Blizzard had to nerf their most popular build because the servers couldn't handle it.

Diablo 4's new season featured a chaotic sorcerer build that was so powerful it killed more than demons. Blizzard was forced to fix the problem yesterday because servers couldn't handle all of the lightning bolts and ice orbs that were being thrown at them.

The unique Fractured Winterglass Amulet is required to summon multiple lightning spears at once. The amulet can be worn to cast frozen orbs, which will spawn a magical conjuration that will cast its own frozen orbs, reducing the normal cooldown of lightning spear. A small army of these snowball-throwing guys can be used to spam lightning spears on enemies in seconds.

The amount of spells that were flying around caused some servers to crash and lag, especially for high-end gamers like Mekuna who set the world record in less than 24 hours for completing the hardest dungeon.

In rare cases, [the aspect] of Splintering Energy alongside Fractured Winterglass can cause detrimental server performance problems," a Blizzard Community Manager wrote on the Diablo4 forums. "To fix this, we are reducing its frequency of arcing at additional enemies and increasing its damage as compensation. In these rare cases, we've also adjusted the number of Frozen Orbs you can launch from Conjurations when using Fractured Winterglass.

Blizzard has increased the damage that each lightning spear can deal, but they aren't hitting as many enemies. This is a problem for the Pit's higher tiers, where you have only 10 minutes to slash through the most difficult enemies.

Diablo 4 season 5 lightning spear sorceress"

"I lost like 50% damage lol," Mekuna told PC Gamer. He isn't happy with the trade-off, even though he noticed some of the lag was going away. He wrote on X, "I used to be able to clear the trash (enemies) in two to three minute. Now it takes me seven." "But the nerf should not be noticeable if your aren't pushing Pit."

He's right. Most players have trouble trying this build due to its very specific gear requirements. I'm using this build and haven’t noticed any major differences, but I’m also not struggling with anything as difficult as Mekuna.

Blizzard previously promised not to nerf overperforming build in the middle season unless it was causing technical problems, and I think that this is a case where they are justified. I love how ridiculous this build feels, but also think that its solution is an intelligent way to fix a major issue without gutting it for most people. It's actually a buff which closes the gap between a build's devastating AOE and mediocre boss damages, saving you the pain of watching a health bar slowly drop at the end every dungeon.