Blizzard sticks to its word, lets Diablo 4's most OP Barbarian build run wild all season even if it is "close to what we could consider too powerful"

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Charge-based builds won't be decimated

Diablo 4 Barbarian character
(Image credit: Blizzard Entertainment)

Diablo 4's developers surprisingly won't nerf its most overpowered Barbarian build, at least not during the ongoing Season 3, which is a pleasant surprise to some.

As part of the most recent 'Campfire Chat' livestream, Diablo 4 lead class designer Adam Jackson briefly explains why the Barbarian is evading nerfs for its 'Charge' ability during Season 3. Around the 37-minute mark in the video below, Jackson explains that Blizzard's developers are actually very aware of the Barbarian class hitting for a wild amount of damage with Charge-based attacks.

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"The Barbarian's really good right now," Jacksons explains. "A lot of people really like Charge, it turns out, and it's a fun skill. Probably the biggest update you're going to see here is that we're not really planning to nerf charge in this patch," Jackson adds. This must have come as a bit of a shock to Barbarian players out there, who were probably expecting a nerf for the ability. 

"Before we had talked about our bar for what we would consider to be too strong in the game that we'd nerf with a midseason patch - Charge is right up there, and we talked about a lot with the design team and made the call that we're gonna keep it for the rest of the season," Jackson says. "So we know it's really, really good, we know it's really, really strong, and a lot of people are having a lot of fun with it."

However, this doesn't mean Charge is dodging nerfs forever. "We're open to feedback about what the community thinks, but right now, with the launch of the Gauntlet, we're going to keep it in and see how it rides it out. We've seen over time that other classes have found things that are really powerful too, so we're gonna try that this season and see how it goes," Jackson concludes. 

"No nerfs to Barb… bold move," reads one of the comments under a Reddit post summarising the class changes in the midseason patch. Other users rightly point out that when the Diablo 4 developers have used a midseason patch to nerf classes previously, like the Sorcerer, it really hasn't gone down well with the player base. "They are treading lightly," says one commenter.

This is the latest in a long line of Blizzard keeping its word over midseason nerfs. Last year in October, Blizzard announced to players that it had "no plans to nerf" classes and abilities during the middle of Season 2, which was a big and positive change from Season 1 when the developer angered pretty much everyone by changing up classes with nerfs during the middle of the season. It's a new attitude for Blizzard, and it's one that's winning over the Barbarian crowd, at least.

One Diablo 4 player bagged a perfect roll on an ultra-rare Ancestral Unique bow estimated at 1-in-175K odds, but declared it was "still crap," proving you can't please everyone.

Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer
Freelance Writer

Hirun Cryer is a freelance reporter and writer with Gamesradar+ based out of U.K. After earning a degree in American History specializing in journalism, cinema, literature, and history, he stepped into the games writing world, with a focus on shooters, indie games, and RPGs, and has since been the recipient of the MCV 30 Under 30 award for 2021. In his spare time he freelances with other outlets around the industry, practices Japanese, and enjoys contemporary manga and anime.