Diablo 4: Patch 1.1.1 arrives on August 8, buffs all classes – The patch notes

In the latest Campfire Chat, the developers of Diablo 4 discussed Patch 1.1.1 and the upcoming improvements. They addressed many criticisms from the community and plan extensive changes in many areas of the game.

The key points from the stream:

• Patch 1.1.1 will be released on August 8, and the official patch notes will be published on August 2.
• The core of the patch will be the promised buffs for Sorceresses and Barbarians, which were announced right after the launch of Season 1.
• Additionally, improvements will come to Nightmare Dungeons and a plethora of bug fixes.

What’s included in the patch: After Season 1 and Patch 1.1.0, many players were disappointed, especially since Sorceresses and Barbarians became practically useless. Both classes dropped to the bottom of all tier lists.

Many changes from the patch were met with confusion and are now to be partially reversed. There are buffs for all classes and improvements to the gameplay, which should make Diablo 4 more enjoyable again.

Blizzard will only publish the final patch notes on August 2. However, during the stream, Game Director Joe Shely, Associate Game Director Joe Piepiora, and Lead Class Designer Adam Z. Jackson already talked about the upcoming changes.

While some numbers might still be adjusted, the fundamental changes are intended to come as shown. You can find the entire stream on YouTube.

The patch notes for Patch 1.1.1, the main points

Changes for Sorceresses: Almost the entire range of skills and legendaries will be revised here. In particular, lightning skills are getting significant buffs, making it possible for Chain Lightning to become one of the new top builds.

There are also changes to glyphs and Paragon nodes intended to make more builds viable. Currently, only a handful of builds can reliably compete in the endgame, with the Blizzard build considered the strongest.

Furthermore, the developers want to mitigate the negative effects that currently only affect Sorceresses. Many legendaries give you a strong buff but also take something away. With Patch 1.1.1, this will be reduced or removed entirely. There is even a brand new legendary for the class.

Here are the changes in detail in English:

Changes for Barbarians: Similar to Sorceresses, the build diversity for Barbarians is set to improve. However, the focus for this class is on the early levels. There will be buffs to Fury generation, allowing you to progress better in the game up to around level 50.

Additionally, the damage of several abilities and the bonuses from passive effects and legendaries will increase. Bleeding builds, for instance, should become significantly stronger with an enhancement to the wounds passive than before.

Here are the changes in detail in English:

Buffs for uniques and all classes, more quality

What changes for other classes? There are also minor changes for Necromancers, Huntresses, and Druids. Here, only small adjustments are made, such as slightly increased damage for certain abilities. In summary, the changes are:

• stronger ranged and trap builds for Huntresses
• Druids gain more spirit power through abilities and their companions become stronger
• Necromancers should be able to play better with DoT builds
• some abilities of enemies deal less damage to all companions, making pet builds better

There are also some changes to unique items. This affects both class-specific and class-agnostic items. Starting with Patch 1.1.1, you will only be able to find the new versions.

Here are the changes in detail in English:

Improvements to come: In addition to changes to classes, numerous improvements to game quality are coming. In addition to the promised increase in monster density in Nightmare Dungeons and hell floods, there are:

• guaranteed legendaries from dungeon bosses and legion events from level 35
• guaranteed legendaries from the previously disappointing loot goblins from level 15
• guaranteed legendaries from the Butcher
• 40% reduced costs for resetting skills
• an additional tab for the loot chest (costs 400,000 gold)
• an increase in stack size to 99

Additionally, the dungeon teleport will be reverted from 5 seconds back to the original 3 seconds. The change was simply not enjoyable. The Nightmare affixes resource drain, cold enchanted, and backstab will disappear.

To balance out the now guaranteed loot a bit, dungeon bosses at World Levels 3 and 4 will receive a buff: they will now endure more damage. Your builds are supposed to feel more impactful at these levels and not allow you to simply mow down everything, including bosses.

Furthermore, numerous bug fixes are on the way. However, only two were specifically mentioned: the VRAM leak on PC and the currently buggy skill tree of the Necromancer.

What comes after Patch 1.1.1

In addition to the now concrete upcoming changes, the developers promised several adjustments that are expected to come in the future. In most cases, there were no specific dates provided; they are either working on it continuously or have yet to finalize their decisions.

This includes mechanics such as Overwhelm and damage over time becoming just as important as vulnerability for builds. The idea is: regardless of the effect you find on a legendary, you should be able to build something around it.

Abilities and legendaries that deal a fixed amount of damage are currently strong in the early game but useless in the endgame. This is also set to change as part of build diversity. The same goes for ultimates. Other planned changes include:

• buffs for elemental resistances
• faster progression at higher levels, expected to happen around Season 2
• improvements to mounts, including fixing a bug that causes controller players to move slower than mouse and keyboard players
• improvements to the Overwhelm system

Questions about a zoom function and more customization also came from the community but could not be answered in this round. More information may come in a later talk.

With Patch 1.1.1, the class balance will likely shift significantly, but there will certainly be many more builds in A and S tier. You can find the best classes and builds here:

Diablo 4: Tier list for Season 1 – Best classes and builds overview