The first big-ish patch to arrive following the launch of Diablo 4’s fifth season is dropping tomorrow, August 20. Assuming you won’t be too busy keeping up with all the Gamescom Opening Night Live goings on, this one is actually going to get you to play.
Update 1.5.1 focuses on Infernal Hordes, the new endgame activity that’s the major feature the season is named after. It also has some quality of life changes that I genuinely thought were already in the game because of how basic they are.
Before we get into the Infernal Hordes tweaks, it’s worth highlighting the small, but massively impactful changes patch 1.5.1 makes to the UI and user experience. For starters, party leaders will now be able to promote another member to the role – which I can’t believe isn’t already something you can do.
Creating a new character currently places them at the bottom, but the patch will flip the order so that they show up at the top instead. Those who like to bargain will be happy to know that Trade chat will instantly be more useful, because it’s going to be separated by World Tier. The game will now also alert players when a new patch is available.
Wrapping up the nice-to-haves is a new visual effect to make it easier to see which Corpse Bow is shooting you. The projectile trail is now more prominent as a result.
Within the Infernal Hordes, the tweak that’s likely going to have the biggest impact is that the Spoils of Gold chest can re-used indefinitely. Some Infernal Offerings have been made more rewarding, too. The list includes Exalted Elite, Surging Elite, Unstoppable Elite, and Burning Rain. The patch also makes it so it’s easier to know that you picked up Burning Aether, thanks to an update to the sound effects.
Speaking of rewards, Blizzard is making it up to players for an issue that cropped up with the previous patch. The problem prevented players from getting items with guaranteed Greater Affixes where they should’ve received them. To compensate, all players will receive a cache of Legendaries with guaranteed Greater Affixes.
The patch will also bring back the Alchemist Control Tempering affix for Rogues, after it was disabled due to a bug. However, the updated version has a few changes from the old one. The Flurry Size affix is now under Alchemist Control, and the Ranks of Trick Attacks affix is now gone from Alchemist Control.
Check the Blizzard blog for the full change log, which includes a lot of bug fixes.
