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GINX TV > Game Updates > Diablo 4

Diablo 4 Class Balance Changes: All Buffs & Nerfs in Season 3 (Patch 1.3)

All the latest class balance changes in Diablo 4 Season 3, featuring all the buffs and nerfs to Necro, Barb, Rogue, Druid, and Sorcerer in update 1.3
By Wessel Minnie | 
First Published February 7, 2024, 06:49
Diablo 4 Class Balance Changes: All Buffs & Nerfs in Season 3 (Patch 1.3)
Blizzard

Want to learn about the latest Diablo 4 class balance changes to find out if your favorite hero has been buffed or nerfed? We've got you covered!

This consistently updated article will always have the latest balance changes for Diablo 4 classes, so you never miss out on any buffs, nerfs, or general changes to the Sorcerer, Barbarian, Rogue, Druid, and Necromancer.

Update on 7 February 2024: The Diablo 4 update 1.3 has been unleashed. Massive class balance changes for Season 3! Get back into Sanctuary and enjoy!

Latest Diablo 4 Class Balance Changes

Diablo 4 class balance changes barbarian sorcerer druid necromancer rogue
Find the new Diablo 4 class balance changes in our dedicated article. (Picture: Blizzard)

Here, you can find the latest class balance changes for Diablo 4's heroes, including the Barbarian, Necromancer, Sorcerer, Rogue, and Druid. This section will be consistently updated to provide you with fresh information and, hopefully, make picking your main a bit easier at launch and subsequent seasons.

Click on the class that you want to learn more about in terms of balance changes in Diablo 4 with the 1.3 update below.

Diablo 4 Season 3 Sorcerer Balance Changes (Patch 1.3):

New Items

Starfall Coronet

  • Meteor now has 2 charges and a 11–6 second Charge Cooldown instead of a Mana cost and drops 3 additional meteors around the target. Meteor's Enchantment effect and Enhanced Meteor drop 1 additional meteor.

Aspect of Shredding Blades – Offensive

  • Ice Blades' chance to apply Vulnerable is increased by 20%[+] and the Vulnerable duration is increased by 4 seconds. You gain 15–25%[x] Vulnerable Damage.

Skills

Ball Lightning

  • Enhanced Ball Lightning changed to have its attack rate increase with attack speed, up to 25%.

Blizzard

  • Mage’s Blizzard condition to be cast while over 50 mana has been removed.

Lightning Spear

  • Critical Strikes now apply Vulnerable for 3 seconds.

Paragon

Searing Heat

  • Fixed an issue where the Critical Strike Chance bonus was not properly applying.
  • Critical Strike Chance bonus increased from +10% to 12%.

Elemental Summoner

  • Conjuration damage bonus increased from x3% to x5% of the total amount of your Bonus Damage with Fire, Lightning, and Cold.

Burning Instinct

  • Amount of Intelligence required to gain x1% bonus Burning Damage reduced from 75 to 25.
Diablo 4 Season 3 Barbarian Balance Changes (Patch 1.3):

New Items

Ring of the Ravenous

  • Rend’s duration is increased by 2.0–4.0 seconds. Damaging enemies with Brawling Skills applies 2 stacks of Rend's Bleed. This effect can only occur once every 4 seconds per enemy.

Aspect of Sundered Ground – Offensive

  • Every 25 seconds, Upheaval is guaranteed to Overpower and deals 10–20% increased damage. This timer is reduced by 4 seconds when Upheaval Overpowers a Boss or an Elite enemy.

Skills

Charge

  • Base damage increased by 900%, from 0.25 to 2.50.
  • Enhanced Charge terrain impact damage increased by 150%, from 0.6 to 1.5.
  • Power Charge no longer requires a terrain impact to reduce the cooldown of Charge, and now charging a boss will reduce the cooldown by 6 seconds.

Leap

  • Base damage increased by 30%.

Passives

Brute Force

  • Overpower damage decreased from 15% to 8% per rank.

Walking Arsenal

  • Duration of each weapon bonus increased from 8 to 10 seconds.
  • Additional damage from having all bonuses increased from 15% to 20%.
  • Having all bonuses now also increases attack speed by 20%.

Unconstrained

  • Berserking damage bonus increased from 60% to 100%.

Gushing Wounds

  • Bonus bleed amount increased from 115% to 140%.
  • Overpower explosion damage increased from 70% to 85%.

Weapon Expertise

  • Expertise leveling has been cut by 50%.

Paragon

Marshal Glyph

  • Now reduces the cooldown of every non-Shout skill by 4 seconds, instead of every other Shout skill by 1.2 seconds.

