Blizzard just revealed the full patch notes for Diablo 4’s upcoming July 15th update, and it’s shaping up to be one of the more interesting mid-season patches that we have seen as of recently. Following the launch of Season 9: Sins of the Horadrim earlier this month, the new patch delivers class buffs across the board, important quality-of-life improvements, and a long list of bug fixes aimed at polishing the experience.
All six classes in Diablo 4 are receiving damage buffs in the July 15th update. Most of these are flat increases to abilities or Legendary Aspects, giving every class a little extra punch in combat. However, Barbarians are the biggest winners, with more than double the number of buffs compared to other classes. If you’re a melee fan, expect the class to feel significantly stronger heading into late July.
Here’s what to expect in short:
- 1–3 buffs per class, depending on abilities and builds.
- Barbarians receive more than 6+ total damage boosts.
- Legendary Aspects also receive balance changes.
Sins of the Horadrim Improvements
Season 9’s new systems are also getting refinement:
- Horadric Arcana will now be automatically picked up, removing the need to click manually.
- Myriad Stones now provide Attack Speed buffs that stack with other boosts.
- Horadric Artifact channeling time has been cut by 0.5 seconds and made uninterruptible in Nightmare Dungeons with Equipment Delve.
These changes should speed up dungeon runs and reduce frustrating interruptions, making it easier to focus on high-level seasonal play.
Other QoL Updates & Loot Tweaks
The general loot experience is getting an upgrade, too:
- More Artificer’s Stones will drop from The Pit.
- Forgotten Souls and salvage materials will drop more frequently during Legion Events (Torment) and from Horadric Chests with the right affix.
- Also, changes to the Forgotten Wisdom affix promise to improve its overall utility.
Dozens of Bug Fixes
This patch also targets a huge number of bugs:
- Quest and UI issues have been cleaned up.
- Seasonal bosses like Astaroth now speak at appropriate volume.
- Spawn issues with The Butcher and Treasure Goblins in Deserted Underpass have been addressed.
- This round of fixes should make both base game and seasonal content far more stable.
While players wait for July 15th to roll around, Blizzard has launched a Twitch Drops campaign through July 19th at 10 AM PT. Watching three hours of Diablo 4 content on Twitch unlocks the Glensoul Arbalest, a cosmetic crossbow for Rogue characters.
Here is the full patch notes for those wanting to read exactly what is going to happen:
Vessel of Hatred
Balance Update
Spiritborn
Aspect of Pestilence
Damage bonus increased from 35-75% to 50-90%.
Payback
Damage increased from 125% to 150%.
Razor Wings
Damage increased from 75% to 95%.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed an issue where Longtooth, The Wretched could pass through the arena entrance fog and get stuck in The Kurast Undercity.
- Fixed an issue where Spiritborn's Concussive Stomp did not consistently activate Horadric Catalysts.
- Fixed an issue where the Ravenous Necrolyte Cache quest reward couldn't be opened by a Spiritborn.
Base Game
Balance Updates
Barbarian
Battle Trance
Lucky Hit Chance increased from 10% to 20%.
Damage bonus increased from 15%-30% to 30%-60%.
Double Swing
Damage increased from 66% to 85%.
Hammer of the Ancients
Damage increased from 110% to 175%.
Rend
Bleeding damage increased from 120% to 135%.
Upheaval
Damage increased from 132% to 200%.
Whirlwind
Damage increased from 52% to 76%.
Barbed Carapace
Thorns damage increased from 100% to 120%.
Druid
Pulverize
Damage increased from 150% to 175%.
Greatstaff of the Crone
Previous: Claw is now also a Storm Skill and also casts Storm Strike at 200-350% normal damage.
Now: Claw is now also a Storm Skill and also casts Storm Strike. Claw and Strom Strike deal 100-250% increased damage.
Necromancer
Hulking Monstrosity Passive
Additional Golem damage sacrifice bonus increased from 35% to 60%.
Rogue
Deathmask of Nirmitruq
Damage bonus increased from 70 to 100%.
Breakneck Bandit's Aspect
Damage increased from 25-45% to 35-55%.
Sorcerer
Meteor
Impact damage increased from 120% to 140%.
Aspect of Frozen Orbit
Frozen Orb damage increased from 30-50% to 50-70%.
Aspect of Frozen Memories
Avalanche Vulnerable damage bonus increased from 50-75% to 75-100%.
Season of Sins of the Horadrim
- Arcana will now be picked up automatically.
- Myriad Stone now grants temporary Attack Speed, and stacks additively alongside sources of permanent Attack Speed.
- For Nightmare Dungeons with the Equipment Delve affix, Horadric Artifact channel time has been reduced from 0.75 to 0.25 seconds. Additionally, the channel can no longer be interrupted by damage.
General
- Clearing The Pit now awards additional Artificer’s Stones.
Tier 70-84: 2-3 Artificer’s Stones
Tier 85-99: 4-6 Artificer’s Stones
Tier 100+: 8-9 Artificer’s Stones
- Completion rewards for Legion Events now include more salvage materials and Forgotten Souls in Torment difficulties.
- Horadric Chests in Nightmare Dungeons with the Horadric Materials Reserve affix award more salvage materials and Forgotten Souls.
- The Forgotten Wisdom affix for Nightmare Dungeons has been adjusted.
- Motes will now split experience between party members instead of only granting experience to the party member who picks it up.
- The maximum amount of Motes that can spawn throughout the entire dungeon has been significantly increased, while the frequency of the Experience Motes dropping has been slightly reduced.
