Patch 1.1.1 Campfire Chat Recap

Diablo 4 Patch 1.1.1 Campfire Chat just concluded today as a continuation of the original fireside last week on July 22nd.

During the Season 1 discussion, the development team telegraphed that there would be Barbarian and Sorceress Buffs coming in Patch 1.1.1 in addition to general gameplay improvement buffs plus the quality of life features.

We generally observed positive improvements, but fundamental bug fixes and questions remain as they took a "wait and see" and "follow up later" approach with a handful of components.

Full Patch notes will officially release on Wednesday, August 2nd, with 1.1.1's deployment on Tuesday, August 8th.

Goals of Patch 1.1.1

Adam Jackson (Lead Class Designer) opened by touching on key fundamentals of this upcoming rollout:

• Improving the effectiveness and fun for the Sorcerer & Barbarian and enhancing the harsh adjustments from 1.1.0
• Handful of gameplay and class improvements due to builds not hitting enough item power through power scaling
• For the Sorcerer, there was a material focus on improving survivability and reducing Kiss-Curse mechanics; in other words, increasing a power effect (buff) while simultaneously nerfing with a consequence
• The Barbarian needs significant help in the early game progression, so they focused on improving Fury generation and late-game adjustments
• Unique adjustments are coming with both affix (stat) and aspects (effect) adjustments; see the Hellhammer example below:

(Left): Showing that only the effect changes if you already own it. (Right): Demonstrates a new drop with updated affixes and effect.

Upcoming 1.1.1 Changes & Beyond

• Monster Density: It's confirmed that monster density adjustments are coming specific to Helltides and Nightmare Dungeons. They intend to keep track of these adjustments due to performance" concerns. It is a push-and-pull balance that they will monitor and optimize further if required. To showcase their vision, they teased a pre vs. post density buff looking at Nostrava Deepwood map comparisons.

Current Density	Post Density

We compare the current density vs. patch 1.1.1's in this acute example using our best-educated guess, and it seems to suggest a ~50% density increase.

Note: We don't know if this is universal across all Nightmare Dungeons and how many additional Elites will be included in the density increase.

• Boss Buff + Loot Adjustments: They omitted this in the first campfire chat, but World Tier III and World Tier IV bosses will have their health boosted. However, in exchange for this, they are now guaranteeing Legendary item drops. Starting at level 35, Dungeon Bosses, Legion Events, and the Butcher will have a 100% chance to drop a Legendary. This includes Treasure Goblins (generally underwhelming), who will start dropping a guaranteed Legendary starting at level 15.
• Leaving Dungeons: After a bit of a ramble as to why they made this adjustment originally, they reverted to the original of 3 seconds
• Affliction Adjustments - Nightmare Dungeons: Resource Drain, Cold Enchanted, and Backstabber will be removed from Sigils due to concerns about player feedback; these will be reworked in a future state.
• Respec + Stash + Elixir Stacking: Reaffirmed that these changes are official for Patch 1.1.1; 40% respec cost reduction, new stash tab costing 400k in gold, and Elixir stacking to 99.
• Improving Scaling to Effects (TBD Timing): The goal here is to improve and make it less narrow. Examples such as the Barbarian's Dust Devils and Earthquakes being fixed flat damage and how they struggle while scaling through the end-game. They want to open up the optionality of creativity for theory crafting.
• Vulnerable & Crit Damage (TBD Timing): This was underscored as a need to change the Meta. The game intended to have other affixes such as DoT (Damage over Time), or Overpower be utilized; however they're currently far off the mark.

Class Buffs & Changes

While the Sorcerer received the bulk of the attention, with the Barbarian right behind, Necromancers, Rogues, and Druids also received specific quality improvements.

Sorcerer

Barbarian

Druid

Necromancer

Rogue

General

Brief Q&A

As expected, many in the community posted questions about end-game and experience. Joe and the team reiterated that they never intended to make the game feel slower, and they're happy where things are headed, but that it would ultimately be a wait-and-see approach.

The devs validated that Crowd Control is painful when fighting high-density mobs. They concurred that they needed to make that experience more fun.

Resistances once again reared its head, and we received nothing but topical fluff. Adam Jackson spent time telegraphing that it is hard to find the right balance of proper implementation and that they are way off. We are not expecting adjustments to this in season 1.

Arguably, one of the best adjustments is the Mount issue while running into terrain and barricades forcing you to dismount and fight.

Wait and See

The developer team reiterated that they have made mistakes and are rectifying them while politely mentioning that none of this is final.

We will need to wait for the full patch notes release on August 2nd to get a bird's eye view into the full extent of changes with the quality of life and bug fixes, which they admitted there is a laundry list of.

Things are moving in a positive direction for the Diablo IV community and the player base, but we will need to remain patient for further clarity during future development discussions.