Unannounced Diablo 4 Season 1 Capstone Change Ruins Fan-Favorite Leveling Technique

Today, Diablo 4 dropped a massive new patch ahead of Season 1 kicking off tomorrow. This update includes everything in the first season that's also going to be available on the Eternal Realm as well. The early reports from fans haven't been great, with Blizzard responding to the backlash by announcing a Campfire Chat for Friday to address concerns and talk about how they are approaching all of the feedback they've gotten. However, every change seemingly isn't included in the update, as one Diablo 4 player noted that a change to capstone dungeons has effectively killed one of the ways players were power-leveling.

YouTuber Zach Bitango's video was first spotted by Gamespot. In it, Bitango noted that their team spent five hours testing unannounced changes to capstone dungeons in World Tier 3 and 4. They noted that players now need to be at least level 40 in order to receive credit for completing World Tier 3's capstone dungeon and at least level 60 to finish World Tier 4 and unlock Diablo 4's hardest difficulty. If you haven't been power-leveling characters, this might not sound like a big deal, but it actually ruins the way players were previously speeding through the leveling process.

In the past, players could power-level a lower-level player through the game's capstone dungeons and then get the increased experience, gold, and rewards that come with those higher World Tiers. With the new level requirements, that's no longer possible because you'll need to first level up to the requirement if you want to move to the next World Tier. Where you could previously level to 50 in about an hour from scratch, your progress will now slow down considerably.

Blizzard has yet to comment on the "secret" update, though the devs might be waiting until the previously mentioned Campfire Chat on Friday before they say anything. After all, it's likely not something the Diablo 4 team will be able to change quickly, so they might as well take their time. Either way, this change is yet another issue players are having to deal with just before the Season of the Malignant drops on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms on July 20.