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Diablo 3 nerfs Monk with 'drastic' rune change
by Steve Watts, May 23, 2012 9:00am PDTDiablo III is getting hit with a major change to the Monk class, after Blizzard determined that letting a overpowered rune exist in its current state was a "mistake." This comes among other hotfixes that apparently weakened the Wizard class as well.
The change comes to the Mantra of Healing rune, called Boon of Protection. It now caps damage absorption at the amount of healing provided by the Mantra of Healing in the first three seconds after activation. Blizzard recommends discontinuing its use until the rune is replaced in a future patch.
"The Boon of Protection rune was approximately ten times over its budget on the benefits it provided, and it was quite simply a mistake on our part to let the rune ship as it was," read a post from community manager Bashiok. "We don't intend to take these quick and drastic measures often, but considering the severity of the issue, we felt it important to correct it swiftly."
The post notes that other fixes are coming, and forum users seem to have spotted at least one of them. Many players are noting that the Wizard has had his Force Armor weakened without a notice yet.
So how is Blizzard just now catching such large problems after the game spent two years in "polish mode"? A follow-up post from Bashiok says that the game is adapting to player data. "The game is still young, there were some skills that threw things out of whack, and we expect the landscape to settle out a bit more evenly. Or at least change again so we can continue to monitor the impact," the post read. "Maybe we're wrong, maybe there's no current chance for monk or barbarian to compete with ranged, but our current suspicion is that's incorrect and until we know for sure we're not going to turn any dials."
And to assuage some fears that the Monk would be underpowered now, Bashiok points out that "general class balance is an ongoing investigation" and claims that "the monk and barbarian are not as bad off as they seem."
If you want some tips on surviving Nightmare Mode, check out our latest Diablo III Diary. John Keefer is playing as a Monk, and "use overpowered rune" wasn't even one of his tips.
Comments
Blizzard has issued what it calls a "drastic" hotfix to Diablo 3, nerfing one of the Monk's runes because it was "ten times over its budget on the benefits it provided."
Blizzard has issued what it calls a "drastic" hotfix to Diablo 3, nerfing one of the Monk's runes because it was "ten times over its budget on the benefits it provided." : Shacknews
Thread Truncated. Click to see all 194 replies.
I find it confusing that one could claim anything to be overpowered without first having been in situations that fully test that thing to it's limits. The extent of a toolsets limitations, it's true power, can't be found in easy to manage conflicts. You're basing your opinion on soloing NIghtmare right? That's not the hardest difficult, not the second hardest difficulty. In fact you played at the bottom tier of the difficulty in which you were playing. You can't test something without fully stressing it, and until you do I don't see how anyone could claim to know jack shit about how it plays out in regards to balance without first having experienced situations which are actually truly difficult.
I'm still in Nightmare, admittedly, but I've been playing Nightmare with friends, and I'm telling you that the monk isn't overpowered in that situation. What it is is extremely useful, nearly to the point of necessity, for damage reduction, and healing, which in concert with barbarians and other class's allows the monks skills to truly shine.
Yet I haven't gotten to Hell yet, let alone Inferno, but from what I hear both Monks and Barbs have issues there, so, personally, I don't see what it matters if Monks were OMGWTFBBQ OP in Norm/NM seeing as after we all get one of each class past NM, hell, get them to 60, we'll NEVER go anywhere else as we'll never have to have any more characters due to how the skillsets function. In d1 it would've mattered, in d2 it would've mattered, but in D3 anyone giving two shits about balance in Norm/NM doesn't really give a shit about balance that matters.
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