Blizzard has announced the official start time for the upcoming Season 4 of Diablo 4. MeinMMO briefly summarizes what to expect.
When does Season 4 start? On Tuesday, May 14, 2024, at 7:00 PM German time, Season 4 is expected to go live. We do not know anything about prior maintenance work, so you can probably log in earlier. You can find all the information about Season 4 in our summary.
We will also accompany the start of Season 4 here in our live ticker:
The most important information about Season 4:
- Season 4 fundamentally overhauls the game. The biggest and most important change affects the loot system: There will be fewer affixes, but they will be better, and you can customize items through crafting.
- The Season theme is the Iron Wolves, but there will not be a real Season mechanic. Most changes come to all realms. Only seasonal elements include a quest line, some rewards, and an elixir that makes Hell Floods harder and more rewarding.
- Additionally, there will be some balance adjustments, new items, and modifications. Here you can find the full patch notes for Season 4.
We have already discussed the features of Season 4 in detail with the developers. Lead Seasons Designer Deric Nuñez and Lead Game Producer Timothy Ismay explain to us how exactly the new mechanics work, what changes for you, and how things should proceed in the future. You can find the interview with the developers about Season 4 here.
In this article, we summarize the 5 most important changes that you should know if you want to start or return to Season 4 in Diablo 4. In the video, the developers explain what has changed since the PTR:
1. The best loot is available much earlier
One of the most important changes to loot is when you can receive and wear certain items. Blizzard wants to ensure that the items you find are truly an improvement or at least easier to compare:
- Sacred items now drop only at World Tier 3 and you can wear them starting from level 35.
- Ancestral items now drop only at World Tier 4 and you can wear them starting from level 55.
- Ancestral Legendary items can now carry “Great Affixes” that are 1.5 times stronger than normal affixes. You can identify them by a special sign.
The Codex of Power will also be modified as part of this. Instead of extracting affixes, it is now sufficient to salvage a Legendary. Additionally, the best variant you have salvaged so far will always be saved instead of just using the lower base value.
Nice bonus: You will save a lot of space in Season 4, as you will no longer have to collect yellow items. Dim crystals can also be obtained by salvaging Legendaries.
2. Oboluses are much more important than before – Save them while leveling!
The Obolus vendor will become one of the most important sources for loot in Season 4. Starting from level 100, you will receive guaranteed loot at item level 925 from him, which is the maximum level, and every purchased item can be Legendary.
Additionally, the cap for Whispering Oboluses has been raised to 2,500. This means that you can accumulate significantly more while leveling before you have to “gamble” to make space.
Ideally, you should save your Oboluses until you reach level 100 to have the best chance at strong items. The Legendaries from the Obolus vendor can have Great Affixes.
Oboluses will also be available from more sources in Season 4, such as from the new endgame dungeon “The Pit.” This dungeon will be the best source for loot and Oboluses.
By the way, many towns have been revamped and vendors are now in one place instead of scattered. You should visit the vendors from time to time:
3. Hell Floods are the best way to level
A large part of the overhauls in Season 4 has gone into the Hell Floods. Hell Floods are now significantly harder, but also much more rewarding:
- The monster density is higher than in previous seasons.
- When defeating monsters, you now collect “Threat.” If you become threatening enough, assassins appear who want to assassinate you – they drop even more and better loot.
- When looting, you can collect Sin Hearts. With 3 of these hearts, you can start an event that summons lots of enemies and ends with a boss fight.
With Season 4, Hell Floods will be available at all difficulties, no longer just from World Tier 3. This means you can level easiest and fastest starting from level 1 in Hell Floods. Higher levels offer more experience.
4. The new crafting system is better but still expensive
Through Hardening and Completion, you can create your own “God Rolls” in Season 4, but you still need a lot of luck and time to do so. The system is meant to ensure that you have a steady progression once you are in endgame.
The two systems interact:
- Hardening improves an item by adding further affixes.
- The affixes are chosen randomly from a list, the “recipe.” You can find recipes by playing.
- Once an item is fully hardened, you can further improve it with Completion.
- Completion enhances a random affix on the item and can be applied up to 12 times per item.
- At levels 4, 8, and 12, you receive a kind of “critical improvement.”
For the upgrades, you need materials and gold. You can obtain materials from the new endgame dungeon “The Pit” as well as by salvaging items. The costs will get increasingly expensive, in the end you will have to pay 10 million gold. By the way, the costs for enchanting are now capped at a maximum of 3 million gold.
If a fully upgraded item is not as you want it, you can reset it. Here you can find all the information about the new system:
Additionally, you can craft your own Uber Uniques in Season 4. However, you will need very rare materials for that. In this season, you will receive almost enough of them for free to create an Uber Unique.
5. The endgame is clearer and more accessible
With Season 4, your most important source for nearly everything will be “The Pit.” You unlock the new dungeon through a short quest. Once you reach World Tier 4, you should complete a nightmare dungeon at level 46.
By completing it, you will receive Rune Shards, which you can also get from other sources like world bosses, events, Hell Floods, and whispers. With these shards, you open up access to The Pit, which then operates similarly to a Greater Rift from Diablo 3:
- You don’t have objectives like in dungeons, but you just have to slay enemies.
- Additionally, you have limited time, so you need to be fast enough.
- If you succeed, there will be a boss at the end that you must defeat.
The Pit has 200 levels with increasing difficulty. In The Pit, you will receive materials for crafting, loot, and Oboluses, making it ideal for grinding. You will level glyphs as usual through nightmare dungeons – with Season 4, the XP for glyphs will be increased by 25%.
For the biggest challenges and better chances for Uber Uniques, you will face Pinnacle bosses and their “Tormented” versions at level 200 in Season 4. A new boss, Andariel, will be added. You can now obtain the summoning materials from more sources, such as treasure goblins.
Quality of Life and other changes in Season 4
In addition to the “big” changes, there are a few smaller quality improvements that make the game more enjoyable. On Reddit, a user has compiled 27 points that players should now keep in mind. We have summarized the most important ones here:
- Horses can now gallop in towns: “You can now do this here!”
- Elixirs now grant 8% additional experience at World Tiers 1 and 2 instead of the previous 5%.
- A new elixir increases your movement speed – ideal for leveling.
- You can now zoom the camera out further, something that players have been wishing for a long time.
- Player trading will be expanded: Everything except items that are account-bound through crafting and Uber Uniques can be traded, including Uniques and Legendaries.
- There is a 6th slot for the stash.
Additionally, Blizzard is working on making some of the existing systems clearer, including stats. Certain attributes such as area damage scaling are capped, and you will now see where the cap lies. A particularly useful change concerns armor, the most important defense stat: From Season 4 onwards, you only need to remember one number.
