Diablo 4’s six rarest items were briefly disabled because they just weren’t rare enough
You guessed correctly, Diablo 4's Uber Uniques were briefly removed from the game because their drop rates made them much easier to get.
On Friday, Blizzard disabled Diablo 4's six rarest items, known as Uber Uniques, from the entire game. The developer said at the time that it plans to re-enable them quickly, but didn't explain why they were removed in the first place.
Shortly after, the six Uber Uniques did return in a hotfix, when Blizzard actually revealed the reason behind the initial removal. If you've been keeping up with Diablo 4 patches, you'll see why the timing of both changes isn't coincidental.
Shortly after Blizzard fully revealed Diablo 4 Season 1's theme, content and start date in a livestream, the developer released a surprise patch that made it possible for Helltide Chests to drop Unique items, includng the six rarest Uber Uniques.
This was a great change, but it quickly became clear that the new drop rates may have been a little too generous. Industrious players realised that you can farm Helltide Chests over and over for a good chance at getting one of the Uber Uniques.
Most of the "exploits" centred around Harlequin Crest, a Unique helm that is particularly useful for Barbarians. Helltide Chests tell you what slot your reward will fit into, so if you opened a bunch of helm chests, you had a real chance at getting Harlequin Crest.
That's why the Uber Uniques were disabled. The hotfix that re-enabled them was also released on Friday. Blizzard explained in a forum post that the six rarest items did indeed have "an unintended higher chance to drop from Helltide Chests."
142 accounts, to be exact, managed to snap one or more of them before they were disabled. Blizzard won't be removing them from these accounts, but it may do so in the future if the developer believes they were obtained unfairly, or in a way that " impacts the gameplay of others."
Outside of that, the hotfix also made it so Helltide Chests have a chance to drop any Unique, and not be restricted to a specific item slot, which obviously makes it harder to target certain item slots.
If you're currently playing Diablo 4, you may want to do these things before Season of the Malignant starts. They're going to ensure you start off the season with a lot of spare power.