Diablo 4 Season 2 - All Changes to Critical Strike and Vulnerable Damage

Blizzard has decided to make significant changes to Critical Damage and Vulnerable Damage in Diablo 4, influenced by community feedback and user data. In a recent Campfire Chat livestream, Class Designers Adam Jackson and Charles Dunn explained these changes and the reasons behind them.

Let's break down this important change, examine the underlying problems, Blizzard's intentions, and why adjusting Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage benefits the long-term health of Diablo 4.

Why Nerf Critical and Vulnerable Damage?

Since the launch of Diablo 4, players have been puzzled by how affix-based damage is calculated. The mystery was solved with the "Damage Bucket Theory," which revealed that damage affixes belong to different categories or "Damage Buckets." These buckets are multiplied by each other and then by your base damage to determine your overall damage. However, Critical Damage and Vulnerable Damage are unique because they have their own Damage Buckets. This means they are separate damage multipliers in the equation, while most other damage affixes combine into one "Big Additive Damage Bucket."

Stacking Critical and Vulnerable Damage affixes results in a more significant damage increase than stacking other affixes, making itemization too simple and trivializing character progression.

Blizzard's Solution

To address this imbalance, the development team is changing how Critical Strike, Vulnerable, and Overpower damage are calculated. These damage types will now have a baseline multiplicative bonus. Additional bonuses to Critical Strike Damage, Vulnerable Damage, or Overpower Damage will be additive to your other damage bonuses. This change separates these affixes from their respective Damage Buckets and places them in the "Big Additive Damage Bucket."

Won't These Changes Reduce Our Damage Across The Board?

Without additional adjustments, this change would indeed reduce damage output for all effective builds. To maintain player power, Blizzard plans to modify monster scaling. This shift aims to ensure that the top Class builds remain as potent as they were. The change is not intended to weaken the best builds but to allow more builds to reach the same level of power. They are also introducing mechanics that encourage players to explore other stats for multiplicative bonuses, rather than relying solely on Critical Strike and Vulnerable Damage.

Why This Change Benefits Diablo 4

The alteration to Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage has several advantages:

1. Increased Build Variety: Good builds will no longer rely solely on high Critical Strike Chance/Damage values and Vulnerable debuffs for maximum damage, promoting diversity.

2. Multiplicative Scaling: Exclusive sources of multiplicative damage scaling like Paragon Nodes and Unique Items will enhance build variety and class fantasy.

3. Affix Viability: Other additive damage affixes become more viable, expanding the range of powerful items and the chances of finding upgrades.

4. Smaller Damage Numbers: Damage will decrease due to less multiplicative scaling, leading to more manageable damage numbers.

The most significant benefit is that these changes address Diablo 4's itemization issues. Balancing overpowered damage affixes while emphasizing other creative sources of multiplicative damage is a step in the right direction, improving the itemization and overall gameplay experience.