July is about to be halfway through, and Diablo 4 Season 9, which was launched at the beginning of the month, is naturally in full swing. Although it did not bring more breakthroughs to Diablo 4 in 2025, it is still worthy of being your first choice for playing ARPG.
However, although the previous 2.3.0 PTR showed some problems, Season 9 was not fully adjusted when it was officially launched. Therefore, the first major patch of this season, 2.3.1, will optimize these issues and fix other bugs after it goes online on July 15.
Based on this, we will introduce to you what changes patch 2.3.1 will make to the seasonal content and class experience of Diablo 4 Season 9 based on known information.
Most Classes Are Generally Enhanced
As you know, based on the experience in the first half of the month, it is obvious that the best class in S9 should be Sorcerer or Spiritborn, and their main builds have become more powerful after combining with Horadric Spells.
In comparison, other classes are somewhat weak. If you choose to play them, you may encounter difficulties in accumulating Diablo 4 gold in the early stage, which will hinder your progress.
Therefore, in order to avoid this problem and ensure the overall balance of the game’s class experience as much as possible, patch 2.3.1 has enhanced all classes except Spiritborn. Some are aimed at skills, while others are gear represented by new unique items.
Barbarian
- Battle Trance: Lucky Hit Chance increased from 10% to 20%; Damage bonus increased from 15%-30% to 30%-60%.
- Double Swing: Damage increased from 66% to 85%.
- Hammer of the Ancients: Damage increased from 110% to 175%.
- Rend: Bleeding damage increased from 120% to 135%.
- Upheaval: Damage increased from 132% to 200%.
- Whirlwind: Damage increased from 52% to 76%.
- Barbed Carapace: Thorns damage increased from 100% to 120%.
Druid
- Pulverize: Damage increased from 150% to 175%.
- Greatstaff of the Crone: Claw, in addition to being a storm skill, casts damage by 100-250% with Storm Strike.
Necromancer
- Hulking Monstrosity Passive: Additional Golem damage sacrifice bonus increased from 35% to 60%.
Rogue
- Deathmask of Nirmitruq: Damage bonus increased from 70% to 100%.
- Breakneck Bandit’s Aspect: Damage increased from 25%-45% to 35%-55%.
Sorcerer
- Meteor: Impact damage increased from 120% to 140%.
- Aspect of Frozen Orbit: Frozen Orb damage increased from 30%-50% to 50%-70%.
- Aspect of Frozen Memories: Avalanche vulnerable damage bonus increased from 50%-75% to 75%-100%.
While Spiritborn remained unchanged in Season 9 of the base game, they have been buffed in Vessel of Hatred. If you have been playing DLC recently, you will notice the following changes:
- Aspect of Pestilence: Damage bonus increased from 35%-75% to 50%-90%.
- Payback: Damage increased from 125% to 150%.
- Razor Wings: Damage increased from 75% to 95%.
From the above, it can be seen that Barbarian has received the most enhancements. This not only makes up for the long-term lack of interest in this class in Diablo 4, but also may cause a new dominant class competition in the second half of Season 9.
Optimization Of Seasonal Content
The main seasonal content of Season 9 is Horadric Spells. It can be used as a buff to bring more exploitable power to your characters and builds. At the same time, the game also sets up items such as Horadric Phials & Knowledge to help you upgrade this power.
In addition to the new power, Sins of the Horadrim also brings new dungeons Horadric Strongrooms and Escalating Nightmares. They are not only worthy of being explored, but also your main source of loot in Season 9.
Overall, the above mechanisms are working well, but there are also some minor issues. In order to give you the best experience in Season 9, patch 2.3.1 has made the following optimizations:
- Arcana drops obtained through combat can be automatically picked up.
- Myriad Stone can provide a temporary attack speed bonus, which stacks with permanent attack speed sources.
- For Nightmare dungeons with Equipment Delve affixes, the channeling time of Horadric Artifact has been reduced from 0.75 seconds to 0.25 seconds. In addition, the channeling process is no longer interrupted when you take damage.
- The completion rewards of Legion activities include more recycled materials; if completed on Torment difficulty, more Forgotten Souls will be included.
- Completing Nightmare dungeons with Horadric Materials Reserve affixes and obtaining Horadric Chests will give more recycled materials and Forgotten Souls.
In addition, Forgotten Wisdom affix of Nightmare dungeons itself has also received exclusive adjustments. If you unlocked this affix while completing Escalating Nightmares, please note the following changes:
- Motes now grant XP to all members of the entire combat party, rather than just to the player who picked it up.
- The maximum number of Motes that can spawn throughout the dungeon has been increased, while the drop frequency of Experience Motes has been slightly reduced.
- Each Mote grants more XP.
- Motes no longer drop when summoned by other monsters.
- Motes will no longer drop through Horadric Strongrooms.
Major Bug Fixed
In addition to normal content optimization, major bug fixes are also one of the major features of the patch. Among the fixes that deserve your attention include:
- Fixed an issue where Astaroth’s voice lines were barely audible when you are beginning his boss fight.
- Fixed an issue where Horadric Gateways could unexpectedly disappear and reappear when you are doing A Wanderer, Into Flames quest.
- Fixed an issue where Visions of Pain and Beastmaster’s Bane Season Journey objectives and the requirements for Truths that Line Within quest were inconsistent with their descriptions.
- Fixed an issue where teammates could not see your Cosmic Anomalies.
- Fixed an issue where Horadric Phials were sometimes incorrectly listed as Horadric Wayfinders.
- Fixed an issue where Barbarian’s Iron Maelstrom skill would not consistently trigger Catalysts.
- Fixed an issue where Druid’s Nature’s Fury skill would not trigger its cooldown after gaining Catalysts.
Those are the main things to watch for in patch 2.3.1. It’s worth noting that after the patch is released until 10am on July 19, you can get Rogue transmog item Arbalest crossbow by watching any streamer play Diablo 4 for three hours on Twitch! Don’t miss it!
