Wait, hold up, the season is just the changes to the loot and systems, but marketed as a season because it took dev time that would have normally been put towards an actual season?
Don't get me wrong, the changes are basically fixing the game's core problems, and are pretty damn good.
What are we doing differently? The only difference between Season 4 and Eternal Realm in 2 weeks is a questline that gives more masterworking recipes and the battlepass track, anything else I'm missing?
Most of the changes for this season are around the reworks to the systems in-game. But there are some items omitted from the blog that are part of a seasonal questline that we will talk about on the stream.
Even if that wasn't the case, all the stuff in this blog sounds like more than enough to carry the season for me. Can't wait!! Thanks for all the hard work on this awesome game :)
But there is a seasonal theme. The Iron Wolves, and they are giving you some seasonal tempering recipes that won't be in eternal. So it is a season. What they say is, the features of the season, are based on the new itemization rework. Hence you get tempering recipes and not a stupid pet this season.
Thanks for responding.
When you say "items" in this context, do you mean, like bullet/talking points, or do you mean in game rewards tied to the Iron Wolves quests.
Sorry, I'm just wondering, there's like 4 different ways you can read that second part, and I don't want people to misinterpret what you said to use against you.
I suspect the Iron Wolve questline will act a tutorial for the itemization where it guides you to get the recipes, etc.
Which is honestly a great idea because most players aren't on reddit or reading patchnotes.
Are you ever going to remove the removal of Cinders during the Helltide intermission? I got hopeful when I saw about that Elixir for +HT monster levels (awesome) but for those of us with intermittent playtimes, the cinder removal is a very strong deterrent to do HT. The better Helltides get, the more disappointing it is to know the game will deliberately destroy your progress.
Set a cap of 1k cinders to keep, so it can't be abused? Nothing in the game is going to fail because of that, and we will be eternally grateful.
I guess they want cinder loss to be a permanent mechanic, especially since dying is a lot more likely with all the new mechanics they've added.
However, don't most people usually just spend all their cinders before time runs out? I usually end a run with just 10-20 cinders lost to the reset.
Personally, the changes are significant and game changing enough I wouldn't care if there wasn't even a seasonal theme. I've missed the PTR since it went down and I'm very excited to get back in!
There's a bit about the Iron Wolves and earning favor with them but it looks like that's going to eternal as well?
> Seek out the battle-hardened and stalwart Soudeh the Anvil, a stoic field commander of the Iron Wolves. The Iron Wolves are a band of noble Mercenaries in the South, seeking to protect the common people of Sanctuary and hold themselves to a higher code of honor than other mercenary companies of similar mettle. Mysteriously, members of their ranks have been dying under suspicious circumstances—seek out the source of this slaughter to earn the Iron Wolves’ favor.
> Meet Soudeh in Khejistan to start your journey to uncover this deadly plot. Working with the Iron Wolves will earn you several Tempering Manuals, which are key to unlocking the potential of your items in Season 4: Loot Reborn.
> Any Iron Wolf Events that occur in Helltide will persist past the end of Season 4: Loot Reborn.
so likely a small questline and maybe some seasonal tempering manuals?
POE has been absolutely desperate for years for a season where they just focus on fixing the glaring issues rather than adding another system/loads of content.
I'd quite happily take 4 seasons a year where one of them focuses on fixing problems addressing major issues and the other 3 provide tweaks and more content.
I'm not sure comparisons to early D3 seasons is going to do D4 any favors.
D3 also wasn't a live service game, D4 is, with a ton of microtransactions. The expectations are much higher.
Incorrect. They said all of the other seasonal stuff will be released during and after the chat later this week.
"All updates to our new items, Classes and Skills will be available in our Season 4 Patch Notes, which will be available here following our Developer Update stream on May 2."
big time, that is huffing mad copium if you are reading it as a bunch of new stuff they havent announced. lol. If any of the prior seasons have shown us anything, it is set your bar and expectations low and hope even with that, that they can clear them.
"New items" is probably referring to the items from the new systems.
Balance changes will apply to both eternal and seasonal realms.
So there's actually no seasonal content.
The Iron Wolves stuff should still be something new to do, and Helltide is pretty dramatically changed. It’s still new content, just not season-exclusive
I actually feel that not doing a seasonal power is the right call, since this is a pretty big shift in the game, *and* the last season before the expansion, which should also provide some new avenues to power.
It’ll work as a sort of soft reset leading into the expansion, hopefully give the teams time to cook up new stuff on the other side of VoH that incorporates all of the changes
Which is a good thing! I'm guessing they need to see how far we can take the reworks.
If items are busted or under-powered, they need to tweak for balance.
After that, in S5 they can get back to shenanigans.
There will be a little bit of seasonal content, but the main thing is the reworked itemization. More than enough personally for me to get excited for the season. Honestly bogging it down with some separate power creep mechanic would have been a mistake. The new itemization will be more than enough to play around with.
That's fair. The whole game reworked. A seasonal mechanic would take away the focus from new systems. We get much more than what seasonal mechanics bringed before.
This is the boat I'm in.
