In the latest blog post and patch notes for the upcoming Season 11, Blizzard explained that with the new Renown system changes, early leveling now takes longer than before.
Because of that slower pace, players would be spending too much time seeing mostly one item rarity drop. To smooth everything out, the developers have rebalanced how item rarity appears during leveling.
What Is Changing
Here is how things now work in Season 11:
- Normal items will keep dropping longer as you are leveling.
- Magic items will now include a bonus affix more often.
- Rare items are now much rarer before level 30.
- Legendary items are even rarer before level 40, but will increase a lot afterward.
- A level 40 character in Season 11 will now see the same legendary drop rate as a level 25 character in Season 10.
- Drop rates remain unchanged for level 60 characters.
- Legendary items now come with an extra affix, bringing the total to four.
Blizzard also slightly boosted monster rewards. This means that every Champion pack and Elite now guarantees equipment and gold drops, with a chance to add gem fragments or even full gems.
These changes might seem small on paper, but they could noticeably modify how early game progression feels. You can definitely expect a slower income of powerful loot in the first 30-40 levels, but a more rewarding ramp-up once you hit midgame and endgame.
Players are not entirely sure if they are happy with the changes. Previous Seasons adjusted things so leveling would be less slow and feel more rewarding. This is why these modifications feel, once again, more like backtracking than progress.
However, a ton of player are just waiting for the PTR to be able to test it out, and judge how it really feels when you actually play through the leveling phase.
It is not a massive overhaul, but it is another example of Blizzard continuing to try and make Diablo 4‘s early-game balance feel better.
