Because I’m out of town and my laptop cannot download 120 GB of Baldur’s Gate 3 on hotel internet, I am back to playing this season of Diablo 4. The game just got a new patch, 1.1.1, which features a whole lot of buffs across the board to make up for 1.1.0.
While not a ton changed for my bone-based Necromancer, and yet I can already feel a number of ways where this is a really great patch. First and foremost, I think what they’ve done to mob density is probably the single best world change they’ve made to Diablo 4 since launch.
I’d say that mob density in Nightmare Dungeons has at least doubled. There are no more extended stretches with few or no enemies, but rather large clusters are frequent. This can mean a greater challenge at times, but mostly it’s just glorious slaughter, the way the Diablo lords of hell intended.
The mob density change also seems to have helped make the XP leveling process go a bit quicker with so many more monsters to kill. Also, whether by accident or on purpose the unique drop rate seems to have been increased. In just a few dungeons, I landed a key unique helmet that was perfect for my build, and other players are reporting similarly useful loot.
The patch also let me start getting Wrathful Invokers for what is literally the first time the entire season. I never got a single one before this, despite this being a seasonal step like four chapters ago, because the drop rates were non-existent. Now, I’ve already gotten a handful to spend in Malignant Tunnels, and have gotten some good Hearts as a result.
The 1.1.1 patch is even better if you were running a Barbarian or Sorcerer this season, with big buffs to many different types of builds to make up for a lot of recent nerfs. Sorc in particular seems to have gone from zero to hero with this patch.
Now, we already have seen the patch notes for 1.1.2, which is not a big buff/nerf patch, as it’s mostly fixing a lot of bugs. However, it’s also fixing what I thought was one of the most weirdly annoying aspects of this season. They are reducing the time it takes for a Malignant Monster to spawn after you click a Heart from 5 seconds to 2 seconds. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it was a lot of awkward waiting around, and it felt like a really weird loop. I’m still not quite sure there’s a point in killing those guys twice, but whatever. This is a good fix.
As ever, Blizzard’s quick responsiveness and willingness to learn from mistakes has really impressed me. And these two patches are stellar, even if 1.1.0 was a big miss.
Follow me on Twitter, Threads, YouTube, and Instagram.
Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Read the full article here
