Two Weeks Into Diablo 4 Season 15, Warlock Still Rules the Tower

Two weeks ago, Diablo 4 Season 15 launched with one fairly obvious question hanging over it.

Did Blizzard actually fix the Warlock?

During the PTR, the class was producing numbers that looked less like damage and more like somebody had accidentally pasted a bank account into the combat log. We covered Warlock builds reportedly hitting 80,000 trillion damage, and by early September we were already asking whether Warlock might completely dominate Season 15.

At the time, there was an important disclaimer: it was the PTR. Numbers could change. Bugs could be fixed. Blizzard still had time to adjust the class before millions of players were allowed near it.

Well, we have live data now.

The Warlock is still ridiculous.

1,000 Warlocks Have Already Cleared Tower 150

The current Tower leaderboard paints a fairly brutal picture. All 1,000 players displayed on the Warlock leaderboard have cleared Tower Tier 150. That means clearing the highest listed Tower tier is no longer enough to make you unusual among serious Warlock players. It is effectively the entry requirement for appearing on the leaderboard at all.

Blazing Scream is the main culprit. The build that looked terrifying during testing has survived into the live season as the defining Warlock setup, combining enormous damage with enough consistency to make Tower 150 look considerably less frightening than Blizzard probably intended.

This is not completely surprising. Our Season 15 PTR review already highlighted the enormous gap between competitive builds, and Warlock was the clearest example. What is surprising is how much of that gap survived the journey from test server to live game.

Paladin Is Still Looking Up at Tier 150

Then there is Paladin.

At the time of the latest leaderboard review, Paladin remained the only class without a Tower 150 clear. The top three Paladins had reached Tier 148, and every single top-20 clear was using Shield of Retribution.

That last part may actually be the more worrying statistic.

We already looked at Blizzard's attempts to improve the class when Judgement received double single-target damage for Season 15. Paladin also received broader scaling improvements, yet the live leaderboard suggests those changes have not produced the same range of competitive endgame options enjoyed by some other classes.

Season 15 even removed some possibilities before launch, including Paladin's ability to use X'Fal's Corroded Signet, which becomes particularly interesting now that Damage over Time has become one of the season's defining mechanics.

Season 15 Is Becoming the Season of Damage Over Time

Warlock is not the only class telling us something interesting about the current meta.

Sorcerer has dozens of Tower 150 clears, with Firewall and Burning effects playing a major role. Druid's strongest pushes revolve heavily around Rabies. Rogue's Penetrating Shot builds are using Poison Imbuement. Spiritborn's leading Stinger setups are also built around Poison.

The common language is Damage over Time.

Season 15 introduced new ways for DoT effects to scale, including Deadly Strike mechanics and powerful interactions with seasonal systems. The result is a leaderboard where poison, burning and other lingering damage effects keep appearing wherever players are pushing the absolute limit.

Warlock simply appears to have received the largest flamethrower.

The PTR Warning Was Correct

This is the interesting part.

Back in August, it would have been easy to dismiss Warlock's absurd PTR numbers as exactly what a test realm is supposed to uncover. Players find broken interactions, Blizzard collects the data, numbers are adjusted and everyone starts again on launch day.

Except the basic prediction survived.

Warlock entered Season 15 enormously powerful. Blazing Scream became the dominant build. Tower 150 clears multiplied until the entire visible Warlock leaderboard was filled with them, while Paladin still had not crossed the same finish line.

Blizzard did not necessarily need every class to perform identically. Diablo has never worked that way, and perfect balance would probably be considerably less entertaining than players imagine.

But there is a difference between having a strongest class and having 1,000 Warlocks sitting at Tower 150 while another class is still trying to reach it once.

We asked before launch whether Season 15 would become the season of Warlock.

Two weeks later, the Tower has supplied its answer.

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Diablo 4’s Charm Slot Bug Is Still Leaving Players Unable to Equip Charms

Diablo IV's Talisman system is supposed to be pleasantly simple. Equip a Seal, unlock a collection of Charm slots, drop your favourite Charms into them and begin constructing another elaborate little machine of bonuses, set effects and damage multipliers. Blizzard's own explanation is almost suspiciously cheerful: Seals can unlock up to six slots, and players can simply move Charms in and out whenever they wish. Some players have discovered an additional step that was not mentioned in the brochure: occasionally the game may decide those beautifully visible Charm slots are purely decorative. A fresh PlayStation report from September 7 says a Warlock player can no longer equip any Charms after removing the ones they already had, continuing a problem that players have been documenting since the beginning of July — and one Blizzard specifically attempted to fix in August.

The new report is short but painfully familiar. The player says they had already tried various solutions, eventually removed the few Charms that were still equipped, and then discovered that none could be put back. At that point the character was left with no usable Charms at all. One isolated forum post would not normally justify sounding the Sanctuary alarm, but almost the exact same sequence appears repeatedly in older PC, Xbox and PlayStation reports: Charms work, a Seal is changed or Charms are removed, the slots remain visibly open, and clicking a Charm produces either nothing or a brief equip animation before the item quietly returns to the inventory as though embarrassed by the entire affair.

Charms Are Not a Small Side System Anymore

This matters because Lord of Hatred made the Talisman a genuine part of character building rather than another seasonal trinket destined for the museum when the calendar changes. Blizzard describes the system as a new buildcrafting layer where a central Seal unlocks Charm slots and the Charms themselves add affixes, powers and set bonuses. More powerful Seals can unlock additional slots, while matching Set Charms can activate two-, three- or larger-piece bonuses. In other words, the Talisman sits alongside gear, skills, Paragon and the other systems players now use to squeeze another increasingly unreasonable percentage of damage out of Sanctuary's wildlife.

That makes losing access to the slots considerably more serious than a tooltip displaying the wrong number. We have already seen how Transfiguration can turn an otherwise excellent piece of Diablo IV gear into another endgame RNG decision, but at least the item still works when equipped. With the Talisman reports, players can have the Seal, have the Charms, see the slots and still be unable to connect the three. It is the ARPG equivalent of owning a television, a remote control and electricity while somebody has quietly removed the concept of HDMI.

