There is good news and bad news. The patch prevents the problem from happening again. It does not automatically repair characters already affected. Those players have another task waiting for them, and it involves creating somebody new.
Using a Prime Evil Splinter Too Early Could Break Your Questline
The problem involves Season 15's Prime Evil Splinters, the items associated with Diablo, Baal and Mephisto. Under certain circumstances, players could use one of these Splinters before completing the seasonal questline. Doing so could leave that character unable to finish the story or gain access to Prime Evil Powers.
That is a particularly unfortunate failure because the entire Season of Hell's Legacy revolves around those powers. As we explained in our look at the Prime Evil switching grind, choosing between Diablo, Baal and Mephisto changes which activities receive seasonal bonuses. Losing access to the powers is therefore considerably more serious than missing an optional reward.
Patch 3.2.3 prevents characters from using the Splinters prematurely. However, Blizzard says the update cannot reset the progression of characters already trapped by the bug.
How to Unlock Prime Evil Powers on an Affected Character
Blizzard has provided an official workaround, although it requires more effort than simply logging out and back in. Players affected by this particular questline bug should follow these steps:
- Create a new character in the same partition as the affected character.
- Complete the Season 15 questline on that new character.
- Once the questline is completed, Prime Evil Powers will unlock for all characters in that partition.
The partition requirement is important. Normal and Hardcore characters are separate, as are ordinary and Solo Self-Found characters. Completing the questline in the wrong partition will not provide the intended unlock.
Fortunately, Blizzard does not say players must delete their original character. The new character is used to complete the progression that the original can no longer finish.
This should also not be confused with the separate issue we covered where players reached Rank 24 but still could not unlock their final Prime Evil Power. Blizzard's latest notes specifically address premature Splinter use and blocked seasonal quest progression. They do not explicitly identify the Rank 24 problem as fixed.
Horadric Cube Rerolls Are Getting Repaired
Patch 3.2.3 also addresses an irritating crafting issue involving the Horadric Cube. Several affixes could not be rerolled correctly, limiting players' ability to improve equipment even when the relevant crafting systems should have supported those changes.
The affected affixes include Impairment Reduction, Barrier Generation, +Healing and Critical Strike Damage.
These might sound like relatively minor repairs compared with an entire seasonal questline becoming inaccessible, but the Cube is central to Diablo IV's current equipment progression. We have already explored how Season 15 expanded Charm crafting and rerolling, making reliable affix manipulation increasingly important for endgame builds.
Few things improve the excitement of finding a promising item quite like discovering that the crafting system refuses to cooperate.
Baal, the Countess and Necromancer Quests Also Receive Fixes
Several additional problems are being addressed. Blizzard is correcting Tyrael's spawn position after the Baal encounter, which could make it difficult to collect the defeated boss's loot. Given how much effort players put into farming the Prime Evils, reaching the treasure and discovering that an angel is standing inconveniently close to it was probably not the intended challenge.
The Countess in the Forgotten Tower will no longer be able to pass through the fog wall and prevent progression. The Sandstone Golem in the Horadric Library is also receiving a fix for failing to respawn after a player dies during the encounter.
Necromancers benefit from a correction to Call of the Underworld, where some monsters were not dropping the Unbroken Bones required for the class mechanic quest. The update also includes unspecified stability, performance, visual and interface improvements.
What Patch 3.2.3 Does Not Fix
There is one important limitation to the update. Blizzard's published notes do not announce changes to Splinter drop rates, despite the community concerns covered in our earlier investigation into the Season 15 Splinter grind.
Nor does the patch announce a correction for the Hellfire Torch's unusual Talisman interactions. The update is focused on progression blockers, broken encounters and specific crafting issues rather than a broad balance overhaul.
For most players, Patch 3.2.3 should make Season 15 a little more reliable. For anyone whose character became trapped after using a Prime Evil Splinter too early, the news is more complicated. The underlying bug is being closed, but escaping its consequences still requires completing the seasonal questline on another character.
Sanctuary has always demanded a certain amount of repetition. Having to create another hero because the first one accidentally broke the paperwork is a rather modern variation on that tradition.
Source: Official Diablo IV Patch Notes.
