Dev Opinions on Druids - Diablo 4 Interview Roundup

Diablo IV Posted 2023/05/19 at 2:23 PM by silec

Eurogamer.net

Joe Piepiora

From the design side, it is important to us that the player feels they are isolated as they wander around the world. Particularly when you're not in cities, the likelihood of you coming across other players is fairly low. We don't allow for a very high number of players to exist in the regular regions around the world.

when you're just wandering around in places like the tundra in the Fractured Peaks when you're doing a side quest or whatever it is, it is much less likely for you to come across other players because the caps for those regions are lower.

And we're not doing that for a technical consideration. We're doing that specifically because we want to ensure we have created a certain sensibility around the experience as you're progressing through.
Eurogamer.net

Joe Piepiora

When you play in a skipped campaign state version of the game, the world is all going to scale to you entirely.

Eurogamer.net

You can choose to stay in World Tiers 1 or 2, and the monsters will never get higher than level 50. You could be level 60 and still wander around and finish your collections or hoover up any side quests, and you'll cream through monsters because you'll be much more powerful.
GameStar

Joe Piepiora

The Druid is actually one of our strongest classes, at least according to our internal tests. However, players were not able to experience full potential during our Betas.

Comment by zomgzwho cares it's not fun to play. limiting everything they can do behind spirit is boring and makes it feel sluggishComment by maduk"You can choose to stay in World Tiers 1 or 2, and the monsters will never get higher than level 50"

So the capstone dungeon is capped at 50?
That makes it even easier. Is the WT3 one capped at 75?Comment by Otzelotnice summary of those interviews. Keep up the good work!Comment by BrotinnI ended up playing werebear druid during the open beta, and again during the server slam. Despite a lot of it's shortcomings in the open beta, I still enjoyed it. During the server slam, it felt a lot better (to me at least), but there's still some things I wish it had, particularly some kind of ranged ability, but it's not a deal-breaker for me. I'm excited to see what differences all the things that were unavailable during the betas make for werebear/druid in general.Comment by SeniaaI find it incredibly hard to believe the class passive is going to somehow turn 17 damage into the "strongest class".Comment by RavingRavecI think that's called gaslightingComment by MykeC72I ended up playing werebear druid during the open beta, and again during the server slam. Despite a lot of it's shortcomings in the open beta, I still enjoyed it. During the server slam, it felt a lot better (to me at least), but there's still some things I wish it had, particularly some kind of ranged ability, but it's not a deal-breaker for me. I'm excited to see what differences all the things that were unavailable during the betas make for werebear/druid in general.Comment by MykeC72I find it incredibly hard to believe the class passive is going to somehow turn 17 damage into the "strongest class".Comment by ZinarothI find it incredibly hard to believe the class passive is going to somehow turn 17 damage into the "strongest class".Comment by h311ionDruid class passive you unlock is the most boring and non-impactful. Unless they changed it from end game beta, I won't be touching Druid.Comment by TezoniI find it incredibly hard to believe the class passive is going to somehow turn 17 damage into the "strongest class".Comment by MykeC72I find it incredibly hard to believe the class passive is going to somehow turn 17 damage into the "strongest class".Comment by ArcliteGhostI find it incredibly hard to believe the class passive is going to somehow turn 17 damage into the "strongest class".Comment by AphexincI find it incredibly hard to believe the class passive is going to somehow turn 17 damage into the "strongest class".Comment by ZinarothI find it incredibly hard to believe the class passive is going to somehow turn 17 damage into the "strongest class".Comment by ZinarothI find it incredibly hard to believe the class passive is going to somehow turn 17 damage into the "strongest class".Comment by ZeeqI was lucky with some items during the BETA on my druid, ended up being able to facetank Butcher AND kill him faster than any of the other classes I tested (and that also ended up pretty geared)
With the right items druid seem to be super tanky and super strong.
The 17dmg meme thing just felt dumb to me after the BETA.Comment by WabbitkillerDon't give druids hope.Comment by AlexWaffLmfao.

"Druid is actually going to be too strong later" - players: "Boo hoo, who cares, it's not fun at all anyway! "
Then don't play it, it's not fun for you but it is for other people.

Alternatively: "Liars! There's no way druid will ever be strong, it will not even be able to clear content, it will be so weak!"
Okay, then... play something you think is stronger?

The druid fiasco is such a colossal non-issue. You either like the class, or you don't. Everything else is so irrelevant in a game like Diablo, where balance and power are so absurdly modular and varied there can NEVER exist a single "bad class" purely by virtue of being that class.Comment by ZinarothLmfao.

"Druid is actually going to be too strong later" - players: "Boo hoo, who cares, it's not fun at all anyway! "
Then don't play it, it's not fun for you but it is for other people.

Alternatively: "Liars! There's no way druid will ever be strong, it will not even be able to clear content, it will be so weak!"
Okay, then... play something you think is stronger?

The druid fiasco is such a colossal non-issue. You either like the class, or you don't. Everything else is so irrelevant in a game like Diablo, where balance and power are so absurdly modular and varied there can NEVER exist a single "bad class" purely by virtue of being that class.