Blizzard swings the class nerf bat in Diablo 4's first patch

The first Diablo 4 balance patch is now live.

Diablo 4 launched in early access a few days ago, and people are hitting endgame already. In our Diablo 4 review, I described how the game represents another big step up for Blizzard, owing to the game's impeccable cinematic treatment of the genre largely popularized by the Diablo franchise.

The game boasts several class roles, including stealthy archer-meets-assassin rogues, hulking werewolf druids, and skeleton minion-summoning necromancers. Diablo 4's warrior-like barbarian class has been causing a bit of a stir, however, owing to some viral endgame builds that transform them into whirling storms of death. As a result, Blizzard has issued its first balance patch for Diablo 4, bringing some class synergies to heel.

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"While we want players to both feel and be truly powerful, some Class builds and synergies are outside of our bounds for what is reasonable for the health of the game, so we are reducing their effectiveness. As an example, we generally want to avoid creating situations where players can survive unreasonably high amounts of damage for long periods of time because it too greatly warps our vision for how combat should be in Diablo IV."

Blizzard elaborated that some build synergies are getting buffed, however, but it comes at the cost of nerfing the Paragon system across the board. The endgame class progression Diablo 4 Paragon system lets you allocate a few extra stats after gaining further levels past level 50. Some of the nodes on the Paragon board let you dramatically increase attack speed, at least before this nerf, leading to synergies that utterly trivialize difficulty. A notorious Barbarian whirlwind build that went viral recently for its ability to rapidly sail through hundreds of mobs without taking any damage seems to have prompted some of these balance changes, which are detailed in full down below.

Patch 1.0.2d Build #42131 should be live now across Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, and PC platforms. Blizzard has implemented a system for Diablo 4 that generally allows for server-side patches without incurring downloads, but you may need to download some additional data from time to time.

Barbarian

Skill Changes

Challenging Shout

Legendary Aspect Changes

Bold Chieftain's Aspect

Aspect of the Dire Whirlwind

Item Changes

Gohr's Devastating Grips

Druid

Skill Changes

Pulverize

Lightning Storm

Grizzly Rage

Class Specialization

Obsidian Slam

Calm Before the Storm

Passive Changes

Electric Shock

Legendary Aspect Changes

Shockwave Aspect

Crashstone Aspect

Lightning Dancer's Aspect

Necromancer

Skill Changes

Blood Lance

Army of the Dead

Blood Wave

Passive Changes

Shadowblight

Grim Harvest

Serration

Death's Defense

Class Specialization

Raise Skeleton

Golem

Blood Golem

Iron Golem

Necromancer Paragon Board Changes

Hulking Monstrosity

Cult Leader

Rogue

Skill Changes

Twisting Blades

Rapid Fire

Dark Shroud

Dash

Caltrops

Passive Changes

Concussive

Legendary Affix Changes

Repeating

Sorcerer

Skill Changes

Arc Lash

Teleport

Legendary Affix Changes

Aspect of Control

General

Miscellaneous Class Changes

Druid Companions and Necromancer Minions

Paragon Board Changes

Rare Nodes

Glyphs

Monster Changes

Bug Fixes

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Jez Corden a Managing Editor at Windows Central, focusing primarily on all things Xbox and gaming. Jez is known for breaking exclusive news and analysis as relates to the Microsoft ecosystem while being powered by caffeine. Follow on Twitter @JezCorden and listen to his Xbox Two podcast, all about, you guessed it, Xbox!