The Sorcerer and Druid have struggled to compete with the other classes in Diablo 4, despite Blizzard's improvements to almost everything else about the game. Both have lagged behind the other classes when it comes to pure power, and their most effective builds aren't much fun. But in Season 5, which starts next week, Sorcerers and Druids will get a massive buff to help them out before Blizzard takes a more comprehensive look at them after the October release of the expansion.

For starters, Blizzard will fix the boss problem. In Season 5, all endgame bosses will have significantly reduced health, and the boss in The Pit, the brutal dungeon that is the ultimate test of a build, will have its damage significantly reduced by 66%. While these nerfs will obviously help everyone, sorcerers and druids will no longer be tied to a specific build to survive the game's most difficult battles.

Unique items will also add diversity; Blizzard has reworked almost every item to make them feel integral to the builds they enable. It will be much harder to use regular legendary items than unique items that transform your favorite skills. For example, the revamped Flameweaver Glove increases the size of the sorcerer's firewall, making it easier to shoot firebolts. Instead of giving lots of small damage boosts, the uniques enhance certain playstyles so that using them actually feels different.

This is the main theme of the new uniques: as long as you build around uniques, you should be able to play differently than with regular items; Blizzard may have buffed some uniques too much, but as we learned last year, better too strong than too weak! . No one wants to jump into a new season to play with a bunch of mediocre new toys.

Here are the biggest reasons why Sorcerers and Druids won't be left behind in Season 5:

Buffs for both are further described in the patch notes, but not as beneficial as the ones above. Even though Blizzard ran a short playtest last month, none of us had a chance to use the reworked uniques, so hopefully players will start sharing their clever new builds once the season starts.

Season 5 may have been the quietest season for Diablo 4, especially with the expansion coming in two months; in addition to a brand new wave-based endgame mode called Infernal Hordes, the leveling process is even faster, uniques are easier to find, and spamming bosses for the coveted mythic uniques will no longer force you to watch a loading screen every time you summon them. In many ways, Season 5 feels like Part 2 of the overhaul that was so successful in Season 4.

Diablo 4 Season 5 will be released on August 6.