Diablo III Patch 1.0.4 Class Changes Detailed

Blizzard's already detailed how the upcoming Diablo III 1.0.4 patch will be changing things like the rate you find magic items and how powerful Legendary items will become, but it's also directly affecting classes. Here are the highlights for the classes Blizzard has detailed so far.

The Barbarian

The barbarian hasn't quite worked as the designers intended, with Frenzy being the primary way people generate Fury. To combat this the Barbarian Bash ability is being buffed now, generating more Fury and doing greater damage. According to Senior Technical Game Designer Wyatt Cheng, "The goal is to make Bash not only a very compelling option if you decide you want to focus on Fury generation, but also an appealing single-target alternative to Frenzy if you don't enjoy it's mechanic (like having to manage Frenzy stacks)."

Also being buffed is the Cleave ability, which generates Fury. Cheng feels Cleave "should be the clear winner when there is more than one target to hit" and you're generating Fury. The problem, though, lies in how little single-target damage it does. Thus the team is currently trying to balance the single-target damage amounts to make Cleave as appealing an option as Bash or Frenzy. Not that Cleave will do as much, but that the goal is to make it do enough and have the ability to hit a second target that you want to use it.

The barbarian is also getting several of their Fury spending abilities buffed; namely, Hammer of the Ancients, Seismic Slam and Rend. Players have been using Battle Range more than any of the aforementioned abilities, so they used Battle Rage and Frenzy as "the starting point." Says Cheng, "We basically asked ourselves the question, 'How much damage would Hammer of the Ancients have to do in order to make Frenzy + Hammer [of the Ancients] as appealing as Frenzy + Battle Rage.'" They then applied similar logic to Seismic Slam and Rend. If Cheng and his team make good changes, then they hope that Fury spenders will finally earn a place on more people's skill builds. To read even more specifics about the changes, check out Cheng's blog post.

The Wizard

The goal of 1.0.4 in general is to promote build diversity, and to this end the team at Blizzard is implementing a number of tweaks to the wizard. The team is buffing the various Runes that affect the wizard's Hydra ability, attempting to make them all as appealing as the predominant Venom Hydra option is. Cheng asks the obvious question in his blog post, though, "Why are we taking one of the most powerful wizard runes and then bumping all of the variants to match it rather than simply nerfing Venom Hydra?" The answer is that they want the spell to remain powerful, "because there's still a lot of flexibility beyond making it your only source of DPS. If you can spare the skill slot, you'll almost certainly want to combine it with a Signature skill to cast while the Hydra is out."

The wizard is also having their Energy Twister ability nerfed, with this ability's proc coefficient dropping from 0.25 to 0.125. The Wicked Wind variant of Energy Twister is currently proccing too much, and when used in conjunction with Frost Nova and Diamond Skin is a bit too powerful. Don't be too sad, though, other wizard abilities and / or Runes are being boosted. Cheng says that the team will be, "revisiting all of the other Signature skill runes with much the same philosophy as Hydra." The wizards Meteor and Arcane Torrent abilities are also both being buffed, since Cheng writes, "neither of those feel strong enough to justify the Arcane Power expenditure." For more on the changes coming to the wizard, check out Cheng's blog post.

The Monk

According to Cheng, "The most important changes for the monk in 1.0.4 are aimed at improving damage-focused Spirit Spenders. We're happy with where Spirit Generators are right now, but unfortunately once you have Spirit, there aren't many very appealing ways to use it."

To combat the above issue, a number of changes to abilities are being implemented. For starters there's Exploding Palm, an ability whose visuals are being improved so you can tell who is bleeding and who is being damaged by it. The team is also "increasing the duration of the Bleed to nine seconds as well as its damage per second, which should make it likely that monsters you've touched with Exploding Palm will go boom when they die."

Likewise Seven-Sided Strike is being buffed. Cheng writes that it currently operates more like a "bad version of Serenity, and that damage just doesn't seem worth it." Thus the team is increasing Seven-Sided Strike's damage to "make it an attractive option for those who are looking for a skill that really packs a punch." Finally, there's Wave of Light, an ability that "just needs to do way more damage." Cheng feels the amount of Spirit you spend on it doesn't justify the damage, so they're buffing it from 215% weapon damage to 390%, with +45% damage as AoE.

Passives are also being examined for the Monk, though nothing is being changed at the moment. Cheng notes:

In terms of passives, it's pretty clear at this point that One With Everything is considered a mandatory passive for all monks.  While "mandatory" passives aren't great, making any major change would do more harm than good, particularly when a) incoming damage is so high and b) monks need the extra durability in order to survive. Additionally, as a result of this passive, monks are more heavily tied to their current gear, so making changes to One With Everything would have very noticeable negative repercussions to the gear monks have invested in.

Cheng says that if they do someday make changes, they'll have to, "ideally do it in a way that doesn't invalidate the passive, doesn't hurt monk survivability, and doesn't undermind the gear people are currently wearing."

Monks will also be getting bonus Spirit generation from The Guardian's Path, up to 35% from the previous 25%. This is to make the use of two-handed weapons, granted in patch 1.0.3, more appealing. Read more about the Monk changes in Cheng's blog post.

With more changes yet to be revealed, including the changes coming to the Witch Doctor and Demon Hunter, it appears Blizzard is preparing the most significant patch to Diablo III to date. Is it enough to bring you back into the fold, though?

Anthony Gallegos is an Editor on IGN's PC team. He enjoys scaring the crap out of himself with horror games and then releasing some steam in shooters like Blacklight and Tribes. You can follow him on Twitter and on IGN.

Source : ign[dot]com