Diablo 4’s next patch expands stash, buffs Sorcerers, cuts respec costs, and more

The Diablo 4 preseason patch was a bit of a mess. Although it brought the anticipated content of Season of the Malignant to the game, a lot of that excitement was absorbed by what patch 1.1 did to the game.

While it’s standard for big patches kicking off new seasons to feature sweeping changes to the meta, this one was too much for the young game. Blizzard flattened XP gain (making the grind slower), nerfed all classes, plugged some power leveling holes that groups relied on, lowered the effectiveness of some crutch stats without offering alternatives, just to name a few.

It caused a firestorm of criticism that Blizzard had to set up an emergency livestream to address the comments. While the chat was pretty positive, the developer wasn’t ready to back away from any of the major changes in patch 1.1. Instead, we got a small hotfix that made Nightmare Dungeons more bearable and fixed some bugs.

But the developer promised to change its entire approach to patches, starting with the next one: the 1.1.1 update. This next patch is expected in the next two weeks. Rather than drop patch notes after the patch is released, Blizzard will share the notes on Friday, several days before the patch is released.

Patch 1.1.1 will be the first to get Diablo 4 back on the right track. Warlocks will have a bunch of their least-used Legendary skins buffed up, followed by Barbarians. While this may not fix all the problems the beleaguered class has been suffering from, it is certainly a start.

The monster density in the final activities is being increased, a hot topic among players. Specifically, you will encounter larger groups of monsters in Nightmare Dungeons and Helltide events. This should make it easier to level up, especially now that Nightmare Dungeons is much less exhausting.

Speaking of the grind, Blizzard said it’s looking to increase the XP bonuses to make the journey from level 50 to 100 smoother, but didn’t say whether or not these will arrive in patch 1.1.1, or what big boost players can expect.

what we are definitely going into 1.1.1 is a hidden new tab, which isn’t much, but again, a step in the right direction. Elixir stacking is also being increased, which is another small change that helps with inventory/stash management.

Other good news is a cut in the gold cost of respec, with Blizzard promising a 40% reduction. More details about the 1.1.1 changes to be made to the game will be discussed in the next live stream.

On Friday, July 28, Campfire Chat will be broadcast live on Twitch and Youtube as usual, and starts at 11am PT / 2pm ET / 7pm BST.

The patch itself should arrive about a week later, meaning sometime in the first week of August. More patches for Season 1 are also in the works.