Diablo 4 patch rolls back the season's Mythic Unique changes

Blizzard has released a Diablo 4 patch that reverses most of the itemisation changes introduced with the game's current season, following weeks of player criticism. Patch 3.1.1a, which went live on July 16, considerably increases Mythic Unique drop rates and removes the limit on how many crafted Mythic Uniques a character can equip.

Season of Death Awakening shipped with the usual seasonal additions, including a new boss and loot-focused activities. It also redefined Mythic Uniques, the game's most powerful item tier: instead of a small set of items dropping from the toughest bosses, any upgraded normal Unique could become a Mythic. In principle that widened the category from a handful of fixed items to something any build could use.

Why the change went wrong

In practice, PC Gamer reports, the drop rates were low enough that players rarely saw a Mythic at all, and the one they did see was often not an upgrade. Fishing for a specific item out of a pool of roughly a hundred asked far more grinding time than Diablo 4 has historically required.

A crafting route existed, using a new seasonal currency, but it carried its own problems. Despite the recipe describing an upgrade, the resulting item was random within the same item type, and only one crafted Mythic Unique could be equipped at a time. Because all three routes to a Mythic counted as crafted, players had little reason to keep running seasonal content once they had equipped one.

Blizzard raised Mythic drop rates earlier in the same week, which PC Gamer described as welcome but insufficient. The studio then removed the crafted limit outright in 3.1.1a. Players have since reported Mythic Uniques dropping in volume from the new seasonal boss.

Blizzard has said a further patch will raise drop rates from other sources as well, and that it is considering reinstating the crafted limit next season only for Mythics made in the Horadric Cube.