Blizzard EntertainmentDiablo 4 Season 8 slashes boss drop rates hard, a change that has divided its player base once more.
Season 8 changes the loot system. The goal is to slow down progression – and it makes absolute sense after Diablo’s creator, David Brevik, criticized Diablo 4 for “cheapening the entire experience.”
After Season 8, Legendary item drop rates while leveling (1-60) are reduced, magic items now have two affixes while rare items get three, and ancestral legendary drop rates – already rare – will be even lower.
But players have uncovered another nerf: boss drops – the loot that drops from the bosses that are receiving a huge rework this season – are nerfed by over 91%.
DexertoDiablo 4 nerfs boss loot drops by 91% in Season 8 PTR
Season 8’s Public Test Realm (PTR) confirms the pain. Players ran the numbers: Torment 4 drop rates are down 91.7%.
In the old system, every time you defeated a boss, you would receive six unique items from that boss’s loot pool.
With the new system, however, you now get five unique items in total. Two of these are guaranteed to come from that boss, but the remaining three are random, meaning there’s a higher chance you’ll end up with junk.
In four-player co-op, the numbers get worse. Four players used to get 24 total uniques from four kills. Now? Just two guaranteed per group.
Reactions are mixed. One player admitted, “I am more skeptical about Season 8 than I have been about any other season so far.”
Another mocked the outrage, saying, “Keep crying like a child. You want a fully equipped character at level 300? Earn it.”
Some leaned into sarcasm, with one player quipping, “I wish they dropped nothing at all. Imagine the joy of never getting what you need.”
Others supported the change, with one remarking, “I think this is good. Today, in five minutes, you can fill your ancestor inventory.”
Diablo 4 is shifting into a less casual-friendly and more grindy ARPG. We’ll see how it all plays out when Belial is added to the game.
