In an unexpected move, Blizzard has downgraded the Sorcerers, the most underperforming class in Diablo 4, providing scant improvements in return. The recent pre-season 1 patch is designed to neutralize the highly dominant builds by striking at the heart of the primary attributes and skills they depend on. Notably, every endgame Sorcerer build relied on burning damage to expose their opponents to critical strikes. Even the builds that largely cast cold spells needed at least one fire skill to match the pace at which other classes slashed through endgame monsters.
Blizzard has cut down on the bonus critical strike damage of the critical fire skill, Devouring Blaze, and drastically reduced its additional bonus on immobilized enemies, a component integral to most Sorcerer builds. As Reddit user LeagueTweetRepeat puts it, “Devouring Blaze was the talent that helped Sorcerers not be the least damage-dealing among all the classes. It’s akin to the patch that barely keeps roaches out of a cracked wooden shed.”
It’s worth noting that the state of Sorcerers was so grim that they had to exploit a glitch to tackle the game’s most formidable bosses. The Aspect of Control used to provide them with a significant damage boost against immobilized targets, but it wrongly tripled its bonus against staggered bosses—a characteristic that streamer Northwar leveraged to almost defeat Uber Lilith single-handedly. Sadly, that glitch and any hopes of Sorcerers feeling powerful have been eliminated.
Venturing into Diablo 4’s highest difficulty, World Tier 4 (Torment), results in monstrous enemies delivering devastating attacks. Most classes have defensive skills or armor enhancements to safeguard them. Sorcerers, however, depend on equipment stacked with damage reduction attributes and boosts to their barrier skills. As a further blow, Blizzard has undermined that as well.
“We have noticed that adept players often exterminate monsters several levels higher than themselves,” read Blizzard’s developer note explaining the changes to survivability. “While we wish to encourage this, the current scenario surpasses what we think is sustainable for the game’s longevity.”
Nearly all defensive attributes obtainable on equipment have been decreased. Every class will now need to invest even more into skills and attributes for survival in the most challenging Nightmare Dungeon levels. Yet, without considerable buffs to their barriers or base attributes, Sorcerers will bear the brunt of this. As per a Reddit user’s comment, these nerfs transform every class into fragile, high-damage dealing units, except Sorcerers, who’ve been reduced to mere paper tigers.
“The Sorcerer’s been dragged out of the grave only to be buried again,” commented Chuckycheeseburger on the revisions.
Among the changes detailed in the patch notes for Sorcerers, The Oculus, a reimagined Uber Unique wand from Diablo 2, is noteworthy. This extremely rare weapon might be potent for those lucky enough to discover it, but given the class-wide nerfs, its unique ability seems more like a taunt: When you Evade using Teleport Enchantment, you are transported to a random location.
Perhaps it could teleport you to a game that treats you better.
Sorcerers can only hope that the Malignant Hearts in the upcoming season 1 will compensate for the drastic power reduction. Best of luck, Sorcerers. The Season of the Malignant commences tomorrow.
