Here we’ll be looking at the update notes for Diablo 4 Patch 1.0.2D. This is the first major balance update for Diablo 4, and it changes some builds.

So far, we’re not surprised that some of these builds are overtuned. But I didn’t expect it to be balanced at launch and make changes so quickly. Let’s take a look at what’s changed in this patch. First let’s take a look at Barbarian.

Barbarian Changes

This update reduces the damage reduction benefit of their challenging Shouts ability from 4% to 2%, which is a pretty significant nerf. And several areas have been nerfed, specifically affecting Whirlwind Builds.

Also, their unique item, Gohr’s Devastating Grips, has been nerfed. So basically the Whirlwind Barbarian changes are pretty dramatic. I don’t think we should terribly surprise anyone because level 100 Barbarian definitely limits endgame content.

Druid Changes

You may be a little disappointed when you enter Druid profession. First of all, here it has reduced Lucky Hit Chance from 33% to 25%. Spirit Boon Obsidian Slam you used to gain extra suppression, increases its requirement from 10 to 20 kills. So it’s about half as effective as it was before.

So when you use it, Pulverizes sends out a Shockwave, which does less damage. So basically, Bearer endgame build is heavily nerfed.

Obsidian Slam changes are a tough one for these builds. But it’s not all bad news for Druid. While Calm Before Storm's passive has reduced its Lucky Hit Chance from 15% to 10%, Lightning Storm’s damage has been increased from 32% to 40%. Diablo 4 Gold and experience it drop after hitting has been increased. So Lightning Gauge will get a little boost.

Necromancer Changes

But Lightning Drew has some buffs on Necromancer, keeping nerfs away from Necromancer.

The first Grim Harvest passive has been reduced, but you can gain 9 Essences by consuming corpses at Max level. Serration used to give you 1.5% crit chance per 10 Essence when you cast Bone skills. But now at Max level it will drop to about 0.9%, so basically Bone skill will reduce the critical hit.

So basically this is Nerf to any build that uses Corpse Explosion you know and any Bone Necromancer build. However, that’s where Necromancer Blood Lance damage nerfs ends up increasing the damage of Army of the Dead and reducing the cooldown by 20 seconds.

This way, your minions cannot consume more than 30 max health at a time. This guarantees that they won’t be killed easily. Most of the time, you will probably heal them before they die. So basically what we’re saying here is that Bone Necromancer and Corpse Explosion Necromancers have been slightly nerfed.

Rogue Changes

Rogue Twisting Blades have been significantly nerfed. The cooldown of each enemy has been significantly reduced. As a result, Twisting Blades will be a bit less effective than before, and Dark Shroud will gain about 50% less Shadow from skill levels. It has reduced the critical damage bonus of enemies you hit with Dash by 5% and affects critical chance.

When you knock down an enemy, you get roughly 20% less benefit. I think it’s mostly getting knocked out by poison traps or something like that. So they hit most of Trapper and Twisting Blade’s builds.

It’s not all bad news, they have buffed although Rapid Shot. So now it seems to be more effective in mixed melee range builds. I don’t think you can just use Rapid Fire in builds, and our bonus damage increases from 30% to 40%.

Sorcerer Changes

Finally, we come to Sorcerer. Its Arc Lash Lucky Hit Chance has been nerfed, from 30% to 14%. Also, the cooldown of Arc Lash has been reduced from 0.25 seconds to 0.15 seconds. It changes Shimmering Teleport damage reduction from 5 seconds to 3 seconds, almost halving the duration of the damage reduction.

A small amount has reduced Aspect of Control’s bonus damage. So this will mostly affect the cross Sorcerer.

Also Read: 5 Tips You Need To Master When Diablo 4 Release Hits

General & Paragon System Changes

Reduced maximum damage taken over time per damage instance from 2% to 1% of maximum health. For Paragon system, they basically nerfed most of Glyphs in Paragon system. This doesn’t affect too many people right away. But once they end the game, this will affect those who have reached level 50.

Final Thoughts & Full Patch Notes

So this is a very interesting patch. I haven’t seen a game launch with so many balance changes since Pillars of Eternity. We could make some baffling strong builds in that game, most of which got nerfed within the first few weeks.

It wasn’t all bad news though, and while most of the class took a hit, they weren’t hit too hard. Regardless, nerfs will move as fast as any future patches will. I hope to see another patch with more balance in the future.