If you’ve been playing Diablo 4 Season 5, there’s a good chance you’re either playing a Lightning Spear Sorcerer or you’ve seen quite a few of them around. It’s one of the most popular and strongest builds in the current season of Blizzard’s ARPG – perhaps number one, depending on who you ask – but Blizzard has just reined it in ever so slightly. The Sorcerer nerf in question comes less as a way to target class balance, however, and more to resolve an issue where it was dragging down server performance.
The Diablo 4 Lightning Spear Sorcerer is a new build that’s risen its head in Season 5 of the RPG thanks to the rework of the legendary Aspect of Splintering Energy, which dramatically amplifies the damage of the Lightning Spear skill. This is then combined with the Fractured Winterglass unique amulet to synergize with the Frozen Orb, effectively spawning a large number of Lightning Spears that stack up bonus damage through the Conjuration Mastery passive and can demolish screens of foes with ease.
Unfortunately, it seems the sheer amount of things firing off all at once is causing performance issues in some cases. “In rare instances, this Aspect [of Splintering Energy] alongside Fractured Winterglass could cause detrimental server issues,” Blizzard explains in its latest Diablo 4 patch notes.
“To solve this, we’re reducing the frequency of it arcing to additional enemies, and increasing its damage to compensate. Additionally, the amount of Frozen Orbs that can be launched from Conjurations while using Fractured Winterglass has been adjusted in these rare instances.”
The good news is that it’s not all bad news. This change is designed more to deal with server problems than issues with Lightning Spear being “too strong,” despite it being one of the best Diablo 4 builds right now. Therefore, to compensate for the reduced arcing potential, the damage value on the Aspect of Splintering Energy has been boosted from 25-50% up to 50-80%. That actually means that you might see a bit more damage output in single-target fights, where the Lightning Spear build typically suffers most.
Overall, however, you will see a bit of a drop-off if you’re fighting large groups. Again, however, I wouldn’t worry too much – unless you’re pursuing the very highest tiers of the endgame, such as the upper ranks of the new Infernal Hordes mode. Taking down the Fell Council at tier 8 difficulty might take you 50-100% longer than before, for example, as demonstrated at the four-minute mark in the video below, courtesy of Max ‘wudijo’ R.
If you’re not fully geared out yet and haven’t got the full complement of bonus stats, then you might not be pumping out enough Lightning Spears to notice a dramatic difference. As such, this probably isn’t cause to suddenly respec your entire build, or to change to another of the Diablo 4 classes in panic. And at least the servers should be happier.
Looking for even more ways to scratch the itch that only a shower of loot can satisfy? Here are the best games like Diablo to play in 2024. Alternatively, you can check in on everything we know about the Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred release date and further DLC details.
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