The Diablo 4 open beta has almost run its course, and after sinking their teeth into it for the better part of three days, some players are already begging Blizzard to nerf three classes—Necromancer, Sorcerer, and Rogue.
One fan kicked off the discussion on March 26 by saying they’ve enjoyed playing Druid and Barbarian, both of which are considered to be the weakest classes. In their view, their weakness makes bosses and dungeons that are playable in the Diablo 4 beta more challenging. On top of that, the impact of new items was more noticeable.
Necromancer, Sorcerer, and Rogue, on the other hand, are so overpowered that finding new items to increase their power is “like adding icing onto a cake that’s already overflowing with icing.”
Many agreed but with a glass-half-empty perspective, saying that playing weaker classes “was a bit of a slog” and “way too painful” compared to the overpowered ones, which were so boringly easy in comparison. They’re aware it’s only based on what we’ve seen in the Diablo 4 neta so far, and things could change as development continues in the lead-up to the full release, but insist it’s still a conversation worth having.
Another used an analogy to illustrate their point. They said playing Druid or Barbarian felt like playing Dark Souls in terms of difficulty compared to Necromancer and Sorcerer, which could walk through everything.
The consensus seemed to be melee classes shouldn’t be “getting shredded” as much as they are. The fact they are is a “failure of design” and something needs to be done about it, whether it’s nerfing the three overpowered classes or buffing the underpowered ones.
It will be interesting to see how Blizzard’s developers respond. Given the sheer amount of beta testers who seemed to agree, it sounds like the imbalance between classes is an objective fact. That being said, there are still those who believe it’s not worth worrying about until the full game releases. We’ll know for sure when it does on June 6.
