Zir's Abattoir: Community Reception and Criticisms

The Abattoir of Zir has been out for almost a week, and opinions on the newest Diablo 4 endgame content have certainly been mixed. We have summarized the community feedback, listed all of the changes to the Abattoir, and added our feedback for the limited-time endgame system in Diablo 4.

Abattoir of Zir Guide: How to Access AoZ Without Completing the Season Journey

Introduction

Abattoir of Zir was first announced at BlizzCon 2023 and presented as a pinnacle endgame experience for those who have done everything the game offers. Not much was known about it until Blizzard released a video one day later explaining how the Abattoir of Zir works. The community quickly noticed the similarities to Greater Rifts in Diablo 3, and many players were excited for the possibility of the well-liked system to make its debut in Diablo 4 - to the point of wishing for the endgame loop to return and expressing that they liked it more than grinding Nightmare Dungeons.

However, some players became skeptical after it was revealed that the Abattoir of Zir would require a completed Season Journey to be accessed. A few weeks later, Diablo content creator wudijo mentioned that the final tier of the Abattoir was not supposed to be cleared and that even overpowered builds in the Season of Blood, such as the Ball Lightning Sorcerer and HotA Barbarian, would struggle on higher tiers.

Fast forward to December 5: the Abattoir of Zir has finally been released as part of Patch 1.2.3 for Diablo 4.

• Abattoir of Zir Class Build Guides

Community Feedback

The release of Patch 1.2.3 had a bumpy start, reducing all players' Paragon Glyphs in levels due to the newly implemented Glyph experience increase. Blizzard reacted quickly and fixed the issue the same day with a patch.

Some players were turned off by the aforementioned Season Journey completion requirement to enter the Abattoir of Zir, but many others gave the new content a shot - and after trying it out left their feedback on social media and Reddit. The Abattoir of Zir was released to mixed reviews.

The community has found several things they enjoy about the new system, to its credit:

• Players defend the Abattoir of Zir, welcoming the challenge for those who have optimized their characters specifically for this new content
• The Abattoir of Zir achieved what it was designed for, being a pinnacle endgame challenge for hardcore players
• As you progress to the higher tiers of the Abattoir, the rewards will be higher than the costs, allowing you to keep playing the new system without having to go into Nightmare Dungeons to farm

However, the negatives felt among the community are more pronounced and varied:

• The entry-level difficulty is too high, one-shot abilities are often the limiting factor
• Costs to craft items are too high
• The new Tears of Blood Paragon Glyph requires too much experience to level up in comparison to the Glyph XP granted at the end of a run

Players pointed out that they were alpha-testing a future endgame system.

• Abattoir of Zir Tips and Tricks

Abattoir of Zir Changes

Blizzard assured the community that changes based on community feedback were in the works and would be released a few days later. Three days after the release of Patch 1.2.3 and Abattoir of Zir, Blizzard released a hotfix with several Abattoir of Zir changes.

These included changes to the Glyph XP rewards, restructuring the difficulty of early tiers to be easier, reducing incoming damage throughout all tiers, and removing Vampiric and Suppressor elite affixes from the Blood Seekers.

• Additional Feedback

The Abattoir of Zir captures the Greater Rift experience in many aspects, even allowing for the use of several tips and tricks that players have gathered for Diablo 3's endgame system over the years. While the first changes fixed the most glaring issues of the Abattoir of Zir, there are still things left to be improved in the eyes of the community.

Group play is actively discouraged in its current form, with a run ending as soon as anyone in the party dies - meaning players can't run with their friends.

The accessibility of alternate characters in the Abattoir of Zir is also a sticking point for a large part of the community. Many players would love to try out the new endgame content with several of their characters, but unfortunately, the Tears of Blood Paragon Glyph is not account-wide and would need to be leveled on every character separately to progress in the Abattoir. This is a missed opportunity for Diablo 4 to incentivize players to try out different classes and builds within a season and make the game more accessible to alt play. Leveling the new Glyph also feels less like the Legendary Gems from Diablo 3 and more like the endless Paragon level grind from that same game, even after the significant Glyph experience increases.

Final Thoughts

What is your opinion on the Abattoir of Zir? Would you like this system to return with improvements in the future? Let us know in the comments below!