Some Warlock players now think it may have accidentally moved into somebody else's house.
Players are reporting that an existing Spiteful Sacrifice setup has suddenly changed its tooltip after the update and now describes mechanics belonging to the brand-new Inferno XIV Essence, even when the new Essence has never been acquired or equipped.
The old skill configuration still appears to behave partly like the old version.
Unfortunately, players say it no longer deals the damage they expect either.
The New Tooltip Looks Suspiciously Familiar
The new Inferno XIV Pants Essence is called Itinerant Spite.
Blizzard says it changes Spiteful Sacrifice so that Primary Attacks hurl swords of dark magic, damage enemies and apply Malignant Shadows. Every third Primary Attack also causes the Warlock to blink forward in the direction of movement.
That is a fairly specific collection of mechanics.
Which is why players became suspicious when essentially the same description suddenly appeared on an older Spite Bolts setup after the August 12 patch.
The original bug reporter specifically says they do not own or have the new Itinerant Spite Essence equipped.
Yet their existing Spiteful Sacrifice setup now describes Primary Attacks, piercing dark blades, Malignant Shadows and a teleport on every third attack.
Diablo Immortal appears to have handed one Essence another Essence's instruction manual.
The Old Skill Has Not Completely Become the New One
That would almost be simpler.
According to the report, the existing skill still appears as a three-charge ability, rather than becoming the five-second Primary Attack empowerment expected from the new mechanic.
The player's Primary Attack also continues to fire Lunatic Rush instead of the dark swords described in the new tooltip.
So the game is apparently displaying one mechanic while running something else underneath.
And neither side seems especially happy about the arrangement.
Damage Appears to Be Missing Too
The problem is not purely cosmetic.
The original reporter says using their old Spiteful Sacrifice / Spite Bolts charges now deals little or none of the expected damage, while Malignant Shadow damage on the training dummy appears missing, inconsistent or dramatically lower than before.
Another Warlock player replied on August 15 and reported the same basic problem, saying their existing Pyrestorm pants now display the description of the newly introduced Essence instead.
That gives the bug a little more weight than a single corrupted tooltip.
Two players are describing an existing Essence changing after the same patch, and both connect the new description to Itinerant Spite.
The August 12 Update Changed a Lot of Warlock Powers
The timing is important.
Blizzard added six new Warlock Legendary Affixes in the August 12 update, including Itinerant Spite, Hardened Heart, Harmonized Screams, Unending Darkness, Griefmuzzle and Undreamt Calamity.
The same patch also retired a large number of older Legendary Essences across every class as part of Blizzard's ongoing attempt to keep the Essence pool manageable.
That is a substantial amount of data moving around in the same system at once.
We have already seen another consequence of that update, with retired Essences accidentally continuing to appear inside Fractured Plane after their powers had been disabled.
Now Warlock players may be looking at another migration problem.
We Still Don’t Know the Exact Cause
Blizzard has not yet replied publicly to this Warlock bug report or confirmed that Itinerant Spite literally overwrote another Essence.
That means the headline remains a player interpretation of what the symptoms suggest, not an established technical diagnosis.
The issue could involve a mismatched tooltip.
It could involve the wrong Essence data being referenced.
It could be a separate mechanical problem that merely happens to display the new description.
Until Blizzard investigates, we do not know.
Warlock Players Should Check Their Old Spite Builds
If you were using Spiteful Sacrifice before August 12, it may be worth checking the Essence description and testing the build against the training dummy.
The problem currently appears limited to player reports rather than a confirmed widespread bug, so there is no reason to assume every Warlock setup is affected.
But if your old Spite build suddenly starts describing magical swords you never equipped and dealing considerably less damage than yesterday, you are probably not imagining things.
The August update gave Warlocks a new Essence.
It may just have given it to the wrong pair of pants.
Sources
Blizzard Entertainment: Burn Through the Darkening Decades
Diablo Immortal Forums: Warlock Spite Bolts / Pyrestorm Not Working After Aug 12 Patch
