and are fun and exciting for players to chase. This is a back and forth, We’re discussing internally what we want to do here.”
Uber’s discussion of unique item drop rates draws on the more general discussion of Diablo Grind. The backlash against Diablo 4’s latest patch was fueled by the feeling that Blizzard’s changes had made what was already considered a slow endgame “throggy.”
But Pipiola said grinding is “an important part of the experience” for an action role-playing game like Diablo 4 that’s meant to be played for years, maybe a decade or more.
However, Blizzard has tapped into common complaints about Diablo 4’s current endgame experience and is exploring changes to make grinding more rewarding. Piepiora said Blizzard is looking at making it easier for players to quickly identify upgrades by looking at their loot so they can decide what makes sense and move on. said. Blizzard also looks at the overall density of monsters, so players spend less time running around in dungeons and Helltide moving around looking for enemies to kill.
“Then we periodically look at the rate at which players get legendary items, sacred items, and ancestral items, how many items are added to their inventory, and how easy it is to manage those items in general on the storage side. We are looking into it,” Piepiora continued.
“These are all factors when talking about what the endgame of Diablo 4 needs to be like. As, we have an advantage in our favor in that we know you’re getting this feedback.
“So I don’t think polishing is the issue here, but I think the nature of the experience when going through some of these activities could be smoother and cleaner for people. And that’s where we can really improve.”
Currently, the Diablo team is focused on Season 1, titled Season of the Malignant, which is currently streaming. The new season will introduce some new features while rolling out the Battle Pass system. For more information, see the Altar of Lilith guide and the full Sanctuary map.
Wesley is IGN’s UK news editor. Find @wyp100 on Twitter. Wesley can be contacted at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
