Diablo 4's first hotfix buffs enemies in the difficulty level you probably haven't even played yet

Diablo 4 character close-up — (Image credit: Tyler C. / Activision Blizzard)

Less than 24 hours after the start of its early access release, the first Diablo 4 hotfix is live. The update makes minor nerfs to the Sorcerer and Rogue classes, and makes life more difficult for everyone by increasing the health of monsters at higher World Tiers.

Diablo 4 World Tiers are essentially difficulty levels. But the system is a little more restrictive than many other games: To begin, you only have access to two levels, Adventurer and Veteran—basically your "easy" and "normal" levels. World Tier 3 (Nightmare) and World Tier 4 (Torment) don't become available until after you've completed the campaign.

Moving to higher World Tiers increases both the challenge and the reward: At World Tier 3, for instance, you'll get a 100% XP bonus, but your non-physical resistances are reduced by 20% and the difficulty of enemies is increased. But apparently not quite enough, as Blizzard has now given them a bit of a health boost.

Rogues have been very slightly dialled back in the hotfix, as there will now be a brief delay in marking enemies after their Inner Sight's unlimited energy expires, while the sorcerer's Flame Shield will be put on full cooldown when it's put into an Enchantment slot, so you'll have to wait a bit before you can use it.

There's no indication as to exactly which World Tiers will have healthier monsters, but the general feeling on Reddit is that it will be W3 and W4, as the first two tiers are available immediately and not "later." I've reached out to Blizzard to clarify, but frankly I think Reddit's probably right.

The Diablo 4 hotfix, which takes the game to version 1.0.2, is a server-side patch, which means you don't have to do anything—it's already done. You can check out the full, very brief patch notes below.

Sorcerer - Class Specialization

Flame Shield Enchantment

When Flame Shield is initially equipped into an Enchantment slot, it’s placed on full cooldown.

Rogue - Class Specialization

Inner Sight

After Inner Sight’s unlimited Energy expires, there will be a 4 second delay before another enemy becomes marked.

Items

Shout Skill Cooldown Reduction

This affix will no longer appear on items.

Miscellaneous

Monster health values have been increased in later World Tiers.

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.