Diablo 4 patch 1.1.1 notes add buffs to Sorcerers and Barbarians

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Diablo 4’s Aug. 8 patch notes promise a major shift to the meta

After Diablo 4’s massive season 1 patch — which shook the game up a little too much for most players — Blizzard previewed another patch (1.1.1) that would give a boost to the game’s weakest classes. And while the patch itself won’t be out until Aug. 8, Blizzard published the full patch notes on Wednesday, and they include a lot more than buffs for the Barbarian and Sorcerer.

The biggest changes in this patch aren’t actually angled toward a specific class, and instead focus on monster density. Nightmare Dungeons and the Helltide activity will include a significantly increased number of monsters once the patch goes live. While that might sound like a bad thing, or an increase in difficulty, this is actually a major buff to player XP. Most builds in Diablo 4 can mow down large groups of enemies with a single click, and adding more just means that each spell cast nets you more XP and more rewards.

The catch to the increased monster density change, is that it also comes with an increase in boss health. All bosses above level 60 will have a little extra health come Aug. 8. At level 80, that increase is +50%, and at level 150 it’s up to +150%.

Most Nightmare Dungeon bosses go down very quickly in Diablo 4, and have since the game launched in June. As a result, most endgame builds focus on rapidly clearing groups of enemies, rather than burning down one big target. This increase to boss health promises to be one of the biggest shifts in the game’s meta since launch, as players will almost certainly need to shift away from pure area-of-effect builds like the Barbarian’s Whirlwind or the Druid’s Pulverize, which already do abysmal boss damage.

To compensate for their increased difficulty, all boss-tier monsters over level 35 will drop a guaranteed Legendary item. Most Nightmare Dungeons were already rather generous with Legendary drops, but this at least guarantees that players won’t be wasting their time. Treasure Goblins will also drop guaranteed Legendaries now, provided they’re over level 15. And Legion Events will drop a guaranteed Legendary starting at level 35. The latter two changes are particularly great for leveling each season, when Legendaries are a lot harder to come.

As for class changes, the Barbarians and the Sorcerers are still the real winners here, just like Blizzard initially suggested — although probably not enough to knock them out of the bottom two slots this season.

For Barbarians, many skills that generate Fury now generate even more, which is a huge boon for early game. Several of their damage dealing skills like Rupture and Double Swing will also be more powerful once the patch hits.

Sorcerers — which have struggled more than most classes since the game launched — got the most changes. Blizzard rebalanced several of the class’ Paragon nodes, and improved numerous Legendaries. This patch isn’t going to change Sorcerers from being the squishiest of the five classes, but their significant increase in damage should help compensate even more than before.

In addition to these specific callouts, Blizzard made numerous bug fixes and balance changes in this patch. We’ve listed all of the changes below so that you can better theory craft ahead of the patch’s official release on Aug. 8.

Hello wanderer, welcome to Patch 1.1.1!

We’ve made quite a few balance adjustments to Classes. Our goals with this patch are as follows:

We want to improve the effectiveness of Sorcerers and Barbarians while addressing the following for each Class:

Sorcerer

Barbarian

Strengthen builds that aren’t reaching a high power level.

Diversify the use cases for Legendary items and other effects that are overly situational.

Skills

Bash

Flay

Enhanced Frenzy

Lunging Strike

Double Swing

Enhanced Rupture

Enhanced Charge

Mighty Charge

Violent Upheaval

Passives

Aggressive Resistance

Gushing Wounds

Unconstrained

Walking Arsenal

Legendaries

Aspect of Ancestral Force

Death Wish Aspect

Aspect of Unrelenting Fury

Additional functionality:

Aspect of Ancestral Charge

Aspect of Burning Rage

Aspect of Bul-Kathos

Earthquake Aspect

Uniques

Fields of Crimson

Hellhammer

Ramaladni’s Magnum Opus

100,000 Steps

Battle Trance

Skills

Fundamental Invigorating Strike

Primary Forceful Arrow

Enhanced Caltrops

Poison Trap

Supreme Rain of Arrows

Passives

Victimize

Rugged

Siphoning Strikes

Legendaries

Aspect of Elusive Menace

Aspect of Quickening Fog

Uniques

Windforce

Word of Hakan

Skills

Earth Spike

Claw

Storm Strike

Wind Shear

Maul

Wolves

Enhanced Wolf Pack

Brutal Wolf Pack

Ferocious Wolf Pack

Ravens

Brutal Ravens

Rabies

Paragon

Lightning Resilience Rare Node

Legendaries

Aspect of Metamorphic Stone

Aspect of the Alpha

Mangled Aspect

Class Mechanic

Overload

Skills

Flickering Fire Bolt

Enhanced Fireball

Destructive Fireball

Greater Chain Lightning

Destructive Chain Lightning

Passives

Vyr’s Mastery

Esu’s Ferocity

Combustion

Paragon

Searing Heat Legendary Node

Ceaseless Conduit Legendary Node

Territorial Rare Glyph

Warding Rare Glyph

Keeper of Flames Rare Node

Smoldering Embers Rare Node

Guarded Rare Node

Oppressive Rare Node

Legendaries

Serpentine Aspect

Aspect of Conflagration

Aspect of Engulfing Flames

Aspect of Three Curses

Flamewalker’s Aspect

Gravitational Aspect

Aspect of Unbroken Tether

Recharging Aspect

Charged Aspect

Aspect of the Bounding Conduit

New Legendary - Mage-Lord’s Aspect

Aspect of Frozen Orbit

Storm Swell Aspect

Snowveiled Aspect

Additional functionality:

Incendiary Aspect

Snowguard’s Aspect

Aspect of Concentration

Uniques

Gloves of the Illuminator

Skills

Enhanced Bone Spirit

Paragon

Wither Legendary Board

Legendaries

Aspect of Empowering Reaper

Aspect of Exposed Flesh

Aspect of Decay

Aspect of Torment

Hulking Aspect

Uniques

Greaves of the Empty Tomb

Minions

Balrog

Elite Affixes

We are increasing monster density in Nightmare Dungeons and in Helltide.

Developer’s Note: We are making adjustments to the health values of high-level boss monsters.

Developer’s Note: Leave Dungeon ability was being used as another method of easy escape from danger in dungeons, particularly for Hardcore players. However, we recognize that this is outweighed by the downside of the game feeling less responsive. We’ve heard your feedback, and are reversing this change.

Resource Burn

Backstabbers

Empowered Elites (Cold Enchanted)

Caged Heart of Spellbreaking

Temerity

Developer’s Note: The previous tooltip was a bit misleading as it did not consume the entirety of your mana pool. It will consume as much as it can depending on the number rolled on the affix.

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