Diablo IV Update 1.1.1 Brings Buffs to Barbarian & Sorcerer, Increases Monster Density, and More

The next update for Diablo IV, patch 1.1.1, will be released on August 8 and Blizzard has outlined various major improvements including buffs for the Barbarian and Sorcerer classes, item tweaks, monster population increases, and other quality-of-life changes.

In the recent Diablo IV Campfire Chat, the developers went in-depth on all the changes that will be coming to Patch 1.1.1, most notably major improvements to both the Barbarian and Sorcerer.

Blizzard notes that changes made are not final yet, and there may have tweaks here and there before the update’s official release.

Barbarian

For the Barbarian, Blizzard will be introducing various buffs to the class, improving on how they perform in early games.

Some notable changes are:

• Fury generation from basic skills is increased across the board
• Damage done by Rupture, Charge, and various other abilities will be increased
• Violent Upheaval will also now work on boss enemies
• Some of Barbarian’s Unique and Legendary items are getting revamped and tweaked
• Blizzard is also replacing some less-desirable affixes from items with other stats that players demand for

Sorcerer

On the other hand, Sorcerer will be receiving various quality-of-life improvements, overall damage increases, and buffs to late-game survivability.

Some of the notable improvements are:

• Flickering Fire Bolt will now generate Mana upon hitting any enemy, allowing players to regain resources more often
• Maximum Life bonus and defensive reduction increases on Glyphs and Nodes across the board, improving late-game survivability for the Sorcerer
• Various damage increases to spells and Chain Lightning in particular, will be receiving multiple improvements
• The Aspect of Three Curses Legendary item that used to only affect Meteor will now also boost the damage of Fireball.
• Additionally, the damage increase boost will always be active to players and will be increased further against Healthy enemies

The rest of the available classes in the game, the Rogue, Druid, and Necromancer, are also receiving positive changes.

Rogue

For the Rogue, buffs coming in patch update 1.1.1 will improve on the following:

• Forceful Arrow will now pierce enemies on every 3rd cast
• Rain of Arrow will now knock enemies down on the 1st wave as opposed to the previous 2nd wave knockdowns, providing players with a more reliable crowd control
• The Aspect of Elusive Menace Legendary item also no longer requires hits to be from extremely closeby enemies, increasing its usability for various content
• Like Barbarian’s items, some of Rogue’s items will also have the less-desirable affixes changed to more requested ones

Druid

Moving on to the Druid, the class sees positive changes, for example:

• Spirit generation from basic skills is increased
• The damage of Druid’s companions such as wolves and ravens also increased
• The skill Rabies has its damage over time increased from 76% to 110%, enhancing the viability of poison-focused Druids

Necromancer

Lastly, the Necromancer class is also receiving some improvements, namely:

• Better cooldown reduction from Bone Spirit, allowing for more frequent cast
• The Willpower damage scaling for Wither Legendary Board Paragon increases
• General buffs to the Empowering Reaper and the Exposed Flesh Legendary Aspect items

Furthermore, the survivability of Druid and Necromancer companions is improved and they will take reduced damage from certain monsters such as the Fire Enchanted, Electrified Obelisks, and Shock Lance elites.

Item Changes

Aside from classes, a handful of changes will also be coming to items.

For example, the Caged Heart of Spellbreaking Malignant Heart will now grant universal damage reduction after taking elemental damage rather than just the defenses against the specific type of element damage that triggered the effect.

Another change is the Unique item Temerity, which will have its “All Stats” affix replaced with “Max Life” and has the item’s Barrier effect scale with the player’s maximum Life.

In addition, some of the previously revealed quality-of-life changes will be coming alongside this update.

This includes elixir stack sizes increasing to 99, additional stash tabs to be purchasable with gold, and respec costs will be reduced by 40%.

Enemy Changes 

Another major change coming to Patch 1.1.1 is the monster density increase in end-game areas such as Nightmare Dungeon and Helltide.

Blizzard explains that by increasing the number of monsters in areas, players will get to live the ARPG fantasy of mowing down hordes of enemies.

Additionally, coming to the update, bosses in World Tier III and IV will have their health increased but will always reward players with a Legendary item upon defeat.

Moreover, Treasure Goblins will also always reward a Legendary item on defeat after Level 15 onwards.

Long-Term Changes

Apart from these changes coming to the update, Blizzard assures that there are many more long-term changes they are looking into.

Some notable issue Blizzard mentioned is the disparity between damage types as Vulnerable and Critical Strike damage are currently at the top of the chart.

Blizzard also mentioned that Resistance stats is not working as effectively as they hope, as well as Ultimate abilities falling off the late game in favor of general buffs.

Additionally, Blizzard also said they are looking into improving the Mount system and mentioned how players are annoyed at the forced dismount whenever they reached an invisible barrier.

Blizzard will be releasing the full patch notes for Diablo IV update 1.1.1 on the 2nd of August, 2023, so that players can read and process all the game-wide changes before the update launches.

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