Diablo 4 patch notes – Barbarian and Rogue nerfs in Day One Update

The Diablo 4 patch notes for day one are now out, including nerfs to many classes and an increase in late-game difficulty, however Blizzard has left out certain adjustments.

Blizzard’s Diablo 4 patch notes have been released, with a modest number of critical adjustments included, including nerfs to various Diablo 4 classes. You shouldn’t need to stop playing the RPG game and download a patch if you’ve already started it because this server-side update is a background change. However, there have been a few adjustments made that the Diablo 4 team has not publicly disclosed, raising some issues about the developer’s clarity.

The Diablo 4 update addresses a few issues that were causing noticeable power spikes in early play, while significantly increasing the late-game challenge. The greatest Barbarian build heavily relies on Shout abilities for their amazing personal and team-wide bonuses, but it’s far too easy to significantly reduce their cooldown with items. Unfortunately, the affix ‘Shout skill cooldown reduction’ will no longer show – it’s a shame to lose it entirely, but hopefully they’ll return in a more refined version in the future.

Inner Sight, a class specialisation of the Rogue, is a cornerstone of some of the strongest Rogue builds, enabling you to acquire bursts of infinite Energy by targeting marked foes in sequence. Unfortunately, you’ll now have to wait an agonising four seconds after the effect has ended before the markings emerge again, delaying your roll somewhat.

Flame Shield is now placed on full cooldown when worn into an Enchantment slot, presumably to eliminate any inadvertent trickery that can be performed by equipping it at the proper time to benefit from its cheat death effect. Flame Shield is a staple of some of the greatest Sorcerer builds, so you may be affected, but most players are unlikely to notice this change.

The higher World Tiers also have larger monster health values, which should make the ending a little more challenging. Videos of certain builds destroying entire dungeons in a matter of seconds have already surfaced from preview testing, so it should be more difficult to scale in such a way as to completely trivialise any content.

Small patch notes aren’t all that unexpected because Blizzard’s Joe Piepiora indicated to expect “very few changes” in terms of balancing from the server smash. Curiously, dataminers had discovered hints that the final build would include a few more significant changes, including a redesign of the Necromancer’s Golem, but the majority of these don’t seem to be live in-game yet – although a few are, such as the Legendary Aspect of Ancestral Echoes, which now requires Call of the Ancients to be on your action bar.

When changes are implemented, it might be a bit unpleasant for players to not have specific patch notes. This is similar to what happened with the server slam, where Blizzard stated certain changes but allowed the community to figure out the rest. It would be wonderful to have a bit more upfront information whenever things are modified in a game where numbers are really crucial; but, as the game has only just entered early access and the actual release date of Diablo 4 is only a few days away, perhaps we’ll receive more clarity in future patches.

Friday, June 2, 2023, Diablo 4 patch notes

Here are the Diablo 4 patch notes provided by Blizzard for June 2, 2023.

Rogue

Inner Sight: There is a 4 second wait before another opponent becomes tagged when Inner Sight’s infinite Energy runs out.

Sorcerer

Flame Shield Enchantment: Flame shield has a full cooldown when it is first equipped into an enchantment slot.

Miscellaneous

Later World Tiers have higher monster health values.

Items

This affix will no longer be present on items that have the Shout Skill Cooldown Reduction.

Make sure your PC satisfies the Diablo 4 system requirements before you start playing, and go at our tests on Diablo 4 Steam Deck compatibility. Additionally, you’ll discover all the top Diablo 4 builds, including a list of the creators’ preferred gameplay styles.