Diablo 4's Sorcerer class is the star of next week's Patch 1.1.1, but the big list of changes doesn't quite address their worst problems.

In last week's Campfire Chat stream and today's patch notes, Blizzard stated that they want to directly address the Sorcerer's late-game survivability and awkward condition skills that effectively undermine their overall power. Greater Chain Lightning, for example, used to deal 5% extra damage when it bounced off your character, but now does so when it bounces off anyone.

The list of changes to Sorcerers lifts their weakest skills, especially fire skills, but does not dramatically change how many viable builds there are once you start digging deeper into the most difficult nightmare dungeon tiers, namely Ice Shards and Blizzard It seems. However, changes like the controversial patch 1.0.1, which reduced the survivability and overall damage output of all classes, will increase the value of weaker builds and skills in the process of getting to 100.

Fire and Shock Sorcerer builds will see the most significant changes. Fire Ball's skill tree upgrade, Enhanced Fire Ball, now only increases explosions by 50% regardless of their travel distance. Hydra, a small fire-breathing pseudo-companion, would stay around long enough that it might be strong enough to build a build.

For shock builds, Aspect of the Unbroken Tether will further increase the number of Chain Lightning bounces, further increasing the damage buffs mentioned earlier. In addition, the new Legendary bonus, Aspect of the Mage Lord, reduces damage when surrounded by enemies by up to 27%.

Barbarians are another focus of this patch, and as far as popular endgame builds go, their changes are relatively minor. The changes to fury generation should reduce the amount of time you have to wait for powerful skills while leveling, and bleed builds have several options for increasing damage with a significant increase in enhanced burst explosion damage. As with the Sorcerer, Blizzard is lifting weaker skills and effects to shape the build, but not so much on the popular builds that are struggling to compete with other classes.

Elsewhere in the notes, the number of monsters in the Nightmare Dungeon and Hellside will be significantly increased, along with increased XP gains and rewards. The strength of level 60+ bosses has increased significantly, and Blizzard has reinforced the importance of having a build that can wipe out not just one powerful enemy, but a massive wave of monsters. Sorcerers are the worst at this, and this change may nullify the slight damage increase they got with this patch.

Patch 1.1.1 drops next week on August 8 and is gradually opening up the game to come up with more creative builds, even if it doesn't turn sorcerers and barbarians into walking gods like some players want. To me that is what Diablo is all about, but I have a feeling this is not the last buff to these beleaguered classes.