Diablo 4 is finally buffing the game's weakest classes

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Diablo 4's Sorcerer and Barbarian classes are getting huge buffs to skills and items

Diablo 4
(Image credit: Blizzard)

The Diablo 4 developers held another livestream "campfire chat" today where they revealed a slew of changes with the intention of course correction after a controversial season 1 launch.

In the livestream, Diablo 4 game director Joe Shely joined associate game director Joe Piepiora, community manager Adam Fletcher, and lead class designer Adam Z. Jackson to reveal some of the biggest changes coming in patch 1.1.1, which will go live on August 8. 

Chiefly, two of Diablo 4's most infamously underpowered classes, the Sorcerer and the Barbarian, some substantial buffs many in the community have felt they've so desperately needed. "We want to kind of improve the effectiveness and fun of the Sorcerer and Barbarian," said Jackson.

One of the main goals of the next Diablo 4 patch is to improve Sorcerers' late game survivability, which has been a common ask for a long while now. A number of Sorcerer skills, Legendaries, and Uniques have been buffed to not only address this issue, but also to remove self-damaging effects. Blizzard showed off a laundry list of not-final Sorcerer changes in the stream starting here, but the official patch notes will be published on August 2.

Barbarians are similarly getting a bunch of buffs to increase fury generation and increase damage across the class's basic skills. A whole bunch of Barbarian passives, Legendaries, and Uniques are being buffed pretty substantially, so those players should expect stronger builds across the board when the patch goes live. Again, the patch notes aren't live yet, but you can check out the video breakdown of Barbarian buffs here.

While the main focus of patch 1.1.1 seems to be buffing these relatively underserved classes, there are also big buffs on the way for other classes like Rogue and Necromancer, as well as increased Legendary drop rates in dungeons, Butcher Encounters, and Treasure Goblins, and more.

For more, here's everything you need to know about Diablo 4 season 1, from the battle pass to caged hearts and more.

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Jordan Gerblick
Jordan Gerblick

After scoring a degree in English from ASU, I worked as a copy editor while freelancing for places like SFX Magazine, Screen Rant, Game Revolution, and MMORPG on the side. Now, as GamesRadar's west coast Staff Writer, I'm responsible for managing the site's western regional executive branch, AKA my apartment, and writing about whatever horror game I'm too afraid to finish.

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