Image: Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard is finally delivering big buffs to help out Barbarians and Sorcerers in Season 1.
Diablo 4 Season 1 players can finally breathe a sigh of relief because buffs are officially on the way. Blizzard Entertainment held a Campfire Chat live stream to address player complaints following this season’s widely-criticised nerf-heavy pre-patch, and confirmed that an upcoming update will bring a wide range of buffs to all of the game’s classes.
Patch 1.1.1 will launch on August 8, and it’s a surprisingly chunky update for what should be a minor content drop. This patch delivers substantial tweaks to abilities across all classes, especially Sorcerers and Barbarians, who received the brunt of Season 1’s nerfs. Both of these classes are being hit with a ton of buffs due to Blizzard wanting to, “improve the effectiveness and fun of the Sorcerer and Barbarian,” according to the livestream.
Things are turning around for those poor Sorcerer users who came into Season 1 with a bevy of optimism, only to be stuck with the weakest class in the game. Patch 1.1.1’s buffs are making fire and lightning-based builds more viable, with Greater Chain Lightning now dealing 5% more damage every time it bounces off anyone in the game - not just you. The Combustion passive gives Burning effects x20% increased damage and x2% extra damage per unique source of Burning applied upon enemies.
Enhanced Fireball now increases the radius of Fireballs by 50%, and Fire Bolt generates 2 Mana when hitting any enemy. All in all, a swathe of tweaks to Legendary Aspects, skills and Paragon boards now allow the Sorcerer to put out far more damage than before using elemental abilities that aren’t ice-based, which is already a big step for the class.
Tweaks for the Barbarian are a little different. While a lot of their skills have been buffed up, this patch focuses on giving them more Fury in combat to keep their other abilities up. Other skills have also had their damage increased significantly. For example, Enhanced Rupture got its damage increased from 45% to 70%, and Enhanced Charge went from 30% to 60%. Like the Sorcerer, the Barbarian has also received changes in their Uniques and Legendary Aspects to make them more enticing. No Paragon Board changes have been listed yet.
Other classes have also received a few tweaks, and it’s all good news as far as the eye can see. Druid skills get more Spirit gain and higher damage bonuses, while the Necromancer gets a slightly reduced Bone Spirit cooldown. Rogues have increased damage bonuses for their Caltrops and Poison Traps, and a few more less-popular skills. These three classes received far less changes according to Blizzard’s early patchnotes, which is bad news for anyone hoping for substantial Necromancer buffs. Rogues and Druids are already in a pretty good place this season, at least.
Blizzard is also working to address Vulnerable and Critical Strike damage, both of which are relied upon heavily in the game’s most damage-dealing builds right now. The developers said, “Our goal is to find a way - and we’re working on it right now - for all those different ways of dealing damage to have a lot of parity.”
It’s worth noting that all of these early patchnotes (available via Reddit user Mashstars here) are subject to change, as Blizzard is still working on their exact details. The full list of official patchnotes will be released on August 2, and Patch 1.1.1 itself will launch on August 8. Until then, it might be worth trying out the Rogue for a week before going back to the Sorcerer and Barbarian.
