Undocumented Diablo 4 Season 1 Change Has Killed Its Best Power-Leveling Strategy

Diablo IV’s massive Season 1 update is now live, and while players are generally unhappy about the sweeping nerfs that have come to the ARPG, one change undocumented in the official patch notes is effectively the nail in the coffin for the game’s best power-leveling strategy.

Though it wasn’t listed in Blizzard’s Diablo IV Season 1 patch notes, players have discovered there are now level requirements for being able to complete the capstone dungeons for World Tier III and IV. While some fans assumed based on in-game tooltips for World Tier recommended levels that the requirements are level 50 for World Tier III and level 70 for World Tier IV, YouTuber Zach Bitango has revealed that’s not the case. To unlock World Tier III, players will need to be at least level 40 in order to receive credit for completing its capstone dungeon. It’s a similar story for World Tier IV. Now, players will need to be at least level 60 in order to progress to what is currently Diablo IV’s hardest difficulty.

Prior to the Season 1 update, a high-level player could “power-level” a lower-level player by rushing them through the game’s capstone dungeons in order to unlock the higher World Tiers and the increased experience, gold, and rewards they provide. A low-level player needed only to sit at the beginning of the capstone dungeon in order to soak up all the experience from the monsters killed by their high-level friend. With the higher World Tiers unlocked, low-level players could then have their high-level friend rush them through World Tier IV dungeons. Using this method, players could be boosted up to level 50 in an hour or less.

That is no longer the case. Alongside documented changes to the amount of experience earned by lower-level players for killing higher-level monsters and to the bonus experience granted by killing higher-level monsters in general, power-leveling is all but dead. This isn’t the first time Blizzard has looked to slow down players’ leveling speeds. The developer previously nerfed some of the most popular dungeons players were using to level quickly, reducing the number of elite enemies inside.

Blizzard has not yet commented on the unlisted World Tier level requirement changes, but players on Reddit have documented a small handful of other changes that weren’t mentioned in the game’s patch notes. One change, a lower drop rate for Aberrant Cinders in Diablo IV’s endgame Helltide areas, has been confirmed to be a bug. Blizzard will be addressing the Aberrant Cinder drop rate in a hot fix soon. It seems there have additionally been changes to the Druid’s Envenom passive skill alongside adjustments to items with the Max Resource affix. It’s unclear if these other changes are also bugs or intentional.

Diablo IV Season of the Malignant begins July 20 and will introduce a new seasonal questline alongside the game’s first battle pass. It will also introduce a new mechanic in the form of Malignant Hearts, which serve as powerful gems that can be slotted into gear for unique effects.