Item Updates

Resource Aspect of Echoing Fury

  • You now generate 6–10 Fury per second while any Shout skill is active, instead of 2–4 Fury per second for each Shout skill active.

Offensive Aspect of Limitless Rage

  • Damage bonus now has a 5-second duration to be used.

Veteran Brawler’s Offensive Aspect

  • Reduced bonus damage per stack from 15%–20% to 6%–8%, up to a reduced maximum bonus of 225%–300% to 30%–40%.

Offensive Aspect of Ancestral Charge

  • Reduced bonus damage from 75%–125% to 20%–30%.

Offensive Aspect of Encroaching Wrath

  • Reduced bonus Weapon Mastery damage from 82–100% to 40–60%.
  • Damage bonus now has a 5-second duration to be used.

Ring of Red Furor

  • Damage bonus now has a 5-second duration to be used.
Diablo 4 Season 3 Druid Balance Changes (Patch 1.3):

New Items

Unsung Ascetic's Wraps

  • Lightning Storm gains 1 additional strike each time it grows. Lightning Storm Critical Strikes cause lightning to strike twice, dealing 10–20% increased damage.

Virulent Aspect – Utility

  • When Rabies infects an enemy, reduce its cooldown by 0.3–0.6 seconds. This cooldown reduction is tripled when infecting Elites.

Skills

Enhanced Rabies

  • Maximum damage bonus increased from 30% to 60%.

Lacerate

  • Cooldown reduced from 45 to 35 seconds.

Prime Lacerate

  • Changed functionality: Lacerate hits Heal for 3% Maximum Life, increased to 6% on Critical Strikes.

Cataclysm

  • Twister damage increased from 23% to 46%.
  • Lightning damage increased from 77% to 95%.

Supreme Cataclysm

  • Vulnerable duration increased from 3 to 6 seconds.

Passives

Mending

  • Additional Healing received increased from 5% to 6% per rank.

Thick Hide

  • Fortify gained increased from 6.4% to 10% per rank.

Unrestrained

  • Control Impairing Effects duration reduction increased from 3% to 5% per rank.
  • Increased benefit while over 50% Fortify reduced from tripled to doubled.

Natural Fortitude

  • Fortify gained on Shapeshifting increased from 1.4% to 2% per rank.

Bestial Rampage

  • Required Shapeshift duration reduced from 2.5 to 2 seconds.
  • Attack Speed bonus increased from 25% to 30%.

Spirt Boons

Prickleskin

  • Thorns increased from .15 to .6. (from 1,194 to 4776)

Gift of the Stag

  • Maximum Spirit increased from 10 to 20.

Avian Wrath

  • Critical Strike Damage bonus is now Multiplicative instead of Additive.

Paragon

Tectonic

  • Bonus Lucky Hit Chance increased from 15% to 20%.

Poise

  • Barrier increased from 5% of Maximum Health to 15%.
  • Duration increased from 4 to 6 seconds.

Wilds

  • Passive Companion damage bonus increased from 80% to 120%.

Item Updates

Aspect of the Blurred Beast

  • Previous: While dashing, Shred seeks out Nearby Poisoned enemies instantly dealing 70–100% of the Poisoning damage to them.
  • New: While dashing, Shred seeks out Nearby Poisoned enemies and deals 20–40%[x] increased damage to them.

Aspect of Metamorphic Stone

  • Boulder Spirit Cost reduced from 50 to 40.

Aspect of the Unsatiated

  • Spirit Generation and bonus damage increased from 20–30% to 30–40%.

Aspect of Retaliation

  • Bonus damage reduced from 20–40% to 20–30%.
Diablo 4 Season 3 Necromancer Balance Changes (Patch 1.3):

  • New Items

    Mutilator Plate

    • You are Blood Lanced, and when Blood Lance would deal damage to you it instead Fortifies you for 1–2% of your Maximum Life and has a 5% chance to form a Blood Orb. Blood Lance deals 10–20%[x] increased damage.

    Shattered Spirit's Aspect – Offensive

    • Casting Bone Spirit also launches 18 Bone Splinters in all directions, dealing 200–400%[x] increased damage and generating 6 Essence per enemy hit.

    Skills

    Iron Maiden

    • Damage increased from 0.2 to 0.3.

    Horrid Iron Maiden

    • Bonus damage increased from 20% to 30%.

    Corpse Explosion

    • Lucky Hit Chance reduced from 40% to 25%.
    • Base damage increased from 50% to 70%.
    • Blighted Corpse Explosion damage decreased from 110% to 95%.

    Blight

    • Damage over time increased from 80% to 95%.

    Sever

    • Initial damage increased from 66% to 75%.
    • Return damage increased from 21% to 25%.

    Bone Spirit

    • Damage is increased by 4% per Essence spent casting Bone Spirit, up from 3%.

    Dreadful Bone Spirit

    • Now restores 30% of your Maximum Essence, instead of a flat 30 Essence.

    Acolyte's Decompose

    • Previous: You and your Minions deal 10%[x] increased damage to enemies being Decomposed.
    • New: Every 1.5 seconds, Decompose makes enemies Vulnerable for 4 seconds.

    Initiate's Decompose

    • Previous: Decompose Slows enemies by 50%.
    • New: Decompose Slows enemies by 50%, and if you channel Decompose for at least 1.5 seconds, you gain 30%[+] Movement Speed for 5 second after ending the channel.

    Dreadful Blood Mist

    • Previous: Blood Mist Fortifies you for 0.5% of your Maximum Life each time it hits an enemy.
    • New: You gain +10% Critical Strike Chance for 4 seconds after Blood Mist ends.

    Bone Prison

    • Friendly players and Minions can now freely pass through Bone Prison walls.
    • The functionality of Enhanced Bone Prison and Ghastly Bone Prison have been swapped.

    Enhanced Bone Prison

    • Enemies inside of Bone Prison are Vulnerable.

    Ghastly Bone Prison

    • If an enemy is trapped by Bone Prison, gain 25 Essence, plus an additional 5 per enemy trapped.

    Dreadful Bone Prison

    • Previous: Fortify for 8% of your Maximum Life for each enemy trapped by Bone Prison.
    • New: Reduce your active cooldowns by 0.5 seconds for each enemy trapped by Bone Prison, up to 3 seconds.

    Passives

    Ossified Essence

    • Now displays the current bonus on the tooltip.

    Book of the Dead

    Golem

    • When Golems finish casting their active ability, they will first try to target a new close enemy before reverting to their previous target.
    • Blood Golem and Iron Golem
      • Basic Attacks now hit enemies in an area around the main target.
    • Bone Golem
      • Active ability now grants the Golem Thorns equal to 70% of your Armor for the duration of the Taunt.
    • Bone Mage
      • Upgrade now Fortifies based on your Maximum Life instead of Base Life.
    • Skeleton Priest
      • Healing increased from 25% to 40% over the 8 second duration.

    Paragon

    Cult Leader Legendary Paragon Node

    • Previous: Your Minions deal 15%[x] increased damage for each Minion type you have active.
    • New: Your Minions deal 10%[x] increased damage for each 20%[+] of Attack Speed Bonus they have.

    Golem

    • Additional Bonus changed from 25% Health to 25% Damage.

    Item Updates

    Aspect of Swelling Curse

    • Previous: Bone Spirit deals increased damage based on distance traveled, up to 15-25%[x].
    • New: Bone Spirit’s Critical Strike Chance is increased by 15–25%[+]. Your Maximum Essence is increased by 2 for each enemy hit for 15 seconds.

    Torturous Aspect

    • Previous: Enemies afflicted by your Iron Maiden have a [15–25]% chance to be Stunned for 1 Second when they deal direct damage.
    • New: Iron Maiden is now also a Darkness skill and deals Shadow damage. Enemies afflicted by your Iron Maiden have a [15–25]% chance to be Stunned for 1 second when they deal direct damage.

    Rotting Aspect

    • Chance to spawn additional corpses increased from 30–60% to 50–100%.

    Hulking Aspect

    • Chance to reduce Golem's active cooldown increased from 2–5% to 4–10%.
    • Chance to spawn a Corpse increased from 1.0–2.5% to 2%–5%.
  • .
Diablo 4 Season 2 Rogue Balance Changes (Patch 1.2):
  •  

Rogue

New Items

Beastfall Boots

  • When you cast an Ultimate skill, your next Core skill consumes all of your energy and deals 0.5–1.5% increased damage per Energy consumed. Using a Cooldown restores 5 energy.

Resistant Assailant's Aspect – Defensive

  • Breaking Concealment grants +10% Resistance and Maximum Resist to all elements for 4 seconds. Killing an Elite enemy reduces Concealment's cooldown by 6–10 seconds.

Skills

Blade Shift

  • Damage increased from 16% to 20%.
  • Duration increased from 3 seconds to 4 seconds.

Fundamental Invigorating Strike

  • Vulnerable now applies while you are below 85% Energy, up from 75% Energy.

