Diablo 4 rating drops below 5.0 on Metacritic after the controversial Patch 1.1.0a

After being hailed as one of the best games of 2023 by several critics and fans, Diablo 4 suddenly seems to fumble the bag with its latest Patch 1.1.0a. As the Season of the Malignant is just around the corner, the developers have released a patch to fix the various bugs and apparently balance out the various issues in the game.

However, there has been a plethora of nerfs in the latest Diablo 4 patch as fans are furious with Blizzard. Hence, its rating has dropped significantly on Metacritic for this.

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Diablo 4 rating drops significantly on Metacritic

Current ratings of the game on Metacritic (Image via Metacritic)

On July 18, 2023, Blizzard released the official update for the Season of the Malignant, which will be the first season in the action RPG. After the release of the official patch notes, and experiencing the modified gameplay, fans have lashed out at the developers.

Enraged by the gameplay changes, and unnecessary balancing of mechanics, fans have been marching on to Metacritic to drop negative reviews. With this, the rating for the game has already dropped below 5.0. As of July 19, 2023, the rating stands at a disappointing 4.6 for the action RPG.

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Exploring the reasons behind the fans' outrage

Comment by u/KingSlayerMT from discussion Diablo 4 just went down to 4.9 on metacritic in diablo4

The point of annoyance for most fans lies in the slowed-down progression of the game. Enemies have been leveled down, hence, will be dropping less XP. The only way of gaining bonus XP from enemy kills would be by defeating higher-level mobs in the game. One could do that only by participating in Helltides (enemies are three levels higher than your XP) and high-tier Nightmare Dungeons.

However, the biggest flaw according to fans in this patch is the random nerfs to the various classes, and stats that were extremely important during combat. Vulnerable damage, Overpower Damage, and Critical Strike Damage took the biggest blows. Various famous builds such as the Bone Spear Necromancer, Ice Shards Sorcerer, and Crossbow Rogue were nerfed heavily too.

Although there have been a lot of buffs for the classes and builds that were deemed to be weak previously by the fans. However, the player base still cannot accept the nerfs and is enraged by the sheer negligence of the developers.

Just tested out the new Sorcerer Unique. It's honestly not that bad. by u/Filipjfry10 in diablo4

The complaints do not end here as many fans are bored with the repetitive grind of Diablo 4. Also, the developers' decision to slow down the progression is seen as the final straw by fans. They have even considered shifting to other games of the genre, like Path of Exile or Baldur's Gate 3.

Hence, it is up to the developers at this point to try to make the game palpable for the fans again as the ratings continue to drop for Diablo 4.