During the latest Campfire Chat, Blizzard Entertainment unveiled the specifics of Diablo IV Season 5, which is slated to begin on August 6. It will be a shorter season than usual, running for only two months before the release of the Vessel of Hatred expansion (due on October 8).
However, its content and feature set are rather interesting. To start with, the developers are adding a brand new roguelike mode called Infernal Hordes. Players will have to go through a new questline first, taking place after the main campaign; this questline will stay on the Eternal Realms even after the end of Season 5. The story begins in Hawezar, where the heroes will have to investigate a disturbance among the townsfolk. After finishing the questline, you’ll unlock the Infernal Hordes mode for all characters on your Diablo IV account.
Heroes will have to head back to Hell to face time-limited (90-second) waves of hellspawn. They’ll collect Burning Aether during a wave to spend at the end of a successful Infernal run. At the end of the 90 seconds, kill the remaining enemies and choose from three Infernal Offers. These give you a choice of three different Boons & Banes that modify your run, such as Elite damage increased, but Elites grant increased Burning Aether. Infernal Offers will stack across the duration of your Infernal Hordes run and any can be active at the same time. They are your chance to increase the difficulty in order to earn more Burning Aether or select a more modest Infernal Offer if the intensity is too great.
Once chosen the Infernal Offer, the next wave will begin. Successfully kill all waves in the tier you are attempting to advance to, then battle the Fell Council. Originally created to protect from the Prime Evil Mephisto during the events of Diablo II, these noble priests were corrupted and became champions of the very demon they were sworn to oppose.
There are 5 Fell Council members in total, each equipped with different unique abilities. Each time you face the Fell Council, 3 different members will fight you – each three will be randomly selected to fight you. After defeating the Fell Council, spend your Burning Aether on the Spoils of Hell.
As you would expect, Diablo IV Season 5 introduces new Legendaries, Uniques, and items. These new Legendaries and Uniques can be earned by slaying enemies across Sanctuary, but have the best chance of appearing when playing the Infernal Hordes mode.
Another big change made by Blizzard is that classes will have access to expanded weapon types: for example, Sorcerers will be able to wield one-handed swords and maces. This includes updating innate affixes to be more useful across classes and adjusting their conditional requirements.
Last but not least, the Diablo IV Season 5 patch will be on the PC PTR from June 25 to July 2. The developers will gather feedback on all the aspects of this major patch, including three new accessibility features: Auto-Pin, Audio Navigation Assistance, and Compass.
To read the full patch notes, head to this page.
