A big Diablo 4 1.3.1 patch is planned to arrive next week, but Blizzard is already making big updates today with the launch of Diablo 4 patch notes 1.3.0a, which themselves make a first round of updates addressing some of the biggest problems in Season 3. The new Season of the Construct has already left many, myself included, underwhelmed by its ineffective Seneschal companion and the long grind of attempting to upgrade it, but a first round of improvements are now here.
It didn’t take long after the start of Diablo 4 Season 3 on Tuesday, January 23 for players, Twitch streamers, and YouTubers alike to begin expressing concerns with the latest season of the RPG. In response, Blizzard announced that two separate patches would be coming to help juice up the overall feel and pacing of the season, and the first Diablo 4 update today includes buffs to its Echo of Malphas fight, faster Seneschal upgrades, and a handful of additional changes to Vaults and Arcane Tremors.
Firstly, a new item called Igneous Cores will have a chance to drop from Vault Heralds, and are guaranteed from fighting Son of Malphas in world tier 4. These are now the way to access the Echo of Malphas fight, so you’ll no longer have to spend those precious Pearls of Warding summoning him and can instead use them on the Zoltun’s Warding buff, which now grants ten stacks per Pearl instead of three, with an upgraded maximum of 999 stacks. The grace period on losing these stacks has been raised too, meaning you’ll lose fewer of them if you’re hit by several traps in rapid succession.
As for the Echo of Malphas himself, he’ll now be a lot more worthwhile to fight. He’s been raised from level 85 to 100, and had his health pool increased by 30%, but the rewards are bumped to compensate. You’ll get more legendary items from defeating him, with an increased potential for those perfect max item level 925 drops, while the drop rate of Unique Stones from Malphas has been doubled alongside an extra 3% chance to get them from the chest opened after the fight.
“We’ve received feedback that the Seneschal does not feel powerful,” Blizzard writes. It explains that the robotic companion should feel stronger as it nears max level, but admits that leveling it up to this point can be quite a long and arduous grind. As such, the 1.3.0a patch gives you more Governing and Tuning stone drops, while also adjusting their experience requirements to allow them to rank up “more naturally with your leveling experience.”
There are also a few additional quality-of-life upgrades made to Vaults and Arcane Tremors, with some of the most annoying traps nerfed slightly to make them a bit easier to avoid, and guaranteed legendary item drops added to both Heralds of Malphas and the chests at the end of Vaults. Diablo 4 patch 1.3.0a is out now, and you can read through the full details courtesy of Blizzard.
Even more changes are expected with patch 1.3.1 on Tuesday January 30. Blizzard did initially post a list of Diablo 4 1.3.1 patch notes (which you can see courtesy of ‘Rob2628’ above), but then took them offline again, so it’s probably best not to assume that they’ll be the same when it arrives. If they are launched as suggested, however, expect big nerfs to the annoying vampiric and suppressor enemy affixes, along with adjustments to monster density in some dungeons.
In the meantime, be sure you’re rocking the best Diablo 4 builds in Season 3, or try out some more of the best games like Diablo, with 2024 seeing the 1.0 launch of Last Epoch and the Path of Exile 2 beta, alongside the promise of Titan Quest 2 and a new expansion for Grim Dawn.
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