Diablo 4 has received its first big patch and it’s mostly about balancing the five starting classes that players can choose to take down Lilith and save Sanctuary with.
Blizzard shared the patch notes and some reasoning behind the changes in a blog, and it shared that the team is mostly happy with where the characters are currently at. However, the team knows there is “always room for improvement.” To that end, it has revealed the three categories these changes fall into;
While we want players to both feel and be truly powerful, some Class builds and synergies are outside of our bounds for what is reasonable for the health of the game, so we are reducing their effectiveness. As an example, we generally want to avoid creating situations where players can survive unreasonably high amounts of damage for long periods of time because it too greatly warps our vision for how combat should be in Diablo IV. Some skills and builds are not as effective as we would like, so we’re pushing out some buffs to increase their strength. Paragon Glyphs are currently providing too much player power, so we’re reducing their overall effectiveness.
Blizzard also understands “class balance is a journey, not a destination,” so it’s important to note that more balancing changes will obviously be on the way. Blizzard hopes these will make class builds “fun, powerful, and competitive within reason.”
In regard to this specific patch, some of its changes include reducing the Barbarian’s Challenging Shout’s damage reduction gained from skill ranks from 4% to 2%, increasing Druid’s Lightning Storm damage from 32% to 40%, increasing the damage of the Necromancer’s Army of the Dead from 30% to 45% and reducing its cooldown from 90 to 70 seconds, reducing the damage reduction per shadow gained for the Rogue’s Dark Shroud from .8% to .4%, and reducing the Sorcerer’s Arc Lash’s lucky hit chance from 30% to 14% while also reducing the Glinting Arc Lash cooldown reduction from .25 seconds to .15 seconds.
There are plenty more changes to look through, and you can see them all below. Let us know if you’re happy with these changes or if they impact the character you are trying to build in the comments below!
For more, check out our Diablo 4 review, our look at which class you should choose, and our extensive Diablo 4 Wiki that includes everything you need to save Sanctuary and have a great time doing it.
Barbarian
Skill Changes
Challenging Shout
Damage Reduction gained from Skill Ranks reduced from 4% to 2%
Legendary Aspect Changes
Bold Chieftain’s Aspect
Cooldown reduction per Nearby enemy reduced from 2.7-5.4 seconds to 1.0-1.9 seconds. Maximum Cooldown reduction from 12 to 6 seconds.
Aspect of the Dire Whirlwind
Increased Critical Strike Chance per second reduced from 5-10% to 3-8%. Maximum Critical Strike Chance bonus reduced from 20-40% to 9-24%.
Item Changes
Gohr’s Devastating Grips
Explosion damage gained from Whirlwind reduced from 50-70% to 16-26%.Damage against wreckable objects no longer increases explosion damage. Explosion damage is only increased by the first 100 hits of Whirlwind.
Druid
Skill Changes
Pulverize
Lucky Hit Chance reduced from 33% to 25%.
Lightning Storm
Damage increased from 32% to 40%.
Grizzly Rage
Maximum extended duration from kills reduced from 10 to 5 seconds.
Class Specialization
Obsidian Slam
Kills required for bonus increased from 10 to 20.
Calm Before the Storm
Lucky Hit Chance reduced from 15% to 10%.
Passive Changes
Electric Shock
Damage bonus increased from 5/10/15% to 6/12/18%.
Legendary Aspect Changes
Shockwave Aspect
Damage reduced from 90-130% to 60-100%.
Crashstone Aspect
Critical Strike Damage reduced from 40-50% to 30-40%.
Lightning Dancer’s Aspect
Flat damage increased from .5-.6 to .7-.8.
Necromancer
Skill Changes
Blood Lance
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%.
Passive Changes
Shadowblight
Damage increased from 20% to 22%.
Grim Harvest
Essence gained reduced from 3/6/9 to 2/4/6.
Serration
Critical Strike Chance reduced from .5/1/1.5% to .3/.6/.9%.
Death’s Defense
Maximum Minion Life lost in a single damage instance reduced from 75/60/45% to 60/45/30%.
Class Specialization
Raise Skeleton
Skeleton Warrior attack damage increased by 10%.
Golem
Golem attack damage increased by 10%.
Blood Golem
Blood Golem Life drain damage increased from 40% to 90%.Blood Golem Life drain healing from enemies hit increased from 4% to 5%.
Iron Golem
Iron Golem slam damage increased from 25% to 175%. Iron Golem shockwave damage increased from 30% to 40%.
Necromancer Paragon Board Changes
Hulking Monstrosity
Golem Life and damage bonus increased from 30% to 40% Life.
Cult Leader
Damage bonus increased from 10% to 15%.
Rogue
Skill Changes
Twisting Blades
Advanced Twisting Blades Cooldown reduction per enemy hit reduced from .25 to .1 seconds. Advanced Twisting Blades maximum Cooldown reduction reduced from 3 to 2 seconds.
Rapid Fire
Damage increased from 24% to 30%.
Dark Shroud
Damage Reduction per shadow gained from Skill Ranks reduced from .8% to .4%.
Dash
Enhanced Dash Critical Strike Damage bonus from 20% to 15%.
Caltrops
Damage increased from 30% to 40%.
Passive Changes
Concussive
Critical Strike Chance reduced from 5/10/15% to 4/8/12%.
Legendary Affix Changes
Repeating
Maximum Minion Life lost in a single damage instance reduced from 75/60/45% to 60/45/30%.
Sorcerer
Skill Changes
Arc Lash
Lucky Hit Chance reduced from 30% to 14%. Glinting Arc Lash Cooldown reduction reduced from .25 to .15 seconds.
Teleport
Shimmering Teleport’s Damage Reduction duration reduced from 5 to 3 seconds.
Legendary Affix Changes
Aspect of Control
Bonus damage reduced from 30-40% to 25-35%.
General
Miscellaneous Class Changes
Druid Companions and Necromancer Minions
Maximum damage over time taken per damage instance reduced from 2% to 1% of maximum Life.
Paragon Board Changes
Rare Nodes
Player Attack Speed nodes reduced by 50%.
Glyphs
All Glyph Bonus scaling has been reduced by ~34%, except for the following:Critical Strike Damage Glyphs’ Bonus reduced by ~66%.Vulnerable Glyphs’ Bonus reduced by ~66%.Glyphs’ Bonus to Rare nodes reduced by ~50%.Glyphs’ Bonus to Magic nodes reduced by ~40%.Glyphs’ Bonus to Cold/Fire/Lightning/Non-Physical/Physical nodes reduced by ~62.5%.
Monster Changes
Significantly reduced the spawn rate of Treasure Goblins within PvP zones.
Bug Fixes
Fixed the name for the Light Bearer Mount. The Go to Shop button from the Wardrobe will now properly open the shop. Fixed an issue where if a Sorcerer uses Deep Freeze and is affected by another effect that would freeze them, it caused them to be permanently stunned. Miscellaneous stability and crash fixes.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
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