Diablo 4 players welcome increased challenge in Season 8

Blizzard has promised to increase the overall difficulty of Diablo 4 in Season 8 and while some players are concerned, others are excited and ready to see how far they can push their builds.

Diablo 4’s devs are often damned if they do and damned if they don’t, with any small change (or maintenance of the status quo) often earning the ire of the community. However, since revealing Season 8 will ramp up the difficulty, the originally mixed player response has turned more positive.

While some players were originally frustrated that a difficulty spike would slow their leveling progress, making the journey to the highest World Tiers take longer, others have come out in support of this change in direction.

Posting to Reddit, one player defended Blizzard’s decision, asking why some players were complaining that Torment 4 was too difficult during the Season 8 PTR – when it was supposed to be hard.

They said, “I am just curious why some people are so upset by Torment 4 actually being a challenge. You can complete every build and gear in Torment 3. Assuming the Seasonal Journey doesn’t need Torment 4, I have been perfectly fine grinding only Torment 3 with weaker builds.

“Yes, it could take longer to complete all your gear but why are people rushing to get it done? If you aren’t having fun anymore just don’t finish your gear. But if you really like Diablo 4 why be mad at being able to spend more time in the game with things to do?”

Blizzard Entertainment

Diablo 4 Season 8 will put the focus back on boss battles – and earning their powers.

Defending Season 8’s difficulty spike

A second player pointed out that some Diablo 4 players simply want to complete things in the game with minimal challenge, saying, “There is a fairly large segment of the D4 community that feel entitled to be able to do everything and get everything in the game with minimal effort.”

Another fan poked fun at some of the others, pointing out that some players take advantage of the low difficulty, do everything there is to do, and then complain they’re bored. They said, “There’s no end game! [They say] after copying someone else meta build and blasting the three-month season in a week.”

Finally, one player argued that there are legitimate concerns, and tried to understand why some players would object to the game being more difficult, saying, “I have not seen people complaining about that other than expressing worry about the seasonal journey.”

They went on, “People have complained that leveling/gearing will take too long in general, because I guess they prefer a shorter leveling/gearing grind. T4 being too hard contributes to that, but it’s part of a broader issue of reduced drops and EXP in general.”

Diablo 4’s seasons need to evolve, and even the franchise’s original creator has criticized the rapid progression system, while other players have called for the game to return to “the good old days“. So, Blizzard needed to make some changes.

The difficulty increase also comes alongside Season 8’s new theme – boss fights, with characters like Belial returning, existing bosses getting an overhaul, and players using their powers to create some new builds.

However, not everyone is happy with the direction Diablo 4 is heading in, with some players frustrated with the seasonal superpower gimmicks and suspicious that Season 8 may have used cut content that may once have been intended for an expansion.