Diablo 4 update 2.0.5 patch notes: Mid-season balance changes galore

Diablo 4 is set to deploy update 2.0.5, possibly the last mid-season patch of this year, on November 19, 2024. With a massive set of patch notes, this update is set to bring a good number of balance changes and adjustments to further improve some of the off-meta stuff. There's also a host of QoL changes to be found, including the default selection during gear Enchantment being set to "No changes".

For those eagerly awaiting Diablo 4 patch 2.0.5 next week, here's a preview of the full patch notes (sans bug fixes).

Diablo 4 version 2.0.5 patch notes: All base game changes

Balance Updates

General

Mythic Unique Items

Shattered Vow

+400% Damage to Healthy Enemies replaced with +44% damage over time duration.

Andariel's Visage

Damage increased from 3000% to 4000%.

Unique Items

Penitent Greaves

Chill per second is now 3 times higher.

Endurant Faith

Damage distribution time increased from 2 to 3 seconds.

Legendary Aspects

Bold Chieftain's Aspect

Maximum active Cooldown Reduction increased from 50% to 70%.

Aspect of Adaptability

Both effects now apply to Basic Skills even when they are not Cast, such as the free Storm Strike triggered from Greatstaff of the Crone.

Barbarian

Skills

Ground Stomp

Damage increased from 35% to 80%.

Strategic Ground Stomp

Ultimate Cooldown Reduction increased from 4 to 5 seconds, up to an increased max of 15 seconds from 12.

Hammer of the Ancients

Damage increased from 55% to 70%.

Upheaval

Damage increased from 100% to 120%.
Lucky Hit Chance increased from 25% to 30%.

Enhanced Upheaval

Stun chance increased from 35% to 45%.

Furious Upheaval

Damage bonus stacks increased from 8 to 10.
Damage per stack increased from 15% to 20%.

Double Swing

Damage increased from 50% to 60%.

Rend

Damage increased from 12% to 25%.
Bleeding damage increased from 105% to 120%.

Leap

Damage increased from 42% to 55%.

Kick

Damage increased from 18% to 60%.

Iron Skin

Cooldown reduced from 14 to 12 seconds.

Enhanced Iron Skin

Previous: Iron Skin's Barrier absorbs 25% more of your Maximum Life.
Now: Iron Skin grants Unhindered for 5 seconds and its Barrier absorbs 30% more of your Maximum Life.

Tactical Iron Skin

Healing per second based on Barrier increased from 10% to 20%.

Strategic Iron Skin

Fortify amount increased from 20% Maximum Life to 30%.

Death Blow

Damage increased from 120% to 140%.

Enhanced Death Blow

Death Blow Boss damage bonus increased from 150% to 200%.

Rupture

Damage increased from 13% to 25%.

Enhanced Rupture

Damage bonus per 50 Strength increased from 20% to 35%.

Steel Grasp

Damage increased from 23% to 35%.

Mighty Throw

Base damage increased from 80% to 120%.
Pulse damage increased from 35% to 55%.

Developer’s Note: This change is to compensate for a bug fix related to the tempering affix that gives a chance to deal double damage.

Passives

Heavy Handed

Critical Strike Damage increased from 5/10/15% to 6/12/18%.

Pit Fighter

Previous: You deal 3% increased damage and gain 2% Distant Damage Reduction.
Now: You deal 3% increased damage and gain 2% Damage Reduction.

No Mercy

Previous: You have 3/6/9% increased Critical Strike Chance against Immobilized, Stunned, or Slowed enemies.
Now: You gain 3/6/9% increased Critical Strike Chance.

Legendary Aspects

Battle-Mad

Previous: Gain Berserking for 1.5-4.0 seconds after swapping weapons 8 times.
Now: Gain 20-40% increased damage and Berserking for 4 seconds after swapping weapons 8 times.

Of Sundered Ground

Damage bonus increased from 30-50% to 50-70%.

Unique Items

Twin Strikes

Damage increased from 30-60% to 50-80%.

Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty

Berserking damage bonus increased from 15% to 25%.

Gohr's Devastating Grips

Damage increased from 40-70% to 50-80%.

