First Diablo III hotfix nerfs monk rune, more balance changes incoming

23 May 2012

Blizzard has dropped the first of what is sure to be many, many hotfixes for Diablo III. This one changes the way the monk’s Mantra of Healing rune works, Boon of Protection.

Specifically, the change is described as “Amount of damage absorbed is now capped at the amount of healing provided by Mantra of Healing in the first 3 seconds after activation.”

According to Blizzard community manager Micah “Bashiok” Whipple, the change was made because the rune was basically totally oh-pee and hax.

“The Boon of Protection rune was approximately 10 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. 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,” he explained on the forums.

He also said that Blizzard is continuing to look into class balancing, but dismissed concerns that the barbarian and monk classes are not on par with others in terms of damage output.

“In general class balance is an on-going investigation, and by no means do we believe the game is now perfect, but we’re also seeing evidence that supports (with a few nerfs to wizard and demon hunter) the monk and barbarian are not as bad off as they seem,” Bashiok said.

“A large part of the monk and barbarian designs are based on survival models that mimic the concept of the class itself. 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.”

Or you could stop with the kid’s play-play and embrace your real true destiny as a demon hunter.

Source: Battle.net


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  1. RobbieH76
    24.05.2012 at 11:16

    Totally up to you if you like this game, I’m just saying I’m glad i didn’t buy it, I would’ve gotten it, if it didn’t have the persistent online connection DRM, which I hate, same reason I didn’t get Starcraft2, I don’t have internet at home….

    So besides that, there have been many people complaining about the dumbed down skill system, which is really just a different opinion to what the game ended up using, do you also want me to be able to flag every goddamn post you write up that I don’t agree with or like? Don’t be an ass because I didn’t buy it, doesn’t mean I can’t have a view on things they decided on for D3. I’m a massive fan of Diablo2, this just doesn’t pull me like D2 did.

    So if you like the game as it is, great for you, i was just posting my opinion.

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