The Original Reports Appeared at the Beginning of July

The problem was already well documented by July 1. One PC player reported having a working Horadric Seal that correctly unlocked three Charm slots alongside another Seal that visually displayed five open slots but refused to accept a single Charm. Other players soon described the same behaviour with Rare and Legendary Seals. A particularly large July 4 thread focused on the Vigorous Horadric Seal of Swiftness: affected copies were missing the usual “Unlocks X Charm Slots” line, yet equipping them still made the UI display apparently available slots. Those slots were not actually functional, and Charms that had already been equipped could lose their bonuses.

The most dangerous part was removing Charms while troubleshooting. Several players discovered that once a Charm came out, it would not necessarily go back in. One seasonal player began with three functioning Charms despite having a four-slot Seal, upgraded to a Legendary Seal, removed everything to rebuild the setup and then found themselves unable to equip any Charms at all. The same player later reported reproducing a related failure on a second character after changing difficulty during the Lord of Hatred campaign. They eventually got the original three-slot Seal recognized again, but swapping to other Seals caused the system to stop acknowledging the equipped Charms properly.

That is the sort of bug that encourages a special form of Diablo superstition. Do not touch the Seal. Do not change difficulty. Do not remove the third Charm. Do not look directly at the Talisman during a full moon. Once players begin treating an equipment interface like an unexploded artillery shell, something has gone slightly wrong.

Blizzard Actually Patched Charm Slot Problems in August

Unlike some long-running Diablo bugs, this one has an important official milestone. In Patch 3.1.3 on August 12, Blizzard explicitly listed a fix for an issue where certain Talismans did not unlock Charm slots when equipped. The same patch also corrected the Seal of the Diamond Mind's Charm-slot count, fixed item-power displays for Seals and Charms and made several additional Talisman adjustments. So Blizzard clearly knew there were problems around the system and shipped changes intended to repair them.

The awkward part is what happened next. On August 12 itself, a PC player reported that a Legendary Seal still visually opened its fifth slot but would not accept a Charm, specifically noting that the issue had existed before the update and had not been resolved for them. On August 16, another Legendary Seal report appeared. By August 25, players in that thread were describing Rare and Legendary Seals that refused to accept Charms, deactivated existing set bonuses when equipped and remained unusable even after finding newer working Seals. One player eventually salvaged the broken copies after concluding that freshly dropped replacements could work while the older affected items remained defective.

That does not necessarily mean Blizzard's August fix failed completely. It may have corrected one cause of non-functional Charm slots while leaving another behind, or it may have prevented newly generated items from inheriting a particular defect without repairing every existing Seal. Diablo bugs have an unfortunate fondness for family trees. What we can say is that player reports of unusable Charm slots continued after the patch that explicitly addressed unusable Charm slots.

The September Report May Not Be Exactly the Same Bug

The September 7 Warlock report deserves one important caveat. The player does not identify which Seal they are using, whether its tooltip is missing the Charm-slot line or whether changing difficulty, campaign state or another action preceded the failure. We therefore cannot confidently say that this is precisely the same defective-Seal bug reported in July. It could be a separate Talisman state problem producing the same visible result. The sensible conclusion is narrower: a player is still reporting the inability to equip any Charms in September, after months of similar reports and after Blizzard's August Charm-slot fix.

There is evidence for more than one failure mode. Some July players could use Magic Seals perfectly while Rare and Legendary versions failed. Others found that newly acquired Seals worked while older ones remained broken. An August PlayStation thread described clicking Charms, hearing the equip sound and seeing the item briefly grey out without it ever entering the slot; an Xbox player confirmed the same behaviour. Another August PC report described finishing the campaign, removing the existing Charms to rearrange them and then being unable to equip anything except the central Seal.

The UI is especially misleading because a broken Seal may visually show its slots as open. A player naturally assumes an empty slot means “put item here.” Diablo IV occasionally interprets it as more of a conceptual suggestion.

A Broken Talisman Can Remove a Major Chunk of Build Power

The practical damage depends on the build. Individual Charms can provide useful affixes on their own, but the larger loss comes from set bonuses. Blizzard deliberately designed matching Charms to reward partial and complete collections, meaning a character can be balanced around effects that disappear when the Talisman stops recognizing what is equipped. One July PC player reported having all three different pieces of a Practiced Technique set inserted, yet the tracker remained at 0/3 and neither the two-piece nor three-piece effects activated. The same player also experienced the separate problem where the game frequently refused to socket those Charms at all.

That distinction matters in modern Diablo IV because builds increasingly behave like interconnected mechanisms rather than piles of independent stats. We saw precisely that with Arcadia's reported healing-to-Rally-to-Fortify failure on Paladin: when one link in the chain stops functioning, the entire build can feel mysteriously weaker. It is also why Warlock's extraordinary Season 15 PTR performance depends on much more than simply finding a weapon with a large number printed beneath it. Skills feed demons, demons feed other effects, items amplify those effects and the Talisman sits happily beside all of it adding yet another layer of multiplication. Unless, naturally, it decides today is a non-working day.

Do Not Remove Working Charms Just to Test the Bug

The recurring detail across several reports gives us one practical warning: if your Charms are currently equipped and functioning, do not remove them merely to investigate whether your Seal is affected. Multiple players have reported being able to remove Charms but not put them back. If a new Seal appears suspicious — particularly if its tooltip does not correctly state how many Charm slots it unlocks — keeping the current functioning setup intact while testing a different Seal cautiously may save considerable frustration. Some players have reported success by switching back to a working lower-rarity Seal, while others found new replacement Seals that behaved normally, but there is no universal workaround supported across all reports.

That caution is particularly sensible before difficult content. Diablo IV already offers enough ways to lose an evening without voluntarily dismantling a working build. Players have reported Longtooth consuming Mythic Tribute runs without producing the expected loot, Treasure Breach can leave players deciding which loot must remain on the dungeon floor, and Wendigo Brand is still attracting reports that its temporary Maximum Life stacks can drain Current Life when they expire. Sanctuary remains committed to ensuring that even inventory management contains a modest element of danger.