Ring of Red Furor

Critical Strike Damage increased from 30-60% to 50-80%.

100,000 Steps

Effect can occur every 5 seconds instead of every 10.

Fields of Crimson

Blood pool damage bonus increased from 30% to 50%.

Overkill

Shockwave damage increased from 40-60% to 60-80%.

Paragon

Blood Rage Legendary Node

Maximum damage bonus increased from 30% to 45%.

Decimator Legendary Node

Vulnerable damage bonus increased from 10% to 20%.
Overpower damage bonus increased from 10% to 20%.

Druid

Skills

Tornado

Spirit Cost reduced from 40 to 35.

Storm Strike

Removed the 20% reduced damage when Storm Strike chains to surrounding enemies.

Rabies

Poisoning damage increased from 175% to 275%.

Grizzly Rage

Damage bonus increased from 30%[x] to 50%[x].

Passives

One with Nature

Companion bonus damage increased from 60% to 80%[x].

Ursine Strength

Overpower damage increased from 45% to 70%[x].

Bestial Rampage

Werebear damage increased from 30%[x] to 40%[x].
Werewolf attack speed increased from 20%[+] to 30%[+].

Lupine Ferocity

Critical Strike Damage increased from 70%[x] to 100%[x], and from 140%[x] to 200%[x] against Injured enemies.

Earthen Might

Base chance increased from 10% to 15%.
Bonus chance for Critical Strikes increased from 10% to 15%.
Bonus chance for hitting a Stunned, Immobilized, or Knocked Back enemy increased from 10% to 15%.

Nature's Fury

Chance increased from 35% to 40%.

Perfect Storm

Spirit Gain increased from 1 to 2.
Damage increased from 45%[x] to 60%[x].

Spirit Boons

Pack Leader

Chance to reset Companion Skills increased from 25% to 30%.

Calamity

Ultimate Skill duration increased from 25% to 35%.

Scythe Talons

Critical Strike Chance increased from 10%[+] to 15%[+].

Swooping Attacks

Attack Speed increased from 15%[+] to 20%[+].

Avian Wrath

Critical Strike Damage increased from 30%[x] to 40%[x].

Iron Feather

Maximum Life increased from 20%[x] to 30%[x].

Overload

Damage increased from 100% to 250%.

Masochistic

Healing increased from 5% to 10% of Maximum Life.

Legendary Aspects

Aspect of the Ursine Horror

Tectonic Spike damage increased from 120-200% to 200-300%.

Stormchaser's Aspect

Previous: Tornado will seek up to 1-5 targets.
Now: Tornado will seek up to 1-5 targets and deal 30-50%[x] increased damage.

Stormclaw's Aspect

Damage increased from 40-60% to 60-80%.

Aspect of Natural Balance

Earth Critical Strike damage increased from 30-50%[x] to 50-70%[x].
Storm Skill Critical Strike Chance increased from 8-13.3%[+] to 10-15%[+].

Aspect of Trampled Earth

Landslide damage increased from 70-110% to 100-140% of normal damage.

Aspect of the Tempest

Hurricane damage per second active increased from 10.5-20.5% to 15-25%.

Aspect of the Rabid Bear

Poison damage increased from 30-90%[x] to 60-120%[x].

Unique Items

Airidah's Inexorable Will

Damage scaling increased from 2.0% to 10.0% per 1 point of Willpower.

Dolmen Stone

Boulder damage per rotating Boulder increased from 10-30% to 20-40%.

Stone of Vehemen

Stone Burst final explosion damage increased from 10-15% to 15-20%.
Stone Burst damage per size increased from 10-15% to 15-20%.

The Basilisk

Damage increased from 100-600% to 300-900%.
Now always works against Healthy enemies instead of on the first hit. It can trigger against bosses once every 5 seconds.

Paragon

Constricting Tendrils Legendary Paragon Node

Lucky Hit Chance increased from 15% to 40%.
Damage increased from 150% to 300% of the Skill's Base damage.

Necromancer

Skills

Decompose

Damage increased from 33% to 60% per second.
Essence gain per second increased from 10 to 13 and now increases with your Attack Speed bonuses.

