Hello Blizzard team,
I’m experiencing a bug with the Hectic Utility Aspect, which reduces the cooldown of all active abilities by up to 2.5 seconds every 5 basic attacks.
How to reproduce the bug:
- Equip the Hectic Utility Aspect on your gear.
- Apply the Double Strike Temper to both weapons, each giving a percentage chance for the basic skill Arc Lash to strike twice (e.g., 40% per weapon).
- Use Arc Lash repeatedly in combat.
- Often, a single input will trigger 2 or even 3 basic attacks due to Double Strike.
- Despite this, the Hectic Utility Aspect only counts the original input-based attacks, ignoring the additional strikes caused by Double Strike.
Expected behavior:
All instances of basic attacks — including duplicated strikes from Double Strike — should count toward the 5-attack threshold needed to trigger the cooldown reduction from the Hectic Utility Aspect.
These extra hits are clearly basic attacks, and the aspect does not specify that only manually input attacks count.
Current behavior:
The system ignores the duplicated hits generated by Double Strike.
As a result, even though I frequently land 8, 10, or even 13 basic attacks in the time it would normally take to perform 5, only 5 attacks are being counted, and the cooldown is reduced just once.
This breaks the synergy between these mechanics and significantly weakens the intended effect of the aspect.
How do I know it’s not working? Arc Lash has a stun counter, and so does the Heretic Aspect. My Arc Lash and the Heretic counter both count simultaneously — Arc Lash goes up to 9, while the Heretic Aspect only counts up to 4 or 5. It is a visible bug.
Gameplay impact:
This issue severely limits builds focused on:
- Basic attack damage
- High attack speed
- Cooldown cycling
- Stun/Vulnerable/Critical effects
- Skill loop optimization
My build is built entirely around maximizing the speed and frequency of Arc Lash to generate effects and reduce cooldowns. With this bug, core functionality is affected, making the build unviable in higher content.
Feature request:
Although there’s a tempering system with progression (e.g., 5–10%, 5–15%, 5–20%), it currently hits a ceiling and is not grindable.
What I’d love to see is:
- A system where players can grind and improve specific tempers or aspects
- Opportunities to target dungeons or content to earn better rolls on the things that define our builds
- A scalable system for those who want to specialize over time
Honest feedback:
The current state of Diablo IV punishes creativity.
I’m trying to make a basic-attack-centric build work. I reached Paragon 200+ experimenting and tuning. A friend did the same. Eventually, he gave up and copied a meta build — and instantly gained power and cleared higher-tier content.
Right now, you either copy what works, or the game punishes you for trying something original.
Final thoughts:
Please consider:
- Fixing the interaction between Hectic Utility Aspect and Double Strike Temper.
- Creating progression systems that reward investment in unique builds.
- Removing one-shot boss mechanics that discourage tank or resistance builds.
- Rewarding creativity and merit, not just raw damage or meta builds.
Let us enjoy the freedom to create, experiment, and grow — that’s what makes Diablo special.
Thanks for reading and for all the hard work.
you broke my heart.