Summary
Blizzard releases a new update forDiablo 4, attempting to put an end to the ongoing performance troubles, while making some big quality of life changes to Masterworking. As a live-service title,Diablo 4has continued to evolve over the years since it launched, as each new season not only adds new content to the experience, but typically adds big quality of life changes as well.
As season 8 continues on, Blizzard has already started teasing new details regarding theupcoming endgame content forDiablo 4. Season 9 aims to add new dungeons called Escalation Nightmares, intending to be the “ultimate test” for players as they work through a chain of 3 nightmare level dungeons. Affexes will stack and rewards on offer will increase with each difficulty level, before facing the Exalted version of Astaroth. In the meantime, however, Blizzard is attempting to smooth some of the current rough edges with a newDiablo 4update.
For most players, the big piece toDiablo 4’supdateis the change to Masterworking. TheDiablo 4endgame crafting systemlets players improve their gear affixes, though it can be a bit resource intensive. To help reduce costs at the earlier levels,Diablo 4now reduces the basic materials cost of Masterworking through levels 1-4. In fact, all costs outside Obducite and Gold have been “substantially reduced” to prevent limiting how much players can engage with the system.
Another major piece of this update is the attempt to address the ongoing performance issues for many PC players. During Season 8, manyDiablo 4players started reporting issues on PC, including things like memory leaks and game crashes. With this latest update, Blizzard is disabling the DirectStorage setting to potentially alleviate performance issues. However, players can still enable the feature from the Battlenet launcher game settings forDiablo 4.
In the meantime, there’s been a rising wave of discontent with players during Season 8. Recently, the reception has been largely mixed asDiablo 4players have criticized the focus on microtransactions, like the Berserk collaboration, while seasonal progression has largely slowed without much new content to dig into. These complaints could be a reason why Blizzard has been more vocal than usual regarding its Season 9 plans.
Diablo 4 Update 2.2.2. Patch Notes
Base Game Update
Developer’s Note:intent is to ensure costs besides Obducite and Gold don’t limit Masterworking, especially when the player engages in a significant number of Masterwork Resets.
Diablo 4
WHERE TO PLAY
Diablo® IV is the ultimate action RPG experience with endless evil to slaughter, countless abilities to master, nightmarish dungeons, and legendary loot. Embark on the campaign solo or with friends, meeting memorable characters through beautifully dark settings and a gripping story, or explore an expansive end game and shared world where players can meet in towns to trade, team up to battle world bosses, or descend into PVP zones to test their skills against other players – no lobbies necessary – with cross-play, cross-progression, and couch co-op on Xbox.This is only the beginning for Diablo® IV, with new events, stories, seasons, rewards, and more looming on the horizon.