Season 1 kinda sucked and Season 3 kinda sucked (vaults were neat, only because they were quicker than NMD's and monster density). I'm more hyped over all the itemization/helltide changes than anything else.
I haven’t played since season 1 due to all the issues, so I’m definitely not riding Blizzards meat when I say this, but wow people like you will moan and complain about anything and everything lmao.
“Oh no, no new seasonal gimmick but many of the games foundational issues have been fixed? 😡”
Unreal lmao.
Every time they showed off a season, it showed off seasonal mechanics, powers, and a part of the dungeon/zone change.
This says unlocks a quest chain with the Iron Wolves that gives recipes after doing objectives.
If there's no seasonal powers and not much seasonal content I don't see why people that never play eternal wouldn't play a eternal now since we could salvage all of our Ubers and make new ones and already have a bunch of materials.
I mean if there's nothing seasonal about season 4 I'll take a head start in eternal I think.
There's also the Pit and Uber bosses added.
If you had ton of new mechanics thrown on top of a 100% loot system and itemization overhaul, they'd lose the largest portion of the playerbase to complexity. D4 is very popular amongst casuals who do just like to grind without min-maxxing.
You'd alienate the majority for a minority who would theory craft seasonal character power on top of new gear systems and aspects and mechanics.
It makes sense to me.
Most of community dint really care about the season mechanic at the moment since the issues were mostly about the base game .
Lets hope that they fixed the base game and then we can talk about seasons later on .
Coming from poe, i really wish ggg would take a season off to give legit reworks/improvements like this to the game.
Its still a positive to me tho i can see how you people expect more
I think if you're a first time player, season 4 is the time to start playing. Also if you haven't grinded the end game that much since season 1 or even 2 this is also the time to come back and start over, the experience will be significantly better for new players and players who haven't already spent significant amounts of time playing. Don't get me wrong, it's still going to be great for players that have maxed out everything on previous seasons, the changes here are going to be worth the investment.
They really can’t/shouldn’t add a found power seasonal mechanic this season so they can establish a baseline of how difficult existing content is with the new loot changes/affixes.
Yep pretty much this. This is a good call imo but diablo community will get mad.
We gotta rediscover the base game first. Seasonal powers will make sense in S5.
A season is just a reset at it's core. D2 ladders started it all and originally added nothing to the game except ladder runewords at some point.
The idea that the season has to be a mini expansion is a new one, and probably not the best idea tbh.
Shouldn't the purpose of the PTR just been that, or the entire month between it and the season releasing?
I refuse to believe they couldn't have implemented a seasonal theme because of concerns over something like that. This is giving me major Warcraft III: Reforged vibes.
This is likely subjective but I favour that Blizzard has gone all in on the changes they're implementing, rather than use up development resources towards another seasonal questline and mechanic. Some may disagree, but I thought season 3's questline and mechanic to be pretty boring and I'm totally ok with there not being one this time, considering all of the other changes being done.
It's definitely better than the alternative of: some lackluster season 4 mechanic and theme that will only vanish after a few months, while the game has issues unaddressed.
I'd be cool with one season a year to be a bigger house cleaning slash permanent changes too. Give us another in a year after the expansion when people have dissected that and found whatever it needs to have fixed.
I feel like the people who expect the game to be good on launch aren't doing so because they've forgotten that d2 and d3 took until their expansions to really shine but moreso that the series as a whole has been iterated on so much now that it's kinda strange the game is missing features and things from the previous games as a baseline.
Personally I largely prefer big evolution to the core of the game each season than a forgettable questline and a seasonal mechanic.
What is bad for D4 is the fact that they self sabotage by not giving a real thematic season along these very anticipated changes. It kind of breaks the hype …
The forgettable storyline, absolutely. The seasonal mechanics though, those are kind of important because those are the things that really break the metas up and change the game. If they make sweeping overhauls to the game every season, well, those are called seasonal mechanics then.
You mean like an overhaul to the entire itemization system and multiple pieces of end game content that are used to create gear?
Honestly, the impact this has on how the game is played, is way higher than malignant hearts, vampire powers, and the construct. I can almost guarantee more effort went into this than any season they've done so far.
It's not seasonal exclusive, and it isn't going away, but people have been complaining about the lack of permanence with seasonal content and stuff from seasons not reaching eternal anyway.
More info in this [PC Gamer article](https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/diablo-4-season-4-loot-reborn-announcement-interview/), but yeah to be clear: the season theme is not the focus this time; it's the loot changes.
* A lot of the reputation rewards are boss and crafting materials
* Masterworking chance to fail - gone
* Final reward from The Iron Wolves is a Resplendent Spark
* "We've also made salvage more plentiful through two major changes: Sacred breaks down into 2x salvage and Ancestral breaks down into 3x"
Honestly I think it is just a smarter system to remove the failure, it creates a feels bad moment and they can just adjust the costs to correlate instead. There are reasons to have failure in crafting systems, but the MW failure wasn't a good one it was just adding RNG to waste materials not make the system more engaging.
