Diablo 4 players may have had their easiest chance to get the Harlequin Crest a few hours ago due to a bug with item drop rates in the Helltide event. Unfortunately, the devs learned about the glitch and temporarily disabled Uber Unique drops in the game until a fix – meaning reduced drop rates – can be deployed.
Uber Uniques are six of the rarest and most powerful items found in Diablo 4, being best-in-slot items allowing power players to perfect their builds. Up until yesterday, there were just a handful of these ultra-rare items found by players in the game.
{
“@context”: “https://schema.org”,
“@type”: “VideoObject”,
“name”: “Devs disable Uber Unique drops in Diablo 4”,
“description”: “A recent patch made one of the ultra-rare items in the ARPG very easy to loot in Helltides.”,
“thumbnailUrl”: [
“https://i.ytimg.com/vi/tzMgIc2rQ88/maxresdefault.jpg”
],
“uploadDate”: “2023-7-7”,
“duration”: “PT22S”,
“contentUrl”: “https://www.youtube.com/shorts/tzMgIc2rQ88”,
“embedUrl”: “https://www.youtube.com/embed/tzMgIc2rQ88”
}
Blizzard released a patch after the recent developer livestream to allow uniques to drop from chests in Helltide based on community feedback. However, it seems that there was an issue with the drop rates of specific uniques in the most recent update. There were reports that hundreds of Harlequin Crests have been looted from Helltide event chests.
The issue was specific to the Barbarian and Sorcerer classes which do not have class-specific unique helms. This meant that Helltide chests that give out helmets were more likely to drop the Harlequin Crest or Andariel’s Visage for these specific classes.
We have temporarily disabled Uber Uniques from dropping in-game while we address an issue with Helltide Chest drops. For more information please check our forums https://t.co/aee8XTov15
— Blizzard CS – The Americas (@BlizzardCS) July 7, 2023
Many players rushed into to try and loot this extremely rare item before Blizzard devs discovered the issue. There are many posts in the Diablo 4 subreddit from players who successfully found the item – which likely accelerated the speed at which Blizzard got wise.
Once the issue was found out, Blizzard quickly deployed a hotfix to temporarily disable Uber Uniques from dropping in the Helltide event. The devs will reportedly release another hotfix to correct the issue later.
While fun for those who got lucky, this bug will throw a wrench into balance. Having too many of these ultra-rare items will undoubtedly hurt PVP in Diablo 4. It will be very hard for players with normal uniques to go against a high-level player wearing a Harlequin Crest in PVP.
It is not clear how Blizzard devs would deal with the issue of having hundreds of Harlequin Crest and Andariel’s Visage in the game. There are speculations that Blizzard may employ a server rollback or simply take away the items from players’ inventory.
The gaffe from the devs also sparked a new debate about the existence of Uber Uniques that only a handful of players can acquire. Some players think that having hard-to-find items is pointless and does not improve the quality of the gaming experience.
However, the popularity of these items has kept max-level players grinding in Nightmare Dungeons and Helltides just to find them. Diablo 4 has often been described as being an MMO-lite, and coveted rare items are a key element of the endgame of any such title.
The hotfix is expected to drop later today to fix the issue and re-enable Uber Unique drops in Diablo 4.
