Diablo 4’s latest update went live on December 5. It added a new end game pinnacle dungeon challenge where players rush to defeat bloodseekers in the Abattoir of Zir, with the goal of spawning an even more difficult boss. It’s meant to be one of the hardest fights in the game, aimed at players who have already reached level 100, which makes it unfortunate that patch 1.2.3 simultaneously broke players’ Paragon board glyphs, nerfing their builds in the process.
The end game in Blizzard’s loot-based action-RPG is all about optimizing Paragon board Glyphs, a sort of second skill tree you can start investing in after hitting level 50. Leveling up individual Glyphs is the key to powerful builds that can withstand World Tier IV Nightmare Dungeons and other level 100 activities. So players were understandably panicking after yesterday’s patch 1.2.3 went live and broke them.
The update was supposed to increase the amount of XP players earned for their Glyphs in Nightmare Dungeons, making that part of the end game more rewarding, so more players would be incentivized to continue grinding through seasonal content. Unfortunately, an apparent bug ended up actually nerfing players’ existing Glyph levels, making them weaker in the short term and effectively erasing some of their progress. Players immediately reported level 15 Glyphs were down to level 14, and level 21 Glyphs were down to level 19.
Blizzard is aware of the problem and is rushing out a fix, though it will take longer for that update to arrive on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The PC update is expected on December 6, while the console hotfix won’t be ready until sometime later due to the certification processes of Microsoft and Sony. “Users that were max level on Paragon Glyph XP, you can re-level the glyphs in the meantime if you prefer until the fix is available,” tweeted global community development director, Adam Fletcher. “For those that were below the max glyph XP, you can still progress your glyphs and after the fix will have that glyph XP added to the old amounts prior to the 1.2.3 update.”
But players have identified some other apparent issues. The big one is that the new Glyph added alongside Abattoir of Zir, Tears of Blood, takes forever to level up. That wasn’t necessarily a secret. “The Tears of Blood Glyph requires significantly more experience to upgrade it compared to a typical Paragon Glyph,” Blizzard wrote when it revealed the new upgrade. “Fortunately, delving deeper into the Abattoir of Zir can net tremendous sums of Paragon Glyph experience in return.”
However, according to some players’ math, it will take longer than the remaining weeks in season 2 to actually fully level up the Tears of Blood Glyph. Diablo 4 YouTuber Raxxanterax estimated it would take over 300 hours to get Tears of the Blood to level 50, or roughly 7.5 hours of playtime a day from now until season 2 ends on January 19, 2024. It’s not yet clear if this is a mistake on Blizzard’s part, if the Glyph simply isn’t intended to be maxed out, or if there’s still something about how XP earning will scale in the new content that players aren’t aware of.
Diablo 4 is always just one mathematical error away from becoming a hellish grind instead of a compulsively clicky paradise. We’ll see how soon the patch 1.2.3 issues get sorted out. With more seasons and annual paid expansions on the way, the action-RPG’s live service ebb and flow is only just beginning.
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