Blizzard has temporarily disabled Uber Unique drops in Diablo 4 today due to an issue with Helltide Chests that was causing two of them, Andariel’s Visage and Harlequin Crest, to drop far too frequently. It appeared to be a guaranteed drop for Barbarians and Sorcerers.
The issue was first reported on Blizzard’s forums on July 6, where it was quickly dubbed an exploit since finding them is supposed to be rarer than winning a lottery, and having them drop frequently led to a significant imbalance.
Blizzard was quick to respond to the new issue, with the developers confirming they had disabled Uber Unique drops while they investigate the problem.
“We have temporarily disabled Uber Uniques from dropping in-game while we address an issue with Helltide Chest drops,” Blizzard said. “Players will not be able to obtain the six Uber Unique items until a hotfix which we expect to be implemented on Friday afternoon Pacific Time. Other unique items will still be available from these chests.”
The community’s reaction has been mixed, with many Diablo 4 players locking horns over what was the correct decision.
One player questioned Blizzard’s decision, claiming it had let hundreds of people loot these items only to disable them and prevent anyone else from enjoying the spoils. Another labeled it a “disgrace” for two reasons—one, for allowing this to happen, and two, for having “stupid” items that were as rare as this in the first place since nobody can loot them.
Others are relieved the devs have taken steps to address the issue but believe more should be done to make things fair again. One suggestion was a server rollback this weekend to prevent lucky players from keeping the items and potentially even bans for those who exploited it to the point where they farmed multiple to sell later on.
It seems players will continue to lock horns until the Diablo 4 devs make a decision tomorrow when they are also expected to re-enable drops.
There’s every chance those who did find Andariel’s Visage or Harlequin Crest while the July exploit lasted might not be able to keep it, but we’ll just have to see.
Update July 13 1:19pm CT: Blizzard has confirmed that “only 142 accounts obtained an Uber Unique between the launch of 1.0.4 and when we disabled Uber Unique items from the game on the evening of July 6.”
“We do not plan on removing these items from the accounts,” Blizzard said. “In the future, we may need to take action to maintain fairness within the game when a bug or exploit impacts the gameplay of others.”
