Diablo IV Season 1 Arrives, Reverts Unpopular 1.1 Change; Players Report Numerous Issues

Earlier this week Blizzard dropped Diablo IV ver. 1.1 in preparation for the big “Season of the Malignant” content update and the response has been… less than positive. As we detailed in our post, the update was heavy on bad news, including nerfs for essentially every one of the game’s classes and changes that would make earning XP and leveling up more difficult. Needless to say, the Diablo subreddit has been a bit of a mess for the last couple of days.

Well, as of now Diablo IV: Season of the Malignant is officially out, and with it, Blizzard has released another small patch, which does walk back one of the less popular changes included in the original 1.1 update. Blizzard had added new level requirements for tackling Capstone Dungeons in order to level up to World Tier III or World Tier IV (previously, you could tackle them whenever you deemed fit). Under the changes, you needed to be level 40 to upgrade to World Tier III and level 60 for World Tier IV. Well, the just-released 1.1.0b update for Diablo IV removes that requirement. Here are the brief patch notes for the update…

Season of the Malignant

Items

• Malignant Hearts will now always grant armor that directly maps with their item power.

World Tiers

• Removed the level requirement for World Tiers III and IV.

So, all the complaints about the 1.1 update aside, how’s the Season of the Malignant content? Well, a lot of folks are struggling to experience it at the moment. A lot of people are stuck in queues trying to play and once they do, many are finding they are running into invisible walls and can’t access the new seasonal quests. Also, some things like Altars of Lilith, cleared fog of war, and their associated Renown was supposed to carry over to the seasonal content, but it isn’t working for many.

Are these just temporary hiccups? Probably. Blizzard will likely get things working properly before too long. That said, considering how grumpy the Diablo IV fanbase already was, these additional issues aren’t going down particularly well. Blizzard has scheduled a “Campfire Chat” with the game’s devs for Friday, and well, hopefully, they’re rehearsing their answers carefully.

Diablo IV can be played on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and PS5. Season of the Malignant content is available now.

Written by Nathan Birch