Folks will have to find a new way to farm XP and loot. The latest hotfix for Diablo 4 takes a swing at everyone’s favorite Aspect dungeon, Ruins of Eridu. Before last night’s fix, this dungeon was the go-to place for farming XP and loot because of its small size and high density of elite monsters.
Here’s the fix straight from Blizzard:
“Further adjustments to elite monster density in dungeons.”
The devs added the change was made “to ensure that no particular dungeon is clearly more efficient to run through than others.”
Why the change? The devs want to push players to enjoy all the end-game content Diablo 4 has to offer and not just sit in the same dungeon for hours on end. But Diablo is also inherently a grindy game. Folks want to level and get great gear. Blizzard should look into the bigger issue: why do players need to find XP farms? And that’s because leveling is too slow after level 50.
Also, the loot itemization needs work. It’s not often clear if a new piece of gear is an improvement over the last. Item power doesn’t always mean it’s better if the stats don’t work well with your build. I’m at 58 right now and haven’t upgraded my weapons in several levels. They either weren’t clear upgrades, or the cost of re-rolling stats, applying an aspect, and socketing it wasn’t worth it for such an incremental upgrade.
I get Blizzard not wanting players to sit in the same dungeon over and over again, but if they’re going to nerf these areas, there need to be XP buffs in the regular end-game content like Helltides, World Bosses, and Nightmare Dungeons alongside it.
The Reddit thread on the change is understandably negative on the change. And it’s hard to blame them. Season 1 is coming, which means new characters. And sure, each season lasts three months – but getting to max level also needs to be achievable for folks who don’t play every day.
The bottom line is don’t be so quick to swing the nerf hammer around. Bump the XP gains across all end-game content to incentivize folks to play those.