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All the Diablo IV Season 1 patch news: nerfs, buffs, new unique items…

Patch 1.1.0a for Diablo IV has finally arrived, and it sets the stage for Season 1 with some huge changes. But many players are not happy with it.

Mike Reyes

Blizzard has finally released Patch 1.1.0a for Diablo IV, rebalancing the game’s system, new unique items, and finally setting up the beginning of its first content update, the Season of the Malignant. But to do so, it seems like they’ve had to make some big changes that have not been very welcomed by the community.

This new Diablo IV is full of new items and aspects to collect, as well as bug fixes, buffs to some skills, and some heavy nerfing of the current class meta that seems to kick on sorcerers while they’re still down. But as always, many of these changes are also beneficial to many, so you’ll have to be the judge of whether this is a good patch or a terrible one.

Below you’ll find some of the most important points of this update, but you can find the complete patch notes on Blizzard’s official post.

New Unique items and Legendary Aspects

In case you haven’t yet reached the endgame in the highest World Tiers of the game, Unique Items and Legendary Aspects are the highest rarity of gear and aspect that you can find. They can be extremely difficult to get, as their drop rates are minuscule, which makes the event of finding it something truly exciting. Now Blizzard has added the following items to that list:

Unique Items

  • Ahavarion Spear of Lycander (Uber Unique Staff – World Tier 4): Gain a random Shrine effect for 10-20 seconds after killing an Elite enemy. This can only occur once every 30 seconds.
  • Azurewrath (Unique Sword): Lucky Hit – your Core Skills have up to a 20% chance to Freeze enemies for 3 seconds and deal .75 to 1.5 Cold damage to them.
  • Fleshrender (Unique One-Hand Mace): Debilitating Roar and Blood Howl deal .5 to 1 damage to Nearby Poisoned enemies.
  • Lidless Wall (Unique Shield): Lucky Hit – While you have an active Bone Storm, hitting an enemy outside of a Bone Storm has up to a 5 to 25% chance to spawn an additional Bone Storm at their location. Each of your active Sacrifice bonuses increases the chance by 25% and the total number of additional Bone Storms you can have by +1.
  • Eaglehorn (Unique Bow): Penetrating Shot has a 30 to 80% chance to fire an arrow that bounces off walls and scenery. Hitting enemies from behind with Penetrating Shot will make them vulnerable for 3 seconds.
  • The Oculus (Unique Wand): Gain the effect of the Teleport Enchantment for free. When you Evade using Teleport Enchantment, you are taken to a random location.

Legendary Aspects

  • Audacity (Utility Aspect): When there are at least 5 Close enemies, Stun them for 2 to 4 seconds, but this can only occur once every 20 seconds.
  • Craven (Mobility Aspect): You gain 20 to 40% increased Movement Speed when moving away from Slowed or Chilled enemies.
  • Ancestral Charge (Offensive Aspect): Charge calls forth 4 Ancients who also Charge, dealing 50 to 100% of normal damage.
  • Subterranean (Offensive Aspect): Poison Creeper’s active also casts Landslide in a circle around you, and Earth Skills deal 10 to 20% increased damage to Poisoned Enemies.
  • Gore Quills (Offensive Aspect): Blood Lance will consume Blood Orbs to also conjure lances from them, and each additional Blood Lance deals 20 to 50% of normal damage and prioritizes targeting un-lanced enemies.
  • Pestilent Points (Offensive Aspect): Every third cast of Puncture is Poison imbued with 100 to 150% of normal potency.
  • Searing Wards (Offensive Aspect): After spending 100 to 200 Mana, your next Firewall is free to cast and will destroy incoming Small Missiles.

Gameplay Updates

General

  • Altar of Lilith Unlocks are now account wide.
  • Map discovery is now account wide.
  • Whispers will no longer reward Sigil Dust.
  • Overall loot quality has been significantly improved for Silent Chests.
  • The channel time for the Leave Dungeon ability has been increased from 3 to 5 seconds.
  • We have generally reduced the tendency for many monsters to move around in combat, so that melee characters don’t have to chase down their enemies as much.
  • Added DualSense Edge™ wireless controller support for PC.
  • Renown Value Adjustments:
  • Side Quest Renown reward values increased from 20 to 30.
  • Dungeon Renown reward values increased from 30 to 40

World Tier

World Tier II has had the following bonuses added:

  • Bonus Gold: Increased from 15% to 20%.
  • Monsters now drop 15% more items.
  • Level scaling inside dungeons and most overworld territories has been adjusted in World Tiers III and IV. Monsters will begin to trail behind the player in Level after a certain point (up to a maximum of 5 Levels behind). This change does not affect World Bosses, Legion Events, Fields of Hatred, Helltide, or Nightmare Dungeons.