As Diablo 4 Season 9 launches, Blizzard has released the full 2.3.0 patch notes, showcasing several significant balance and quality-of-life changes since the PTR (Public Test Realm) that ran from May 27 to June 3. For those who tested builds and mechanics during the PTR, it's important to review what's changed in the final release, as some of the most dominant skills and legendary items have seen tuning adjustments, buffs, and nerfs.

Here's a comprehensive breakdown of the changes made from the PTR to the live launch version of Season 9 across all classes.

Barbarian

Skill & Passive Adjustments:

·Enhanced Flay: Vulnerable proc chance increased massively from 15% - 50%.

·Wrath of the Berserker: No longer interrupts movement/channeling. Duration of Berserking and Unstoppable increased from 5s - 10s.

·Heavy Hitter: Damage bonus reduced from 15%[x] - 10%[x].

·Hooves of the Mountain God: Cleave radius increased from 135 - 150.

·Ugly Bastard Helm: Damage bonus nerfed from 80-100%[x] - 40-60%[x].

·Arreat's Bearing: Dust Devil damage reduced by 50%.

·Unbroken Chain: Movement Speed bonus swapped for Strength increase.

·Executioner's Aspect: Earthquake damage halved from 200%[x] - 100%[x].

Paragon/Tempering:

·Vehement Augments Recipe: "Heavy Hitter" replaced by "Wallop."

·Rumble Glyph: Earthquake bonus reduced from 35.1% - 30.1%.

Summary: Barbarians saw several high-impact nerfs targeting AoE burst and Earthquake synergy builds. However, buffs to Flay and Wrath of the Berserker increase basic skill viability.

Druid

Skill & Form Improvements:

·Pulverize: Base damage increased from 110% - 150 150 150%.

·Enhanced Pulverize: Now grants +30% damage to CC'd enemies and Bosses.

·Raging Pulverize: Guarantees Overpower every 10 seconds, applies +20% damage taken.

·Primal Pulverize: Debuff duration increased from 4s - 5s.

·Storm Strike: Can now re-chain to previously hit targets.

·Grizzly Rage: Companion skills are always usable; Rank 5 now grants +30% Armor.

·Provocation: Reworked to activate after 10s, now boosts damage by 5/10/15%.

·Toxic Claws: Poison bonus now doubles in Werewolf form and for 8s after exiting.

·Nature's Fury: Earth and Storm bonuses increased from 20% - 40%.

·Ursine Strength: Buff duration extended from 5s - 8s after leaving Werebear.

Legendary Aspect Updates:

·Shockwave Aspect: Now triggers Rotting Lightbringer puddle.

·Aspect of the Rabid Bear: Poison damage doubled (20-40% - 40-80%).

·Rampaging Werebeast: Stack bonus increased from 3% to 5%, max from 60% - 100%.

·Dire Wolf's Aspect: Reclassified as Utility; move speed + spirit reduction rebalanced.

·Ursine Horror: CDR reduced significantly (1-4s - 0.5-1.25s).

·Seismic Shift: Now launches 2 rows of spikes, adding AoE power.

Unique Diablo 4 Items Buffs:

·Rotting Lightbringer: Renamed and overhauled. Poison DoT is now up to 600% of Pulverize's damage. Puddle guarantees, Overpowers, and interacts with the shockwave AoE.

·Greatstaff of the Crone: Damage increased to 200-350%.

·Dolmen Stone: Boulder bonus increased to 30-50% per rock.

Tempering Changes:

·Werebear Innovation: New utility options, including Pulverize/Maul size.

·Nature Magic Innovation: Petrify Duration removed.

Summary: Druids received powerful buffs-especially to Pulverize and poison-centric builds-alongside better synergy between aspects and utility boosts to wereforms.

Necromancer

Book of the Dead & Skill Tweaks:

·Supreme Blood Wave: Blood Orbs spawn reduced from 3 - 2.

·Cold Mage 2nd Upgrade: Now also hasa  10% chance to Freeze for 2.5s.

·Serration: Critical Chance increased from 0.3% - 1%.

·Titan's Fall: Damage bonus to Elites slightly reduced from 6% - 5%.

·Necrotic Fortitude: Lucky Hit per level increased from 5% - 7%.

·Ossified Essence: Damage per Essence bumped from 0.5% - 0.7%, cap from 100% - 140%.

·Affliction: Multiple buffs: Damage increased from 15% - 45%; scaling up from 30% - 120%; base increased to 180%, and cap raised to 900%.

·Shadowblight: Scaling increased from 20% - 70%, cap to 450%.

Legendary Aspect Adjustments:

·Blighted Aspect: Bonus damage increased to 35%.

·Bone Duster's Aspect: Now Overpowers the first Bone Spear per enemy in Bone Prison instead of all.

Unique Item Reworks:

·Hand of Naz: Arch-Mages become briefly unstoppable after teleport, reduced fire delay.

·Bloodless Scream: Added Lucky Hit: up to 40% chance to deal 8500-13500 Shadow damage; removed Freeze Duration bonus.

·Indira's Memory: Tooltip clarified-only your Bone Spears consume corpses.

Paragon Changes:

·Flesh Eater: Corpse requirement reduced from 5 - 3.

·Hulking Monstrosity: Golem bonus extended with +35%[x] from sacrificed minions.

·Bone Graft: Stack count halved (8 - 4), but damage per stack increased to 5%.

Summary: Necromancer saw significant buffs to Shadow and Bone builds, with buy Diablo IV Items major upgrades to damage scaling and utility through Shadowblight and Affliction.

Rogue

Skill Overhauls:

·Advanced Flurry: Now stores 10 Energy per cast (up to 3x), which is refunded when another skill is cast, boosting burst reliability.

·Shadow Clone: Damage reduced (60% - 40%). Supreme upgrade now grants 20% Damage Reduction instead of increased damage.

·Death Trap: Lost its cooldown refund on kills baseline. Now hasa  20% chance on kill or Overpower to reset CD. Damage reduced from 300% - 200%.

Key Passive Revamps:

·Victimize: Explosion damage doubled (90% - 200%) and now increases target damage taken by 75%[x] for 3s.

·Close Quarters Combat: Damage to Close increased from 10% - 50%.

·Precision: Critical Strike scaling increased from 20% - 100%.

·Alchemical Admixture: Reworked for simpler scaling: Dealing two elemental types boosts Imbuement potency by 40% for 5s. Total bonus based on elemental damage still applies.

Summary: Rogue's major changes center around smoothing out burst rotations and increasing the power ceiling of popular passives and combos. Death Trap's cooldown dependency has been moved to a chance-based mechanic.

Final Thoughts

Season 9's final patch notes reflect Blizzard's ongoing commitment to creating diverse and balanced class identities. While some PTR builds were dominant (e.g., Earthquake Barbarian or Death Trap Rogue), the final release patch seeks to temper those without gutting them completely, while offering major buffs to Druids, Necromancers, and Rogues in particular.

Whether you're a returning veteran or testing new builds, expect the live servers to feel significantly different the especially in higher Nightmare tiers and PvE boss content. Many damage calculations, affix thresholds, and skill scaling values have been adjusted across the board.