The Sorcerer and Barbarian classes are in dire need of salvation, prompting the Diablo 4 class balance experts to put together a massive list of buffs and changes that will release with the next major update, Patch 1.1.1.
Right out of the gate during the July 28 version of the Campfire Chat, the Diablo 4 developer stream series, the team said a major goal of theirs inspired by community feedback is “to improve the effectiveness and fun of the Sorcerer and Barbarian classes.” Lead class designer Adam Jackson noted that this was an “obvious” goal for them based on the community response to the two classes.
For the Sorcerer, the team wants to tone down something they call the “kiss/curse effect,” which effectively means that for something to be buffed or improved, something else has to be nerfed for balance reasons. Jackson noted that they’d been “a little too harsh” with the balancing and wanted to improve that, as well as late-game survivability in situations like Helltide or higher-tier Nightmare Dungeons.
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Many Sorcerer skills are getting buffs, like Flickering Fire Bolt, which now generates two Mana when hitting any enemy, not just a burning one. Fireball and Chain Lightning are also getting improved, as are the passives Vyr’s Mastery, Esu’s Ferocity, and Combustion. The biggest improvements might be for the Legendary Aspects, most notably the Serpentine Aspect and Aspect of Three Curses.
For the Barbarian, the focus is more on an improved early game that feels more fluid with improved Fury generation, while also making late-game Unique items “more attractive,” such as changing the Hellhammer to deal damage extra critical strike damage instead of extra damage to crowd controlled enemies.
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Several Barbarian skills will receive Fury gain or damage increases, and like the Sorcerer, the Barbarian is getting substantial buffs to their Legendary Aspects, passives, and Unique items.
The devs promised a handful of changes to the other three classes as well, but even they themselves noted that these changes were significantly less substantial. The full patch notes are scheduled for a Wednesday, Aug. 2 release.
