Diablo 4 went back to the series' own roots with its gameplay and class system, adding five staple classes that players loved in past games and giving them a new spin to make them stand out from previous entries. Considering that each class has its own strengths and weaknesses, it's easy to see how players came up with Diablo 4 class tier lists to address what makes some of them great and what holds them back. Yet, Blizzard is being very thorough when it comes to player feedback and balance patches across the board, which means that even though the game is not even technically out of early access, the experience on day 1 will be quite different from just a couple of days ago.
Class balance in Diablo 4 is a delicate subject for a plethora of reasons, starting with the fact that players typically dislike nerfs - especially if they feel like a constant. So far, Blizzard has been more stingy with buffs than it has been with nerfs, and overall the general consensus is that taking in player feedback and putting out class balance patches are good things, but ones that the company should have done with parsimony before launch.
Diablo 4's Meta Needs More Time to Adjust Before More Class Balance Patches
Diablo 4's classes all bring something valuable to the gameplay loop, and some of them either have options that are just too good to pass upon or ones that don't really have a place in the meta. However, said meta has not even had enough time to properly take shape because the game has been live in early access for a total of four days. Still, Blizzard has put out several Barbarian nerfs in Diablo 4's patches so far, as well as nerfs to overly popular builds, Aspects, and class options.
For example, many Diablo 4 Barbarian players are well aware that the class' shouts are quite powerful, to the point that they can limit build variety by making most of the remaining options obsolete. In order to contrast this, which often leads to Barbarians running three shouts, a Basic Skill, a Core Skill, and their Ultimate, Blizzard pushed several nerfs aimed specifically at the shouts, from reducing their effectiveness to removing shout-improving affixes from the game entirely. Since the game is not fully out yet, those who were planning on starting with a Barbarian on day 1 might be disappointed with the current version of the class, or maybe their builds could be partially ruined.
This is a problem that Blizzard will eventually have to address, but having so many balance patches when the game's lifespan is at the very beginning both bodes well for its future and makes the present a bit more unstable. While some of the nerfs are justified and make sense, the data concerning usage and effectiveness for every skill and every class is likely still minimal considering that only a handful of players are deep into the endgame by now. Some Diablo 4 players already reached level 100, and that's a good indication of what the best builds out there are, but it's a tough call to act immediately rather than waiting it out.
With balance patches that act so quickly on Diablo 4's classes, there's a chance that the meta will never really stabilize. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it can be hard to keep up with for many players, especially buildcrafters who like to plan ahead and casuals who don't have enough time to play often. This can in turn make Diablo 4 content creators' job even harder, as they have to constantly be in the loop and update builds on the fly - sometimes even scrapping them entirely. As such, Blizzard is finding itself in an impossible situation where striking a balancing act is quite unfeasible.
Diablo 4 launches on June 6 for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.