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  1. Games
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Diablo 4's billion-damage Druid and Barbarian builds are not long for this world, Blizzard decrees

News
By Hirun Cryer published 13 July 2023

Nerfs could be rolled out as part of Season 1

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Diablo 4's ridiculously broken builds will be nerfed, to the surprise of absolutely no one.

Over the past week or so, Diablo 4 players have really stepped up their game with exploiting Druid and Barbarian builds for wild attack damage. We've seen figures in the realms of two billion damage in a single hit without any exploits, but then we've also seen 35 undecillion damage from one player who copped to just breaking their Barbarian build completely.

Now, Blizzard is unsurprisingly looking to fix these busted builds "This behavior is unintentional," a Blizzard rep said in a statement to PC Gamer. "The team is looking at changing it in the near future in order to improve the balance," the spokesperson continued in what has to be one of the least surprising statements ever.

Article continues below
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Considering we literally couldn't fit the 35 undecillion damage figure in a headline earlier this week, it's no shock that Blizzard wants to nerf these builds sooner rather than later. Just when the developer nerfs the builds is the question - Diablo 4 Season 1 starts next week on July 20, which is perhaps too soon to expect a nerf for all these various exploits.

In a new interview with Forbes though, Diablo 4 game director Joe Shely seemed to hint at nerfs coming during Season of the Malignant. "We have to nerf some things some times, we can't buff all other things," Shely said while mentioning plans for the debut season, seemingly confirming that mid-season patches would be changing from being chiefly buffs, as we've seen in the past.

This is bad news for those breaking apart Diablo 4's characters, but we imagine pretty much everyone else will be indifferent to Blizzard's planned nerfs. Blizzard has said it's only bringing down the hammer on the "unintentional" builds, so we shouldn't have to worry about our personal favorite builds being affected.

You can read our Diablo 4 Battle Pass guide for a look ahead at how the new feature works when Season of the Malignant launches.

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Hirun Cryer
Hirun Cryer
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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.

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