Diablo IV’s next patch, update 1.1.1, will arrive on August 8 and it will bring some major improvements for Barbarians and Sorcerers, as well as changes to the number of monsters in endgame activities and a number of smaller, quality-of-life changes.
In a developer “campfire” chat, Blizzard outlined how the game’s first major patch following its controversial Season 1 update will look to make the lives of Barbarian and Sorcerer players easier. For Barbarian, Blizzard is looking to improve how it feels to play the class in the early game by increasing Fury generation for its basic skills and increasing the damage done by abilities like Rupture and Charge. In the late game, Blizzard is revamping some of the Barbarian’s Unique items and Legendary Aspects to make them more effective and attractive. For the Unique changes, Blizzard is simply improving the base damage and stats of items like Hellhammer and Fields of Crimson, while also replacing less-desirable affixes with ones that are more in demand.
On the Sorcerer side of things, Blizzard is looking to improve their late game survivability, where many in the community currently believe the class struggles. Many Sorcerer mechanics currently revolve around giving players a major buff, but with a negative side effect. Blizzard is looking to remove many of those negative effects and make it so Sorcerer players can revel in their power without too many repercussions.
Even some of the classes most in the community believe to be in great shape, like Rogue and Druid, are seeing some positive changes. Buffs coming in update 1.1.1 will improve Rogue’s Rain of Arrows, increase the damage from Caltrops and Poison Trap, and make it so every third cast of Forceful Arrow pierces enemies. Druids will see a buff to their Ravens and Rabies Skills, alongside buffs to certain Legendaries and the Overload class mechanic. Necromancers, too, are receiving a handful of changes, with improvements to Bone Spirit, Paragon Board changes, and buffs to the Empowering Reaper and Exposed Flesh Legendary Aspects.
Aside from classes, there will be a handful of general Diablo IV changes as well. Druid and Necromancer companions and minions will take less damage from certain monster abilities, like Fire Enchanted elites. The Caged Heart of Spellbreaking Malignant Heart will be updated to grant general damage reduction after taking elemental damage instead of just granting damage reduction to the specific type of elemental damage that activated the effect, which should make it a much more appealing option for those participating in Season of the Malignant.
The Unique item Temerity will receive a major buff, something that lead class designer Adam Jackson said on stream “terrifies” him. The item’s “All Stats” affix will be replaced with Max Life and the item’s Barrier effect will scale based on a player’s maximum life. The item will additionally function with other conditions that check for players having a Barrier, which should make it synergize better with other builds. Jackson said prior to launch Blizzard thought Temerity was one of the best items in the game, but due to the stats on it, players were opting not to use it. These changes are intended to make the item much more desirable.
A number of other game-wide changes will come alongside update 1.1.1, including increased monster density in Nightmare dungeons and in Helltide areas. Blizzard said the goal is to deliver on the ARPG fantasy of wiping out tons of creatures, but do it in a way that the game’s performance doesn’t suffer. Defeating Treasure Goblins come patch 1.1.1 will always reward a Legendary item after level 15, and bosses in World Tier III and IV (which will be buffed to have more health) will always drop a Legendary item. Some of the game’s more annoying Nightmare dungeon affixes–Resource Drain, Cold Enchanted, and Backstabber–will be removed while Blizzard works on adjusting them.
Blizzard additionally reiterated some previously announced quality-of-life changes players can expect alongside the update. Elixir stack sizes will increase to 99 and players will be able to purchase an additional stash tab for gold (although adding more stash tabs is apparently a performance concern). Respec costs will also be reduced by 40%.
While those are the changes players can expect soon, Blizzard outlined more long-term changes the team is looking at. As has been discussed by the team previously, Vulnerable and Critical Strike damage are currently king in Diablo IV, but Blizzard wants to make other damage types, like Overpower, far more comparable. Many of the game’s Ultimate abilities work great in the early game, but fall off late game in favor of Ultimate abilities that directly buff a player rather than dealing damage on its own. That is something Blizzard is looking to change in the future, alongside making many of the game’s Unique items more attractive and viable. Blizzard is aware that the Resistance stat isn’t all that appealing and will be looking to make it more effective. Mounts will see some improvements as well, with Blizzard specifically calling out how annoying it is to be riding around Sanctuary only to run into a barrier that requires players to dismount and destroy it to continue forward.
Blizzard confirmed it will be releasing the full Diablo IV update 1.1.1 patch notes on August 2 in an effort to give players more time to process all the changes ahead of the update’s arrival.
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