Ever since Diablo 4’s June launch, one of the most vociferous criticisms has revolved around the near zero chance players have of obtaining one of the handful of coveted Uber Unique items. The drop rate for Uber Uniques is so miniscule that players have said the chances of seeing one are lower than winning the lottery or getting struck by lightning.
In an interview with IGN in July, associate game director Joseph Piepiora defended the drop rate for Diablo 4’s Uber Uniques. “We want players, the moment that these things actually drop, we want that to be a fall out of your chair moment,” Piepiora said at the time. “We want that to be a really critically important thing.”
Piepiora explained that Blizzard wanted to maintain the extreme rarity of these items in order to prevent them from becoming mandatory for builds. “If we make it so, let's say that over the course of 10 hours, five hours even, you're guaranteed to get this item, what that really means is that item now becomes kind of a mandatory piece of equipment that's required for your build to feel successful,” Piepiora said three months ago.
“We don't want these items to fall into that space. We want them to be these really extraordinary, massive bonuses on top of basically anyone's build that can occur on occasion. When you get them, the character is just going to feel overpowered. They're going to feel very, very strong. That is how they're balanced.”
While Blizzard left the door open to changes based on feedback from the community, Piepiora signaled the developer planned to stay the course on Uber Unique drop rates.
“Now as we've been looking at the feedback and seeing how many these have dropped for players around the world, we are thinking internally about sorts of things we want players to be able to do, but we don't want players to feel that this is very easy to go and target farm them,” Piepiora said.
“We don't want them to feel like they are mandatory for your build to come online. These are the cherries and fun, exciting things for players to chase. This is a back and forth, and we're having conversations internally on what we want to do here.”
Fast forward to October, and the impending launch of Season 2, dubbed Season of Blood, and it seems Blizzard has had a change of heart. As part of the sweeping changes coming to Diablo 4 with the launch of Season 2 and Patch 1.2.0 is a significant change to the way players go about trying to get an Uber Unique.
Season 2 adds five endgame bosses across Sanctuary to increase the variety of endgame experiences offered, and it’s these bosses that provide better opportunities to obtain specific, Unique and Uber Unique items.
Here are the details on the five new endgame bosses:
The part we’re interested in here is the Duriel boss fight, which Blizzard said “has significantly increased” the chance to drop Uber Uniques.
Diablo designer Joe Shely went one step further, taking to Twitter to say players who really want an Uber Unique will finally get one. “We aren’t kidding about the drop rate of Uber Uniques from Duriel in Season 2 of Diablo 4,” Shely said. “They’ll still be rare drops, but folks who get the fight on farm are going to see them.”
Generally, Season 2 looks set to be a crowd-pleaser of an update for Diablo 4, which has suffered waning interest in recent months. The changes Blizzard announced this week are going down well, with many players saying the speeding up of Diablo 4’s grind is particularly welcome.
Meanwhile, Diablo 4 is coming to Steam later this month, which should add another shot in the arm of the action role-playing game.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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In an interview with IGN in July, associate game director Joseph Piepiora defended the drop rate for Diablo 4’s Uber Uniques. “We want players, the moment that these things actually drop, we want that to be a fall out of your chair moment,” Piepiora said at the time. “We want that to be a really critically important thing.”
Piepiora explained that Blizzard wanted to maintain the extreme rarity of these items in order to prevent them from becoming mandatory for builds. “If we make it so, let's say that over the course of 10 hours, five hours even, you're guaranteed to get this item, what that really means is that item now becomes kind of a mandatory piece of equipment that's required for your build to feel successful,” Piepiora said three months ago.
“We don't want these items to fall into that space. We want them to be these really extraordinary, massive bonuses on top of basically anyone's build that can occur on occasion. When you get them, the character is just going to feel overpowered. They're going to feel very, very strong. That is how they're balanced.”
While Blizzard left the door open to changes based on feedback from the community, Piepiora signaled the developer planned to stay the course on Uber Unique drop rates.
“Now as we've been looking at the feedback and seeing how many these have dropped for players around the world, we are thinking internally about sorts of things we want players to be able to do, but we don't want players to feel that this is very easy to go and target farm them,” Piepiora said.
“We don't want them to feel like they are mandatory for your build to come online. These are the cherries and fun, exciting things for players to chase. This is a back and forth, and we're having conversations internally on what we want to do here.”
Fast forward to October, and the impending launch of Season 2, dubbed Season of Blood, and it seems Blizzard has had a change of heart. As part of the sweeping changes coming to Diablo 4 with the launch of Season 2 and Patch 1.2.0 is a significant change to the way players go about trying to get an Uber Unique.
Season 2 adds five endgame bosses across Sanctuary to increase the variety of endgame experiences offered, and it’s these bosses that provide better opportunities to obtain specific, Unique and Uber Unique items.
Here are the details on the five new endgame bosses:
- Five endgame bosses have been added across Sanctuary to increase the variety of Endgame experiences offered, providing better opportunities to obtain specific, Unique and Uber Unique items.
- The new Boss fights are unlocked based on succeeding in different tasks across Sanctuary, with different resources required for facing each Boss, and each new fight becoming available as you progress through World Tiers III and IV.
- The reward pools for these Endgame bosses have been significantly improved:
- Each boss drops specific Uniques, exclusive to each individual boss fight.
- The Duriel boss fight has significantly increased the chance to drop Uber Uniques, making the process of accessing these coveted items more achievable.
- Each individual boss also has a chance to drop unique cosmetics specific to each boss, making the access of specific cosmetics in-game more targeted.
- Each boss drops specific Uniques, exclusive to each individual boss fight.
- Objectives have been removed from some Dungeons, only defeating the boss is needed to defeat the Nightmare Dungeon.
The part we’re interested in here is the Duriel boss fight, which Blizzard said “has significantly increased” the chance to drop Uber Uniques.
Diablo designer Joe Shely went one step further, taking to Twitter to say players who really want an Uber Unique will finally get one. “We aren’t kidding about the drop rate of Uber Uniques from Duriel in Season 2 of Diablo 4,” Shely said. “They’ll still be rare drops, but folks who get the fight on farm are going to see them.”
We aren’t kidding about the drop rate of Uber Uniques from Duriel in Season 2 of #DiabloIV. They’ll still be rare drops, but folks who get the fight on farm are going to see them. https://t.co/xH344svJ2L
— Joe Shely (@JoeShely) October 5, 2023
Generally, Season 2 looks set to be a crowd-pleaser of an update for Diablo 4, which has suffered waning interest in recent months. The changes Blizzard announced this week are going down well, with many players saying the speeding up of Diablo 4’s grind is particularly welcome.
Meanwhile, Diablo 4 is coming to Steam later this month, which should add another shot in the arm of the action role-playing game.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
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