Blizzard’s latest update toDiablo 4has brought many balance changes, including buffs to The Butcher and other monsters.Diablo 4players may find many bosses like The Butcher much more challenging, especially if they attempt to tackle them below the intended level.
Blizzard released the finished version ofDiablo 4on June 5, following an early access period. Set 50 years afterDiablo 3: Reaper of Souls,Diablo 4sees the demon Lilithreturn to the world of Sanctuary following her banishment long ago. After escaping from her follower’s clutches, players embark on a quest to defeat Lilith and save Sanctuary from her influence. Choosing between one of five classes, they travel across the monster-infested land solo or with friends.Diablo 4is also the first game in the series to feature an open-world and player-versus-player combat.
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Even after the full release,Diablo 4developers are hard at work fixing bugs and rebalancing the game. The game’s most recent update introduces various balance changes, with particular attention tobuffingDiablo 4’s monsters. This includes increasing HP scaling from 85% per extra player to 100% per extra player. The developers also heavily nerfed defensive Item Affixes to make the game more challenging, especially at higher levels.
As Blizzard explained in the patch notes for update 1.1.0a, developers noticed thatDiablo 4players are easily defeating monsters that are significantly higher level than their own. This isn’t inherently bad, and Blizzard says the company wants to support it. However, developers don’t think the current system is sustainable and wantDiablo 4bosses to be a serious challenge that players must work hard to overcome. Blizzard hopes that the balance changes introduced by patch 1.1.0a will help, and developers will monitor the game and make additional adjustments as needed.
The latest update also brings adjustments to items. Developers have increased the Slow effect onDiablo 4’s Butcher’s Cleaverfrom 40-75% to 61-75% and increased the drop rate of Ancestral and Sacred items in Nightmare Dungeons. Enemies in Nightmare Dungeons are also more likely to drop extra equipment. However, they are less likely to drop additional gear outside Nightmare Dungeons and Helltide. Nightmare Dungeons are also more likely to drop Rare and Legendary items in the new update.
Meanwhile, the latest patch also brings various changes toDiablo 4’s classes. All five classes see major buffs to their Abilities and Passives, as well as a few small quality-of-life improvements. Developers explain that the focus with 1.1.0a’s class changes was numerical increases rather than changing how they play.
Update 1.1.0a Balance Updates
Developer’s Note:As our community continues to battle the Burning Hells, the builds emerging from new players have shocked and delighted us. We’ve chosen to focus Season of the Malignant’s balance updates on clear itemization disparities over redesigns of Class features. The Class changes are largely focused on numeric increases to Skill Upgrades and Legendary Aspects that players haven’t yet found compelling. Additionally, we’re changing Critical Strike Damage Paragon Glyphs to empower all damage—instead of only Core Skills—to enable more build strategies. There are also a few Class stat decreases on sources which grant extreme amounts of damage, healing, or Unstoppable. In general, we prefer build-specific changes to be bonuses instead of decreases, but we feel these changes are necessary for the overall health of the game. Diablo IV is a game that is continually evolving through its Seasons, thus the adjustments we make will evolve with them.
The following balance updates apply to both the Seasonal and Eternal Realm.
Miscellaneous
Item Affixes
Developer’s Note:Many Affixes are too efficient and are outshining alternatives. We’re looking to refine the outliers, improve the number of meaningful choices on competitive slots, and increase the overall flexibility of items. We know these changes will reduce the total amount of possible power a character can possess, so we’ll be monitoring how these changes affect players’ ability to conquer expected milestones throughout the Season.
We’re increasing the availability of the Affixes below to make them easier to include in different builds.
Developer’s Note:The Core Stat bonus on Weapons has been overperforming, so we’re pulling back on this bonus.
Developer’s Note:Cooldown Reduction affixes often felt mandatory due to their raw power. We imagine Cooldown Reduction will remain a highly desirable stat, but the penalty for not prioritizing it won’t be as harsh.
Developer’s Note:We’re seeing Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage often viewed as a hard requirement for a build’s success in Diablo IV. We believe this is a step towards allowing more builds to flourish and will continue to make changes in support of this goal.
Developer’s Note:Disparities in inherent affixes can rule some Weapons out before the rest of their stats are even rolled. These are receiving harsher reductions than their normal affix counterparts to increase Weapon flexibility.
Developer’s Note:Damage Bonus to Crowd Controlled Enemies was overperforming relative to the ease of activating it versus stricter, Crowd Control type-specific affixes.
Developer’s Note:We have seen that skillful players are frequently slaughtering monsters many levels above their own. We want to support this, but the current situation is beyond what we believe is correct for the long-term health of the game. To chase this goal, we’re shifting power to many offensive Affixes from defensive Affixes. We know this will make our end game content more deadly, particularly for those chasing our pinnacle boss, an encounter not meant for the faint of heart. Overcoming the pinnacle boss will take every ounce of grit you can muster and all tools at your disposal. We will continue to evaluate feedback from the community and make changes to our combat mechanics.
Diablo 4is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
