For the first time in three years, we’re not getting advance notice on absolutely everything coming in the next Diablo 4 season. Usually, Blizzard spells it all out in the patch notes, but this time it’s keeping its lips sealed until BlizzCon in September.
There’s still a good amount of stuff to see in the season 15 blog post, including new seasonal items, returning items from past games, and further changes to the controversial Mythic Unique item changes from last season. But there are two sections that look suspiciously empty, suggesting that the full reveals will happen on stage at BlizzCon.
The first of these are called “Challenge Dungeons”, which seem to be boss encounters that randomly appear while you’re exploring the open world. Blizzard specifically says you’ll enter these new portals to “fight against a fearsome boss” and that the difficulty level will be customizable once you’re well into the endgame.
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My first thought after reading about the Challenge Dungeons is that they might be a permanent version of the current season’s Deathtoll Chambers. When you kill the seasonal world boss, you can jump into a portal and participate in a mini event that ends in a big loot explosion. Swap that out with a boss—maybe even one of the game’s tougher lair bosses—and I can kind of see this being a fun way to make open-world exploration more unpredictable than it is now.
“Note that the encounters you experience here are built specifically to test the underlying system, and the final season 15 experience will feature different content,” the post reads. It’s possible this means the finished version will have different bosses, or maybe something else entirely. Either way, I think these have the potential to spice up a part of the game that is already kind of dull.
The second sparsely explained new system is another event that will catch you by surprise in the open world: Overland Ambushes. You’ll see a message saying you’re being hunted by a demon and will have 30 seconds to escape or fight it. “This encounter will test the mettle of Sanctuary’s strongest warriors,” the description says. “This is a difficult encounter.”
I have a lot of questions about where this can happen, how often it can happen, and what you get out of it, but Blizzard seems to be intentionally leaving it vague. Your guess is as good as mine on how this one works, but it might become clear once the PTR is up next week to test it out.
The rest of the seasonal stuff sounds promising, too. There will be new “Soul Splinters” items to slot into your jewelry. Each one offers powerful damage buffs but comes with a cost, like increasing your damage taken or periodically stunning your character (you won’t catch me using that one).
Blizzard is also reaching back into Diablo’s past and releasing new versions of old Unique items from Diablo 1, Diablo 2, and Diablo 3. Leoric’s Crown from Diablo 3, for example, will be worn in your helm slot but will count as a jewelry item to boost the effects of gems you socket into it. Even if it turns out to be terrible, I love when items break the rules like this, and I’m glad to see Blizzard trying some stuff out for the next season.
On top of all of that, Blizzard is bringing back Diablo 3’s “Rebirth” system for recycling characters every season and massaging some of the pain points with the controversial changes to Mythic Uniques in the current season. Basically, Mythics will be easier to craft and find and the rarest ones, known as Iconic Mythics, will now have weaker, Unique versions so you can work them into your build earlier on in your journey. I’m still not sold on Mythics becoming a new upgraded tier of items rather than a select pool of truly rare items, but I’m willing to see how it all works out in the end.
Blizzard will have most of this to test in some form on the Diablo 4 season 15 PTR beginning on August 4 and ending on August 11.
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