‘Diablo 4’ Patch Notes Bring Fast Barbarian, Druid, Rogue Nerfs, Necro Buffs

The much-anticipated update to Blizzard's iconic action-RPG, Diablo IV, is here, featuring significant balance adjustments to the Classes in a bid to enhance the gaming experience and maintain the health of the game.

Addressing the community, the game developers have clarified their vision behind the latest changes: to ensure an even more enjoyable, better balanced gameplay experience across the board. The updates can be broadly divided into three categories:

Reduction in Class Build Power: Some Class builds and synergies were identified as being excessively powerful, to an extent that it was affecting the overall health of the game. Therefore, their effectiveness has been significantly reduced in this update. A notable instance was situations where players could endure extraordinarily high damage for extended periods, which did not align with the intended combat design in Diablo IV.

Boost in Skill and Build Effectiveness: The developers recognized that certain skills and builds were not performing as effectively as they had envisioned. In response to this, buffs have been introduced to bolster their strength, enhancing the gaming experience for users employing these tactics.

Paragon Glyphs Tweaked: The Paragon Glyphs were found to be providing an excessive boost to player power. To ensure a balanced gameplay, their overall effectiveness has been toned down in the new update.

Here’s the list of changes to all classes:

BARBARIAN -- Some pretty huge hits to Whirlwind Barbs, especially Gohr’s, which was creating a zillion explosions with activation and de-activation

1.Challenging Shout (Skill) - Damage Reduction gained from Skill Ranks reduced from 4% to 2%

2.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.

3. 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%.

4. Gohr’s Devastating Grips (Unique Legendary) - 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 -- This one is a mix of nerfs and buffs. Lightning-based builds in particular got a little bit of a buff, but there are definitely a lot of nerfs in here as well, which I’ve already seen some Druid players complaining about.

1.Pulverize (Skill) - Lucky Hit Chance reduced from 33% to 25%.

2.Lightning Storm (Skill) - Damage increased from 32% to 40%.

3.Grizzly Rage (Skill) - Damage bonus increased from 5/10/15% to 6/12/18%.

4.Obsidian Slam (Specialization) - Kills required for bonus increased from 10 to 20.

5.Calm Before the Storm (Specialization) - Lucky Hit Chance reduced from 15% to 10%.

6.Electric Shock (Passive) - Damage bonus increased from 5/10/15% to 6/12/18%.

7.Shockwave Aspect - Damage reduced from 90-130% to 60-100%.

8.Crashstone Aspect - Critical Strike Damage reduced from 40-50% to 30-40%.

9.Lightning Dancer’s Aspect - Flat damage increased from .5-.6 to .7-.8.

NECROMANCER -- Out of all the classes, Necro actually got the most buffs by far. Most of these are focused on minion buffs including damage buffs to both skeletons and Golems, including a huge swing on an Iron Golem skill. I guess they were underperforming compared to the other classes a bit.

1.Blood Lance (Skill) - Damage increased from 67.5% to 80%.

2.Army of the Dead (Skill) - Damage increased from 30% to 45%. Cooldown reduced from 90 to 70 seconds.

3.Blood Wave (Skill) - Damage increased from 90% to 120%.

4.Shadowblight (Passive) - Damage increased from 20% to 22%.

5.Grim Harvest (Passive) - Essence gained reduced from 3/6/9 to 2/4/6.

6.Serration (Passive) - Critical Strike Chance reduced from .5/1/1.5% to .3/.6/.9%.

7.Death’s Defense (Passive) - Maximum Minion Life lost in a single damage instance reduced from 75/60/45% to 60/45/30%.

8.Raise Skeleton (Specialization) - Skeleton Warrior attack damage increased by 10%.

9.Golem (Specialization) - Golem attack damage increased by 10%.

10.Blood Golem (Specialization) - Blood Golem Life drain damage increased from 40% to 90%. 11.Blood Golem Life drain healing from enemies hit increased from 4% to 5%.

12.Iron Golem (Specialization) - Iron Golem slam damage increased from 25% to 175%. Iron Golem shockwave damage increased from 30% to 40%.

13.Hulking Monstrosity (Paragon Board) - Golem Life and damage bonus increased from 30% to 40% Life.

14.Cult Leader (Paragon Board) - Golem Life and damage bonus increased from 30% to 40% Life.

ROGUE -- A couple buffs here, but the main thing is the decimation of the extremely popular Twisting Blades build, which was already emerging as a strong favorite. Too strong for Blizzard’s taste, and it’s getting hammered pretty hard here.

1.Twisting Blades (Skill) - 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.

2.Rapid Fire (Skill) - Damage increased from 24% to 30%.

3.Dark Shroud (Skill) - Damage Reduction per shadow gained from Skill Ranks reduced from .8% to .4%.

4.Dash (Skill) - Enhanced Dash Critical Strike Damage bonus from 20% to 15%.

5.Caltrops (Skill) - Damage increased from 30% to 40%.

6.Concussive (Passive) - Critical Strike Chance reduced from 5/10/15% to 4/8/12%.

7.Repeating (Affix) - Maximum Minion Life lost in a single damage instance reduced from 75/60/45% to 60/45/30%.

SORCERER -- Sorcerer was barely touched. Either they think it’s pretty balanced or they haven’t had much time to dig into its potential issues yet. But no destroyed builds via nerfs here.

1.Arc Lash (Skill) - Lucky Hit Chance reduced from 30% to 14%. Glinting Arc Lash Cooldown reduction reduced from .25 to .15 seconds.

2.Teleport (Skill) - Shimmering Teleport’s Damage Reduction duration reduced from 5 to 3 seconds.

3.Aspect of Control - Bonus damage reduced from 30-40% to 25-35%.

PARAGON BOARDS --  There are some huge, overall changes to Paragon Boards, where Blizzard thought that Glyphs were way, way too strong so they are getting somewhat slaughtered:

1.Rare Nodes - Player Attack Speed nodes reduced by 50%.

Glyphs:

1.All Glyph Bonus scaling has been reduced by ~34%, except for the following:

2.Critical Strike Damage Glyphs’ Bonus reduced by ~66%.

3.Vulnerable Glyphs’ Bonus reduced by ~66%.

4.Glyphs' Bonus to Rare nodes reduced by ~50%.

5.Glyphs' Bonus to Magic nodes reduced by ~40%.

6.Glyphs' Bonus to Cold/Fire/Lightning/Non-Physical/Physical nodes reduced by ~62.5%.

Most players are probably not even touching the Glyph system yet, so this is super hardcore speed levelers and their super builds, but I know many are not happy.