Diablo IV’s massive Season 1 update is now live, and while players are generally unhappy about the sweeping nerfs that have come to the ARPG, one change undocumented in the official patch notes is effectively the nail in the coffin for the game’s best power-leveling strategy.
Though it wasn’t listed in Blizzard’s Diablo IV Season 1 patch notes, players have discovered there are now level requirements for being able to complete the capstone dungeons for World Tier III and IV. While some fans assumed based on in-game tooltips for World Tier recommended levels that the requirements are level 50 for World Tier III and level 70 for World Tier IV, YouTuber Zach Bitango has revealed that’s not the case. To unlock World Tier III, players will need to be at least level 40 in order to receive credit for completing its capstone dungeon. It’s a similar story for World Tier IV. Now, players will need to be at least level 60 in order to progress to what is currently Diablo IV’s hardest difficulty.
Prior to the Season 1 update, a high-level player could “power-level” a lower-level player by rushing them through the game’s capstone dungeons in order to unlock the higher World Tiers and the increased experience, gold, and rewards they provide. A low-level player needed only to sit at the beginning of the capstone dungeon in order to soak up all the experience from the monsters killed by their high-level friend. With the higher World Tiers unlocked, low-level players could then have their high-level friend rush them through World Tier IV dungeons. Using this method, players could be boosted up to level 50 in an hour or less.