this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2024
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Honestly, yes. I used to be in the "just buff other things" camp, and while Diablo 3 is fun enough, it already shows what happens when you do that.
Build diversity > screen go boom.
Honestly, no. I guess the biggest difference is as a father of 3, I have like 5 hours to play in a week. And I want to enjoy some of the power.
Diablo 4 shows what happenels when you nerf builds midcycle - you are in a constant cycle of "I finally reached the power level of the top build, people are playing for week, finally I can enjoy it, oh they nerfed it the very same day, but here is another build I have to spend my week farming to, repeat for weeks, stop playing"
Enjoyment of power level > some potential variance of builds I never would care or have time to play.
I feel you, I don't have a lot of time either - more than that, but not a huge amount. That's why I prefer having more viable builds. I could play Path of Exile, for example, but I don't want to spend hours trying to learn how to even play the game this particular season so that I can make a character that won't be a giant ball of crap. If there's more build diversity, you're more likely to do okay just doing whatever you want to do, without needing to research builds ahead of time.
D3 has builds that are far superior to everything else, but I don't think D4 is any better - nerfs mid-cycle or not. Using a bad build is punished less in D4, but you're still going to be on struggle street if you pick a shitty build. With D3 and D4 if what you want to do doesn't just happen to be one of the good builds your character is gonna suck. It matters less in those games though, since gear is absurdly easy to get in D3, and respeccing is fairly accessible in both games.
In fairness to your point though, back when D3 was new and its hardest difficulty was borderline impossible, I found a mage build that could do it, and when I had finally gotten the gear I needed (NOT easy back then) it got nerfed the same day I was able to use it. That was super frustrating. I would argue they did that to help push the real money auction house though, not promote build diversity - don't need to buy gear if there's a class that doesn't need you to. That's the cynic in me I suppose.