Season 5 is upon us, and with it comes a massive overhaul to Unique items, impacting many builds. This Post will highlight the major changes of the patch.
Patch Release Timing
Diablo 4 Patch 1.5.0 is set to go live on August 6th, 2024 at 10 AM PST.
This date was confirmed during the recent Campfire Chat for Season 5.
Patch Highlights
Between new content and updated content, there is plenty to talk about. Infernal Hordes have arrived, Uniques are getting rebalanced and there are a lot of class changes to help some builds along.
Infernal Hordes
As a quick Summary, it’s a Wave-based mode with a little bit of a Roguelike touch to it. You fight waves of monsters to Spawn Aether events, or mini-events within the Infernal Horde, with the number of waves determined by the Infernal Compass used to enter.
Each Wave ends with an Infernal Offering, which is akin to the Blessing/Curse type of system you see in most Roguelikes. These often result in making different Aether Events more rewarding, while making the enemies more dangerous.
At the end of the final waves, you’ll need to fight the Fell Council to gain access to the Spoils of Hells. These are reward chests that can be opened with Burning Aether, a currency earned from the Aether Events during the run.
If you want a more detailed look at the Infernal Hordes, we have a guide for Infernal Hordes that was created during the PTR and will be updated before Season 5 launches with any changes.
Class Changes
Every class got some nice changes to bring them up in power. Except for Barbarian, which got hit quite hard due to their dominance in the meta.
Barbarian
Barbarian’s have a new Tempering Recipe, Slayer’s Finesse, which rolls Vulnerable Damage, Bleeding Damage, and Damage against Injured. This will see a lot of use in Bleed-focused builds.
Bash and Flay received some nice buffs, as well as all Core Skills not named Whirlwind. These in combination with Unique changes will open up a lot of build options.
For passives, Unbridled Rage is getting nerfed to x45% down from x100%. Walking Arsenal and Unconstrained were also brought to similar levels.
Gushing Wounds no longer provides multiplicative scaling from Critical Stike Damage, instead having a fixed Multipicative value when in triggers and an Additive scalar for Critical Strike Damage. And the overpowering explosion is much stronger.
For Aspects, Wanton Rapture now has a range of 30-15 second cooldown, rather than 40-25. Grapsing Whirlwind pulls more frequently and Steadfast Berserker always triggers with the Lucky hit being removed.
Druid
As part of a larger change, Druids now gain 1% Damage per 8 Willpower, buffed from 1% for every 10 Willpower. Ranks to Clarity has been added as an Affix Roll for Amulets.
The damage of multiple Core Skills (Landslide, Shred, Pulverize, Tornado, Lightning Storm) have all been at least doubled. A few Wrath Skills (Boulder and Hurricane) received damage increases as well.
Rabies has the upgraded spread rate added to the base skill. Naturla Rabies now increases Spread Distance by 70%. Cataclysm now targets enemies more consistently and casts at a doubled rate.
Grizzly Rage now starts its cooldown when it ends. It no longer has a maximum total duration, but it’s active duration cannot go above 10 seconds. However, the damage bonus is capped to x75%.
For passives, Lupine Ferocity is massively buffed to trigger every 3rd skill, rather than every 6th. Great for all the werewolves out there.
Vigilance, Iron Fur, and Heightened Senses were buffed to grant additional Damage reduction per rank.
For Aspects, Metamorphic Stone no longer removes the Wrath Tag from Boulder. Shpards Aspect now only buffs Companions Skills, rather than Core or Wrath Skills. Seismic Shift no longer adds a cooldown to Earth Spike.
Stormclaw’s Aspect, Blurred Beast, and Retailion all received damage buffs. Runeworker’s Conduit no longer can be extended, but instead grants a multiplicative damage bonus to Lightning Bolts.
For Paragon, Thunderstruck had its cap raised to x60%. The Human, Protector, Werebear, and Werewolf Glyphs are all buffed.
Necromancer
As part of a larger change, Necromancers now gain 1% Damage per 8 Intelligence buffed from 1% for every 10 Intelligence.
Necromancers are getting a buff to their Blood Finesse Tempering Manual, with teh values at all ranks being increased. The same also applies to the Shadow Finesse Tempering Manual as well.
Necromancer Minions are now more aggressive and can Overpower. Golems will now leap to the targeted location if it’s farther way when casting their active abilities.
Lucky Hit Chance has been increased for Sever, Blood Lance, Blood Surge, Reap, Hemorrhage, Bone Splinters, Corpse Tendrils, and Blood Wave. Decompose’s explosion can now also trigger Lucky Hits.
For passives, Shadow Blight was buffed to require fewer hits, and its base damage is doubled. Hellbent Commander requires 7 Minions instead of them being close and grants x30% damage at max, down from x45%
For Aspects, Blighted is getting hit quite hard, but most Shadow Skills and Shadowblight got a damage increase to balance this out a bit.
The Aspect of Bursting Bones is seeing a huge buff, likely to coincide with the new Unique being added for the skill.
Going into Paragon, Wither had its cap increased to 1200 Intelligence. Bloodbath is also seeing a sizable buff to the Overpower damage it grants. While the Blood begets Blood Node will stack faster and provide more damage.
Rogue
As part of a larger change, Rogues now gain 1% Damage per 9 Dexterity buffed from 1% for every 10 Dexterity.
Preparation is being buffed slightly, having its damage reduction effect lasting a couple extra seconds.
Blade Shift deals more damage and now grants Unhindered, allowing you to move through enemies and preventing Slows. Additionally, Fundamental Blade Shift requires fewer enemies to activate while Primary Blade Shift reduces Crowd Control effects further.
