The reports have been circulating since shortly after Season 15's hidden Diablo II Runewords were discovered, but the issue has resurfaced on Blizzard's forums on September 25. That makes Grief an increasingly awkward member of the anniversary collection. It has the correct name, the familiar Rune recipe and an extremely attractive tooltip. The numbers underneath may simply have forgotten to participate.
Grief Is Supposed to Add Up to 1,000 Weapon Damage
Season 15's version of Grief uses the classic Eth + Tir + Lo + Mal + Ral combination and can be created from compatible one-handed Swords and Axes through the Horadric Cube. Its current affixes include Attack Speed, Deadly Strike, damage against demons and, most importantly for this problem, +750 to +1,000 Weapon Damage.
Its Unique effect also makes direct damage inflict 40% bonus Poisoning damage over five seconds, giving Grief an obvious place in aggressive melee builds.
On paper, this should be a serious weapon.
That is why players noticed when the paper stopped agreeing with the game.
A +1,225 Grief Lost to a Rare Flail
One of the clearest community tests involved an Item Power 925 Grief that had been Masterworked until its Weapon Damage affix reached +1,225.
The weapon displayed 2,182 DPS and a damage-per-hit range of 1,417 to 1,493.
The same player compared it with a Rare Item Power 925 Flail carrying only +168 Weapon Damage. That considerably less impressive weapon displayed 2,274 DPS and a damage range of 1,607 to 2,183.
The player then checked skill tooltips and tested the weapons against the Training Dummy, reporting that the Rare still produced higher overall damage.
That does not constitute an official Blizzard diagnosis, and differences between weapon bases, attack speeds and skill interactions always need to be considered when players compare equipment. But several people have independently reported the same basic issue: Grief's Weapon Damage number is visible on the item while the expected increase does not appear to materialize in actual character damage.
Players Have Been Reporting This Since September 17
The first Blizzard forum report we found dates back to September 17, only two days after Season of Hell's Legacy launched. The original poster said they had farmed for more than twenty hours to make Grief before concluding that it simply did not work correctly.
Additional players joined the report over the following days, and on September 25 another discussion appeared specifically asking why Grief's +1,000 Weapon Damage was not being applied.
That is important because Blizzard has already touched Grief in a hotfix.
Hotfix 4 corrected an unintended damage interaction between Grief and the five-piece bonus from the Old Mountain Talisman set. Blizzard therefore clearly has Grief on its radar.
The official Hotfix 4 notes, however, do not mention the basic Weapon Damage affix failing to apply.
Grief Has Already Been Involved in One Damage Bug
This gives the Runeword a slightly strange Season 15 history.
When combined with Song of the Old Mountain's five-piece bonus, Grief could contribute to unintended damage and Blizzard stepped in to correct the interaction. At the same time, players are claiming that Grief's ordinary Weapon Damage affix is underperforming or not functioning at all.
So depending on which system is involved, Grief has apparently managed to deal both too much damage and not enough damage during the same season.
That is impressive range.
Grief Was Supposed to Be One of the Big Anniversary Runewords
The problem matters more because this is not an obscure recipe nobody intended to use.
Grief is one of Diablo II's iconic Runewords. In the older game it became famous for its enormous flat damage contribution and its ability to turn several melee builds into extremely efficient killing machines. Seeing Eth Tir Lo Mal Ral return inside Diablo IV immediately gave veterans a very specific expectation.
Season 15 deliberately leans into that recognition. Blizzard has hidden nineteen Diablo II-style Runewords inside the Horadric Cube, allowing players to rediscover combinations such as Stealth, Enigma, Spirit, Infinity and Grief rather than simply reading them from a seasonal tutorial.
The idea has worked remarkably well. Players have spent days experimenting with bases, Ancestral versions and Transfiguration.
Unfortunately, experimentation has also revealed several things Blizzard presumably did not intend.
The Hidden Runewords Have Had a Rough Technical Debut
Grief is not the first returning Runeword to cause trouble.
We already covered how three Ancestral Stealth armors could accidentally create a Stealth carrying Enigma's power. Blizzard removed that interaction through Hotfix 2 after players briefly discovered that Tal Eth could negotiate its way into Jah Ith Ber territory.
Enigma has also generated fresh reports involving its resource conversion, while Grief has now been involved in both the Old Mountain interaction and the current Weapon Damage complaints.
Some instability is perhaps inevitable. Season 15 is combining old Rune recipes, entirely new Diablo IV item implementations, Transfiguration, Masterworking, class systems and several mechanics that were deliberately hidden from the PTR.
That creates exactly the sort of environment where one number can look perfectly correct on the tooltip while doing something considerably stranger underneath.
Blizzard Has Not Confirmed the Weapon Damage Bug Yet
This is the important qualification.
As of September 25, Blizzard has not publicly confirmed that Grief's +Weapon Damage affix itself is broken. The official hotfix notes acknowledge the Old Mountain interaction, but not this separate complaint.
What we have are repeated player reports, damage comparisons and Training Dummy testing that point toward a problem deserving investigation.
That means players should not assume every Grief is definitively broken in every configuration. Different weapon bases, classes and builds may expose the issue differently, and Blizzard may have additional information that is not visible from community testing.
But if you are currently farming the Runes specifically because Grief's massive flat Weapon Damage looks attractive, this is worth knowing before Eth Tir Lo Mal Ral disappears into the Cube.
Twenty Hours Is a Long Time to Farm a Tooltip
That is ultimately why this particular bug report has some teeth.
Season 15 has produced plenty of funny technical problems. Messerschmidt's Reaver briefly healed monsters. Stealth stole Enigma's homework. Dance of Knives discovered numbers large enough to become philosophical.
Grief is different because players deliberately farm several specific Runes to create it.
The entire point of a hidden Runeword is the moment where remembering or discovering the recipe finally pays off.
You gather Eth.
You find Tir.
You protect Lo as if it were a family heirloom.
You collect Mal and Ral.
You put everything into the Horadric Cube.
The famous name appears.
And according to some players, the most important number on the weapon then quietly goes on holiday.
Grief has returned to Diablo.
Now Blizzard may need to make the damage return with it.
