Ahead of the launch of Season 1, Diablo 4 has just received a massive patch that has fans in an uproar regarding some of the changes.
Any game developers can vouch that balancing a game is rather difficult. This becomes even harder the more complex the game is, with lots of moving parts that need tweaking or fixing. This is especially true of ARPGs where balancing can sometimes feel extremely tricky given how each class has their unique abilities. Diablo 4 is no different, and it seems that Blizzard are struggling to balance the game out before the launch of Season 1. Let’s have a look at some of the most important parts of patch 1.1.0.
New Uniques and Aspects
All of these Uniques will only drop on World Tier 4, even though some of them might seem a bit underwhelming.
- Ahavarion Spear of Lycander – Staff – Your character will gain a random Shrine effect for 10-20 seconds after an Elite enemy is killed. This effect can only happen once every 30 seconds.
- Azurewrath – Barbarian Sword – All of your Core skills have a chance of 20% to freeze enemies for three seconds while also dealing Cold damage to them.
- Fleshrender – Druid One-Handed Mace – Your Debilitating Roar and Blood Howl skills will deal extra damage to any nearby enemies that are Poisoned.
- Lidless Wall – Necromancer Shield – Your Lucky Hits will have a chance between 5-25% to spawn an additional Bone Storm when Bone Storm is already active. Any Sacrifice bonuses you have up will increase that chance by 25% and the total number of Bone Storms that can be active by one.
- Eaglehorn – Rogue Bow – Your Penetrating Shot skill will have a chance between 30-80% to fire an additional arrow that can bounce off walls. Enemies that are hit from behind with this skill will also become Vulnerable for 3 seconds.
- The Oculus – Sorcerer Wand – Your character will gain the Teleport Enchantment for free. Anytime you use the Teleport Enchantment you will teleport to a random location.
While some of these Uniques sound interesting, The Oculus which is relegated to the Sorcerer class sounds abysmal. Unlike the Diablo 2 variant of this item which randomly teleported you when you got hit, this item replaces your Dodge ability with a random Teleport. Any way you slice it, that is one horrible-sounding item effect.
Now let’s have a look at all the new Legendary Aspects that will be found in Season 1.
General
- Audacity (Utility Aspect): When at least five enemies are Close to you, they will be stunned for two to four seconds. There is an innate 20 second cooldown on this Aspect.
- Craven (Mobility Aspect): Your character will gain 20-40% more Movement Speed when backing away from enemies that are either Slowed or Chilled.
Barbarian
- Ancestral Charge: The Charge skill will also call down four Ancients that will fight alongside you.
Druid
- Subterranean: The active ability from Poison Creeper will also cast a Landslide skill that circles around you.
Necromancer
- Gore Quills: Your Blood Lance skill will now use up Blood Orbs and throw lances from within them.
Rogue
- Pestilent Points: After you cast Puncture for three times in a row, the third cast will be Poison Imbued.
Sorcerer
- Searing Wards: After you spend a set amount of your Mana your next Firewall will be a free cast and it will also take out incoming Small Missiles.
So there you have it for the Uniques and Aspects in this patch. If you’re interested in finding out more, check out the full Patch Notes right here.
