Diablo 4 Season 4: Patch notes show what gets better – less loot, but stronger

Diablo 4: The Patch Notes for Season 4 Patch 1.4.0

Note: Changes compared to the PTR are bold marked.

Updates from the public test realm.

Developer’s comment: We appreciate all the feedback our players provided during the public test realm phase for Season 4: Loot Reborn. The following section highlights the major bug fixes and feedback adjustments.

Feature Updates

• There is no longer a chance of failure at completion.
• The completion animation has been removed for ranks that are not milestones (1-3, 5-7, etc.).
• The tempering result screen now shows the result affix, its roll result, and the affix range.
• Various improvements to the user interface of the tempering and completion experience.
• Several tiers of completion material chests have been added that transmute significantly more materials than previously available.
• A visual marker has been added to the imprint UI indicating which legendary affixes are currently equipped.
• You can now search for the terms “equip” or “equipped” in the Codex of Power to see currently equipped affixes.
• We’ve added an inventory icon to mark items that have at least one Great Affix.
  • When items with Great Affixes drop in-game, they will also have this icon to indicate that they have a Great Affix.

Hellflood and the Pit

• The group member who spends the runic shards to open the Pit receives 100% of the completion materials; the rest of the group receives half that amount.
• Artillery shrines and shockwave shrines no longer appear in the Pit.
• The summoning chance of Hellflowers in Hellflood zones has been increased.
• The drop rate for Unhell Hearts has been adjusted and is now more consistent.
• The overall loot quality of the Blood Maiden has been improved.
  • As a bonus reward for cooperation, loot quality has also been improved for players contributing materials to summon the Blood Maiden.
• Condemners who dropped a chest of Condemnation when defeated now drop the contents of a Condemnation chest without additional Glimmer costs upon their death.

Balance Changes

• Many tempering affixes that either performed too much or too little have been adjusted to their intended power levels.
• The tempering affix for maximum size increase of certain skills and effects, such as Dust Devil or Bone Spirit, is now capped at 100%.

Updates to Items

The complete details on items, including legendary aspects, the Codex of Power, item affixes, Great Affixes, Tempering, and Masterworking, can be found here in our Season 4 blog.

Here are some of the important things that come with the updates on items:

• When extracting an aspect, it is now upgraded in the Codex of Power. All aspects now exist in the Codex of Power.
• Various item affixes have been updated and the overall pool of affixes has been condensed. Great affixes have also been introduced.
  • They only appear on unique and legendary ancestral items and are more powerful (1.5x) versions of ordinary affixes.
  • Each item affix has the chance to become a Great Affix at World Tier IV.
• New systems for Tempering and Masterworking allow for deeper customization of items as well as access to new affixes.
• Legendary items looted from enemies of level 95+ always have an item power of 925.
• Unique items can now drop earlier in the game:
  • Unique items of World Tier III drop now as non-sacred on World Tiers I and II.
  • Unique items drop as sacred on World Tier IV.
  • Uber unique items can now appear as loot starting from monster level 55 and have item power 925.
• The minimum level requirement to equip sacred and ancestral items has been decreased.
  • Sacred: 35
  • Ancestral: 55

Game Updates

Accessibility

New Character Highlighting

• We have added an option to highlight NPCs, characters, and enemies in Sanctuary, making them easier to distinguish from other environments.
  • Standard highlighting
    • Adjusts the game lighting to emphasize the dark and gloomy world of Sanctuary as intended.
  • Additional highlighting
    • Greatly increases the contrast for characters in the world. The game options allow for adjustments to the intensity and colors.

Reborn Hellflood

The Hellflood has been updated to provide more challenges and rewards.

Hellflood Threat

• While battling through Hellfloods, you create threat – how much depends on how tough the monsters are and how often you receive Tormented Gifts in the Hellflood.
• There are three levels of Hellflood threat, each of which increases the danger and frequency of monster ambushes. At Level 3, you will be Hellmarked.
• Once you reach maximum threat, a brief ambush frenzy with maximum enemy density is triggered. The ambush ends with the final appearance of a Hellflower, an immensely powerful servant of Hell, reborn from the tortured souls of Sanctuary’s mightiest champions.
  • There are five variants, one for each class in Diablo IV.
• Once the Hellflower ambush is activated, your threat resets.
• Upon the death of your character, the threat resets.

Cursed Ritual

• Unhell Hearts can be earned when opening chests with the Tormented Gift and can be used at the site of the Cursed Ritual. The following enemies also drop Unhell Hearts:
  • Hellflower Demons
  • Heralds of Damnation
• The Cursed Ritual, a site of gruesome bloodshed, is the ultimate testimony of the disturbing efforts the followers of Hell make to satisfy their dark desires. Here you can start the Cursed Ritual.
• Submit three Unhell Hearts to begin the ritual, and you will be overwhelmed by a large demonic ambush. Other players in your sub-area will receive a notification that the ritual has begun if they wish to join your fight.
• This ambush culminates with the arrival of the Blood Maiden, an immensely powerful demonic creature whose death brings great rewards.