The Damage of Invigorating Strike and the Return damage of Enhanced Twisting Blades are all increased.
Shadow Step, Dash, Flurry, Dark Shroud, and Smoke Grenade were all buffed and were given pretty significant changes. These are almost a mini-rework, changing the base Skills and their upgrades.
Rogue also has some pretty big passive changes as well. Concussive is replaced by Unstable Elixirs, which stuns nearby enemies and increases your damage after consuming a Health Potion.
Rapid Gambits now Dazes and enemy when you Evade through them, and your evade cooldown is reduced when you daze an enemy. Trick Attacks now provide a stacking Critical Strike Chance and Crit Damage buff for Dazing and Stunning enemies.
Impetus now requires us to move 15m, but the buff will only be consumed by Core and Ultimate skills. While the buff remains, it will increase the damage of Agility and Subterfuge Skills without consuming the buff.
Momentum is now changed to only stack with Cutthroat Skills, causing you to lose stack when using Marksman Skills. It now has 10 stacks, each granting Damage Reduction, Max Energy, and Energy Regeneration, Damage, and Movement Speed.
As for Aspects, there are also a lot of changes here. Enshrouded no longer requires you to stand still, instead granting a Shroud on Potion use.
Arrow Storms and Vengeful now both grant Arrow Storm Damage in addition to their other effects.
Stolen Vigor now increases Cutthroat Damage at maximum Momentum Stacks, Additionally, you’ll become Unstoppable for 3 seconds every 8 seconds.
Sorcerer
As part of a larger change, Sorcerers now gain 1% Damage per 8 Intelligence buffed from 1% for every 10 Intelligence.
Many skills are receiving damage buffs. This includes All Core Skills, All Mastery Skills, Teleport, and Hydra. Most of these aren’t huge increases but they should be impactful.
Defensive Skills are taking a hit. Flame Shield is finally nerfed to just be a defensive skill rather than permanent immunity when built around, as the cooldown will only start after the skill ends. Teleport’s Cooldown was also increased to 14 seconds alongside Ice Armor having better scaling but no longer being able to be refilled with damage.
Sorcerer also got a lot of passive changes as well, including a reworked Vyr’s Mastery. Vyr’s Mastery will now only trigger with Shock skills, placing you into a Charged state. While Charged, you gain 25% Damage Reduction and a Critical Strike has a chance to cause your damage to arc out to nearby targets for 100% of the damage dealt, or repeat on a single target for 250% instead.
Shatter’s damage gain rate is buffed, but it no longer gains the damage or other Shatters. Align the Elements is buffed to 60% Damage Reduction at full stacks and Mana Shield grants 10% Damage Reduction.
As for Aspect Changes, Charged grants more Movement Speed, Efficiency has a higher Cost Reduction it can apply, Abundant energy has a chance to gain a multiplicative bonus to damage, Frozen Wake and Glacial swapped Ice Spike Bonuses, and Frozen Tundra Ice Spikes deal more damage.
For Paragon Burning Instinct, Ceaseless Conduit, and Elemental Summoner all had their caps increased. While Icefall, Firgid Fate, Searing Heat and the Unleash Glyph all got small buffs.
Unique Changes
All Uniques are getting massive overhauls, with most of them getting Tempering Affixes or affixes akin to those found in Tempering already.
Overall, this is a huge boost of power for many builds, and all of the Uniques better suit their roles in their respective builds. Given how many of them were changed we simply cannot go over all of them here directly as it’s over 50 items being changed all at the same time.
However, I do want to highlight a few of the stands that got a significant boost compared to others.
Flickerstep
These boots were already great, but the update they got was huge. They now have two different Boot Implicits, giving 2.5s Evade cooldown on attack and 30% Movement speed after an evade.
On top of this, they offer a massive 300% Ultimate Damage at the high end of its range, which you’re not going to get from most items or tempers.
Fields of Crimson
This 2H Sword for Barbarians hasn’t been a popular option for a long time, but with its changes, it may just become a more attractive option.
With all of its enhancements for Rupture, new base Vulnerable damage, and a huge amount of bleed damage, it may be seen a lot more often going forward.
Raiment of the Infinite
Raiment of the Infinite has always been a staple Sorcerer Unique, but it’s getting a ton of extra power going forward. It’s previously boring an interesting stats are getting replaced by some interesting passive upgrades.
It now grants ranks to Elemental Attunement, which means it will free up the Skill Point often put into that passive, or just make it more valuable. It also gets Ranks to Shocking Impact, which combined with the Stun effect will make it a powerful AoE burst
Blood Moon Breeches
The Blood Moon Breeches have always been a weird item, being good for either the curses or the Overpower damage they offer. Now both are useful, as Minions will benefit from your Overpower damage.
The even better thing about their changes, is that they dropped the single rank to Amplify Damage and Damage Reduction against Cursed enemies in favor of more Overpower damage and Curse Duration. Combined with the increased ranks for Curse Skills, this makes it an overall better item
The Oculus
The Oculus has always felt like a niche item, with many claiming it’s only useful in PvP or similar things. But boy did this little wand get a huge buff. Both Evade bonuses got moved to be inherent stats, which means they’ll always be the same value.
On top of that, the generic damage was replaced with a ton of Intelligence, and the now moved Evade Stats are filled in by Teleport Damage and Teleport Nova Size, the two Tempered Affixes you’d stack for the skill.
If that wasn’t enough, it now offers a max bonus of 12 Teleport Ranks by default. Just a Greater Affix alone pushes that up to 18 Ranks, and if you wanted to perfectly masterwork it, this could go as high as 30.
The Patch Notes were released originally on August 1st, you can read them in full length here.
