Blizzard discusses incoming crowd control changes in Diablo 3 patch 1.0.5

A developer journal posted today by Diablo 3 Senior Technical Designer Wyatt Cheng cast a portal of illumination on planned touchups to crowd control (CC) abilities in patch 1.0.5. After considering duration reductions and implementing diminishing returns, Wyatt and his team decided to provide Hell's minions with stacking CC resistance up to a certain percentage.

"While infinite CC rotations makes players feel awesome, it's fleeting," Cheng wrote. "If CC becomes too powerful, it trivializes most major mechanics, and the game becomes boring."

To that end, Cheng provided graphs depicting how players increasingly favored self-buff and defensive abilities over CC while progressing through Normal, Nightmare, Hell, and Inferno difficulties because of stronger resistances from powerful foes. As a measure of balance between retaining CC's validity and providing adequate challenge in high-level play, 1.0.5's CC changes echoes World of Warcraft's diminishing returns system sans complete immunity from an effect after repeated use.

Here's Cheng's breakdown of how it works:

  • Monsters have a "CC resistance" that is stored on a per-monster basis.
  • The CC resistance starts at 0%. For every 1 second CC that is applied to the monster, the monster receives 10% CC resistance.
  • Monsters lose 10% of their CC resistance every second that they are not CC'd.
  • Elite monster CC resistance is capped at the current reduction values already active for Elites. In other words, CC resistance on most Elite monsters is capped to:
  • 35% in Normal
  • 50% in Nightmare
  • 65% in Hell
  • 65% in Inferno

Cheng also assured players "Immune" messages will never appear during CC-a-thons and hoped CC becomes "more appealing" for facing swarms of elites. Although my sparsely dressed Barbarian dwells in the relatively simple Normal mode battlegrounds, these changes definitely appear rewarding for defensively oriented high-level players and those piling CC bonuses onto their gear.

Omri Petitte

Omri Petitte is a former PC Gamer associate editor and long-time freelance writer covering news and reviews. If you spot his name, it probably means you're reading about some kind of first-person shooter. Why yes, he would like to talk to you about Battlefield. Do you have a few days?

Latest in RPG
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'
Sphene applauds in Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story.
I'm not yelling 'we're so back!' yet, but Final Fantasy 14's patch 7.2 story could be the first sign the MMO is returning to what made it so critically-acclaimed
A close-up of a scared young girl's face as she stumbles through the woods, a crown of twigs and flowers upon her head.
CD Projekt says it's not using generative AI on The Witcher 4 because it's 'quite tricky when it comes to legal IP ownership'
Ciri in The Witcher 4
The Witcher 4 won't be out until sometime in 2027 at the soonest, CD Projekt says
Latest in News
Image of Cersei Lanniser from Game of Thrones: Kingsroad Steam early access trailer
A new Game of Thrones RPG is coming to Steam today with a cast of 'familiar faces,' which is good because it's really the only way to tell it's a GoT game at all
The new Prime Asset featured in the upcoming update for the Outlast Trials.
The Outlast Trials puts its already paranoid players under surveillance for a time-limited story event
A Viera looking confused in Final Fantasy 14.
Old armor continues to fall victim to Final Fantasy 14's bizarre two-channel dye system, unless you're super into changing the colour of teeny-tiny eyelets: 'Why even bother at this point?'
Starfield: Shattered Space
By the time Bethesda was on Starfield, you'd 'basically get in trouble' for breaking schedule, says former dev: 'A lot of the great stuff within Skyrim came from having the freedom to do what you want'
Otter AI Meeting Agent
As if your work meetings weren't already fun enough, now Otter has a new all-hearing AI agent that remembers everything anyone has said and can join in the discussion
Monster Hunter Wilds' stockpile master studying a manifest
As layoffs and studio closures continue to deathroll the western AAA industry, analyst points out 5 of 8 major Japanese companies hit all-time share prices this year