Diablo 4’s upcoming 1.1.1 update will add numerous quality-of-life changes to the game. But for some, none may be bigger than the rolling back of a recent tweak to how long it takes to teleport out of a dungeon.
In the 1.1 update, Blizzard changed the teleport timer from three seconds to five seconds, and it was universally hated by players. Game director Joe Shely explained the team’s thought process behind the change in today’s dev stream and confirmed it’s being reverted.
“We were worried about a case where you’re in the middle of a high intensity combat fight or in the middle of a boss fight, and we felt like it was a little too easy to get out of that,” Shely said.
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“I felt like I nailed it, but I guess, you know,” he said, referring to player outcry. “I guess there are other ways that we could have solved that. We could’ve said you get pushback on your cast, or it’s only increased to five seconds if you’re in a bossfight.”
The 1.1 update was met with anger from the large majority of Diablo 4’s players, which is not surprising, considering it either slowed down or nerfed most of the fun builds and abilities in the game. With 1.1.1, Blizzard has already begun to roll back some of those changes, like this one.
“But ultimately, what players really, accurately, pointed out is that it slows down the core loop of the game in a way that’s not fun, so we’re just changing it back to three seconds,” Shely said.
This is an excellent example of player feedback outweighing something that the developers clearly felt was necessary. In the end, player satisfaction is important, and a change that was so widely disliked needed to be addressed—and it was.
Diablo 4’s update 1.1.1 will release on Aug. 8, while the patch notes will become available on Aug. 2.
