The patch 2.0 PTR has been up for a while and players got a feel for how things might look. One of the major and popular pieces of feedback is related to the new difficulty levels. Specifically, the limitation on when you can unlock them and just how hard they really are.
The Penitent Lock
The new difficulty system separates two different tiers of difficulty. The first is meant for leveling and is comprised of Normal, Hard, Expert and Penitent. The first problem being discussed here is the final difficulty of this leveling section being locked to level 50 characters. Expert is also locked at the start, but only requires finishing the prologue, so it’s much less of an issue.
Diablo as a franchise in general has always had a problem with being too easy at the start. In the older installments, you would have to clear an entire difficulty level in order to progress to the next one. Diablo 4 currently has the World Tier system, which instead offers Capstone dungeons as gates for progressing to the next difficulty.
This seems to be working out well enough, but the new system once again limits players in their choices. The general consensus seems to be that all difficulties should have some sort of challenge or gear gate, instead of an artificial level one. At the very least, the Penitent leveling difficulty should not be level-gated.
However, it’s not just Penitent facing this issue. The second tier of difficulties, Torment, also have a level lock. The first Torment difficulty requires level 60. This grants access to the Pit, and then clearing Pit level 20 unlocks Torment 1. Later Torments simply require a higher Pit level to unlock.
And so once again, regardless of your build or skill, you will not be able to access Penitent until level 50 and any Torment until level 60. This really seems like a downgrade from the current Capstone system, and hopefully Blizzard will look into it.
Some of these decisions may be based on the idea of other players boosting lower-level characters into Penitent or later Torment. However, that’s been a thing since the game released, and Blizzard haven’t really curtailed it much.
The Potentially Larger Issue
A secondary and less prevalent opinion is the issue of difficulty in general. This refers to Torment 4, and how easy it currently is. Some players were expecting a real challenge out of T4, the currently highest difficulty available, but are not finding the difficulty there. Now, it’s worth noting that these are mostly very well geared Season 5 characters. They do have a much lower item level (525) but also have some very powerful builds with all the components available.
And so it becomes are more philosophical discussion of what the role of the highest open world difficulty of the game should be. Should non-optimized top specs even be able to touch it? Should it just be a middle-ground for solid specs to play in, leaving the top ones to just faceroll it easily? After all, there is still additional difficulty to be had in the Tormented Bosses, seasonal activities and more.
So what do you think the role of Torment 5 should be? Something to strive towards and hone your build for? Just basically World Tier 4 with a new name? Or something else entirely? Let us know over on our Twitter!