Blizzard’s Own Description Makes the Failure Hard to Miss

The irony is that Blizzard's official Talisman instructions could hardly be clearer. Apply a Seal. Unlock Charm slots. Drop Charms into the open slots. Change them whenever you wish. That is the design. There is no hidden progression requirement saying a visible slot may reject an otherwise valid Charm, and there is certainly no intended mechanic where removing a functioning Charm permanently converts the slot into architectural decoration.

Blizzard already tried to fix at least one version of this problem on August 12, which is encouraging because it means the underlying issue is recognized rather than merely living in forum archaeology. The less encouraging part is that players were still reporting broken Seals after that patch, and on September 7 a PlayStation Warlock player says they have now reached the worst version of the failure: no Charms can be equipped at all.

When an Empty Slot Isn’t Actually an Empty Slot

There is a peculiarly Diablo quality to this bug. The game has spent years becoming more sophisticated, adding increasingly intricate systems for crafting, itemization and character optimization. Even access to certain endgame activities now has its own rarity discussion, while the gearing process can involve Greater Affixes, Transfiguration, Seals, Charms, Mythics and enough overlapping bonuses to make an accountant quietly close the spreadsheet and go outside.

And after all of that complexity, the problem occasionally comes down to something wonderfully primitive:

There is an empty box on the screen, and the game will not let you put the thing in the box.

Blizzard said in August that certain Talismans failing to unlock Charm slots had been fixed. Reports continued later that month. Now another player is unable to equip Charms on September 7. We do not yet know whether the newest case shares the exact same cause, how many current characters are affected or whether a particular Seal remains responsible. But if you currently have a functioning Talisman setup, perhaps admire it from a respectful distance until we know more.

In Diablo IV, demons are supposed to resist your build.

The equipment screen really does not need to join them.

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Diablo 4’s Warlock May Be Completely Dominant in Season 15

Diablo IV's Warlock did not exactly spend its first few seasons behaving like the mandatory new class Blizzard might have expected. It was powerful, occasionally spectacular and capable of filling a screen with enough demonic administration to concern the local authorities, but it never completely pushed every other class out of the room.

Season 15 may be different.

PTR players are reporting Pit 150 clears in roughly three minutes, enormous Hellfire interactions and Warlock builds producing damage numbers that have stopped looking like mathematics and started resembling telephone numbers. One popular forum discussion has already declared Season 15 “the season of Warlock,” while other testers are asking whether Blizzard should bring the remaining classes up to the same level rather than simply cutting Warlock back down.

PTR numbers are not launch numbers. Blizzard still has time to change everything.

But if the current balance survives, Warlock may enter Season 15 in a league of its own.

Players Are Reporting Three-Minute Pit 150 Clears

The most striking example comes from a Season 15 PTR discussion where a player reports clearing Pit 150 in around three minutes with Warlock.

That immediately brings back memories of Spiritborn at the launch of Vessel of Hatred, when the new class briefly operated according to a different interpretation of Diablo IV's damage system than everyone else.

Other testers in the thread describe Warlock builds dealing hundreds of trillions — and in some cases even higher — through combinations involving Hellfire, Metamorphosis and rapidly triggered abilities. One player describes a one-button setup where the entire screen effectively detonates while automated casts continue feeding the damage loop.

These are player-tested PTR results, not official Blizzard benchmarks. But they match what we already saw in our broader Season 15 PTR evaluation, where Warlock interactions stood out as one of the clearest examples of the enormous gap that can emerge between ordinary builds and whatever the current spreadsheet has discovered.

Blizzard Gave Warlock a Lot of Direct Buffs

This performance did not appear from nowhere.

Blizzard's official 3.2.0 PTR notes contain an unusually long list of Warlock buffs. The Destruction Demon version of Metamorphosis now applies Burning whenever any type of skill is cast, while its Hellfire bonus rises from 4% to 6%. Dark Prison's Calamity variant jumps from 30% damage to 200%. Doomfire Ritual increases from 175% to 250%. Infernal Breath and several of its variants receive substantial increases, while Ravenous Jaws pushes Eviscerate damage from 125% to 500%.

The class mechanic receives similar attention. Command Abodian's bite goes from 155% to 245% base damage, and several Vanguard demon attacks are multiplied dramatically. Lesser Demon Eviscerate damage rises from 200% to 1,000% of their damage.

Then come the Uniques.

Hellhound's Sabatons can grant Abodian 200–280% increased damage while automatically triggering non-Archfiend Hellfire Skills. Gauntlets of Sheol can stack up to 600–750% additional Fiend of Abaddon damage. Scepter of the Three allows all base Ultimate Skills to be equipped simultaneously and adds up to 170–250% Ultimate Skill damage.

There is buffing a class.

And then there is giving several demons access to industrial machinery.

This Is a Very Different Warlock From Season 13

The contrast is especially interesting because Warlock did not dominate immediately after Lord of Hatred launched.

Back in May, we looked at how the new Warlock class was failing to completely dominate the early Season 13 meta. Rogue, Barbarian and Sorcerer were still competing comfortably at the top, and the result felt surprisingly healthy for a brand-new expansion class.

Warlock was good.

It just was not mandatory.

Season 15 appears to be Blizzard's answer to players who felt the new class never received the traditional honeymoon period where everything it touched briefly became illegal.

That may be fun.

It may also create another balance problem.

Sorcerer Shows the Other Side of the Season 15 Problem

The issue becomes clearer when Warlock is compared with classes receiving more conventional improvements.

Blizzard has given Sorcerer a major global Intelligence-scaling increase for Season 15, something we covered when Sorcerer players argued that bigger numbers still do not fix weak skill design. The class is stronger on paper, several abilities have been improved and Blizzard is clearly trying to increase its overall performance.

But a percentage increase to baseline damage feels very different from a Warlock ecosystem where multiple skill variants, demon attacks, Uniques and automated interactions can multiply one another into extreme Pit performance.

That is the danger.

The balance question is not simply whether Sorcerer receives 20% more damage.

It is whether that matters when another class has found an interaction that produces 200 times as much.

Should Blizzard Nerf Warlock or Buff Everyone Else?

The community response is already split along the most predictable line imaginable.

