Diablo IV Season 3, aka Season of the Construct, won't be out until next week. However, Blizzard has already revealed the patch notes for the upcoming season and, sadly, one of the most popular skills for the Sorcerer has been nerfed to the ground.
Zapping No More
The skill in question is none other than Ball Lightning. For the uninitiated, Ball Lightning is a skill in Diablo IV that summons damaging balls of lightning that orbit the Sorcerer upon use. This skill has been a staple in most Sorcerer builds due to its sheer power, so much so that it makes even the game's pinnacle content so easy. In fact, most of the community would say that nothing compares to the damage of Ball Lightning, at least, until Season 3 arrives next week.
According to the patch notes for Season 3, Enhanced Ball Lightning has been changed in that its attack rate now increases with attack speed, up to 25%. As it stands, Ball Lightning's damage rate can go as high as 200% based on the player's increased attack speed bonus and not their base attack speed, which is quite insane. This, of course, is a pretty significant nerf.
Scrolling all the way down, players will find a developer's comment saying that Ball Lightning was dealing far more damage than intended, particularly due to the "Enhanced" upgrade just mentioned.
So what do players who love using Sorcerer mainly for Ball Lightning have to say about this? Surprisingly, the community's sentiment about this supposed nerf is actually quite positive.
Redditor tjseventyseven said that Ball Lightning will still be good, albeit not too good that other builds in the game cannot compete.
Another person said that if the nerf to Ball Lightning is truly that significant, players can just include Lightning Spear to make up for the damage loss.
Read Also: Blizzard Announces Spicy Details About Diablo IV Season 3
Patch Highlights
NEW ITEMS
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Paingorger's Gauntlets
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Damaging enemies with a cast Non-Basic Skill marks them for 3 seconds. When a Basic Skill first hits a marked enemy, the Basic Skill's damage is echoed to all marked enemies, dealing 100-200%[x] increased damage.
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Aspect of Adaptability
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When cast below 50% Maximum Resource, Basic Skills generate 3 of your Primary Resource, once per cast.
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When cast at or above 50% Maximum Resource, Basic Skills deal 40-80% increased damage.
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BARBARIAN SKILLS
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Charge
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Base damage increased by 900%, from 0.25 to 2.50.
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Enhanced Charge terrain impact damage increased by 150%, from 0.6 to 1.5.
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Power Charge no longer requires a terrain impact to reduce the cooldown of Charge, and now charging a boss will reduce the cooldown by 6 seconds.
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Brute Force
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Overpower damage decreased from 15% to 8% per rank.
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DRUID SKILLS
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Prime Lacerate
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Changed functionality: Lacerate hits Heal for 3% Maximum Life, increased to 6% on Critical Strikes.
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Cataclysm
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Twister damage increased from 23% to 46%.
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Lightning damage increased from 77% to 95%.
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The full patch notes can be found on Diablo IV's official website.
Do you play Sorcerer in Diablo IV? If so, what can you say about the upcoming nerf to Ball Lightning?
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