Diablo 4 has experienced various improvements and setbacks over the years. Currently, the game’s combat feels much better than it once did. However, several content creators, such as MacroBioBoi, have pointed out that Diablo 4’s damage output heavily relies on multipliers.
The Problems with Diablo 4’s Scaling Damage
Diablo 4 is currently designed, so that not just your armor and weapons, but also your class’s skill tree, provide a damage multiplier. While there are tons of different sources for stats, such as:
- Core Stats
- Additive Damage
- Runes
- Base Ability/Weapon Damage
- Damage Multipliers
- And Much More
Ultimately, if an ability doesn’t provide a damage multiplier, it’s unlikely to be beneficial in the long term, unless it’s your build’s primary skill or weapon. For instance, many classes typically invest only one point in an ability and perhaps an additional one or two points to unlock bonus effects. This approach is often more effective because increasing the base damage of most abilities usually isn’t worth the investment, especially when you can allocate those points toward acquiring multiple damage multipliers.
Let’s use Hydra Sorcerer as an example. In Season 9, the only abilities you would max out would be 
Hydra & 
Inferno, because you need to save our points for several damage multipliers like 
Permafrost or 
Soulfire. This is common in most builds, and while spell modification is a thing in other ARPGs, Diablo 4 lacks anything impactful beyond stacking multipliers on top of multipliers.
This progression makes Diablo 4’s early game feel drastically different in comparison to the late game. In the early game, you don’t have nearly enough base damage to take advantage of the multipliers you get from the skill tree. This means the only way you will notice a change in your damage output is through gearing.
Multipliers heavily carry damage in this game and it kills your ability to make unique and impactful builds
byu/ConroConroConro indiablo4
Is There a Solution?
While there are plenty of small or large adjustments Blizzard could make, like tweaks to Masterworking or Tempering, the biggest impact for Diablo 4 would come from reducing over-reliance on multipliers and incorporating more synergies between skills. Or, at the very least, shift some of the item power from gear into other areas.
For a bigger breakdown of the problems with Diablo 4’s itemization, check out our deep dive post here.