Hemorrhage

Damage increased from 27% to 40%.
Essence generated increased from 9 to 13.

Bone Splinters

Damage increased from 9% to 15%.
Essence generated increased from 7 to 10.

Reap

Damage increased from 13% to 20%.
Now generates 15 Essence when hitting a boss.

Bone Storm

Damage increased from 180% to 300%.

Passives

Evulsion

Previously: Your Bone Skills deal 5/10/15%[x] increased Critical Strike Damage to Vulnerable enemies.
Now: Your Bone Skills deal 6/12/18%[x] increased damage to Vulnerable enemies.

Compound Fracture

Damage increased from 5/10/15%[x] to 6/12/18%[x].

Gloom

The 2%[x] increased Shadow damage now stacks up to 4 times, up from 3.

Shadowblight

Damage increased from 44% to 60%.

Affliction

Damage increased from 80% to 100%.

Legendary Aspects

Aspect of Empowering Reaper

Pool of Blight bonus damage increased from 60-140%[x] to 70-190%[x].

Reaping Lotus' Aspect

Sever damage increased from 110%-170% to 140-200% of normal damage.

Unique Items

Deathless Visage

Damage increased by 5% for every 20% of your Critical Strike Damage, down from every 30%.

The Mortacrux

Chance to spawn a Skeletal Simulacrum increased from 10-30% to 20-40%.

Howl from Below

Corpse Explosion damage increased from 30-50% to 50-90%.

Rogue

Skills

Invigorating Strike

Base damage increased from 35% to 45%.

Forceful Arrow

Base damage increased from 22% to 33%.

Twisting Blades

Base damage increased from 54% to 70%.

Penetrating Shot

Base damage increased from 70% to 95%.

Advanced Penetrating Shot

Previous: When cast with full Energy, Penetrating Shot will Slow all enemies it hits by 50% for 3 seconds. Elite enemies will also be Knocked Down for 1.5 seconds.
Now: When cast with full Energy, Penetrating Shot will Slow all enemies it hits by 50% for 3 seconds. Elite enemies will take 50%[x] increased damage and be Knocked Down for 1.5 seconds.

Developer’s Note: The Tooltip for Advanced Penetrating Shot in-game will soon be updated to show that Elite enemies take multiplicative damage.

Flurry

Base damage increased from 130% to 150%.

Advanced Flurry

Energy cost reduction increased from 10% to 15%.

Rapid Fire

Base damage increased from 33% to 40%.

Enhanced Rapid Fire

Critical Strike Chance per shot increased from 5% to 7.5%.

Dash

Base damage increased from 40% to 65%.

Dance of Knives

Added that its damage is increased by Attack Speed in the tooltip.
Improved the distance tracking.
Base damage increased from 64% to 86%. Note that these percentages relate to when a one-handed weapon is equipped.

Smoke Grenade

Cooldown reduced from 13 to 10 seconds.
Base damage increased from 45% to 90%.

Countering Concealment

This skill now properly maintains the buff for 5 seconds after casting, regardless of whether you leave Stealth while it is active.
Tooltip updated for clarity.

Shadow Imbuement

Damage to single enemies when the infection expires increased from 40% to 60%.

Passives

Deadly Venom

Damage increased from 3/6/9% to 6/12/18%.

Exploit

Damage increased from 6/12/18% to 8/16/24%.

Victimize

The explosion from Victimize can happen much more frequently than before.
Damage scaling increased from 120% to 150%.

Alchemical Admixture

Potency scaling increased from 20% to 40%.
Fewer non-physical damage types are required to gain this benefit, reduced from 3 to 2.

Precision

Damage scaling increased from 15% to 20%.

Close Quarters Combat

Damage scaling increased from 15% to 25%.

Momentum

Damage per stack increased from 5% to 6%.

Exposure

Lucky Hit Chance increased from 25% to 40%.
Stun grenade damage increased from 40% to 80%.

Paragon

Leyrana's Instinct

Damage cap while Inner Sight is full increased from 35% to 60%.

