Diablo 2 Season 14 brings WASD support and Warlock nerfs designed to enhance "mechanical awkwardness"

Diablo 2 Resurrected Season 14 is here, marking Blizzard’s first big overhaul since it surprise-dropped its hefty Reign of the Warlock expansion on the 26-year-old action RPG. While Diablo 4 is busy with its own DLC, those who prefer the warm taste of nostalgia have been treated with D2’s first new class in two decades. Fortunately, the developer hasn’t simply gone back to sitting on its hands with unremarkable updates. The D2R Season 14 patch notes pack in a whole heap of adjustments, from Warlock balance changes to Terror Zone tweaks, and even the return of its once-tested WASD support.

Blizzard trialed Diablo 2 Resurrected WASD controls back in 2024, but didn’t keep them around for long. Now, it says it’s “excited to bring back bindable keyboard movement keys.” I haven’t had a chance to test this latest incarnation yet, although I’ll say the previous iteration felt clunkier than it does in Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2. At least the option is finally there again if click-to-move has been a real hurdle to your enjoyment. Controller support has also been polished, with issues related to the loot filter and stash corrected while playing on a pad.

The Diablo 2 Season 14 patch notes have seen plenty of iteration following PTR testing. “We deeply appreciate the community participation,” Blizzard notes, “Maintaining the uniquely iconic feel of what makes Diablo 2 feel like Diablo 2 is impossible without interaction with each of you.” Introducing a whole new class was always going to be a dramatic shakeup, so it should come as no surprise that Warlock balance changes are leading the charge here, with wide-ranging adjustments across all three specializations. Nerfs were inevitable, but there are welcome bug fixes here too.

Starting up top, Warlocks are now only able to equip a two-hand weapon in one hand if the other is carrying a grimoire. Their health potions have also been boosted from 100% to 150% effectiveness, bringing them in line with “classes with similar playstyles.” Moving into the Chaos tree, damage scaling has been reduced on Ring of Fire, Flame Wave, and Miasma Bolt, while the maximum radius of Abyss has been capped to 11 yards. Miasma Chains now have ‘next hit delay’ applied separately to each individual chain (effectively limiting how often each of them can hurt an enemy).

“Many of the changes to Miasma skills are an attempt to bring the use of magic damage in line with other classes,” Blizzard says. It explains that Miasma’s original design “was to have the slightly awkward mechanical approach of placing most of the damage in the cloud,” thus counteracting its lack of resistances from monsters.

After addressing bugs, the D2R team then intended to apply more damage reduction on top to reach its desired threshold, but changed that plan in response to PTR feedback. “We have opted to keep most of the previous damage values instead and watch to see if the bug fixes reach the mechanical awkwardness we are aiming for.” It notes, “We will be keeping a close eye on Miasma feedback to see if future iterations are required to address how magic damage functions and how the Warlock fits into that puzzle.”

In the Eldritch tree, Echoing Strike has been adjusted to have more base damage but with its bonuses now acting additively rather than multiplicatively, which should limit its most potent interactions. Interestingly, Blizzard had initially planned to fix a bug causing the skill to not use durability, but decided not to. Instead, it’s enshrined this as part of its “intended fantasy” in response to PTR feedback. Lastly, the life and mana steal on Eldritch Blast is now always 5%, rather than having the ability to scale up to 20%.

The Demonic Binding tree has been especially shaken up. Bind Demon is another case where an unintentional bug “prompted a discussion about what would be best for the skill.” Blizzard ultimately decided that “while the Bind Demon skill has great depth and detail, those nuances can lead to a lack of clarity.” It’s therefore attempted to “streamline the skill without compromising the uniquely interesting choices it presents.”

To start with, you’ll now need a base skill point investment of ten to bind champions, 15 for uniques, and 20 for super uniques. Additionally, some enemies in that last category must be damaged even more before you can claim them. There’s a max-health cap for each demon type, and the overall chance to bind demons has been reduced (albeit by less than in the initial PTR rollout). The mana cost has been lowered, and an audio cue has been added to let you know if you’re trying to bind a monster that you cannot.

Also on the Demon tree, the Tainted summons’ synergy with Blood Boil has been nerfed. Blood Boil’s range now increases based on its level. Demonic Mastery and Engorge have been switched to skill-based attack speed bonuses, rather than item-based, which should function as a buff in most cases. Blood Oath’s ‘damage taken goes to your demon’ stat now uses diminishing scaling, and should correctly benefit from bonus skill levels.

Elsewhere across the update, Terror Zones have been tweaked, with particular focus on hunting higher-tier Heralds to get a chance at the best loot. You should see them spawn more evenly across tiers, but with less chance to spawn “excessive amounts” of gear upon death. “We want item drops to feel rewarding,” Blizzard notes, “but not break the chase for items that players know and love in Diablo 2.” Finally, Colossal Ancients have been adjusted to make them more consistently challenging across all possible character builds.

Diablo 2 Resurrected Ladder Season 14 is live now. The race to level 99 has begun. As is standard for such updates, previous seasonal characters will be moved to non-ladder groups, and all items in their shared stash will be placed in a ‘withdraw only’ tab. This will remain available until the start of Season 15, so be sure to pull out anything you want to keep before it’s lost for good.