Adjustments to World Tiers I and II

A version of the Hellflood has been introduced for World Tiers I and II with the following adjustments:

• All Tormented Gifts are Mysterious Chests.
• No roaming bosses.
• The monster density has been adjusted to the expected difficulty level for World Tiers III and IV.

New Items

General

Unique Items

Tyrael’s Might – Unique Chest Armor

• While you have full health, your skills unleash a divine barrage that deals damage.

Yen’s Favor – Unique Boots

• While casting a skill, there is a chance of 40-60% 20-30% to cast a skill that is neither a mobility nor ultimate skill and is currently on cooldown. This effect can occur once every 8 12 seconds.

Legendary Aspects

Aspect of Frosty Steps

• While you are below 45-60% health, escaping nearby enemies with cold damage freezes them and inflicts vulnerability for 3 seconds.

Aspect of Shattering Strikes

• Lucky Hit: When you deal damage to an enemy, there is a chance of up to 20% to stun them for 2 seconds. You deal 5-20% increased damage against stunned enemies.

Barbarian

Unique Items

Arreat’s Resolve – Unique Leg Armor

• Your summoned Ancestors are empowered.
  • Korlic creates an earthquake that deals physical damage over 4 seconds when he jumps.
  • Talic leaves Dust Devils that deal damage while he creates a whirlwind.
  • Madawc ignites the ground, dealing additional damage through burns over 4 seconds when he uproots the ground.

Twin Strikes – Unique Gloves

• After casting Double Strike four times, your next Double Strike hits twice more, with each hit dealing 10-25% increased damage.

Legendary Aspects

Aspect of Whipping Winds

• Your sweep skills create 3 5 Dust Devils that deal damage to enemies in their path.
• Your Dust Devils are 5-20% 15% larger and deal 1% more damage for each percent by which their size is increased.

Druid

Unique Items

Earthbreaker – Unique Ring

• Casting Landslide summons tectonic spikes that deal additional damage over 2 seconds. Casting Landslide in this area has a 20-30% chance to generate additional Landslide pillars.

Wildheart Hunger – Unique Boots

• When you transform into a Werewolf or Werebear, you gain Wildheart for 5 seconds. Wildheart grants you 1-1.5% increased damage for shapeshifting skills every 2 seconds and is stackable up to 20 times.

Legendary Aspects

Aspect of Feverish Onslaught

• If you hit at least 1 enemy with a charged attack, the attack speed of the skill increases by 1-2.5% 1-2% and you receive 5 seconds of a 1-3% 1-4% damage reduction. Stackable up to 5 times.

Necromancer

Unique Items

Bone Carver – Unique Amulet

• Pest fires additional 4 smaller projectiles that pierce enemies and deal shadow damage over 3 seconds.

Cruor’s Embrace – Unique Gloves

• Blood Wave consumes corpses to trigger mini novas that deal damage. Damage is increased by 10% for each target that was hit by the original effect, up to a maximum of 50%. Damage is also increased by 20% for each consumed corpse.

Legendary Aspects

Apothic Aspect

• Skeleton Priests enhance the attacks of your Skeleton Warriors with shadow damage and give them a chance of 5-20% 5-15% to stun for 1.5 seconds.

Rogue

Unique Items

Thief’s Kiss – Unique Ring

• Quick Shot now fires exploding arrows that deal 15-25% increased damage.
• The projectile pattern of Thief’s Kiss is now more predictable.

Saboteur’s Sigil – Unique Ring

• If you cast Blade Storm, there is a 15-30% chance to release flashbangs that deal physical damage and stun enemies for 1 second. Your grenade skills have a lucky hit chance of 2% 5%.

Legendary Aspects

Aspect of High Pressure

• The arrows from Barrage now pierce 1 enemy.
• Barrage now has a 10-20% increased attack speed.

Sorceress

Unique Items

Shattered Winterglass – Unique Amulet

• If you cast Frozen Orb, there is a 35-50% chance of a random summon when the orb explodes. Lucky hit: Your summons have up to 50-70% 70-100% chance to fire a Frozen Orb at nearby appearing enemies.

Developer’s Comment: Additional explosions of the Frosty Orbit Aspect do not trigger this effect, as the unique item requires “casting”. This unintended interaction has been fixed since the PTR.

Flame Weaver – Unique Gloves

• If you cast Firebolt through your Fire Wall, it splits into 4 bolts, each dealing 80-100% more damage.
• Flame Weaver now splits Firebolts into 3 instead of 4, and decreases the increased damage from 30-70% to 10-30%.