Some players assume there is no chance this version of Warlock reaches live servers unchanged. If one class can comfortably destroy Pit 150 while others struggle much lower, the obvious solution is to reduce the offending multipliers.

Others want Blizzard to do the opposite.

The original forum discussion argues that Season 15 should simply let every class reach a similar level of ridiculousness. Warlock feels powerful and fun, therefore Blizzard should raise Barbarian, Sorcerer, Necromancer, Rogue, Druid and the rest rather than removing that power.

That debate connects directly to the question we asked yesterday: is Diablo IV slowly turning back into Diablo III?

Diablo III eventually embraced seasonal absurdity. Builds exploded entire screens. Difficulty existed mainly to provide another number large enough to survive the explosions. Strong seasonal metas rotated regularly, and being outrageously powerful was often the point rather than a balance failure.

Season 15 Warlock looks very comfortable in that philosophy.

The PTR Exists Specifically So Blizzard Can Change This

There is one enormous reason not to start deleting every non-Warlock character yet.

This was the PTR.

Blizzard explicitly describes the test realm as a place to gather feedback, adjust balance and eliminate problems before the season launches. Season 15 also contains content deliberately withheld from public testing because Blizzard wants to reveal more at BlizzCon.

Warlock therefore has plenty of opportunities to change before the final patch arrives.

A broken interaction may be fixed.

A Unique multiplier may be reduced.

Other classes may receive buffs.

Or Blizzard may decide that Season 15 is allowed to be the season where Warlock finally gets to be stupidly powerful.

After several seasons of being merely good, some Warlock players would probably consider that overdue.

Season 15 May Finally Give Warlock Its Main-Character Season

The most interesting takeaway from the PTR is not that one build cleared Pit 150 in exactly three minutes.

PTRs are laboratories. People deliberately search for disgusting interactions because finding them before launch is the entire point.

What matters is how many different parts of Warlock's Season 15 kit are being pushed upward simultaneously.

Hellfire is stronger.

Demon attacks are stronger.

Several weak skill variants are dramatically stronger.

Old Uniques are being rewritten around much larger multipliers.

And players are already turning those pieces into builds capable of trivializing content that is supposed to sit at the extreme end of Diablo IV.

If Blizzard leaves most of that intact, Season 15 may finally give Warlock the launch season it never really had.

The only question is whether everyone else will still be playing the same difficulty curve.

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Diablo 4’s Warlock Is Hitting for 80,000 Trillion Damage on the Season 15 PTR

Diablo 4 damage numbers have officially reached the point where commas are becoming a gameplay mechanic.

Players testing the Season 15 PTR have reported Warlock builds hitting for as much as 80,000 trillion damage.

That is 80 quadrillion.

And before anyone starts deleting their current build, there is an important qualification:

These are PTR numbers.

They are being generated inside a test environment specifically designed to expose broken interactions before Season 15 goes live.

Judging by the numbers, that part appears to be working beautifully.

Blazing Scream Has Reportedly Reached 80,000T

The discussion started during Blizzard's 3.2.0 PTR, which ran from August 4 through August 11.

Warlock players quickly noticed that several Hellfire builds were performing far beyond the rest of the class.

One detailed PTR feedback thread reported Apocalypse hits around 12,000T.

That was already substantial.

Then players started testing Blazing Scream.

According to the reports, Blazing Scream builds were clearing Pit 150 relatively easily, with one reported hit reaching approximately 80,000T.

At that point we are no longer balancing numbers.

We are balancing telephone numbers.

Season 15 Gave Blazing Scream Some Very Serious Toys

The damage did not appear from nowhere.

Blizzard made several significant Warlock changes for the 3.2.0 PTR.

One of the biggest involves Elegy.

The Unique now turns Blazing Scream into an Archfiend Skill while granting it 30-50% increased damage.

It also gives Blazing Scream the Skull Splitter Variant for free, with Lesser Demon skulls dealing the same damage as the main skull.

Then there is The Eightfold Idol.

Blazing Scream can leave Sigil of Subversion trails behind, while enemies standing on the appropriate trail take another 60-80% increased Abyss or Hellfire Skill damage.

That is already a healthy collection of multipliers.

Season 15 then adds another layer through Soul Splinters.

Soul Splinters Are Making the Situation Even Stranger

The new Soul Splinter system is one of Season 15's major mechanics.

Several Splinters provide enormous bonuses alongside equally substantial drawbacks.

The most suspicious interaction during PTR testing involved the Splinter of the Black Soulstone.

Its intended effect is straightforward.

Killing enemies temporarily absorbs their souls, with each soul increasing your damage while also increasing the damage you take.

The highest version grants 5% multiplicative damage per soul.

That stacks.

And during the PTR, Warlock players discovered something slightly unfortunate.

The deaths of the Warlock's own demons appeared to count as enemy kills.

A player testing Blazing Scream reported being able to rapidly generate around 200 stacks without actually killing monsters.

That makes evaluating the true strength of the build considerably more difficult.

If a seasonal effect designed around killing enemies is also rewarding you whenever your disposable demons disappear, the damage meter is going to become ambitious very quickly.

It May Not Just Be the Seasonal Mechanic

The community feedback does not blame everything on Soul Splinters.

Players have also highlighted Overwhelming Aspect.

Its Season 15 version increases Occult Skill damage against Elite enemies for each stack of Overpower, with the bonus doubled against Hexed targets.

That creates another potentially enormous multiplier when combined with the rest of the Warlock's scaling.

Players have additionally pointed toward Moloch's Beating Flame as another contributor to the extreme Hellfire numbers.

The important distinction is that several things appear to be stacking together.

This may not be a single broken skill.

It may be a collection of individually powerful effects discovering each other.

Which is generally how Diablo builds become either extremely fun or extremely unemployed after the next patch.

The Bigger Problem Is Warlock Balance Within the Class

The funny part is that players asking Blizzard to reduce these numbers are often Warlock players themselves.

Their concern is not simply that the class is too powerful.

It is that Hellfire builds appear dramatically stronger than other Warlock archetypes.

