There's more to Diablo 4's patch 2.0.3 than just nuking the evade spam builds, it also makes Kurast Undercity runs more rewarding

Blizzard has released the full set of patch notes for Diablo 4 update 2.0.3, which is set to arrive tomorrow, October 17 on all platforms. This is, more or less, the first meaty patch for the game since the release of Vessel of Hatred and the start of Season 6.

As a result, many of the changes fix a lot of the issues players have been having with it, bring back some missing features, and drop the first post-expansion nerf hammer to address those pesky evade spam Spiritborn builds.

Patch 2.0.3 follows a series of smaller patches that released in the wake of Vessel of Hatred. While the majority of those were single-issue updates, this one has much wider reach that spans balance, bug fixes, and even a few UI tweaks to make a few areas easier to read/navigate.

Outside of nuking all those evade spam builds some Spiritborn players have been relying on a little too much in the past few days, the patch also makes a few upgrades to the rewards players get from Kurast Undercity runs. The Undercity is a new type of dungeon that’s exclusive to owners of the expansion, but players have been complaining that the rewards could be underwhelming.

In response, Blizzard is increasing the number of random item drops, and doubling Gold drops from enemies. The patch also makes it so at least one Legendary item is guaranteed to drop. Outside of the rewards, the patch brings some balance tweaks to the Kurast Undercity, too. For instance, it removes monsters with Extra Health from the enemy pool entirely.

While on the subject, you should also expect bosses, and monsters with greater afflictions to be less tanky. By the same token, spawn frequency of afflicted super Elites and regular Elites has been adjusted. Blizzard is also making some tweaks to the Undercity timers.

The starting time is now 120 seconds, instead of 100 (with no Tributes). Afflicted regular Elites now give you a ten-second bonus (up from eight), and afflicted super Elites grant a 15-second bonus instead of 14.

The new Realmwalker event has been a favourite among players since the start of Season of Hatred and the release of the expansion. Ourselves and many others recommended it for gaining XP and levelling up quickly. Patch 2.0.3 is bringing a few changes to speed up the event’s progress.

This is done by increasing the maximum possible number of spawns from 15 to 20, and upping the boss’ movement speed by 15% - this is further increased by 10% every time a wave of Bloodbound Guardians is killed. And, as one last bonus, Realmwalker encounters now have a chance to spawn a Treasure Goblin.

Plenty of very much welcome UI tweaks are in this patch, too. Some of the highlights include multiple quality of life changes to Rune crafting, as well as socketing in gear that already has Gems. The tooltips for all Runes and Runewords have been updated, too, so you can quickly decide whether they’re useful to your build.

For the full change log, check out the Blizzard blog. If you missed our recent guides on how to recruit Mercenaries in Diablo 4, and unlock your Spiritborn specialization - hit up those links. Our best Spiritborn builds page has been popular, so give that a look, too.