Legendary Aspects

Aspect of Weak Destruction

• You deal 25-40% increased damage as long as you don’t have defensive skills equipped in your action bar.

Aspect of the Fire Thrower

• Flame Death now splits into 3 beams, each dealing 70-85% of normal damage.

Balance Updates

General

Unique Items

Talisman of the Banished Lord

• Updated graphics and sounds indicating that the next core skill will overwhelm.
• The overwhelming damage on critical hits has been reduced from 80-120% to 20-60%.
• The resources needed for guaranteed overwhelming have been reduced from 300 to 275.

Tibault’s Will

• The damage increase during Unstoppable has been reduced from 20-40% to 10-20%.
• The damage increase lasts 1 second longer after Unstoppable ends.

Blade Plate

• Blade Plate has been updated and now works in the new Masterworking system.
• It now has no affixes but four thorn affixes.
• New unique power: Thorns now have a 10% chance to deal 100-150% increased damage.

Legendary Aspects

Disobedience

• Armor stacks no longer drop individually. They are now refreshed or reset simultaneously.
• Armor gain has been changed to 25-40%.

Assimilation

• Previously – You had an 8% higher evasion chance against enemies affected by damage-over-time effects. When you evade, you gain 5-10 of your primary resource.
• Now – Your evasion chance is increased by 8%. When you evade, you fortify yourself for 5-10% 5-20% of your maximum health.

Revenge

• The chance to stun has been increased from 8% to 10%.
• Now increases damage to stunned and knocked down enemies.

Inner Calm

• Previously – Deals 5-10% more damage for every second you stand still, up to a maximum of 40%.
• Now – Deals 5-10% more damage. This bonus triples if you stand still for 3 seconds.

Surrounded Sage

• Previously – For each nearby enemy, you were healed for (0-181) health per second, up to (4-605) health per second.
• Now – Your evasion chance is increased by 8%. Successful evasion restores 5-20% of your maximum health.
• Now usable by Barbarians and Druids.

Now also grants Thorns to Necromancer Servants.

Hectic Aspect

• The cooldown reduction has been decreased from 2-4 seconds to 1-2 seconds.

Miscellaneous

Developer’s Comment: Monsters still deal more damage when their levels are higher, but their relative damage reduction remains the same starting at Level 100. This change was implemented to counteract the extreme damage boss monsters deal to players at Level 200 who have an armor cap.

• The companions of Necromancers, Barbarians, Druids, and Sorceresses now receive 100% of the attributes of the player character.
• Skill labels have been updated throughout to allow more aspects and other effects to work on more skills and abilities. Examples:
  • Relevant “Call” skills for Druids and Barbarians are now labeled as Calls.
  • New Chain label for skills such as Chain Lightning and Frenzy.
  • New Mobility label for skills that move or teleport the player character, such as Raven Feet or Teleport.
  • More skills are now labeled as core skills, such as Sorceress mastery skills and other skills that consume resources, such as Bone Spirit.
  • Additionally, several aspects have been updated to incorporate these changes.
• The damage reduction granted by Fortifying has been increased from 10% to 15%.
• The cooldown reduction is now capped at 75%.
• The calculation of physical damage against damage reduction is now capped at Level 100.
• The affix for maximum charges in Escape has been increased from 2 to 3.
• The affix that causes attacks to reduce the cooldown of Escape has been increased from 0.8 to 1.5 seconds.
• The affix that grants movement speed upon escaping has been increased from 50% to 125%.
• The resistance to all damage types for amulets has increased from 19% to 25%.
• The resistance of rings against one damage type has increased from 8% to 10%.

Barbarian

General

• The automatic 10% damage reduction from Barbarians has been removed.
• Legendary properties requiring Ancestor Call to be equipped are no longer required.
• Previously – Dust Devils differed depending on the legendary aspect that created them in duration, speed, and movement patterns. Now they behave consistently regardless of the aspect they stem from. Additionally, the following updates have been made for Dust Devils:
  • The maximum number of Dust Devils that can be active simultaneously is now 15. Dust Devils now move faster and dissipate sooner.

Skills

Charge

• The damage has been reduced from 250% to 180%.

Strong Charge

• The cooldown reduction per hit target has been reduced from 3 to 2 seconds.
• The cooldown reduction for hitting a boss has been reduced from 6 to 4 seconds.
• The maximum cooldown reduction has been reduced from 9 to 6 seconds.

Furious Hammer of Ancestors

• Previously – Hammer of Ancestors adds 1% increased damage for each rage point you had at activation.
• Now – Hammer of Ancestors gains +2% critical strike chance per 10 rage you had at activation.

Brutal Mauling

• The damage of Mauling against vulnerable enemies has been increased from 12% to 25%.

Blood Spike

• The initial damage from Blood Spike now guarantees to overwhelm.