One PTR discussion claims that Hellfire setups were already clearing beyond Tier 140 before the new seasonal systems arrived, while some Abyss builds struggled around 120.

Season 15 then appears to widen that gap.

That connects directly to the broader problem we recently looked at with Diablo 4's extreme endgame scaling.

A difference of twenty or thirty tiers does not represent a small balance discrepancy once monster health begins scaling exponentially.

It can represent orders of magnitude.

So when one Warlock build casually reaches Pit 150 and another archetype struggles dozens of tiers lower, simply saying both are technically viable does not tell the whole story.

Players Don’t Want Blizzard to Nerf the Wrong Thing

This is where the feedback becomes more nuanced.

Several players are worried Blizzard will see the enormous PTR numbers and simply nerf Warlock.

They would rather Blizzard identify which Season 15 interactions are actually causing the extreme scaling.

That distinction matters.

If Blazing Scream becomes absurd because a seasonal Soul Splinter is incorrectly treating friendly demon deaths as enemy kills, nerfing Blazing Scream itself could leave the build unnecessarily weak once the seasonal bug disappears.

The same applies to interactions involving individual Aspects or unusual multiplier stacking.

The PTR exists specifically so Blizzard can separate those problems before the patch reaches live servers.

Blizzard has explicitly said that feedback from the 3.2.0 PTR will be used to adjust balance and remove bugs before Season 15 launches.

So an 80,000T Warlock is not necessarily a preview of what players will be doing all season.

It is closer to an extremely enthusiastic bug report.

Season 15 Warlock Is Probably Not Shipping Like This

That is the important takeaway.

Do not build your entire Season 15 plan around dealing 80 quadrillion damage.

Blizzard still has time to change coefficients, fix Soul Splinter interactions and adjust individual Warlock items before the season goes live.

And considering players are actively asking Blizzard to investigate the build, there is a very good chance something changes.

But the PTR has already demonstrated one thing.

Diablo 4's multiplication problem is alive and well.

We recently reached the point where players struggle to see what is killing them.

Now we may also be approaching the point where they struggle to read what they are killing things with.

80,000 trillion.

Season 15 hasn't even started yet.

The calculator is already sweating.

Sources

Diablo IV Forums: Warlock Balance Feedback — Overperforming Hellfire Builds

Diablo IV Forums: Season 15 Class Balance Discussion

Diablo IV Forums: Season 15 PTR Feedback Summary

Blizzard: The 3.2.0 PTR — What You Need to Know

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Diablo 4 Patch 3.0.2 Is Giving Players Their Broken Toys Back

Diablo 4 Patch 3.0.2 is not just a giant broom sweeping through Lord of Hatred’s bugs, War Plans issues, Talisman weirdness, and Horadric Cube nonsense.

It is also handing some players their toys back.

After a messy launch window full of disabled interactions, broken skill variants, bugged Uniques, and build pieces that behaved like they had been assembled during a demon evacuation drill, Diablo 4 is finally fixing several problem items and abilities that players have been waiting to use properly.

For some builds, Patch 3.0.2 may feel less like a bug-fix update and more like Blizzard unlocking the cabinet where it hid the dangerous equipment.

Umbracrux Is Coming Back From the Naughty Corner

One of the biggest Rogue notes concerns Umbracrux.

Blizzard’s official Diablo IV patch notes say Umbracrux was not properly triggering from damage-over-time effects and could deal far more damage than intended under certain circumstances.

The developer note also says Umbracrux will be unblocked after the release of the patch.

That matters because Rogue players have already had a rough enough Lord of Hatred launch window, with bug complaints, leaderboard suspicion, and class frustration bubbling up around Hotfix 5 and the broader Season 13 meta. Getting Umbracrux back in a fixed state is not a full class rescue mission, but it is at least one important build piece returning from exile.

Spiritborn Gets Trampled Under Foot Back

Spiritborn players also have reason to watch Patch 3.0.2 closely.

The Trampled Under Foot Skill Variant for Armored Hide was previously disabled because of unintended interactions. Wowhead noted at the time that the variant was commonly used in Thorns-style builds, letting a normally defensive skill deal Thorns damage when evading.

Patch 3.0.2 fixes an issue where Trampled Under Foot could occasionally deal far higher damage than intended, and Blizzard’s developer note says the Skill Variant will be re-enabled after the patch releases.

That is the correct outcome. Nobody likes losing a build tool, but leaving a clearly broken interaction live can warp balance, leaderboards, and build recommendations faster than a Treasure Goblin fleeing responsibility.

The Oculus Gets a Real Fix Too

Sorcerers are also getting a long list of fixes, and one of the more notable ones involves The Oculus.

The patch notes state that Blizzard fixed an issue where The Oculus did not grant damage and cooldown bonuses to the next cast. That is exactly the kind of bug that makes an item feel secretly underwhelming even when the tooltip suggests it should be doing something useful.

Sorcerer fixes in Patch 3.0.2 also touch Meteor, Fireball, Chain Lightning, Ice Shards, Hydra, Ball Lightning, Teleport Enchantment, Aspect of Efficiency, Aspect of Splintering Energy, and several other interactions.

In other words, Sorcerer is getting less of a single bandage and more of a full desk audit.

This Is Why Big Bug Patches Matter

Balance changes get the drama. New systems get the headlines. Secret bosses get the clicks.

But bug fixes like these are what quietly decide whether builds actually feel good to play.

If a Unique is disabled, a Skill Variant is blocked, or an item bonus does not work correctly, players do not just lose a number. They lose a build idea. They lose experimentation. They lose the reason they were excited to try something strange in the first place.

That is especially painful in Lord of Hatred, where Diablo 4 has added new classes, War Plans, Talismans, Charms, Cube tricks, and enough build layers to make every broken interaction feel like one more locked door.

Patch 3.0.2 Is Not Glamorous, But It Is Important

This update is not just about making numbers behave. It is about making players trust the sandbox again.

When Umbracrux works properly, Rogue players can test around it. When Trampled Under Foot returns safely, Spiritborn builds get a tool back without turning into a bugged damage circus. When The Oculus actually grants its intended bonuses, Sorcerers can stop wondering whether their item is cursed in the technical-support sense.

