Update: Blizzard has now clarified the drop rate reduction is an unintended issue that will be looked into.
Aberrant Cinders
There is an issue with Helltide Cinders that the team is looking into.
And here’s some video evidence of the issue, which really puts things into perspective:
Original Post
Today’s 1.1 patch notes were indeed huge and even had quite a few changes to Helltides specifically. However, nowhere in there does it mention a specific reduction in Aberrant Cinder drop rates. And that’s exactly what many players have been reporting since the patch went live. The notes did state the cost for a Mystery Chest was raised to 250 cinders, and that they can now drop from any interactable object.
We can’t be sure if this is a bug or even perhaps a player over-reaction. Although that last one is less likely considering the sheer amount of people reporting this. In any case, players have gone from opening at least 2 Mystery Chests (with some going up to 6), to barely being able to open one per Helltide.
Here’s just a few examples:
Each of the above posts has more comments confirming their suspicions as well.
Helltides have been incredibly generous in the past so it is possible Blizzard nerfed the cinder drop rates, but why they wouldn’t mention it directly in the patch notes is unclear. Hopefully it’s just a bug or players overreacting, we’ll see.