Diablo IV hasn’t even officially launched yet and the development team has already rolled out a pretty significant balance patch. Despite multiple closed and open betas and a long preview event for media, influencers, and streamers, these changes came less than 72 hours after Early Access launched. While balance changes are necessary to maintain a game’s health, an early patch like this is reminiscent of Diablo III’s controversial ‘increased attack speed’ change that occurred shortly after its launch.
The major issue isn’t that Blizzard is being proactive with balance changes and moving so quickly, the question we all should be asking is, “what were they originally testing?” The glyph changes are really significant and anytime something in a game is reduced by over 50%, you have to wonder what consequences it has if game was initially designed and balanced around the original values. Or maybe it wasn’t at all, and that’s a bigger concern.
Some of the item changes, such as those to Gohr’s Devastating Grips, resulted from builds that streamers discovered during their exclusive playtime. These builds weren’t patched before the Early Access launch. This likely means this patch was already in the works before June 1, otherwise I’d be more concerned that such significant values were changed with little testing.
The bigger question moving forward is how frequent changes like this are going to occur. If anyone remembers the launch of Wolcen: Lord of Mayhem, that team went a little too quickly with nerfs and basically destroyed the initial player base for the game.
The popular World of Warcraft meme, “Fun Detected,” has already found its way into the Diablo IV community, even though the game hasn’t officially launched yet. Maybe Diablo IV is Diablo 3.75 in more ways than I originally thought. See the full list of changes below.
Diablo IV Patch Notes 1.0.2d Build #42131
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
- Damage bonus increased from 5/10/15% to 6/12/18%.
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.