That is the kind of maintenance Diablo 4 needs after a major expansion launch.

Lord of Hatred has brought plenty of chaos, much of it good. But chaos is only fun when the toys work, the rules are readable, and the broken stuff gets fixed before it becomes the entire meta.

Patch 3.0.2 may not be as flashy as a new class or a secret cow portal.

But for players waiting to get their builds back online, it may be one of the most important updates of the season.

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Diablo 4 Players Hijacked the Leaderboards to Sell Their Build Brains

Diablo 4’s Lord of Hatred leaderboards were supposed to show who could murder demons the fastest. Instead, they briefly became something much stranger: premium advertising space for people who are extremely good at turning math into dead monsters.

Over the weekend, several top-ranked players across the NA and EU leaderboards appeared under the same name: INFbuilds. At first glance, that sounds like one wildly over-caffeinated player somehow speedrunning multiple classes across two regions.

But no. It was a group effort.

According to PC Gamer’s report on the leaderboard stunt, the players were using those top spots to promote InfinityBuilds, a Diablo 4 build-guide website connected to streamer and veteran player Mekuna.

That is either shameless self-promotion or brilliant ARPG marketing. Probably both. Sanctuary respects efficiency.

Leaderboards Are Now Buildcraft Billboards

The funny part is that this was not just a random name change. It was a message.

In a game like Diablo 4, leaderboard position is proof. Anyone can publish a build guide. Anyone can say their setup is “insane,” “broken,” “S-tier,” or “actually the build Blizzard fears.” But if your name is sitting near the top of the official rankings, the pitch becomes a little harder to ignore.

InfinityBuilds’ idea seems pretty clear: prove the builds work by putting them where everyone can see them.

That makes the leaderboard less like a trophy case and more like a haunted LinkedIn profile for people with extremely optimized damage rotations.

Build Guides Are Big Business Now

This also says something about where Diablo 4 is right now.

With Lord of Hatred, the game has become more layered. New systems, new classes, deeper endgame pressure, War Plans, Talismans, Charms, the Horadric Cube, Mythic farming routes, and brutal difficulty tiers all mean one thing: casual guessing is getting more expensive.

Players want builds that work. Not vibes. Not “trust me bro.” Not a 37-minute video where the actual build appears after three sponsor reads and a monologue about patch philosophy.

They want clear answers. What class is strong? What setup clears fast? What works for bossing? What survives the endgame? What gets nerfed before breakfast?

That demand creates a strange little economy around expertise. The leaderboard stunt just made it visible.

The New Classes Are Not Owning the Stage Alone

There is another interesting wrinkle here: the strongest leaderboard performances are not necessarily coming from the shiny new toys.

PC Gamer notes that Sorcerers and Barbarians have been looking especially strong, even as players continue experimenting with the newer Paladin and Warlock classes. That tracks with the wider early Season 13 mood: Warlock and Paladin may be exciting, but the old classes did not politely walk into a shallow grave just because someone new showed up with better branding.

That is good for the meta. A new class should be tempting, not mandatory. Diablo is more interesting when several classes are clawing for dominance instead of one build sitting on the throne wearing every patch note like a crown.

Annoying? Smart? Very Diablo?

There is a slightly absurd beauty to all of this.

Some games get leaderboard drama because players cheat. Some get it because someone finds a broken interaction. Diablo 4 gets a group of top players turning high-rank clears into a build-guide business card.

That might sound cynical, but it is also oddly useful. If the builds are real, tested, and capable of performing at the highest level, then players looking for guidance may actually benefit from the stunt.

And if not? Well, the leaderboard has already done what leaderboards always do: start a new argument with numbers attached.

Sanctuary Has Entered Its Marketing Era

Diablo 4’s leaderboards were always going to become more than bragging rights. In a modern ARPG, high-end rankings feed build guides, YouTube videos, Twitch streams, tier lists, coaching, Discord communities, and whatever other digital machinery grows around optimized suffering.

The INFbuilds stunt just made that ecosystem impossible to miss.

It is funny. It is clever. It is a little shameless. And it is probably the most honest possible version of Diablo 4’s competitive endgame: if your build is strong enough, the leaderboard becomes your ad campaign.

Hell has rankings now.

Apparently, it also has marketing strategy.

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Diablo 4 Season 13’s Best Builds Are Already Changing Fast

The Diablo 4 Season 13 meta has officially entered its most dangerous phase: everyone has a tier list, nobody fully trusts it, and at least one build you ignored yesterday is now apparently capable of turning demons into decorative floor paste.

That is the early Season 13 experience in Diablo 4. The launch window for Lord of Hatred has already produced strong contenders, surprise class performances, hotfix anxiety, and enough build debate to make every stash tab feel like a courtroom exhibit.

In other words: the spreadsheets are alive, and they are hungry.

The Early Meta Is Not Sitting Still

Current Season 13 build rankings from Icy Veins split the strongest options across different activities, including leveling, speed farming, bossing, and endgame pushing. That matters, because “best build” now depends heavily on what you are actually trying to do.

A build that clears trash at the speed of a caffeinated demon may not be the same build you want for bossing. A Pit-pushing setup may feel miserable for quick farming. A leveling monster may collapse the moment the real endgame starts sharpening its knives.

That is good design when it works. It means players are not all being funneled into one cursed meta corridor. It also means choosing a build now feels less like picking a class and more like selecting a legal strategy before entering Hell’s tax court.

Tier Lists Are Already Moving

The speed of change is the real story. Mobalytics’ Diablo 4 tier list has already logged several early Season 13 updates, including movement for Rogue and Warlock builds as players discover stronger setups and refine what actually works in Lord of Hatred’s endgame.

That is exactly why nobody should treat the first week of a Diablo season like sacred scripture. Early rankings are useful, but they are also unstable little goblins. They react to hotfixes, bug discoveries, gear availability, leaderboard pressure, and the terrifying power of one player finding an interaction that makes the math start screaming.

Old Classes Are Still Punching Back

The new Warlock may be flashy, but it has not erased the rest of the roster. Game8’s current Season 13 class ranking places Rogue, Sorcerer, and Barbarian among the strongest early performers, while Warlock remains very much in the conversation.

