Vessel of Hatred Is Nerfing Its Most Broken Build but Making Its Best Dungeon More Rewarding
Spiritborn players are hitting a speed bump.
If you’ve been enjoying nuking everything in Nahantu by turning into a human tornado, the next patch for Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred is about to put an end to your fun. Patch 2.0.3 is the largest patch to date for Diablo 4’s first expansion, bringing with it a nerf for one controversial Spiritborn build and a host of other changes that should make some parts of the game considerably better.
The biggest change coming in the patch is that the Spiritborn’s popular but utterly broken evade build is being laid to rest. For the uninitiated, this build relies on the Spiritborn’s Eagle skills, which prize mobility, to unleash ludicrous amounts of damage simply through dodging. The build has gotten so big with Vessel of Hatred players because it’s easy to use and makes farming dungeons and events unbelievably fast.
Vessel of Hatred’s Eagle spirit was so powerful Blizzard had to step in.
By combining a skill that shoots electrified feathers when you evade with a rare weapon and another skill that reduces the evade cooldown, players could evade almost constantly, firing off a stream of damaging feathers each time. On top of that, a handful of other skills that either add defense or dodge chance could make this build all but invulnerable.
That’s not why Blizzard is doing away with it, though. It turns out the real secret behind the evade build’s popularity is that by spamming evade, players were actually breaking the ability’s animation, allowing them to use it more quickly than intended. This, in turn, was tanking the frame rates of nearby players in some instances, as their screens filled with whirling Spiritborn and their countless feathers.
“We have mentioned before that if a build ends up impacting the experience of others, we may make changes immediately, and this is one of those instances,” Adam Fletcher, Diablo’s director of community said on social media.
Players often get up in arms when their favorite builds are nerfed in online games, but it’s clear that the Spiritborn evade spam needed to stop. Players who’ve seen their games reduced to slideshows by all the spinny shenanigans will certainly be happy to see it end, and even those who’ve used the build don’t seem to be putting up the kind of fight you see when, for instance, Helldivers 2 changes literally anything.
Other than bringing the Spiritborn back down to normal speed, the other big update coming in Patch 2.0.3 will make the Kurast Undercity dungeon more rewarding. Kurast Undercity is a new type of dungeon that runs on a timer. Destroying enemies grants you more time in the dungeon, and when the clock runs out, your run is over. Blizzard is doubling gold drops from enemies slain in the sprawling dungeon and increasing the number of random item drops. On top of that, at least one Legendary item will be guaranteed for each complete run, so even if luck isn’t on your side, you should walk out of the Undercity with something worthwhile each time you finish it.
To make it easier to complete runs, the upcoming patch is also removing especially tanky enemies with high health from the dungeon and increasing the amount of time granted by others. Taken together, these updates should make Kurast Undercity a significantly more lucrative farming location for everyone, which more than makes up for the loss of the busted Spiritborn evade build.
Even without its infinite evades, Spiritborn is still a hell of a lot of fun.
The Realmwalker seasonal event — a highlight of the time I’ve spent with the game — is also getting a boost. More enemies will now be able to spawn while you’re challenging the Realmwalker, and the demonic turtle’s walking speed is also being increased, meaning you can get to the portal at the end of the encounter quicker. If that’s not enough, a Treasure Goblin has a chance to spawn for even more opportunities to snag some loot.
Vessel of Hatred’s Patch 2.0.3 is one of those rare occasions where a class nerf is widely embraced by a game’s community. Some players who’ve gotten used to twirling their way through the expansion will undoubtedly be miffed, but everyone else can be glad not to have their CPUs melted by flying feathers. If you want to experience the frame-skipping fun of the Spiritborn evade build, you only have until tomorrow, October 17, to do so.
