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

It has been only a few days since the launch of Diablo 4and while I knew that Blizzard was doing fast, reactive patches for the game, this is a whole lot of balance changes to the game, like 72 hours after launch. So much so that, yeah, I’m thinking maybe they slow down a bit? It’s a lot.

My guess is some of this was sparked by the “world’s first” races to get to max level in the game, especially the hardcore race, and Blizzard believed some outlier skills were too strong. They also advertise some buffs in here, but it is overwhelmingly a good amount of nerfs. 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 deactivation.

• Challenging Shout (Skill): Damage Reduction gained from Skill Ranks reduced from 4% to 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.
• 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%.
• 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.

• Pulverize (Skill): Lucky Hit Chance reduced from 33% to 25%.
• Lightning Storm (Skill): Damage increased from 32% to 40%.
• Grizzly Rage (Skill): Damage bonus increased from 5/10/15% to 6/12/18%.
• Obsidian Slam (Specialization): Kills required for bonus increased from 10 to 20.
• Calm Before the Storm (Specialization): Lucky Hit Chance reduced from 15% to 10%.
• Electric Shock (Passive): Damage bonus increased from 5/10/15% to 6/12/18%.
• 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 – 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, with a huge swing on an Iron Golem skill. I guess they were underperforming compared to the other classes a bit.

• Blood Lance (Skill): Damage increased from 67.5% to 80%.
• Army of the Dead (Skill): Damage increased from 30% to 45%. Cooldown reduced from 90 to 70 seconds.
• Blood Wave (Skill): Damage increased from 90% to 120%.
• Shadowblight (Passive): Damage increased from 20% to 22%.
• Grim Harvest (Passive): Essence gained reduced from 3/6/9 to 2/4/6.
• Serration (Passive): Critical Strike Chance reduced from .5/1/1.5% to .3/.6/.9%.
• Death’s Defense (Passive): Maximum Minion Life lost in a single damage instance reduced from 75/60/45% to 60/45/30%.
• Raise Skeleton (Specialization): Skeleton Warrior attack damage increased by 10%.
• Golem (Specialization): Golem attack damage increased by 10%.
• Blood Golem (Specialization): 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 (Specialization): Iron Golem slam damage increased from 25% to 175%. Iron Golem shockwave damage increased from 30% to 40%.
• Hulking Monstrosity (Paragon Board): Golem Life and damage bonus increased from 30% to 40% Life.
• 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.

• 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.
• Rapid Fire (Skill): Damage increased from 24% to 30%.
• Dark Shroud (Skill): Damage Reduction per shadow gained from Skill Ranks reduced from .8% to .4%.
• Dash (Skill): Enhanced Dash Critical Strike Damage bonus from 20% to 15%.
• Caltrops (Skill): Damage increased from 30% to 40%.
• Concussive (Passive): Critical Strike Chance reduced from 5/10/15% to 4/8/12%.
• 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.

• Arc Lash (Skill): Lucky Hit Chance reduced from 30% to 14%. Glinting Arc Lash Cooldown reduction reduced from .25 to .15 seconds.
• Teleport (Skill): Shimmering Teleport’s Damage Reduction duration reduced from 5 to 3 seconds.
• 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:

• 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%.

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.

So, too many nerfs too soon? I guess we’ll find out.