Call of Ancestors

• The damage from Korlic’s Leap has been increased from 104% to 156%.
• The damage from Korlic’s Frenzy has been increased from 39% to 59%.
• The damage from Talic’s Whirlwind has been increased from 65% to 98%.
• The damage from Madawc’s Uproot has been increased from 195% to 293%.

Kick

• The damage radius has been increased from 2.2m to 3m.
• Bonus damage when an enemy is thrown against a wall has been increased from 70% to 105%.

Strong Kick

• The damage per 10 rage spent has been increased from 20% to 25%.

Passive Skills

Unbridled Rage

• The bonus damage has been reduced from 135% to 100%.

Weapon Expertise

Expertise with Polearms

• The lucky hit chance has been increased from 10% to 15%.
• The damage in healthy state has been increased from 10% to 15%.

Expertise with Two-Handed Maces

• The rage gain has been increased from 2 to 5.
  • Previously – In Berserker mode, you deal 15% higher critical hit damage against stunned and vulnerable enemies.
  • Now – In Berserker mode, you deal 15% higher critical hit damage.
• Expertise with Two-Handed Axes
• Damage against vulnerable targets decreased from 15% to 10%.
• Expertise with One-Handed Axes
• The critical hit chance against injured enemies has been increased from 5% to 10%.

Paragon

Glyph “Marshal”

• The cooldown reduction has been decreased from 4 to 2 seconds.

Legendary Node: Blood Frenzy

• The damage increase in Berserker mode has been reduced from 25% to 10% and is capped at a bonus of 30% damage.

Pulverizing Glyph

• Additional Bonus: The overwhelming damage has been decreased from 30% to 20%.

Dominance Glyph

• The bonus on overwhelming damage per 5 Willpower on Glyph Level 21 has been reduced from 39.9% to 14.9%.
• Additional bonus
  • Previously – After 30 seconds without overwhelming, your next attack will overwhelm.
  • Now – Every 30 seconds, your next attack will overwhelm.

Boiling Glyph

• Additional Bonus: The rage gain when killing an enemy has been increased from 3 to 5.

Legendary Aspects

Aspect of the Shattered Ground

• The description has been adjusted, no change in functionality.
  • Previously – Uprooting guarantees to overwhelm every 25 seconds and deals 10-25% increased damage. This timer is reduced by 4 seconds when uprooting overwhelms a boss or elite enemy.
  • Now – Every 25 seconds, your next uprooting will guaranteed overwhelm and deal 10-25% increased damage. This timer is reduced by 4 seconds when uprooting overwhelms a boss or elite enemy.

Aspect of the Earth Wielder

• The bonus on overwhelming damage has been decreased from 35-50% to 15-30%.

Aspect of the Unyielding Weapon Master

• The rage generation has been increased from 20-35% to 35-65% as long as all bonuses from “Wandering Arsenal” are active.

Aspect of the Windwhip

• Previously – When re-casting Double Strike within 1.5 seconds, a Dust Devil is created that deals damage to enemies behind the target.
• Now – When casting Double Strike, a Dust Devil is created that deals damage to enemies in its path. The number of Dust Devils created is tripled if Double Strike is cast twice within 2 seconds.

Diabolical Aspect

• Previously – After generating 100 rage, your next attack that deals direct damage creates a Dust Devil that deals damage to enemies behind the target.
• Now – After generating 100 rage, your next direct damage attack creates 3 Dust Devils that deal damage to enemies in their path.

Aspect of the Dust Devil

• Previously – Whirlwind leaves Dust Devils that deal damage to nearby enemies (1 Dust Devil every 1.5 seconds).
• Now – Whirlwind leaves Dust Devils that deal damage to enemies in its path (1 Dust Devil every 0.75 seconds).

Aspect of the Whipping Winds

• The created Dust Devils have been reduced from 5 to 3.

Aspect of the Experienced Brawler

• Now increases damage dealt by Charge, Leap, and Kick.
• The timer for the strengthening effect has been removed.

Aspect of Giant Steps

• Previously – Reduces the cooldown of Leap by 3-5 seconds for each enemy hit up to a maximum of 9 seconds.
• Now – Reduces the cooldown of Leap by (2.5-5) seconds for each enemy hit, up to a maximum of 9 seconds. Hitting a boss with a leap grants you the maximum cooldown reduction.

Aspect of Blood Drought

• Previously – Lucky Hit: When you deal direct damage to bleeding enemies, there is a chance of 15-30% to stun them for 2 seconds.
• Now – Lucky Hit: When you deal damage to bleeding or vulnerable enemies, there is a chance of 15-30% to stun them for 2 seconds.

Passive Skills

Unbridled Wrath

• The bonus damage was reduced from 135% to 100%.
• Also grants Thorns to Servants of the Necromancer.

Unique Items

Decay

• As a unique drop, there will now be greater opportunities for looting unique items in the game.