- Each Mote now grants more experience.
- Monsters summoned by other monsters no longer drop Motes.
- Motes will no longer drop in Horadric Strongrooms.
Bug Fixes
Season of Sins of the Horadrim
- Fixed an issue where Horadric Gateways could unexpectedly disappear and reappear during the A Wanderer, Into Flames quest.
- Fixed an issue where the Visions of Pain and Beastmaster's Bane Season Journey objectives and the Truths that Line Within quest did not have requirements consistent with their descriptions.
- Fixed an issue where opening Grand Horadric Caches in Nightmare Dungeons not found in a Escalating Nightmare counted towards progression for the Night Terrors Season Journey objective.
- Fixed an issue where players in a party couldn't see other Cosmic Anomalies from other players in their party.
- Fixed an issue where Horadric Phials were incorrectly listed as Horadric Wayfinders in multiple locations.
- Fixed an issue where Barbarian's Iron Maelstrom didn't consistently trigger Catalysts.
- Fixed an issue where Druid's Nature's Fury Key Passive couldn’t trigger from a skill with a Cooldown if a Catalyst was assigned to it.
- Fixed an issue where the Season Journey Objective for clearing Nightmare Dungeons also progressed from clearing normal dungeons.
- Fixed an issue during the Embers Yet Smolder quest where there could be a duplicate Bryona. Easy on the Elixir of Precision next time, hot shot.
- Fixed an issue where duplicate Horadric Tomes could drop in Strongrooms.
- Fixed an issue where the buff to Horadric Knowledge earned from Horadric Strongrooms did not properly function.
- Fixed an issue where duplicate Horadric Gateways could appear after completing a Horadric Strongroom while in a party.
- Fixed an issue where Horadric strongrooms sometimes did not appear when they should.
- Fixed an issue where weapon swapping would halt the spawn of Anomalies.
- Fixed an issue where Elemental Totems, Blood Blisters, Drifting Shades, and Dark Omens from their associated Nightmare Dungeon Affixes could spawn in Horadric Strongrooms.
- Fixed an issue where Strongroom encountered during The Embers Yet Smolder quest could be indefinitely farmed if the player never picked up the Blood Relic.
- Fixed an issue where The Unseeable Demands their Gaze seasonal quest could not be completed if the player left the game after triggering Davish's dialog.
Nightmare Dungeons
- Fixed an issue where the number of deactivated affixes would reset to 0 when slaying a monster in an Escalating Nightmare.
- Fixed an issue where the Horadric Reward cache awarded from Nightmare Dungeons with the Equipment Delve affix would not award any items.
- Fixed an issue where the Butcher from the Bloody Mess Nightmare Dungeon Affix would not drop any loot.
- Fixed an issue where the Horadric Portal to progress through an Escalating Nightmare would not function if the member of the party who activated the sigil left the party.
- Fixed an issue where the Obducite Mine Escalation Nightmare affix could appear before reaching level 60.
Gameplay
- Fixed an issue where the visual effect for X'Fal's Corroded Signet was larger than the actual damage radius.
- Fixed an issue where teleporting to a waypoint could fail after failing to teleport to a party member.
- Fixed an issue where the Astaroth fight could reset if the player died during the Astaroth's death animation.
- Fixed multiple instances where killing objective monsters too quickly in various dungeons could block progression.
- Fixed an issue where Treasure Goblins and the Butcher wouldn't spawn in the Deserted Underpass. (Turns out they took deserted a bit too literally).
- Fixed an issue where the first upgrade to the Necromancer's Shadow Mages didn't grant the proper damage bonus in various situations.
- Fixed an issue where Deathmask of Nirmitruq would drain Life while Inner Sight was active.
- Fixed an issue where the Harbringer of Hatred cache selected from Belial’s Horde dropped Unique items with three base affixes.
- Fixed an issue where end of dungeon rewards could include Infernal Hordes Compasses when Infernal Hordes was not yet accessible.
- Fixed an issue where Hulking Monstrosity paragon node was not getting any benefits from the Sacrificial Aspect.
User Interface and User Experience
- Fixed an issue where the Corrupting Strikes Nightmare Dungeon affix did not use "Corrupting" when referring to Shadow Damage over time.
- Fixed an issue where the Stats and Materials tab could appear blank if it was open while interacting with a Vendor or other NPC.
- Fixed an issue where New Item notifications didn't clear when equipping a full armor set in the Wardrobe.
- Fixed an issue where your item’s Durability status did not update as expected in the Armory menu.
- Fixed an issue where the Rend size and Death Blow size effects didn't properly display in the character stats menu.
- Fixed an issue where the Iron Demon armor listed the wrong class when viewed as a Sorcerer or Rogue.
- Fixed an issue where pressing the Sort button while playing on controller in the Horadric Lapidary window would display a blank and non-functional crafting inventory window.
- Fixed an issue where the Aether Counter in Infernal Hordes would not appear if the player entered from a Horadric Strongroom.
- Fixed an issue where the second player in Local co-op could not assign skills to a button via the Skills menu.
Miscellaneous
- Fixed an issue where Astaroth's voice lines were barely audible when beginning his boss fight.
- Various stability, performance, visual, and UI improvements.
This mid-season patch delivers everything players could want buffs, bug fixes, and smoother seasonal gameplay. With Diablo 4’s Sins of the Horadrim now in full swing, July 15th is hoping to be a major turning point for the season. Will it be enough? Only time will tell.
Stay tuned to Gamefragger.com for more video game updates!