The developer apparently hates those pesky zDPS builds

May 14, 2015 14:54 GMT  ·  By

Blizzard is apparently looking to find a solution to the trend of zDPS builds that have been flooding the higher echelons of Greater Rifts play.

One of the things that the company intends to do is to remove permanent crowd control. Currently, those who are the most successful at farming Greater Rifts use a group make-up that consists of one or two players using a zero damage build (hence the zDPS moniker) that instead focuses on disabling enemies and enhancing the damage done by their allies.

While trying to play solo is disappointing at best with such a build, it makes sense in a cooperative environment, and offers many classes such as the Witch Doctor a way to progress beyond the point that the class is capable based on its damage potential.

The information comes from the Diablo 3 forums, where Community Manager Grimiku enlightened players regarding the upcoming fate of Greater Rifts.

In order to keep things balanced, Blizzard will also re-evaluate how much damage monsters are currently dealing to players, in order to provide "a more consistent Greater Rift experience, while making sure that defensive Legendary items still matter."

Balancing such a complex game is very difficult

While the change makes sense on paper, in practice, things are a little bit different. Crusaders and Witch Doctors do considerably less damage when compared to the other classes, at the same level of survivability, so Blizzard has to find a way to alleviate that difference.

In addition to this, the company also has to find a solution for the fact that many players get basically one-shotted in Great Rift levels over 50, and sometimes the icing on the cake is that the damage is unavoidable.

The way things currently are, zDPS builds are a way to make some classes useful and behave on par with Demon Hunters and Barbarians in Greater Rifts. If those builds disappeared without a significant buff in mobility and damage, those classes would be replaced by more competitive ones.

Granted, at high levels of play, the random number generator gods tend to come into play much more than at level 30, since the odds of completing a rift become a function of map type, mob density, elites, pylons, and of course, rift guardian, as Stonesinger is generally viewed as more of a free pass.

Here's an example of a zDPS Crusader build in action in GR63: