Diablo 2 just got its first balance patch in over a decade

destructoid.com:

A new Diablo 2: Resurrected balance patch is in town, and is making history as the first major update to the game in over 10 years.

Since the changes are too massive to detail here, instead we have breakdowns of the big picture parts of the patch notes.

Every class in Diablo 2 has been touched in some way, and this is the first major balance patch since March 23, 2010. Blizzard says these changes have been made to “expand character build diversity.”

Everything from fire bow skill buffs to martial art skill charge changes are a go. Having played every class at some point in my life a few of these are fascinating, and some were altered more than others (the Barbarian got off pretty light, with a strong buff to leap attack being the most stark individual change).

Here’s a quick summary:

A big theme of the balance patch is more about adding more viable options rather than taking them away.

Uber Diablo was added as a superboss in 2003’s update 1.10, but now in patch 2.4, there’s a few quality of life upgrades to ensure that the process runs a bit smoother. As a recap, players need to offer a certain number of Stone of Jordan rings (known as “SOJs”) to merchants on Hell difficulty. After hitting a certain mark, Uber Diablo will spawn on the map and take over the place of a unique monster.

But now, in 2.4: “Uber Diablo progress for each game type will now be kept by the regional database. When the threshold is met by selling enough Stone of Jordan rings, Uber Diablo will spawn for everyone in the same region, not only those on the same server instance.” Players can also use the /uberdiablo command to coordinate/communicate when he will spawn.

Using mercenaries (NPC helpers) in Diablo 2 is generally useless, but now 2.4 is