That is probably the healthiest outcome Diablo 4 could have hoped for. A new class should be tempting. It should not make every veteran Rogue, Barbarian, or Sorcerer player feel like they brought a soup spoon to a cathedral collapse.

Meanwhile, Wowhead’s updated endgame tier list ranks builds by damage, survivability, mobility, and resource management, which is a useful reminder that raw damage is only one piece of the nightmare. A build that hits hard but constantly runs out of resources is not a build. It is a dramatic apology.

Pick a Build, But Keep Your Boots On

The smartest play right now is not to panic-reroll every time a new tier list moves one slot. Season 13 is still young, and Diablo metas have a habit of changing shape the moment players start getting comfortable.

If your build is clearing content, scaling well, and not making you hate your own hands, you are probably fine. If you are chasing the absolute top, then yes, keep watching the rankings, the hotfixes, and the weird little community discoveries that turn “maybe viable” into “please nerf this before it breeds.”

For now, Diablo 4’s Season 13 meta is messy, fast-moving, and weirdly healthy.

The best builds are changing. The old classes are still dangerous. Warlock is still lurking in the shadows. And somewhere, a player is testing a cursed interaction that will ruin next week’s tier list before breakfast.

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Diablo 4’s New Warlock Class Isn’t Dominating Season 13 Yet

The Warlock arrived in Diablo 4 with exactly the kind of energy players expected: dark magic, demonic bargains, shadowy nonsense, and enough occult swagger to make every Necromancer quietly check the job listings.

But the early Season 13 meta has not turned into a one-class Warlock parade. At least not yet.

According to Icy Veins’ early Lord of Hatred build-tier breakdown, Rogue, Barbarian, and Sorcerer have been stealing a surprising amount of the spotlight in the first wave of serious pushing. Which is funny, because many players expected the shiny new class to walk into Sanctuary, kick the door down, and immediately become everyone’s problem.

Instead, Warlock is strong. Just not automatically king.

The New Class Smell Is Still Powerful

To be clear, this is not a “Warlock is bad” story. That would be silly, premature, and probably get us cursed by a man in a hood.

The class has several strong-looking builds already, especially around abyss, shadow, summoning, and demonic transformation themes. PC Gamer’s Warlock build guide highlights the class’s Dread Claws and Shadowform synergy, with abyss skills and Soul Shards giving the class a very distinct identity.

That is important. Warlock does not feel like a recycled Sorcerer wearing eyeliner. It brings its own flavor: pact magic, hellish summons, shadow tricks, and the general vibe of someone who read the warning label on forbidden power and said, “adorable.”

Rogue, Barbarian, and Sorcerer Refuse to Die Quietly

The interesting part is that older classes are not politely stepping aside.

Icy Veins’ Season 13 build tier list shows plenty of strong non-Warlock options across speed farming, endgame, and bossing. Rogue, Sorcerer, and Barbarian builds are all showing up in serious conversations, with rapid clears, high-end pushing, and reliable damage keeping them relevant.

Game8’s current Season 13 class tier list also places Rogue, Sorcerer, and Barbarian among the strongest classes in the early Lord of Hatred environment.

That is probably healthy. A new class should be exciting, not legally mandatory. If every leaderboard instantly became Warlock wallpaper, Season 13 would get boring faster than a rare boot with three dead stats.

Early Meta Means Early Chaos

The usual warning applies: this is early. Very early.

Diablo metas do not sit still. They molt. They mutate. They get hotfixed in the middle of the night and wake up missing a leg. Builds that look absurd today can be merely “good” tomorrow, while some overlooked setup suddenly becomes the new monster after one player discovers a cursed interaction hidden behind six layers of math.

That means Warlock could still rise. It has the tools, the player attention, and the shiny-new-class experimentation advantage. Players are still testing gear, Talismans, Charms, Soul Shards, and whatever other suspicious objects Blizzard has allowed us to socket into our collective bad decisions.

Warlock Not Dominating Might Be Good News

The funniest outcome may also be the best one: Warlock is strong, popular, and interesting — but not instantly oppressive.

That gives Diablo 4 room to breathe. It means returning classes still matter. It means players who stuck with Rogue, Barbarian, or Sorcerer do not have to reroll just because the new spooky kid showed up with a demon contract and excellent branding.

For Lord of Hatred, that is a better launch story than “new class deletes everything, please enjoy the mirror match.”

Warlock may still become the face of Season 13. It may still find some disgusting build that makes the Pit look like a tutorial basement. But right now, the early meta is more interesting than that.

The new class is powerful. The old classes are angry. The spreadsheets are awake.

That sounds like Diablo working as intended.

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Diablo 4 Brought Back Set Bonuses, and Players Are Losing Their Minds

 

Diablo 4 has finally gone and touched one of the most radioactive buttons in ARPG history: set bonuses.

With Lord of Hatred, Blizzard introduced the new Talisman system, using Seals and Charms to add extra affixes, build-shaping powers, and yes, set bonuses. For some players, that sounds like exactly the kind of loot depth Diablo 4 has been missing. For others, it sounds like someone dug up Diablo 3’s bones and started rattling them in the town square.

And because this is Diablo, the argument has already turned into a lovely little bonfire.

The Talisman System Is Meant to Supercharge Builds

Blizzard’s official Lord of Hatred preview describes the Talisman as a new item system built around Seals and Charms. Players apply a Seal to unlock Charm slots, then place Charms into those slots to gain additional bonuses.

Set Charms take that further. Instead of traditional armor sets locking your entire character into a rigid costume party, Diablo 4’s set bonuses now come through Charms that work alongside your gear. In theory, that gives players more freedom: your actual equipment still matters, while your Talisman becomes another layer of buildcraft.

That is the clean version. The version written in blood on the forum wall is a little louder.

The “Big Number” Debate Is Back

One active Diablo IV forum thread asks, with admirable restraint, what is going on with the absurd set bonuses. The complaint is simple: several bonuses appear to lean heavily on huge damage multipliers, and some players fear Diablo 4 is drifting into the same “stack the set, explode the screen” territory that defined large parts of Diablo 3.