Legendary Aspects

Bladedancer's

Damage increased from 40-60% to 60-80%.

Unique Items

Windforce

Damage bonus when activated increased from double to triple damage.

Condemnation

Core damage increased from 20-40% to 50-70%.

Pitfighter's Gull

Critical damage increased from 33% to 45%.

Asheara's Kanjar

Damage cap increased from 20-40% to 30-50%.

Scoundrel's Kiss

Damage increased from 15-35% to 35-55%.

Sorcerer

Skills

Meteor

Increased damage from 96% to 120%.

Enhanced Meteor

Previous: If a cast of Meteor hits 3 or more enemies, there is a 30% chance an additional Meteor falls on the same location.
Now: If a cast of Meteor hits 3 or more enemies, an additional Meteor falls on the same location.

Enhanced Hydra

Previous: While Healthy, your casts of Hydra gain 1 additional head.
Now: While Healthy, your casts of Hydra gain 1 additional head and deal 50%[x] increased damage.

Familiar

Damage increased from 40% to 70%.

Incinerate

Damage per second increased from 101% to 120% up to 136% to 162%.

Passives

Vyr’s Mastery

Increased damage from 250% to 500%.

Combustion

Previous: Your Burning effects deal 60%[x] increased damage, and an additional 4%[x] per unique source of Burning you have applied to the enemy.
Now: Your Burning effects deal 60%[x] increased damage and an additional 25%[x] of your Bonus Damage to Burning Enemies.

Avalanche

Increased Lucky Hit Chance from 10% to 30%.
Removed double chance for Avalanche to activate against Vulnerable enemies, instead, damage is now increased by an additional 25%[x] against Vulnerable enemies.

Legendary Aspects and Unique Items

Aspect of Charged Flash

Now deals critical surge damage from Enhanced Charged Bolts instead of critical flat damage.

Aspect of Overheating

Previous: After channeling Incinerate for 3 seconds it deals X Critical Fire damage per second for 5 seconds. Casting Incinerate refreshes and maintains this bonus.
Now: After channeling Incinerate for 2 seconds it deals 75-100% increased damage for 5 seconds. Casting Incinerate refreshes and maintains this bonus.

Aspect of Piercing Cold

Previous: Ice Shards pierce 3-19 times, dealing 25-5% less damage per subsequent enemy hit.
Now: Ice Shards pierce 10 times, dealing 4-10% more damage per subsequent enemy hit.

Starfall Coronet

Reduced minimum cooldown from 4 seconds to 3 seconds and increased the number of charges from 2 to 3.

Paragon

Stalagmite Glyph

Increased Ice Spikes bonus from 16.7%[+] to 18.8%[+].

Torch Glyph

Increased the additional bonus cap from 12.5%[x] to 25%[x].

Pyromaniac Glyph

Increased the additional bonus rate from 2% to 3% and cap from 10%[x] to 18%[x].

Party Finder

The Echo of Hatred boss fight has been added as an activity for Party Finder.
Additional tooltips and icons have been added in various contexts to increase the visibility of the Party Finder feature.
The default keyboard shortcut and emote wheel action for opening Party Finder will now open the last used tab. It will default to the Find tab the first time.

User Interface and User Experience

The description for changing difficulties now specifies that unlock conditions are character-specific.
The icons for difficulties have been updated to be more visually distinctive.
No Change is now the default selected option when Enchanting an item.

Miscellaneous

Loot quality for Legion Event chests has been increased.
Artillery, Blast Wave, and Conduit shrines now deal increased damage, scaling with both Character level and Paragon level.
The Malignant Heart cost for crafting Mucus-Slicked Eggs has been decreased from 9 to 3.

Diablo 4 version 2.0.5 Vessel of Hatred changes

Runes

Ritual Runes

Neo

Is no longer blocked by invulnerability.
The Tooltip now specifically states that you must take health damage to stop this effect.

Moni

Offering increased from 25 to 35.

Invocation Runes

Ton

Reduced the spread of Meteorites when they fall.
Meteorites have less delay between volleys.

