Diablo 2 Resurrected season 4 makes huge impact with one small change

A first look at the Diablo 2 Resurrected season 4 patch notes reveals a seemingly small change that could dramatically affect your builds in the classic RPG game. What reads on paper as a simple quality-of-life change in Diablo 2 Resurrected patch 2.7 promises to be a huge buff to Mosaic Assassins and might have far-reaching ramifications on multiple builds as well as multiplayer in general.

Thanks to official previews of D2R patch 2.7 from YouTubers ‘MacroBioBoi’ and ‘Lucky Luciano’ we have a brief but interesting glimpse into what to expect in the next season of Diablo 2 Resurrected. One nice improvement is that all players will have four additional character slots across all online modes in season four, but the big story here is a change to the way the game’s ‘Next Hit Delay’ system works.

Next Hit Delay defines how soon after being hit by certain skills an enemy can be hit again by any other skill that has Next Hit Delay. For example, hitting an enemy with the Nova Sorceress skill prevents them from taking any subsequent hits for four frames (a tiny but notable window), while the likes of the Druid’s Tornado and the Assassin’s Shock Web have a much longer one second period until the foe can be struck again.

Blizzard’s patch 2.7 notes read, “The Next Hit Delay system now only applies to missiles created by casting the same skill.” That means you can hit enemies with multiple different skills in quick succession even if they’re affected by Next Hit Delay. More importantly, this also means that in multiplayer you won’t have your attacks miss if they land just after a teammate’s skill.

The potential ramifications here are big, with popular builds such as Fist of the Heavens Paladins standing alongside the skills mentioned above as ones which will be affected. Maxroll lists a total of 25 skills that fall into this category, so if you regularly play Diablo 2 Resurrected multiplayer then there’s a pretty good chance you’ll see a benefit.

The biggest winner here, though, is the Martial Arts Assassin. If you’re making use of the new Diablo 2 Resurrected Runeword, Mosaic, there’s a good chance you’ve noticed that your charge-up skills are overlapping and not actually all landing as intended. Thankfully, Blizzard confirms that “Each Assassin Martial Arts charge-up skill trigger is treated as a different cast of a skill for Next Hit Delay purposes.”

That’s potentially a huge buff to a build that has already been described as pushing Assassin to S-tier, so enjoy those potential gains when season 4 arrives. On other builds, you may not notice this change if you’re playing solo, but those of you in groups – especially bigger ones – can look forward to a much smoother Diablo 2 Resurrected experience once patch 2.7 lands.

Ahead of the Diablo 2 Resurrected season 4 start, you’ll want to check in with the best Diablo 2 Resurrected classes to see where Assassin lands. Alternatively, look ahead to the Diablo 4 release date and incoming server slam with us.