Patch 1.0.3 is now live and despite some great changes, the increased cost of repairs has many players up in arms. Before we jump in and look at this questionable change, it’s important to remember why these changes were made in the first place. Blizzard said:
Current repair costs at level 60 are barely noticeable, and because of that we see a lot of people wonder if “graveyard zerging” tough enemies or “chain rezzing allies on a boss” is intended gameplay – it definitely is not. To help solve the issue we evaluated a number of new death mechanics, such as just allowing the resurrection timer to increase even higher, disallowing resurrection during boss fights, or putting a debuff on you when you resurrect (such as reduced combat effectiveness).
Ultimately we felt that increasing repair costs was the best solution that preserves the fast paced style of the game. Repair costs on level 60 items are going to go up a lot. Our goal is the next time a player is graveyard zerging a boss, it should occur to them that “this is probably not an efficient way to go about things”. We’re currently evaluating repair costs between 4x and 6x their current values.
In the face of increasing costs, we recommend listening to the Hardcore players out there as they probably have some helpful advice on how to minimize repair costs. Following this change zerging a boss will still be possible, but our intent is that it won’t be optimal, and players who are seeking to be as efficient as possible will adjust their item hunting routes accordingly.
Some players might mistakenly believe the repair cost increase was made to balance the economy but the reasoning was made quite clear by Blizzard; it was done to address graveyard zerging. Gold sinks such as Blacksmithing and Jewelcrafting are now cheaper but they were always optional – some (if not most) players avoided it due to the high cost.
With both of these changes going live in the same patch, an optional high cost gold sink has now become mandatory for all players because everyone needs to repair whether they die or not. Just as it was in Diablo 2, your items sustain damage while you’re in combat. Prior to patch 1.0.3, this didn’t matter as the repair cost was minimal but now, even if you only die occasionally, the cost to repair has a noticeable impact on the amount of gold you can earn per hour.
This change also impacts another important aspect of the game – buying and selling gold. Although gold is not yet available for purchase from the RMAH, it was looking like there would be very little incentive to buy it. This is easily observed by looking at how quickly the prices charged by 3rd party sources dropped.
If the ability to buy and sell gold goes live in the next few days, it’s not a stretch to imagine that the repair changes were really about ensuring demand and that graveyard zerging was a convenient excuse to introduce the changes seen in 1.0.3. This may be why the functionality to buy/sell gold has been disabled to date – at least until Blizzard figured out a way to ensure the majority of players would need an easy means and reason to purchase gold.
While we wait for an official means to buy/sell gold, I’ll be watching 3rd party prices to see if demand spikes as confirmation that the repair cost change was over kill – quite possible given the complaints from people on the bnet forums and other places across the net saying they have no gold left to repair with. If you’re interested in the Diablo 3 economy, I invite you to subscribe to my free newsletter of which the first issue will be going out this Sunday evening.
Should repair costs be lowered in an attempt to find a middle ground or has Blizzard got it right? Feel free to leave your comment about the situation below.
P.S. Please fix zombie bears.
Join the discussion by adding a comment
In the long run I like this change, because we need this gold sinks and glass canon builds have a big disadvantage. In the short run I don’t like it because I have a Demon Hunter and I must change my gear and playstyle.
Posted this on the official forums but I’ll post it here as well:
The reason I don’t like the increased repair costs is because I feel like the core issue of zerging champs/elites wasn’t addressed and instead of addressing said issue the negative consequences of having to use this less than ideal strategy were increased dramatically.
IMHO, increasing the repair costs does not and did not change the fact that some builds/players have to legitimately use multiple lives in order to kill champ/elite packs. Instead of balancing the PVE dynamic, the increased repair costs provide a disincentive to even fight champs/elites in the first place because doing so (and dying) will lead to inequitable repair bills (ie you can’t farm enough through a normal play through in order to cover the costs to repair). Since finding/killing champ/elite packs is essential for good loot drops and good loot is the core of D3, the core aspect of the game has been tarnished by disincentivizing players from fighting these mobs.
I agree with the above comment, making the game more difficult by increasing the repair costs will cause players who do not want to die over and over on the same boss/mob to pass on a possibly great loot opportunity. It becomes very tedious and frustrating having to pass up on excellent loot opportunities because the mobs are impossible to defeat, and you cannot save up enough money to buy good enough upgrades since all your gold is going to repairs.
Having listened to players who have completed act 2 inferno, I have learned that almost everyone is having to utilize the auction house as good upgrades do not drop for level 60 players in act 1 inferno. Good upgrades on the auction house are extremely expensive and I have no doubt that many people are trying to avoid using their hard earned dollars to purchase in-game items.
Disgusting reading in between the lines rise the price of repair so people havevto spend real cash on gold I’m pretty sure they can’t do this I will have to speak to trading standards here in the uk I’ve paid once why should I have to pay again to play this game blizzard you should be ashamed
I do not like the change. In order to survive at higher difficulty settings I need to buy expensive armor in the auction house. If I will have to pay an arm and a leg to keep said armor, then the game becomes much less playable. I was hoping to run each class through all difficulty settings, but now it appears I won’t be doing that. Thanks to Blizzard, a really fun game just got crappy.
Jon I hate to be pessimistic but it’s just blatant. There is no positive gameplay value to increasing repair costs. Increasing this gold sink is 100% to stabilize the economy.
Here’s why repair costs being too expensive actually hurt the gameplay:
- Casting spells cause repairs on your weapons. e.g. Breaking a barrel costs you gold for no gold refund.
- Getting hit causes repairs on your armor. Any Damage Reflect build (despite being nerfed anyway) now has no place in the game. Thorns damage now has no meaning as staying alive and being hit costs you money.
- Stacking Attack Speed increases your weapon usage rate, and indirectly increases your weapon degradation.
- Choosing to not stack damage modifiers in favor of survivability hurts your wallet for allowing you to stay alive. It actually condones coprse-zerging because you pay less in repair costs over time. You may die a lot being less time-efficient, but at least your wallet isn’t getting hurt due to repair costs (maybe just death costs).
Here are some benefits to the economy for increased repair costs:
- Players have less gold, so items become more valuable.
- Combats Gold-Farmers by making it more difficult to maintain gold. In doing so, no one can maintain gold supply, making it a currency.
- Gems haven’t been introduced to the economy in an effort for gold-farmers to not profit off hyper inflated costs. The reduction in jewelcrafting only affected low level gem combinations. You’re still looking at 30k-150k for some high end gems and not even the highest gems. Forcing players to hemorrhage gold means these gems now become an extremely rare commodity, right where it’s expected to be.
- The opportunity for Real Money to be spent increases as people exchange Money for Time.
It’s pretty plain to see that the goal of Diablo 3 is to control a virtual economy. All balance changes, all gameplay options have been 100% to funnel the economy at exactly the right points.
Next you’ll see people running bodies for gold, until the drop rates there are lessened. Then Chests, until finally the only way to get gold is to pick-up useless white items and sell them for 3 gold so that you can repair a vital piece of equipment.
But in general, they have turned the gameplay into a pay-to-play game. When playing takes real money, there’s not much reason for me to play.
i cannot continue to play this game on inferno, i am afraid to die because i can never afford the costs of the repairs. i have to drop down to other difficulties to try to rack up money to repair my items. i really loved playing this game but it has gotten to the point where i just stop playing when my items break which is about 15 minutes. so thanks blizzard you ruined a great game.