The PTR in Diablo 4 has ended and various players and experts are drawing conclusions. We summarize the important innovations coming in Season 4 and what still needs to change.
From April 2 to April 9, the PTR (Public Test Server) took place in Diablo 4. There, players could test the new features that will come to the game in Season 4. A seasonal theme was sought in vain – Blizzard recently explained the reason for this.
The insight into the new season was generally well received by the community. An expert stated in his livestream: If the seasonal theme is good, it will “by far be the best season.” We summarize the important innovations coming with Season 4 in Diablo 4 and what still needs to change according to the community.
After the PTR, we are back in Season 3 of Diablo 4:
The most important innovations in Season 4
One of the biggest grievances about Diablo 4 since its release is the loot. Blizzard will change a lot about this in Season 4: The loot system will be completely overhauled. New and improved endgame activities will be added, which has long been demanded by the players.
The following innovations will be introduced in Season 4:
Adjustments to items
- Less “useless” loot: Enemies from level 95 now always drop items with an item power of 925. Unique items and Uber Uniques drop at earlier levels. At World Tier 3, only “sacred” items drop, and at World Tier 4, only “improved” items.
- Revision of trading: Trading will also be revised in Season 4. You will be able to trade legendaries and uniques, but not Uber Uniques or items bound to your account through crafting. Materials for summoning Uber bosses will likely become significantly more important.
- Smaller affix pool with more meaningful values: In Season 4, there should be a smaller pool of affixes, thereby removing many duplicate or conditional effects. The overall values of the affixes will increase, while the number of affixes on items themselves will decrease. Legendaries will then only have 3 affixes, and yellow items will have 2. Legendary affixes can drop in a “larger” version that is 1.5 times as strong.
- Codex of Power: In Season 4, legendary aspects will be transferred to your Codex of Power when you dismantle items. If you find new, stronger aspects, they will receive an upgrade in your Codex. The Codex of Power will then have a search and sort function.
Two new crafting options
- Tempering: In Season 4, you have two options to adapt your items to your builds. With “Tempering,” you add new affixes to items using reusable recipes. The recipes can be farmed in most of the game’s content, according to Blizzard. The recipes are divided into categories (such as resource, mobility), and ancestral items can have two hardened affixes from different categories.
- Masterworking: With “Masterworking,” you increase the values of the affixes on your items. For this, you need the materials you collect in the Pit. There are a total of 12 upgrade ranks, and every four ranks will significantly upgrade a single affix. The other ranks will slightly increase the values of all affixes.
And enchanting items costs significantly less in Season 4 due to a gold cap:
New endgame content
- New activity “The Pit”: At World Tier 4, you will receive a quest that aims to complete a nightmare dungeon at level 46. After that, you will collect rune shards in endgame activities. In Cerrigar, you activate an obelisk when you have enough shards and enter the “Pit”. Your goal is to kill as many monsters as possible while a timer runs. Portals will lead you to the next levels up to the final boss. In the “Pit,” you will collect new materials called “Stygian Stones,” with which you can summon the “Tormented Echoes.”
- New Uber Boss: With Andariel, a new boss joins, who, according to the developers, drops the same loot as your brother Duriel. Additionally, there will be “Level 200” versions of existing bosses, called “Tormented Echoes,” that represent a new challenge. Defeating a “Tormented Echo” for the first time will reward you with a “Magnificent Spark” (account-bound).
- Overhaul of Hellflude: The more monsters you slaughter, the more your “threat” increases. There are three levels of Hellflude threat, and at level 3, you become “Hellmarked.” Assassins will appear, ambushing you. Additionally, with a currency found in “Tormented Gifts,” you can start a new event for a boss fight and strong rewards. Moreover, the Hellfludes in Season 4 are available at World Tier 1 and 2 as well.
Balance changes to the classes
There are numerous balance changes to classes and new items that strengthen previously useless builds. All classes will receive their own new unique items. Additionally, there will be two new uniques that all classes can equip:
- Tyrael’s Might (Unique Chest Armor): While you have full health, your skills unleash a divine barrage that deals damage.
- Yen’s Blessing (Unique Boots): When casting a skill, there is a 20 to 30% chance to cast a skill that is neither a mobility nor ultimate skill and is currently on cooldown. This effect can only occur once every 12 seconds.
Especially the necromancers are set to receive various buffs in Season 4, making minion builds potentially more useful again. How the balance changes will ultimately affect builds will become clear in May.
Quality of Life improvement
The zoom factor is a topic that has preoccupied players even before the release of Diablo 4. The camera perspective was criticized back then in the beta, as everything was simply too close. Players feel like they are playing in a small room and cannot overview everything.
In Season 4, the developers are adding another zoom function, and the community is pleased. For some, this is even a reason to return to the game.
“Useless” yellow items, confusing drops
What needs to change in Season 4? In a YouTube video, the Diablo expert Raxxanterax summarizes his impressions of Season 4. He critically sees that yellow items drop in the Pit, even though they are not very useful at World Tier 4 since they now only have two affixes. They cannot be supplemented by more. However, you need the materials, so instead of the yellow items, just mats should drop directly.
The Hellflude now brings him much more fun, but everything is red – the events, the embers, the ground, area damage, traps. This makes it difficult to recognize everything. The problem also exists with Uber Lilith.
Regarding the larger affixes, he believes items with stronger affixes should have a different color when they drop. They also need a specific designation in the inventory so that they can be recognized at first glance – like a colored border.
On Reddit, the user “Meldarion92” summarizes his suggestions for changes for Season 4 on April 7 as follows:
- Items with larger affixes and Uber Uniques should receive a different color as drops so that players “actually experience a WOW! effect when they receive a good item.”
- Nightmare dungeons are less fun than before, especially after being in the Pit. He thinks random groups of goblins could be added to make them more varied.
- He believes it takes far too long to get recipes for crafting. Their drop chance should be increased.
- The discrepancy between solo play and team play regarding the materials needed for bosses and the Pit is too high. This should be balanced, “so that no mode has disadvantages” and rotations of activities do not become mandatory.
- He also suggests a “favorites teleport option” so that “we can always teleport to our favorite place.”
- Furthermore, he wishes for more storage space and options to level glyphs outside of nightmare dungeons.
Many players were really excited about the content on the PTR, which in turn brings a problem with it, because: some players will leave Diablo 4 again after the PTR.
