Hello, Librarian Husky here! Now I am very much a delve enjoyer. It was probably the one thing that I was most excited about when making the decision to come back to retail. In fact, when I stream, it’s normally where I end up spending my time towards the end of the night. Last night, I noticed a drastic difference when doing ZV on the highest difficulty from one pull to the next. This change occurred because Blizzard implemented some hot fixes for delves, but there are some things they didn’t mention.

Excitement and Disappointment with Delves

I’ve done a lot of delves, and I’d say it’s the activity I enjoy the most. My excitement about delves wasn’t a disappointment, but there were two aspects I wasn’t a fan of. Blizzard has addressed both of those issues, but they also stealth-nerfed Bran. Firstly, the fact that you could get resurrected without it counting towards the death counter was a problem. Secondly, it made solo delving almost pointless, as it was much easier with a group, and this has also been corrected.

Key Fixes and Stealth Changes

Late last night, Blizzard fixed a bug causing bosses to scale incorrectly with more players. It was quite common to see bosses having more health in a single-player delve than when there were three or four players. They also increased the health scaling of enemies in delves while grouped, ensuring a more balanced challenge when playing with others.

Health Scaling and Enemy Adjustments in Delves

They have significantly increased enemy health, which is expected. Blizzard also reduced the damage scaling of many enemy abilities in delves while grouped, and adjusted enemy targeting preferences. Their goal is to balance solo and group play as much as possible. Upon reviewing grouped delves data, they noticed unexpectedly low combat times paired with high lethality.

Compensating Adjustments

To address this, they increased the health scaling of enemies per additional player but reduced the damage scaling of many abilities to balance the challenge. From personal experience, while doing ZV during the implementation of these hot fixes, I noticed a significant change. Despite being on the highest difficulty, ZV was taking a lot of damage and progressing through phases faster than before.

Observations on the New Difficulty

Although the challenge remained due to the mechanics, it wasn’t overwhelming. The key thing to notice is how fast ZV was dying, and despite the increased difficulty, it was manageable. The adjustments made will likely continue to shape how group and solo delving feels moving forward.

Managing Damage and Timing Abilities

I’m holding around $1.2 million damage, and I’m actually pausing my energy use, waiting for the web to spawn. I have all my heavy-hitting abilities ready because if you don’t kill the web in time, an ad spawns. That ad requires interrupting, and the boss also needs to be interrupted, which complicates things significantly. So, it’s crucial to get those webs down as fast as possible.

The Impact of Bran on Damage

The vast majority of the damage you see isn’t actually me—it’s Bran. What I noticed, and it was very frustrating, is that suddenly I couldn’t push the boss past 90%. Not only that, but Bran could no longer hold aggro, and the boss was hitting me for 70-80% of my health at times.

Bran’s Damage Nerf and the Hot Fix

Previously, I was doing 1.2 million DPS, but after the hot fix, that dropped to 500k, even though my rotation hadn’t changed. Before the fix, Bran would reliably hold aggro, allowing me to deal damage strategically. However, it seems Bran‘s damage was significantly nerfed, and I assumed it might be a stealth nerf specifically for ZV to increase its difficulty, as it should be the hardest challenge of the delves.

Reflecting on the Changes

I looked back at the night before the hot fix, trying to understand why Bran’s aggro-holding ability and damage output had decreased so drastically. This change made the ZV fight much more difficult than expected, indicating a potential adjustment to the overall difficulty of the encounter.

Challenges in Fungal Folly and Bran’s Role

During my Fungal Folly run on tier 11, I barely scraped by with one life remaining. Once again, I let Bran handle most of the heavy lifting. I positioned myself strategically, out of sight, allowing Bran to do the bulk of the work. In that run, Bran was nearly hitting a million DPS without me even touching the boss. Fast forward to today, things have changed drastically.

Testing on Tier Eight and Bran’s Nerf

Today, I tested on tier eight, where I actively engaged with the boss, hitting it whenever possible. After the boss performed a spinning attack, it took 50% extra damage, and I went all out. Despite my efforts, my DPS was under 500k, whereas Bran used to hold around 900k to a million DPS by himself. It seems Bran has been significantly nerfed, even though I haven’t made any changes to his level or power.

Changes in Bran’s Performance

Bran has gone from dealing massive damage and tanking like a truck to being far less effective. I haven’t been power-leveling him, and my brand level is still at 27, so the difference is startling. I wanted to address this because it’s not something we’re going to hear about in the hot fixes, but it’s very clear Bran’s effectiveness has diminished overnight.

Zack V’s Influence and UI Fixes

In addition to the nerf, Zack V’s influence has grown stronger with the introduction of a new enemy variant in delve tier 8. Although I haven’t encountered this new variant yet, it’s something to keep an eye on. They also fixed an issue where the health bar UI would fail to display values correctly in Z’s Lair while in a group, which should improve the overall experience in group delves.

Damage Reduction and Solo Play

Something else that wasn’t mentioned in the hot fixes is a 20% spell damage reduction for solo delves. Spells like Web Bolt and Burn Away are now dealing significantly less damage, which is obviously good. However, if you’re tackling Zack on the highest difficulty and let an ad out, it can still one-shot you, as Web Bolt used to deal around 7 million damage.

Scaling Issues in Tier Eight Delves

I’ve been reading about players with item levels over 600, facing mobs with over 120 million health that are one-shotting them. Many people are struggling to complete tier eight delves in groups this morning. The scaling is off, and I expect more changes to come today. It’s safe to say there will be further updates by the end of the day.

Bran’s Diminished Role

Many players are noticing the same issue with Zack. It’s not just the boss, but Bran seems to be a big part of the problem. He can no longer hold aggro or deal as much damage as he did before. For classes like mine, the difficulty spike is overwhelming, and it feels nearly impossible to kill Zack when he’s hitting for 70-80% of my health in a single swing, with little help from Bran.

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