Diablo 4 has decided to run what is essentially a second beta for the game on May 12th running through May 14th called the Server Slam. Now, this is technically not a second beta. However, it’s going to operate much in a similar manner to a beta, allowing players to play from May 12th to May 14th and you don’t have to pre-purchase the game in order to play. It seems that the focus here though is not on beta testing the game, but on rather stressing the servers to see how they can handle the load.

Diablo 4 Server Slam Platforms

Players will be able to play on PC, Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 with couch Co-op for consoles being a thing as well as cross play and cross progression available for all platforms Server Slam Progress.

Server Slam Progress

A couple of important points about this Server Slam is that all progression made during the early beta period from previous beta will not be carried over, meaning that you’ll have all new characters. You’ll have to start over and that the level cap this time around is capped at level 20 instead of 25, so you will not be able to gain additional points past level 20. 

On top of this, the legendary item drop rate has been changed to reflect the actual drop rate present at the launcher Diablo 4. What this means is that you’re not going to be having happy fountains of loot like you were legendary wise from the open beta. So, we’ll get a better idea of how rare these legendary items actually are. We will also know exactly how much Diablo 4 Gold we will earn.

Diablo 4 Server Slam Changes

Now, it’s also important to note that there have been some changes to the game that were taken from the feedback from the open beta. There are a couple of the things I want to mention here. 

First, the dungeon layouts have a lot of dungeons in the game where you needed to backtrack have been updated in order to remove a lot of this backtracking. This was seen as a very big pain point for me during the beta and a lot of other players, so you should have a lot less backtracking in some of the dungeons.

Besides, you’ll also have a higher chance for random events to spawn inside dungeons that has this has increased from 10% to 60%, so you should see a lot more cool things happening in these dungeons as you play through them.

Related: Best And Worst Things About Diablo 2, Diablo 3 & Diablo 4

General Changes

There are a couple of important general points. Now Stun and Freeze can be applied to Elite monsters for twice as long as before, but then they become unstoppable, meaning that they are no longer going to be CC, so you’re going to adjust the way that your CC plays, which is interesting.

They’ve also done a change to the Legendary Powers of the game. Found on these legendary items, there have been updates to their effectiveness. Obviously, we’re not sure exactly what those are. We’ll have to see what those are as the game goes. But this is a big change and I think players will be interested to see how that plays out.

Barbarian Changes

There are class specific changes as well. 

For instance, the Barbarian has a 10% passive reduction added to their class. This means they’re just going to take less damage than other classes, which is exactly what they need since they’re the tank character.

Other changes to it are that Whirlwind now deals more damage, but consumes more Fury, making it more viable and the Double Swing skill enhancement refunds its full Fury costume used on stunner knockdown enemies.

Druid Changes

When it comes to the Druid Companion Skills, we’ll now deal heavily increased damage. I can’t wait to see the Vine Creeper. This ability was already busted. I’m hoping it’s even more busted.

All Ultimate Skills have had their cooldowns reduced. I didn’t really use Ultimate Skills much on the Druids. This is good to see. Usability improvements have been made to mall and pulverize hopefully that make like a Werebear a little easier and using a non-shapeshifting skill will transform Druid back into their human form instantly.

Necromancer Changes

When it comes to the Necromancer, a nerf here is summon minions will die more often. They were tanky as hell in Diablo 4, so this was probably a good change.

Many bonuses in the Book of Dead have had their stats increased, so Book of Dead is going to impact your character and your minions a little more.

The damage dealt by Corpse Explosion skill has been reduced, who could have seen that one coming. And the brightness of the Skeletal Warriors and Mages has been reduced. I guess this means that it’d be harder to see them on the screen, which probably makes it better to see what else is happening on the screen. 

Rogue Changes 

Rogue changes are the upgrades for Subterfuge Skills have had their bonuses increased.

Multiple passive skills have had their bonuses increased and all Imbuement Skills and have their cooldowns increased. You should not be able to use Imbuements as often with everything else about the Rogue or not everything. But a lot of things else about the Rogue should be improved.

Sorcerer Changes

When it comes to Sorcerer, Charged Bolt’s damage was increased and the Mana cost to cast has been decreased to make you want to use this more.

Chain Lightning got a bit of nerf and its damage was reduced and its effectiveness against bosses was also reduced. This is one we used in our Immortal Lightning build. I am not surprised that this got nerfed. It’s very strong. 

The cooldown for the Incinerate Skill’s enchantment bonus has been reduced to making that more viable. 

Firewall will now spawn underneath enemies more frequently when using its enchantment bonus. This makes it more viable.

Also, they increase the lucky hit chance for the Meteor Skill’s enchantment bonus. So, basically, these are some improvements to other areas of the Sorcerer and a big nerfing to Chain Lightning. 

My Thoughts

All in all, I think these are some good changes things that are heading in the right direction. It’s good to see they took feedback from that open beta and already implemented it and we get to see how they’ve implemented and give further feedback to see if they are enough changes or not enough changes. In my opinion, these are all really good signs. Transparency is always good and getting feedback from players implemented is fantastic.

Now, I really want to see how the servers handle this whether there’s going to be login issues or whether we’re getting the rubber banding, we were getting during the open beta, particularly when leaving the city or loading into certain parts of the map where it seemed like it was loading into that area. I can’t wait to see how these changes have impacted the game in just like one month’s time already. Hopefully, it’ll be much improved and it’ll give us a much clearer picture of how things should be in June.