Review
Blizzard has released the patch notes for a huge upcoming Diablo 4 patch, with a release date set for May 14. The patch notes have revealed that buffs for every class are on the way, making it a very big day for Diablo 4 fans.
The response to the recent release of Diablo 4‘s Season 8 has been mixed, to say the least. Many players have complained about the slower progression in the latest Season, with Blizzard feeling that recent Seasons have been far too easy for players to reach the endgame content. Since the Season launched on April 29, Blizzard has already released a few Diablo 4 updates tweaking elements of the new content, although it’s incomparable compared to the size of the upcoming patch.
The patch notes for Diablo 4‘s upcoming 2.2.1 update on all platforms were posted on the Blizzard website, confirming all the changes players can expect to see when the patch drops on May 14. The highlight is that each Diablo 4 class is receiving a buff, with the focus going to currently underpowered skills to level the playing field for players, no matter what build they’re creating. Of all the classes, Spiritborn and Barbarian are arguably the most buffed, although each one should feel a little more powerful going forward.
Amidst the huge list of patch notes, there have also been some minor changes to Diablo 4‘s Season 8 content. Sayeena is now a vendor who sells Oath Scrolls for Spectral Ash, giving players a new way to spend the resource, which had been stacking quickly for gamers who were grinding Apparition Incursions. The Sinerat’s Flames and Hatred’s Embrace’s Haste Boss Powers have been given small tweaks, too.
Beyond Season 8, there’s still a lot more to come from Diablo 4. Although nothing is confirmed at the moment, Blizzard seems open to bringing Diablo 4 to the Nintendo Switch 2, which would open the game up to an entirely new player base. Hopefully, the changes keep coming to the ongoing Season 8, as the developer attempts to keep its dedicated player base happy by rebalancing the existing content.
Diablo 4 Update 2.2.1 Patch Notes for May 14
Vessel of Hatred
Game Updates
Spiritborn
Skills
The Protector
- Damage increased from 80% to 140%.
- Barrier amount increased from 15% to 30% of Maximum Life.
- Rank 5 Upgrade Thorns damage increased from 100% to 150%.
Passives
Adaptive Stances
- Core Stat bonus increased from 50%[+] to 75%[+].
Vital Strikes
- Vulnerable damage bonus increased from 45%[x] to 80%[x].
- Healing amount increased from 2% to 5% Maximum Life.
- Vigor generation increased from 5 to 10.
Prodigy’s Tempo
- Skill Rank bonus increased from 2 to 4.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where Tortured Gifts of Mysteries in pre-Torment difficulties didn’t drop appropriate equipment for Spiritborn.
- Fixed an issue where enemies behind a locked door in the Vile Hive Dungeon could damage the player.
- Fixed an issue where Subo’s Seeker perk could mark untargetable objects, such as totems in the Hall of the Penitent.
- Fixed an issue where the Damage over Time effect from Gorshak in the Dark Citadel could persist after the boss was defeated.
- Fixed an issue where the Hold your Ground event in the Field of Giants could fail to progress between waves.
- Fixed an issue where visual effects of Akarat could persist after defeating the Harbinger of Hatred.
- Fixed an issue where the Necromancer’s Bone Spirits could not damage Wolf Pack’s Gateways during the Harbinger of Hatred encounter.
Base Game
Balance Updates
Barbarian
Items
Ghor’s Devastating Grips
- Damage bonus is now based on the damage per second rather than damage per tick.
Developer’s Note: This results in a roughly 100% damage increase.
- Explosion Cooldown Reduction when Critically Hitting increased from 0.2 to 0.4.
Twin Strikes
- Damage increased from 70-100% to 110-140%.
Aspect Of Dire Whirlwind
- Now also grants the same amount as Critical Strike Damage while Whirlwinding.
Druid
Passives
Earthen Might
- Critical Damage bonus increased from 50%[x] to 70%[x].
Perfect Storm
- Damage bonus increased from 60%[x] to 80%[x].
Humanity
- Now also reduces damage taken by 2% per rank while in Human Form.
Unique Item
Gathlen’s Birthright
- Required Critical Hits reduced from 400-200 to 300-150. Boss Critical hits reduced from 80-40 to 60-30.
- Movement Speed while in Human form increased from 17.5-23% to 24.5-30%.
Necromancer
Book of the Dead
Skeletal Priest
- Damage bonus increased from 30%[x] to 50%[x].
Items
Aspect of Reanimation
- Damage bonus increased from 25-45%[x] to 40-60%[x].
