BlizzCon 2023 brought the biggest announcements for Diablo 4 since the game’s release in 2023. Alongside quality-of-life changes, players can expect a new winter festival-themed update and a promisingly difficult end-game addition to Season of Blood.
The Diablo 4 section of BlizzCon 2023’s conference today began with an address to player feedback. Quality-of-life changes including additional character slots, a target dummy, and previews for item affixes were all promised to players. Some, such as the target dummy, have already been implemented into the game in recent days.
The biggest change from this update is undoubtedly the rebalanced leveling system. Given that Season of Blood is all about reaching level 100 to grind up the boss ladder to reach Duriel, Blizzard promised that players will be able to hit this level much faster with added experience.
Beginning on Dec. 12, players can also expect a winter update for Diablo 4 called Midwinter Blight. The mountainous Fractured Peaks region will be transformed into a winter hellscape for three weeks. A red cloak-clad terror almost assuredly meant to depict Santa was also teased to travel around the Fractured Peaks region.
Aside from a potential Santa boss fight, Season of the Malignant will see a slight return with the reintroduction of Malignant Rings. These will be five class-specific rings that can give players back popular abilities, such as the Necromancer’s automatic corpse-raising ability.
At time of writing, we are still firmly in the Season of Blood battling the Vampire Lord Zir. On Dec. 5, players can expect another end-game event called the Abattoir of Zir. This is described as a “highly replayable six-week end-game event.” It appears this will be the ultimate end-game challenge for Season of Blood players as it contains “Soul-crushing difficulty” that promises to only get more and more challenging.
Alongside a new expansion and class coming in late 2024, Diablo 4 players have plenty to look forward to in the coming year.
Published: Nov 3, 2023 03:04 pm