That comparison matters. Diablo 3’s late-game set design became infamous for massive percentage bonuses that could make unsupported builds feel like they were fighting demons with a damp spoon. Some players loved the power fantasy. Others felt it crushed creativity by turning builds into pre-approved math prisons.

Now Diablo 4 is walking near that same haunted house, holding a candle, saying everything is probably fine.

But Some Players Actually Like the Chaos

The backlash is not universal. Some players are defending the system because, frankly, ARPGs are built on watching numbers become unreasonable. There is a very real audience that wants their character to go from “competent adventurer” to “walking natural disaster with boots.”

And they have a point. Diablo has never been a minimalist combat simulator. It is a game where you collect cursed jewelry so your skeleton tornado can delete a goatman from three counties away. Big numbers are not automatically bad.

The question is whether those numbers create interesting choices — or simply tell players which bonus they are now legally required to equip.

Freedom or Another Invisible Set Prison?

That is the real danger with Diablo 4’s new set bonuses. If Charms create flexible build layers, the Talisman could become one of Lord of Hatred’s best systems. If the strongest set bonuses become mandatory, then the system risks becoming another checklist pretending to be choice.

Blizzard clearly wants Talismans, Charms, and the Horadric Cube to make endgame customization deeper. The idea is strong. The presentation is very Diablo. The community reaction is exactly the kind of screaming cathedral choir you would expect.

For now, Diablo 4’s set bonuses are doing what every powerful ARPG system does at launch: making some players theorycraft, some players panic, and some players type “Diablo 3” like they just spotted a demon in the kitchen.

Sanctuary has new toys. Whether they are brilliant tools or cursed calculators is now the argument.

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Diablo 4 Players Say DoT Builds Hit a Wall in High-Tier Pit and Tower Content

A new Diablo 4 Season 12 report suggests some Damage-over-Time builds may be running into unexpected scaling problems in high-tier endgame content, with one player claiming DoT damage starts falling off dramatically compared to direct damage builds.

The report appeared on Blizzard’s Diablo IV bug report forums on March 22, where a player described what they believe is a scaling issue affecting multiple classes once players push into higher Pit and Tower tiers.

Players claim DoT damage stops scaling properly

According to the report, the player tested DoT setups across multiple classes including Rogue, Barbarian, Necromancer, Sorcerer, and Spiritborn. After extensive endgame testing, they concluded DoT damage appears to scale far worse than direct damage once content difficulty increases.

Importantly, this is currently a player claim, not a confirmed Blizzard issue.

Still, reports like this tend to get attention because they affect build viability at the very top of the game, where small scaling differences can decide which builds can actually push endgame content.

Why this could matter for endgame players

For most players, this may never become noticeable. But for players pushing deep Pit tiers or high Tower difficulty, damage scaling is everything.

If DoT builds hit a damage ceiling earlier than expected, it could push players toward burst builds instead. That wouldn’t necessarily mean DoT builds are broken, but it could suggest a balance gap in how different damage types scale at extreme difficulty levels.

Right now, it’s too early to say whether this is:

• a real scaling bug
• intended balance behavior
• or a build optimization issue

No Blizzard confirmation yet

At the time of writing, Blizzard has not publicly responded to the report in the forum thread reviewed for this article.

That means this remains a player-reported concern, not an officially confirmed issue.

Still, Season 12 has already seen multiple player reports involving progression systems and Bloodied gear interactions, so players are paying closer attention to any potential mechanical inconsistencies.

One to watch if more reports appear

For now, this looks like an early warning rather than a confirmed widespread issue. But if more players begin reporting similar DoT scaling problems across different classes, this could turn into a bigger endgame balance discussion.

For now, the takeaway is simple:

Some Diablo 4 players believe DoT builds may be underperforming in very high-tier Pit and Tower content, but more reports would be needed to confirm whether this is a real systemic issue.

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Diablo IV Players Are Pushing Insane Tower Runs as Season 11 Meta Starts to Shift

 

While Diablo II: Resurrected’s new Warlock class is dominating headlines, Diablo IV players are quietly pushing some of the most impressive endgame clears we’ve seen this season.

Season 11: Divine Intervention is now fully underway, and over the past 24 hours, high-end players and streamers have been climbing deeper into The Tower and The Pit — revealing early signs of a shifting meta.

If you thought the season had settled already, think again.

Paladin Builds Are Stealing the Spotlight

Right now, one class is clearly standing out: Paladin.

Recent buffs have pushed several Paladin builds into serious endgame viability, especially in high-tier Tower runs on Torment IV difficulty. Leaderboards are beginning to reflect this shift, with Paladin players consistently clearing higher floors and surviving longer in brutal late-game encounters.

Some streamers have already pushed:

• Floor 57–75+ in The Tower

• High-tier Pit clears on Torment IV

• Hybrid defensive-damage builds optimized for survivability

The result is a noticeable shift in leaderboard composition compared to earlier in the season.

The Tower Leaderboards Are Heating Up

The Tower leaderboard beta continues to be one of the most interesting additions to Diablo IV’s evolving endgame.

Players are experimenting with:

• Sustain-heavy defensive builds

• Burst damage setups designed for elite waves

• Group synergy strategies for deeper pushes

While there hasn’t been a major patch in the last 24 hours, the meta is evolving naturally as top players refine their builds and share strategies.

Watching the leaderboards climb right now is less about patch notes and more about raw player innovation.

No Major Patch — But Plenty of Movement

Blizzard hasn’t dropped a new Diablo IV patch in the last day, but that hasn’t slowed momentum.

Instead, the community is doing what Diablo players always do:
testing limits, optimizing builds, and chasing leaderboard dominance.

As more players hit endgame and experiment with Season 11 mechanics, expect further shifts in which classes and builds dominate high-tier content.

Why This Matters

Even without a fresh patch, Diablo IV is in one of its most interesting seasonal phases.

The meta is still forming.
Leaderboards are still volatile.
And players are pushing deeper every day.

For competitive players and build-crafters, this is the moment to watch — and to climb.

Sanctuary’s endgame race is far from over.

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