6 Biggest Changes in Diablo 4’s Season 1 Update
With Season of the Malignant on the horizon, Blizzard has rolled out a new patch for Diablo 4, bringing with it some pretty significant gameplay changes. There a few class balances, new Unique items and Legendary Aspects, and some season rollover progress that you’re gonna wanna know about before Season of the Malignant starts, so let’s get into it.
All Classes Get Nerfed
Really, there aren’t any winners in thislatest Diablo 4 patch. In fact, all the classes have taken a hit in some way or another, but we’d be remiss not to give a special shoutout to the Sorcerer, who’s certainly been hit the hardest.
The Devouring Blaze bonus change is a big one, as virtually every Sorcerer build relies on Firebolt Enchantment to inflict the Burning status affect on enemies, and by decreasing the Critical Strike damage, you can expect Sorcerers to deal much less DPS going forward. It definitely doesn’t help that none of the other balance changes are helping to offset this nerf.
Helltides Are Much Harder to Farm Now
If you thoughtDiablo 4‘s Helltides were a slow grind before, they’re about to get even slower. This latest patch makes it such that enemies are now three levels higher than you, instead of two. In addition to that, the Tortured Gift of Mysteries chest now costs 250 Aberrant Cinders to open, instead of 175.
What this means is that Helltide enemies are not only tougher and harder to beat, you’ll also need to spend much more time farming up Cinders to open all your chests. This is pretty annoying, especially since Helltides weren’t exactly a cakewalk before.
Enemy Levels Don’t Scale as Hard
The good news is, while you’releveling your characterand going through the campaign, you should have a slightly easier time keeping up with them. Enemies will still scale with your level, but after a certain point, they’ll start trailing behind you.
For instance, in World Tier III, once you hit level 55, enemies will start trailing until they’re eventually always five levels below you. This makes leveling up actually feel impactful for your character, as compared to previously, where it’d feel like you were never quite able to keep up with enemy scaling. It should also make the leveling process feel much smoother and easier, allowing you to reach endgame faster.
Malignant Hearts
Malignant Hearts are the big new headlining feature ofSeason of the Malignantin Diablo 4. These are basically powerful gems that can drop from killing both regular and elite enemies, and they all come with their own Legendary-type powers, making them extremely powerful.
They can be slotted into your gear, and there are also class-specific Malignant Hearts that will only apply for certain builds. There are four different types of Hearts: Vicious, Brutal, Devious, and Wrathful. The first three can only be slotted into red, blue, and purple jewelry slots respectively, while Wrathful Hearts can go in any slot, and are generally regarded to be the most powerful of the bunch.
New Unique Items and Legendary Aspects
Of course, it wouldn’t be a new Diablo 4 season without an influx of new Unique items and Legendary Aspects, and there are quite a few to look forward to here. While all of the classes have been nerfed in some way or another across the board, the new gear and Aspects should help to pave the way for even more creative and unique builds.
Here’s a rundown of all the new stuff you can look forward to:
Necromancer
7 New Legendary Aspects
Account-Wide Progression
Finally, perhaps the most important change of all ahead of Diablo 4 Season 1 isaccount-wide progressionfor your unlockedAltars of Lilith,Renown, and map progression. All related progress on your original characters will carry over to your seasonal characters and beyond, making it much easier for you to grind through the campaign again as each season begins.
While you do still have to manually level up from level one, these progression rewards should give you a good headstart, and you won’t have to worry about uncovering every map region all over again. It’s a nice quality-of-life update we’ve been asking for since the original release, and it’s nice to see Blizzard put that into action here.