Sanguivor, Blade of Zir
- Inherent Summon Damage increased from 60% to 400%.
Rogue
Skills
Poison Trap
- Poisoning damage increased from 540% to 612%.
Items
Band of Ichorous Rose
- Poison Trap upgrade bonus boost increased from 50-100% to 50-150%.
Aspect Of Contamination
- Previous: Poison Trap bursts for Poison damage when it triggers. If this burst Critically Strikes, you deal 20-40% increased Poison damage for 5 seconds.
- Now: Poison Trap bursts for an additional 10-30% of its total normal damage when it triggers. If that Critically Strikes, you deal 20-40% increased Poison damage for 9 seconds.
Sorcerer
Passive
Shocking Impact
- Now triggers on Stun refresh.
Items
Hail of Verglas
- Increased damage per hit from 1.5% to 2%, up to a maximum of 75% to 100%.
Glacial Aspect
- No longer requires Blizzard to be cast, allowing it to be active from effects like Blizzard enchantment.
Game Updates
Season 8: Belial’s Return
- Sayeena has become a vendor that sells Oath Scrolls in exchange for Spectral Ash. Oath Scrolls can be consumed to gain Unveiler’s Oath reputation. Sayeena can be found near the Reputation Board in Tarsarak.
- The ing Boss Powers have been adjusted.
- Sinerat’s Flames: Increased Main Boss Power damage from 50% to 75%.
- Hatred’s Embrace’s Haste: Modifier Boss Power no longer falls off when switching weapons.
- The icon for Apparition Incursions has been adjusted to be more easily visible.
- Betraying eyes now spawn more consistently near the Apparition Boss.
- Another objective has been added to better communicate that season’s reputation can be acquired from both the Apparition Incursion event and defeating any boss across Sanctuary.
Miscellaneous
- Having player names read aloud by the Screen Reader is now a toggleable option. This feature can be found under Accessibility Settings.
Bug Fixes
Accessibility
- Fixed an issue where the Screen Reader didn’t mention the type of currency used when reading Reliquary items.
- Fixed an issue where the Screen Reader didn’t continue reading while progressing through Reliquaries menus.
- Fixed an issue where the Screen Reader couldn’t fully read certain error notifications.
- Fixed an issue where Belial could escape the trap set during the Masked Truths quest.
- Fixed an issue where the Screen Reader didn’t read anything when first opening the Armory.
- Fixed an issue where the compass could overlap the player character’s head.
Season Journey and Seasonal Questline
- Fixed an issue where the rubble pile in the Buried Hope quest didn’t display an interact tooltip.
- Fixed an issue where Buried Hope quest descriptions would stop updating properly in the middle of the quest.
- Fixed an issue where the Belial’s Unveiling quest (previously Belial’s Apparition Incursion) could display as finished when it was not yet finished.
- Fixed an issue where progression for the Chasing Lies quest could be blocked if Belial was defeated too quickly.
- Fixed an issue where the Season Journey objectives for defeating various Belial variants didn’t specify which Belial variant was required to complete the objective.
- Fixed an issue where the Season Journey Objective for killing Elite enemies was also gaining progress when defeating any enemy.
- Fixed an issue with the Spanish dialogue audio quality in the Belial’s Return seasonal questline.
Apparition Incursions and Belial Encounters
- Fixed an issue where Wargs summoned by the Apparition of Beastmaster appeared before the boss spawned.
- Fixed an issue where the Apparition of Beastmaster didn’t drop potions as expected.
- Fixed an issue where the Apparition of Blackmailer didn’t drop bombs in the intended way.
- Fixed an issue where the Apparition of Allek’s feathers could delay progression of an Incursion.
- Fixed an issue where Apparition of Kirma could teleport out of the boss arena.
- Fixed an issue where Apparition of Kirma could get stuck on ladders.
- Fixed an issue where a Betraying Eye would remain present but couldn’t be interacted with.
- Fixed an issue where Belial could appear prematurely when being summoned in an Apparition Incursion.
- Fixed an issue where players could escape during the Rage Phase circle of a Belial Ambush encounter.
- Fixed an issue where dying to Belial during an encounter after defeating another boss could cause Belial to not properly reset.
Boss Powers
- Fixed an issue where some of the Barrier granted by Blackmailer’s Sabotage persisted for an indefinite amount of time, instead of the intended 6 seconds.
- Fixed an issue where Varshan’s Life Steal Main Boss Power didn’t spawn its stream correctly.
