Burning The Mother Down: The Failings Behind Diablo 3′s Inferno Mode

by Josh Bycer

Over the course of the last two weeks, I’ve easily spent 20 hours going through Diablo 3′s hardest difficulty setting: Inferno mode. As it currently stands I’m on act 3 stuck due to inadequate gear. Over those same two weeks, I’ve had a chance to examine Inferno mode and came to a realization: Blizzard screwed up.

Before we begin, this piece references my earlier thoughts on Diablo 3′s design and difficulty and if you haven’t read them yet, it will be a good idea so that everyone is on the same page:

Diablo 3 analysis

A look at Masochistic Difficulty

And if it’s not already made clear, this post and discussions can have spoilers in it.

The Only Way Out:

In my Diablo 3 analysis, I touched on the problems with the itemization that plagued the game from Normal to Hell Difficulty. Because characters only received direct bonuses from their primary stat and vitality, it limited the gear that each character could wear.

In the earlier difficulties, the level of the gear available goes up with each act, which makes the player start to see gear that is relatively better then ones before it. But, because of the importance of the stats, lower level gear could be better for specific characters if they have the right affixes of bonuses. That however gets thrown out the window once the player reaches inferno.

At the level cap (which is currently at 60), players will of course not receive any more levels, skills or runes and must rely on equipment to continue improving their character. But while the player is done improving, the level of gear available continues up for 4 more levels: 60-63. The difference in base stats between level 61 items to those below it is huge. This is where weapons’ Damage Per Second (or DPS) begins to reach into the high hundreds and armor that has the affix that gives resistance to all types of damage becomes easier to find.

A Basic level 59 Axe

Before, lower level gear could still be viable, but not anymore. A rare level 55 item will not be anywhere as good as a level 62 or up magic item. And the jump between level 60 to level 63 items is also a big deal, as level 63 weapons can have their DPS above one thousand. While the player can find level 60 to level 63 equipment, there is only one option to survive inferno mode: level 63 or bust.

This mechanic presents several major design flaws with Diablo 3. First is that it makes the already limited choices for finding good gear, even more restrictive. Because the player can’t improve their character any other way, they are at the mercy of the auction house and random number generator to have any hope of getting through inferno.

The even bigger problem is that the designers have destroyed the power curve behind item growth, which was one of the major attractions behind Diablo 2. In Diablo 2, loot was always scaling up, and the equipment you would find in one act, would be weaker than the ones in the next act. That meant that as a player, you would get more powerful the further you played.

But in Diablo 3, once someone reaches inferno mode, the loot available stops at level 63 and can be found in act one. The only difference between the acts is the chance that a higher level item will drop. Meaning that someone could easily find gear in Act 1, that would be used all the way into act 4.

Not only does this ruin the power curve, but it also affects the auction house as players are only going to buy level 63 items due to their innately higher base stats. What Blizzard should have done was tighten up the level curve to make only level 60 and up items drop in inferno and then add more item levels between each act. For example: act 1 would still have level 60-63 items available, but act 2 would have 60-64, act 3 have 60-65 and act 4 would carry 60-66.

This change would give players a higher chance of finding good gear and at the same time, motivate them to continue playing through the acts to improve their character. As it stands, you could just keep replaying Act 1 and eventually get the best loot in the game, which the game is designed around at this point.

A Basic level 63 Axe

The Enemy Affixes of Doom:

The next problem has to do with fighting special and elite enemies. In the earlier difficulty levels, players would have dealt with the various modifiers attached to special enemies. But with enemies that are naturally harder in inferno, which I talked about in my masochism difficulty post. And when you take those mechanics and add the higher enemy stats combined with the combination of modifiers pushes the game’s difficulty into cheap territory.

Several modifiers (Waller, vortex, and jailer) cannot be avoided by player skill. Once the enemy uses them, the player is going to be affected. The only option the player has is if they have a skill not on cool down that allows them to recover. But when an enemy group is using the same modifier, chances are the player will be hit by it again before their escape skill has finished recharging.

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