Diablo 4 has received its first big patch, and it’s mostly about balancing the five starting classes that players can choose to remove Lilith and save Sanctuary with.
Blizzard shared the patch notes and some of the reasons behind the changes in a blog, and shared that the team is mostly happy with where the characters are currently. However, the team knows there is “always room for improvement”. To this end, I revealed the three categories into which these changes fall;
- Although we want players to feel real power and be really powerful, some of the class builds and synergies are outside our limits of what is reasonable for the health of the game, so we underestimate their effectiveness. For example, we generally want to avoid creating situations where players can survive unreasonably high amounts of damage for long periods of time because it greatly distorts our vision of how to fight in Diablo IV.
- Some skills and combinations are not as effective as we would like, so we pay some buffs to increase their power.
- Paragon Glyphs currently provide far too much power for a player, so we’re limiting their overall effectiveness.
Blizzard also understands that “class balance is a journey, not a destination,” so it’s important to note that it’s clear that more balance changes will be on the way. Blizzard hopes to make these classes “fun, intense, and competitive within reason.”
Regarding this specific patch, some of its changes include reducing the damage of the Barbarian Challenge Shout earned from skill ranks from 4% to 2%, increasing the Druid’s Lightning Storm damage from 32% to 40%, and increasing the damage dealt to an army of necromancers. The Dead from 30% to 45% and reduces his cooldown from 90 to 70 seconds, reduces the damage reduction per shade gained for Rogue’s Dark Shroud from .8% to .4%, and reduces the chance of Enchanting Arc Lash from 30% to 14% With Glinting Arc Lash cooldown reduced from 0.25sec to .15sec.
There are a lot of changes to consider, and you can see them all below. Let us know if you are happy with these changes or if they affect the character you are trying to build in the comments below!
For more information, check out our Diablo 4 review, our look at which class you should choose, and our comprehensive Diablo 4 Wiki that includes everything you need to save Sanctuary and have a great time doing it.
barbaric
Skill changes
Challenge shout
- Reduced damage gained from skill ranks from 4% to 2%
Legendary side changes
The bold side of the chief
- Cooldown per nearby enemy decreased from 2.7-5.4 seconds to 1.0-1.9 seconds.
- Max cooldown reduction from 12 to 6 seconds.
A side of the terrible whirlwind
- Increased critical hit per second chance decreased from 5-10% to 3-8%.
- Decreased maximum critical strike chance bonus from 20-40% to 9-24%.
Item changes
Destructive Core Fist
- Explosion damage gained from whirlwind decreased from 50-70% to 16-26%.
- Damage to destructible objects no longer increases blast damage.
- Explosion damage is only increased by the first 100 hits of the whirlwind.
priest
Skill changes
crushing
- Lucky Hit Chance reduced from 33% to 25%.
Thunder Storm
- Damage increased from 32% to 40%.
grizzly anger
- Decreased maximum duration of kills from 10 to 5 seconds.
class specialization
obsidian peace
- The kills required to get the reward have been increased from 10 to 20.
The silence before the hurricane
- Lucky Hit Chance reduced from 15% to 10%.
negative changes
electric shock
- Damage bonus increased from 5/10/15% to 6/12/18%.
Legendary side changes
side shockwave
- Damage reduced from 90-130% to 60-100%.
crash side
- Critical hit damage reduced from 40-50% to 30-40%.
Lightning Dancer Side
- Flat damage increased from .5-.6 to .7-.8.
necromancer
Skill changes
blood spear
- Damage increased from 67.5% to 80%.
Army of the dead
- Damage increased from 30% to 45%.
- Cooldown reduced from 90 to 70 seconds.
blood wave
- Damage increased from 90% to 120%.
negative changes
shadowblight
- Damage increased from 20% to 22%.
grim harvest
- Essence gained from 3/6/9 reduced to 2/4/6.
indentation
- Critical hit chance reduced from .5/1/1.5% to .3/.6/.9%.
Death defense
- Decreased maximum minimum life lost on 1 damage from 75/60/45% to 60/45/30%.
class specialization
Skeletal lift
- Skeleton Warrior’s attack damage increased by 10%.
golem
- Golem attack damage increased by 10%.
blood genie
- Bleeding damage from blood golem increased from 40% to 90%.
- Bleeding life heal from hitting enemies increased from 4% to 5%.
Iron golem
- Iron Golem strike damage increased from 25% to 175%.
- Iron Golem’s shock damage increased from 30% to 40%.
Necromancer model board changes
Brutal enormity
- Golem Life bonus and damage increased from 30% to 40% Life.
cult leader
- Damage bonus increased from 10% to 15%.
a fraud
Skill changes
Twisting blades
- Decreased the cooldown of Advanced Twisting Blades per enemy strike from 0.25 to 0.1 seconds.
- Max advance warp blades reduced from 3 to 2 seconds.
rapid fire
- Damage increased from 24% to 30%.
Dark shroud
- Damage reduction per skill rank gained shadow decreased from .8% to .4%.
dash
- Improved critical hit damage bonus from 20% to 15%.
Caltrops
- Damage increased from 30% to 40%.
negative changes
concussive
- Critical hit chance reduced from 5/10/15% to 4/8/12%.
Legendary poster changes
Repetition
- Decreased maximum minimum life lost on 1 damage from 75/60/45% to 60/45/30%.
sorcerer
Skill changes
lash arch
- Lucky Hit Chance reduced from 30% to 14%.
- Glinting Arc Lash Cooldown cooldown reduction has been reduced from 0.25 to .15 seconds.
Teleport
- Shimmering Teleport damage reduction time reduced from 5 to 3 seconds.
Legendary poster changes
side of control
- Bonus damage reduced from 30-40% to 25-35%.
general
Miscellaneous class changes
Druid companions and followers of necromancers
- Decreased max damage over time per damage instance from 2% to 1% of max life.
Paragon Council changes
Rare nodes
- Player attack speed contract reduced by 50%.
glyphs
- All Glyph bonus scaling has been reduced by approximately 34%, except for the following:
- Decreased glyph bonus to critical hit damage by approximately 66%.
- Weak glyphs reward reduced by approximately 66%.
- Rare nodes glyph bonus reduced by approximately 50%.
- Magical node glyph bonus reduced by approximately 40%.
- Decreased glyph bonus to cold/fire/lightning/intangible/material nodes by ~62.5%.
Monster changes
- Greatly reduced the spawn rate of treasure goblins within pvp zones.
Bug fixes
- The name of the Light Bearer Mount has been fixed.
- The Go to Shop button from the wardrobe will now open the shop properly.
- Fixed an issue where if a Wizard used Deep Freeze and was affected by another effect that would freeze him, it would permanently stun him.
- Miscellaneous stability and crash fixes.
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Adam Pankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @employee and on twitch.
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