Ceh

Spirit Wolves now all have the Unhindered buff allowing them to move through enemies and the player, because spirits don't normally run into things.

Tal

Now spawns 3 Pestilent Swarms at a time.
Damage reduced from 300% to 150%.

Vex

Duration increased from 5 to 8 seconds.
Duration now properly refreshes.

Lum

Increased from 1% to 2.5%.

Thul

Offering cost reduced from 400 to 300.

Mercenaries

Raheir

Shield Throw

Increased Taunt duration from 3 to 5 seconds.
Increased number of bounces from 3 to 9 targets.
Increased damage from 225% to 450% damage.

Iron Wolf’s Ward

Increased Valiance Cooldown Reduction from 25% to 35%.

Iron Wolf’s Virtue

Increased Valiance Cooldown Reduction from 25% to 35%.

Iron Wolf’s Arrival

Increased Valiance Cooldown Reduction from 25% to 35%.

Sundering Shield

Increased the burst damage of Crater by 200%.

Draw Fire

Removed the ability to use a Potion while at Maximum Life.

Varyana

Ancient Harpoon

Increased Stun duration from 2 to 4 seconds, damage from 140% to 200%.

Whirlwind

Increased Physical Damage from 65% to 85%.

Annihilator

Increased Slow duration from 3 to 5 seconds.

Intimidated

Increased Damage Reduction from 10% to 15%.

Taste of Flesh

Increased Heal amount from 1% to 2%.

Subo

Bargaining Chips

Increased Overpower damage from 2% to 5%.

Thrillseeker

Reduced detonation timer from 3 to 1.5 seconds.

Mastermind

Increased Crowd Control duration from 15%[+] to 25%[+].

Pin Cushion

Increased Immobilize duration from 2 to 3 seconds.

Snipe

Increased damage from 300% to 450%.

Aldkin

Exhaustion

Increased Daze chance from 5% to 10%.

Wave of Flame

Increased damage from 300% to 550%.

Curse of Flame

Reduced Resource drain from 10% to 8%.

Fire Shot

Increase damage from 40% to 90%.

Spiritborn

Skills

Withering Fist

Poisoning damage increased from 30% to 36%.
Slow increased from 30% to 40%.

Sharp Withering Fist

Increased target spread from 3 to 5 enemies.

Toxic Skin

Passive damage increased from 30% to 36%.

Enhanced Toxic Skin

Bonus Toxic Skin damage increased from 100% to 130%.

Measured Toxic Skin

Damage increased from 15% to 36%.

Soar

Updated Soar's targeting on the controller to land at targeted enemies instead of at a max distance.

Razor Wings

Damage increased from 50% to 75%.
No longer has a short cooldown between casts.

Enhanced Rushing Claw

Bonus damage per hit increased from 10% to 20%, maximum bonus increased from 80% to 100%.

Poised Rushing Claw

Bonus Dodge duration increased from 3 to 6 seconds.

Harmonious Devourer

Toxic Globs's damage now scales with The Devourer's Skill Ranks.

Exalted Devourer

Pestilence Swarm's damage now scales with The Devourer's Skill Ranks.

Passives

Intricacy

Bonus duration increased from 5 to 7 seconds.

Nourishment

Bonus Poisoning damage increased from 3/6/9%[x] to 4/8/12%[x] per rank.

Adaptive Stances

Bonus duration increased from 5 to 7 seconds.

Legendary Aspects and Unique Items

Aspect of Invigorating Will

Chance to Heal increased from 10% to 25%.

Bruiser's Aspect

Armor increased from 1% to 2% per 1% missing Maximum Life.

Aspect of Avoidance

Dodge Chance increased from 4-8% to 6%-10%.

Starving Ravager's Aspect

Vigor drain reduced from 25-5 to 14-4.

Aspect of Deflection

Damage increased from 25-32% to 26%-54%.

Aspect of Soil Power

Damage increased from 45%-60% to 180%-250%.

Nesekem, the Herald

Duration between marks reduced from 5 to 2 seconds.

You can check out the full patch notes on the official Blizzard post here. Stay tuned for more Diablo 4 news and updates on Sportskeeda!