Diablo 4 Season 4, Loot Reborn, is now live on all platforms, and it brings the biggest changes yet for Blizzard’s ARPG across both the Eternal and seasonal realms. We’ve also gotten a very extensive set of patch notes for the update.
Unlike previous Diablo 4 seasons, which introduced new questlines and unique seasonal mechanics, Season 4 instead focuses on and retools core aspects of the game going forward. Gear in the demon-slaying ARPG has undergone a significant overhaul as a result.
Items will now roll with fewer, but more-potent and less-niche affixes, and can be upgraded in two new ways. One is by Tempering, which adds an additional affix from a new Tempering Recipes, while Masterworking makes the affixes on an item even more powerful. Legendary Aspects are now automatically added to the Codex of Power, no extracting required, allowing players to more freely swap their Legendary Powers in and out as they acquire new gear. In another nice change, playing on World Tier 3 will always reward Sacred items, while playing on World Tier 4 will always reward Ancestral items.
That should result in players being more powerful than ever before, and they’ll need that power to conquer a challenging new 200-floor endgame dungeon, where higher-level Masterworking materials are found. There are significant changes to Helltides, too, with the addition of the endgame activity to lower-level World Tiers, new Accursed Rituals within the Helltides that can be used to summon the new Blood Maiden mini-boss, and a new threat mechanic within Helltides that will see players face off against evil versions of each Diablo 4 class called the Hellborne.
Of course, it wouldn’t be a new season without balance changes, and there are plenty of class adjustments and tweaks to Legendary Powers and Unique items. Diablo 4 Season 4 was the first of the game’s seasons to undergo extensive playtesting on a public test realm, and it looks like Blizzard gained some invaluable feedback as part of that process. Some of the changes thanks to player feedback from the PTR include the fact that Masterworking no longer has a chance to fail, improvements to the new Tempering and Masterworking UIs, better rewards from defeating the Blood Maiden, an icon to designate when an item has rolled with a rare Greater Affix, and more.
With such a massive update, some fans were upset to learn there was no way to pre-download the patch days in advance. According to Diablo community development director Adam Fletcher, Blizzard will look to address that complaint in future seasons to allow for “more of a window for players to grab the patch earlier.”
You can see a selection from the patch notes below, but you’ll need to head over to Blizzard’s site to see the full list–they are long.
UPDATES FROM THE PUBLIC TEST REALM
Developer’s Note: We appreciate all the feedback our players provided us during our Public Test Realm for Season 4: Loot Reborn. The following section highlights key bug fixes and feedback adjustments.
Feature Updates
- There is no longer a chance for Masterworking to fail.
- The Masterwork animation has been removed for non-milestone Ranks (1-3, 5-7, etc).
- The Tempering Result screen now shows the result affix, its roll, and the affix range.
- Various UI improvements for the Tempering and Masterworking experiences.
- Added multiple tiers of Masterworking Material caches that transmute far more materials than were previously available.
- A visual indication has been added to the imprint UI which indicates which Legendary affixes are currently equipped.
- You can now search the term ‘equip’ or ‘equipped’ within the Codex of Power to list currently equipped affixes.
- We’ve added an inventory icon to indicate items that have at least one Greater Affix.
- When items with Greater Affixes drop in-game, they will also have the same icon to indicate they possess a Greater Affix.
Helltide and The Pit
- The Party member that spends the Runeshards to open the Pit gets 100% of the Masterworking materials, the rest of the party receives half the amount.
- Artillery and Blast Wave shrines no longer spawn in the Pit.
- Hellborne spawn chance in Helltide zones has been increased.
- Baneful Heart drop rate has been adjusted to be more consistent.
- Overall loot quality from the Blood Maiden has been improved.
- Loot quality has also been improved for players that contribute materials to summon the Blood Maiden, as a contribution bonus reward.
- Doomsayer variants, which used to drop a Chest of Doomsaying on defeat, will now drop the contents of a Doomsaying Chest on death with no additional Cinders cost.
Balance Adjustments
- Many Tempering affixes that were either over-performing or under-performing have been adjusted to meet intended power levels.
- The Tempering Affix for Maximum Size increase for various skills and effects, such as Dust Devils or Bone Spirit, is now capped at 100%.
Itemization Updates
For full details on Itemization including Legendary Aspects and the Codex of Power, Item Affixes, Greater Affixes, Tempering, Masterworking, please read our Season 4 blog here.
Here are some of the major items coming with Itemization updates:
- Extracting an aspect now upgrades it in the Codex of Power. All Aspects now exist in the Codex of Power.
- Various item affixes have been updated and the overall pool of affixes has been condensed. Additionally, Greater Affixes have been introduced.
- Appearing only on Ancestral Legendary and Unique items, these are more powerful (1.5x) versions of normal affixes.
- Each item affix has a chance to be a Greater Affix in World Tier IV.
- New Tempering and Masterworking Systems allow deeper customization of items and access to new affixes.
- Legendary items dropped from enemy level 95+ are always 925 item power.
- Unique Items can now drop earlier in the game:
- World Tier III Unique Items now drop as non-Sacred in World Tier I and II.
- World Tier IV Unique Items now drop as Sacred in World Tier III.
- Uber Unique Items can start dropping from monster level 55, drops at 925 item power.
- The Minimum levels required to equip Sacred and Ancestral items has been reduced.
