Diablo 4 players eager to start in on Season 1 (Season of the Malignant, if you prefer) can go ahead and prepare for it by downloading the seasonal update now. Blizzard released update 1.1.0a for both consoles and PC platforms on Tuesday, two days prior to the start of Season 1, which is good news considering how sizable the update is. It’s around 9GB in size for the PC and 11GB on consoles, according to those who’ve already started downloading it, so not something at all that you’d want to see queued up on July 20th when you’re ready to start Season 1 for real.
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Details about Season 1 have been trickling out over time through streams, blogs, and answers from developers shared here and there, so players have probably already heard much of what they need to know about Season 1. Part of those discussions also likely turned to the sheer size of the patch notes which were said to be thousands and thousands of words long. We won’t be listing them all here due to how long they are, but you can check out the patch notes here to see what’s coming.
However, we can go over some of the highlights here. Regardless of what kind of class you pick Diablo 4 players will know by now that critical hit damage and chance as well as the “Vulnerable” debuff are staple parts of most builds. Blizzard has picked up on that, too, and has taken measures to allow “more builds to flourish.” The same goes for cooldown reduction affixes, too.
Item Affixes
- Critical Strike Damage: Reduced by ~17%.
- Lightning Critical Strike Damage: Reduced by ~17%.
- Critical Strike Damage with Bone, Earth, Imbued, and Werewolf Skills: Reduced by ~17%.
- Vulnerable Damage: Reduced by ~40%.
- Cooldown Reduction (Inherent on Offhands): Reduced by ~35%.
- Critical Strike Damage (Inherent on Swords): Reduced by ~50%.
- Vulnerable Damage (Inherent on Crossbows): Reduced by ~65%.ย
In the very large “Balance Updates” section, you’ll find notes there for each individual class detailing the many changes each of them will go through once the update is live. The Druid, for example, got its dominant Storm Strike skill nerfed. Each of the classes will also get some unique items and Legendary Aspects this season, too.
Diablo 4’s Season of the Malignant goes live on July 20th, but you can go ahead and download the update now ahead of time to prepare for the release.