Enhanced Caltrops

  • Previous: Enemies takes 5%[x] increased damage from you each second they are in Caltrops.
  • New: Enemies in Caltrops take 10%[x] increased damage from you, increased by 5%[x] each second.

Rain of Arrows

  • Cast time reduced by 15%.
  • The first wave of arrows now hits closer to the player.

Cold Imbuement

  • Chill amount now increases by 5% per skill rank, up from 2.5%.

Blended Cold Imbuement

  • Removed the Critical Strike requirement, and increased the Lucky Hit chance from 20% to 35%.

Mixed Poison Imbuement

  • Previous: Lucky Hit: Poison Imbued skills have up to a 30% chance to apply double the amount of Poisoning damage over time.
  • New: Lucky Hit: Poison Imbued skills have up to a 30% chance to reduce Poison Imbuement's cooldown by 2 seconds.

Forceful Arrow

  • Vulnerable duration increased from 3 to 5 seconds.

Enhanced Penetrating Shot

  • Previous: Penetrating Shot deals 10%[x] increased damage per enemy it pierces.
  • Now: Penetrating Shot has a 10%[+] increased Critical Strike Chance. If Penetrating Shot damages at least 3 enemies, gain 10%[+] Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds.

Improved Penetrating Shot

  • Previous: If Penetrating Shot damage at least 3 enemies, your next Penetrating Shot has 20%[+] increased Critical Strike Chance.
  • New: Penetrating Shot deals an additional 10%[x] increased damage per enemy it hits.

Passives

Close Quarters Combat

  • Amount of Damage vs Crowd Controlled bonus conversion percent reduced from 40% to 10%.
  • Attack Speed per stack increased from 10% to 15%.

Precision

  • Previous: Critical Strike with Marksman Skills grant you Precision. You gain 4%[x] Critical Strike Damage per stack of Precision, up to a maximum of 20%[x]. When you reach maximum Precision, your next Marksman Skill is guaranteed to Critically Strike, and deals 40%[x] increased Critical Strike Damage, then consumes all stacks of Precision.
  • New: Each Marksman skill cast grants 1 stack of Precision, or 2 if it has Critically Struck. When you reach 6 stacks, your next Marksman Core or Ultimate Skill is a guaranteed Critical Strike that deals x50% increased Critical Strike Damage, consuming all stacks of Precision. This damage is further increased by an amount equal to x15% of your Critical Strike Damage bonus.

Chilling Weight

  • Previous: Chilled enemies have their Movement speed further reduced by 10/20/30%.
  • New: Chilled enemies have their movement speed further reduced by up to 10/20/30%, and you gain 5/10/15%[x] increased Chill effect.

Concussive

  • Previous: After Knocking Back or Knocking Down an enemy, you gain 4% increased Critical Strike Chance against them for 4 seconds.
  • New: After Knocking Back or Knocking Down an enemy, you gain 4% increased Critical Strike Chance for 4 seconds.

Paragon

Leyrana's Instinct

  • Previous: When Inner Sight's gauge becomes full, you gain 100%[+] Dodge Chance for 1.5 seconds.
  • New: When Inner Sight's gauge becomes full, you gain 100%[+] Dodge Chance for 2 seconds. Your next 3 Core skills deal additional damage equal to 20%[x] of your Core Skill Damage bonus.

That's all the latest, new Diablo 4 Season 3 class balance changes for all heroes, including the Rogue, Druid, Sorcerer, Necromancer, and Barbarian. We will endeavor to update this article swiftly every time new balance changes to the game's diverse classes become available, so stay tuned.

For more Diablo 4, be sure to check out our dedicated section or some of our Guides & Tutorials just below:

Diablo 4 Season 2 Guides
Class Builds & Tier Lists

 

Tech Guides & Fixes
World, Maps & Locations
Diablo 4 Items & Slots
Achievements/Challenges
Legendary Aspects
Strongholds
Bosses
Gameplay Systems
The Story, Lore & Characters
Diablo 4 Season Guides

Our section keeps growing, so check for new guides daily! Don't forget to pick up one of the Diablo 4 Editions and join the fight to save Sanctuary soon.

Wessel Minnie

Written by Wessel Minnie

Wessel is a former member of Bravado Gaming, a top South African esports organization, and a former editor at GLITCHED.online. He can also be found on HLTV discussing everything CS esports.  When he's not writing or editing, Wessel is clicking heads in Counter-Strike 2, pondering over the best Diablo 4 builds for each class, or venturing into the Lands Between of Elden Ring for the umpteenth time. He loves ARPGs and any SoulsBorne title he can get his mitts on, but feel free to email or drop him a message on social media with any interesting gaming-related topics you think he might enjoy.