Diablo 4 patch notes – Day one update nerfs Barbarian and Rogue

The day one Diablo 4 patch notes are here, with nerfs to multiple classes and an increase to late-game difficulty, but some updates aren’t listed by Blizzard.

Diablo 4 patch notes day one - a tan-skinned Rogue looks off in the distance ith a concerned side-eye

Blizzard’s day one Diablo 4 patch notes have rolled out, with a small number of key updates making the list including nerfs to several Diablo 4 classes. This server-side update is a background change, meaning if you’ve already started blasting through the RPG game you shouldn’t need to quit out and download a patch. However, there are also a few changes made that the Diablo 4 team hasn’t publicly listed, leaving some questions as to clarity from the developer.

The Diablo 4 hotfix hits a few things that were seeing notable power spikes from early play, and also bumps up the late-game challenge a bit. The best Barbarian build makes heavy use of Shout skills for their fantastic personal and team-wide buffs, but it’s a little too easy to drop their cooldown dramatically using items. Sadly, then, the ‘Shout skill cooldown reduction’ affix will no longer appear – it feels a little sad to lose it altogether, but perhaps they’ll return in a more finely-honed form in the future.

The Rogue’s Inner Sight class specialization is a cornerstone of some of the best Rogue builds, allowing you to gain bursts of unlimited Energy by targeting marked enemies in sequence. Unfortunately, you’ll now have to wait for an agonizing four seconds after the effect expires before the marks will appear again, somewhat slowing your roll.

Sorcerers also get hit with a small nerf, with Flame Shield now being placed on full cooldown when equipped into an Enchantment slot – this is presumably just to avoid any unintentional trickery that can be performed by equipping it at the perfect time to benefit from its cheat death bonus. Flame Shield is a mainstay of some of the best Sorcerer builds, so there’s a good chance you might be affected, but most players probably won’t notice this change.

Diablo 4 patch notes - a bald-headed Barbarian yells, thrusting out their chest and wielding two hand axes.

Monster health values have also been bumped up in the higher World Tiers, which should make the endgame a little tougher – with videos already popping up from preview testing of certain builds demolishing entire dungeons in seconds, this should make it a little harder to scale in such a way that you completely trivialize any content.

Blizzard’s Joe Piepiora said to expect “very few changes” balance-wise from the server slam, so small patch notes aren’t too surprising. Curiously, dataminers had found indications that the release build would have a few more dramatic adjustments, including a rework to the Necromancer’s Golem, but most of these don’t appear to be live in game yet – although a couple are, with some of the craftable elixirs getting minor number tweaks and the Legendary Aspect of Ancestral Echoes now requiring Call of the Ancients to be on your action bar.

As a player, it’s a little frustrating to not have exact patch notes when changes roll out – something similar happened with the server slam, where Blizzard listed some of the adjustments but left the community to discover the rest. In a game where numbers really are everything, it’d be nice to see a little more up-front clarity whenever things are changed – however, with the game only just hitting early access now and the full Diablo 4 release date still a few days away, perhaps we’ll get more clarity in future updates.

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Diablo 4 patch notes – Friday June 2, 2023

Here are the Diablo 4 patch notes for June 2, 2023, courtesy of Blizzard. Note that Diablo 4 patch notes 1.0.2d have since rolled out, so check those for further information.

Sorcerer

  • Flame Shield Enchantment: When Flame shield is initially equipped into an Enchantment slot, it’s placed on full cooldown.

Rogue

  • Inner Sight: After Inner Sight’s unlimited Energy expires, there will be a 4 second delay before another enemy becomes marked.

Items

  • Shout Skill Cooldown Reduction: This affix will no longer appear on items.

Miscellaneous

  • Monster health values have been increased in later World Tiers.

If you’re yet to jump in, make sure your PC meets the Diablo 4 system requirements first, and check out our testing on Diablo 4 Steam Deck compatibility. You’ll also find all the very best Diablo 4 builds, where we’ve even got lists of the developers’ favorite ways to play.