Diablo 4 Update Brings Back Season 1's Best Malignant Powers In A New Form: Full Patch Notes

Diablo IV's latest patch has reintroduced some of Season 1's most powerful Malignant Powers, this time in ring form.

Five new unique Malignant Rings have been added in Diablo IV patch 1.2.2, which is now live on all platforms. There's a ring for each class, with each one based on a popular Malignant Power from the game's first season, Season of the Malignant. Whereas Season 1 saw players equipping Malignant Hearts into rings of corresponding types similar to a gem, players will simply need to find and equip Malignant Rings in order to use them in Season 2, no extra steps required. The rings are available on both the game's Eternal and Seasonal realms.

"Creating the Malignant Rings are a way for us to take popular seasonal content that resonated with players and reintroduce it in a way that can persist beyond the season and into the Eternal realm," Blizzard writes in the patch notes.

The rest of the patch is largely dedicated to bug fixes, with a few small adjustments to the game's seasonal Sanguine Battery event. You can find the full Diablo IV update 1.2.2 patch notes below.

Blizzard recently announced Diablo IV's first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, at BlizzCon 2023. The expansion will be coming late next year and will introduce a never-before-seen class. Blizzard additionally shared details about Season 3, which will introduce a new endgame activity in the form of weekly challenge dungeon called The Gauntlet, complete with leaderboards and rewards.

Diablo IV's previous update introduced an easier way to respec Paragon Boards, as well as training dummies for players to test their builds on. In just a few weeks on December 5, Blizzard will add a limited-time endgame event, the Abbatoir of Zir, intended for level 100 players. The game's first holiday event is set to begin a week later on December 12, and will see the Fractured Peaks zone transformed into a "winter terrorland."

Diablo IV Update 1.2.2 Patch Notes

GAMEPLAY UPDATES

Malignant Rings

Five new Unique Rings have been added to the game, one for each class. These are based on popular Malignant Powers from Season of the Malignant, and are immediately available in both Seasonal and Eternal realms.

• Ring of Red Furor (Barbarian Unique Ring)
  • After spending 100 Fury within 3 seconds, your next cast of Hammer of the Ancients, Upheaval, or Death Blow is a guaranteed Critical Strike and deals 10—30% (multiplicative damage) [x] bonus Critical Strike Damage.
• Tal Rasha's Iridescent Loop (Sorcerer Unique Ring)
  • For each type of Elemental damage you deal, gain 10—15%[x] increased damage for 4 seconds. Dealing Elemental damage refreshes all bonuses.
• Airidah's Inexorable Will (Druid Unique Ring)
  • When casting an Ultimate Skill and again 5 seconds after, Pull in Distant enemies and deal 0.5-1.0 Physical damage to them. This damage is increased by 1%[x] per 1 point of Willpower you have.
• Writhing Band of Trickery (Rogue Unique Ring)
  • Casting a Subterfuge Skill leaves behind a Decoy Trap that continuously Taunts and lures enemies. The Decoy Trap explodes after 3 seconds dealing 2.0-3.0 Shadow damage. Can occur every 12 seconds.
• Ring of the Sacrilegious Soul (Necromancer Unique Ring)
  • Automatically activate the following equipped Skills on Corpses around you:
    • Raise Skeleton every 1-2 seconds.
    • Corpse Explosion every 1-2 seconds.
    • Corpse Tendrils every 8-16 seconds.

Developer’s Note: Creating the Malignant Rings are a way for us to take popular Seasonal content that resonated with Players and reintroduce it in a way that can persist beyond the Season and into the Eternal realm.

Season of Blood

The following adjustments have been made for the Sanguine Battery Event.

• Pillar health has been increased from 75% to 85%.
• Pillar repair time has been decreased from 3 seconds to 1 second.

BUG FIXES

Season of Blood

• Fixed an issue where the additional enemies in the Lord Zir boss fight would not get stunned when Lord Zir gets staggered.
• Fixed an issue where Metamorphosis would not trigger temporary movement speed bonuses.
• Fixed an issue where the Anticipation Vampiric Power didn't display Cooldown Reduction for Ultimate abilities when in town.
• Fixed an issue where the Hectic Vampiric Power did not reduce the cooldown of skills with charges.
• Fixed an issue where the seasonal quest “Battle of Fear” and “Faith” could be completed without completing Chapter 3 of the Season Journey.
• Fixed an issue where the upgrade button for Vampiric Powers could be interacted with when there are no new powers available, wasting 25 Potent Blood.
• Fixed an issue where Lord Zir could not respawn if the player re-entered the boss arena too quickly after respawning.
• Fixed an issue where Evade and non-damaging Skills could trigger Hemomancy.

Dungeons and Events

• Fixed an issue where progression would be blocked when an enemy spawned behind the locked door in the Luban's Rest dungeon.
• Fixed an issue where monsters could spawn from a Nightmare Portal location after the portal had teleported or been destroyed.

Quests

• Fixed multiple instances where the quest marker could disappear when leaving the area during multiple quests.
• Fixed an issue where Prava and her knights could stop progressing through the area during the Scouring of Caldeum if certain Elites were killed from a distance during the “Kill Demons Attacking from Above” quest.

Gameplay

• Fixed an issue where Lilith could still launch area-of-effect attacks after she is defeated following the first phase in the Echo of Lilith.
• Fixed an issue where Angelbreath or Potions could randomly spawn when The Beast in the Ice spawned.
• Fixed an issue where followers could get stuck when going back and forth over a traversal.
• Fixed an issue where Inner Sight didn't trigger properly against Training Dummies.
• Fixed an issue where Necromancer Minions and Druid Companions wouldn't attack Training Dummies.

Accessibility

• Fixed an issue where the Screen Reader wouldn't properly read life totals above 999.
• Fixed an issue where the Screen Reader on PS4 didn't read all the text in Vendor and Crafting displays.

Miscellaneous

• Fixed an issue where achievements related to the Hatred's Chosen buff could not trigger appropriately.
• Various visual, performance, and stability improvements.