- Fixed an issue where Belial’s Eye Beams Modifier Boss Power didn’t consistently apply Overpower. The bonus now lasts for 2 seconds after entering stealth.
- Fixed an issue where Beastmaster’s Training Main Boss Power only caused summoned entities to stun if another one was already active.
- Fixed an issue where Andariel’s Flaming Skull Main Boss Power inconsistently damaged enemies.
- Fixed an issue where Harbinger of Hatred’s Volley Modifier Boss Power would trigger off automatically cast Basic skills.
- Fixed an issue where Barbarian’s Iron Maelstrom didn’t consistently trigger Beast in the Ice’s Sleet Main Boss Power.
- Fixed an issue where Aspect of Unyielding Hits would not properly increase the damage of Varshan’s Life Steal, Belial’s Crystal Decoy, and Ashava’s Poison Modifier Boss Powers.
- Fixed an issue where the Haste Modifier Boss Power from Hatred’s Embrace expired when switching weapons.
- Fixed an issue where the ing Boss Powers could be activated while mounted.
- Skerg’s Toxins
- Avarice’s Explosive Ore
- Lord Zir’s Blood Pool
- Varshan’s Life Steal
Boss Lairs and Dungeons
- Fixed an issue where bosses could rarely regain health.
- Fixed an issue where Tormented Echo of Varshan’s arena-wide attack sometimes didn’t deal damage when expected.
- Fixed an issue where staggering Tormented Echo of Varshan when he summons minions could cause the minions to lose their functionality and cause Varshan to not use that power again.
- Fixed an issue where poison projectiles coming from the walls while fighting Belial, Lord of Lies could be avoided in certain positions.
- Fixed an issue where Effigies of Anguish, while fighting Andariel, could be feared by Necromancer’s Paranormal Sever and move around.
- Fixed an issue where Effigies of Anguish could start to move while the player was stealthed.
- Fixed an issue where Belial’s Hoard could not be opened when playing on controller.
- Fixed an issue where Duriel could become invincible if too much damage was dealt to him before he first begins burrowing.
- Fixed an issue where the gate in the Flood Depths could be opened manually without using the Gate Release.
- Fixed an issue where the Skeletal Construct in the Sunken Ruins and Maulwood dungeons could be destroyed prematurely, which would block dungeon progression.
General
- Fixed an issue where certain elite enemy affixes could damage players in town.
- Fixed an issue where the visual effect from the Hellhammer did not match the area of effect for its damage.
- Fixed an issue where Barbarian’s Leap did not avoid damage when jumping over puddles spawned by Belial.
- Fixed an issue where Druid Werewolves and Ravens attacks would not grant stacks of Anima of the Forest when using Storm’s Companion or Stormcrow’s Aspect in conjunction with Gathlen’s Birthright.
- Fixed an issue where Cold Skeleton Mage’s Upgrade effects randomly stopped working.
- Fixed an issue where Skeleton Reapers would sometimes fail to generate Corpses from their upgrade.
- Fixed an issue where Poison Trap would consume Combo Points even without using Bands of Ichorous Rose.
- Fixed an issue where the Damage Reduction against enemies affected by Trap Skills affix, granted by Scoundrel’s Leathers, applied even when the enemy was not affected by a trap skill.
- Fixed an issue where the Accursed Mark effect did not reset after using an Accursed Altar and then teleporting away.
- Fixed an issue where the experience bonus from incense would disappear after teleporting or moving between zones.
- Fixed a rare issue where a Vessel of Hatred exclusive item could be acquired when imprinting on a rare item.
- Fixed a rare issue where the player was not able to revive.
- Fixed an issue where Crown of Lucion was gaining infinite bonus damage from Channeled Skills.
- Fixed an issue where Crown of Lucion was only granting its bonuses to active player Skills rather than all damage.
User Interface and User Experience
- Fixed an issue where materials didn’t consistently update in the materials tab.
- Fixed an issue where some Infernal Hordes bosses didn’t have icons on the minimap.
- Fixed an issue where the description for Forgotten souls did not indicate that they could be acquired from Whisper Caches.
Miscellaneous
- Fixed multiple instances of visual intensity increases for multiple skills didn’t behave properly.
- Fixed an issue where a quicklist Party Finder entry couldn’t be made off of the Helltide icon on the map.
- Fixed an issue where the Chimimoryo pet could become unstoppable and run away from the player. (That Schnoz has a mind of its own!)
- Various visual, audio, UI, stability, and Reliquary improvements.
