Blizzard will juice up Barbarian skill, buff other class builds in Diablo 4

Diablo 4’s third season will bring plenty of balancing changes, as expected. This time, the developers previewed a slew of changes for some underperformers—including a colossal increase for Barbarians’ Charge.

Lead class designer Adam Jackson showed off some of the changes during today’s Diablo 4 devstream. He broke down some of the balance tweaks coming to the game with season three—including two of the new Unique items on the way, though each class will have new additions to its arsenal.

Barbarian’s Charge was one of the main drawing points of the presentation. The team wants to draw power away from its Legendaries and inject it back into the base skill, making it easier to use this ability right off the bat. Jackson compared the base Charge in seasons two and three, with the most recent version dealing almost tenfold the damage. “We might be crazy,” he wrote on the onscreen presentation.

The team will also touch on “key passives such as Walking Arsenal,” as well as on shouts. Jackson doesn’t want players to feel like they have to run multiple shouts on their bar, though players can get a better idea of the adjustments once the patch notes drop tomorrow.

Sorcerers who want to hurl flames out of the sky also have good news coming in season three. The lagging Meteor builds will get a new unique, the Starfall Coronet, which makes Meteor a cooldown-based skill instead of having a Mana cost. Critical hits with Lightning Spear will also apply Vulnerable, providing an easier way to apply this keyword.

The Starfall Coronet buffs Meteor on its own, but it also opens up invaluable space by removing it from the role of a spender skill. “Now you can actually run Meteor with other things like Fireball or Incinerate or Firewall” and makes for a “very powerful” ability, according to Jackson.

Rogues will see some more firepower on ranged builds, giving the fast-moving class an alternative to the ever-present Twisting Blades and Poison Imbue builds. These have dominated the class since the game launched, but marksman builds will see a buff (and so will Caltrops).

The buff to Druids will come in different forms, including a change to lesser-picked Spirit Boons (who was really picking Thorns?) and a little help to Rabies and Lightning Storm Druids. Rabies is getting a new Legendary, while Lightning Storm is getting access to the Unsung Ascetic’s Wraps, a new Unique.

The preview for Necromancers didn’t get many tweaks compared to the rest, at least as seen on the broadcast. Blizzard will buff Bone Spirit and Golems, which are relatively niche.

Bone Spirit has the potential for tremendous damage, and it’s even deadlier with the soon-to-be-overhauled Aspect of Swelling Curse. Now, it increases the critical chance for Bone Spirit and gives you max Essence per enemy hit for 15 seconds. This can let you unleash an even more devastating Bone Spirit in succession, provided you can get your Essence back to full while it’s active.

Iron Golems will have a small area of effect in their attacks. As a quality-of-life change, allies and minions will no longer get stuck in a Bone Prison.

Tomorrow’s Diablo 4 patch notes will show off the full extent of the changes, including the new Unique items for all classes. The changes will go live when the game’s third season kicks off on Jan. 23, bringing the new Seneschal companion, a new storyline, a new battle pass, and more.