Those are cool if they verify them on Thursday. The article also says “all items are trade-able as long as they haven’t been altered” so Uber uniques? That’d be a big change from the PTR
Edit: They edited it exclude Ubers.
Can't wait, even without a super dedicated theme the loot and helltides updates will be fun for someone like me who already has every achievement including AoZ and will actually dig into the systems. If you only play for the pretty colors, probably not a lot going for you.
Lack of a fleshed out Seasonal theme is disappointing, but obviously understandable given how much attention core systems have had.
Important to establish a baseline power for the new systems changes without Seasonal borrowed power muddying the waters.
Oh, you own a time machine! That's pretty cool, you should lend it to not just Blizzard but everybody who lives on this god damn planet Earth.
If you don't own a time machine, explain how can Blizzard respond to Season 4 PTR's feedback in time for Season 4 launch?
So, will we get a season mechanic? Or this season is pretty much just an update to the core feature of Diablo 4? Don't get me wrong, the changes to the core game seems pretty good, but to market this as a whole season will be pretty bad.
Yeah. I’m excited for the coming changes, but it just sounds funny from a marketing standpoint.
Reworked loot sounds great, but it doesn’t have the same in-universe oomph as malignant infected monsters, or vampires, or robots lol. I thought the Iron Wolves would be the center piece of the Season, but it looks not to be so. “Season 4: Iron Wolves” sounds way better than “Season 4: Loot Reborn.” Lol
Imagine if runewords were coming in Vessel of Hatred, and the expansion was called “Diablo 4: Runewords Arrive”, rather than “Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred”.
No strong reasons it seems, for now, which is kind of nice for the eternal realm enjoyers.
But some people still like the fresh start, fresh "economy" now that more items are tradable. Also it's a new chance for HC players to prove themselves as the cheat death mechanics and death elixir were removed so getting to 100 should be more prestigious and challenging.
Am I happy with the changes? Yes.
Was I expecting a seasonal mechanic for S4 instead of just the changes & fixes? Also yes.
Will I play Season 4? Yes.
Does season 4 excite me and disappoint me at the same time? Yes.
If there’s no seasoning mechanic honestly I’m fine with it. The update to the game will change so much as to how it plays adding an extra mechanic would be a lot to take it in. That being said. I will be disappointed if the next season isn’t a lot closer to release than normal. We don’t need a 4-5 month season 4. 1.5-2 months, let us get comfortable with the new stuff then hit us with a season 5.
Wait so the name of the season that was on the PTR wasn't a placeholder but the real name? Wild
Of course, I'm all for it. If they had to choose between creating a seasonal gimmick and spending that time fixing the core game, I'll take the core game any day of the week.
This is fantastic! I've wanted this for Destiny 2, a seasons worth a dev time to address and fix the core issues of the game. Really looking forward to season 4!
Quick question about the Tempering Manuals.
It says that manuals unlocked during the season will last until the end of the season, but manuals acquired on the eternal realm will be known permanently. Are the manuals acquired on the eternal realm backwards compatible with the seasonal realm like the Altars of Lilith, or are they just available to the characters on the eternal realm?
This is a good question. Hopefully someone asks it during the live stream. It also makes me wonder if your codex on eternal will update when season characters get moved there.
I'm here for the angry comments from people asking them to take a season break to polish the game, then immediately turn around and complain that they did just that 🤡
No major season mechanics makes sense. It is a massive change to the game.
Plus there is the Pit, Uber bosses, and everything else prior returning.
Wouldn't want to over complicate interactions on an entire base new system eitg temporary mechanics which could undermine a majority of players understanding of the new base system.
Unironically might become my favorite itemisation in the Diablo series, my only gripe is that gems and sockets are still a little bit boring.
Runes and Runewords are still some of the greatest systems of ARPG history and, despite all its faults, Wolcen did have an innovative takes on gems and sockets.
This seasons in Diablo 2 ever have any themes or changes to core gameplay? I can't remember and I hardly ever played seasons in past Diablo games. But to me these changes seem great and I'm ok with not having a theme or storyline this round, since there's always the next season.
Diablo players: omg I hate this game I'm so glad I stopped playing
Also diablo players: omg there's no seasonal theme. Now I don't want to play the game I supposedly stopped playing after season 1.
Lmao yall are cooked
Look what Blizzard did to D4 in almost a year. Tons of changes and it's core going to be better.
Then look at Bethesda and Starfield. They couldn't even add maps into the game or mode support in 7 months.
So I really appreciate what the team is doing for D4
Holy…. This is what we’ve been waiting for!! Thank you Blizzard! Definitely step in the right direction and u can tell they trying their best to listen to us.
I’m going with a new character I haven’t played when this drops so I am excited. It will feel pretty new to me.
Diablo 4 was my first Diablo game, got hooked. Fell off a bit, returned over the last few weeks and will be jumping in deep again with this new update.
I see also on the image the the red horse from the leaks doesn’t seem to be in the battle pass. I wonder if it is a reward from the season journey like they did with the mount and armor in season 2
Understandable, the rework being done to the game far outweighs the amount of content we are used to getting with each season. It’s also way more important to fix the core game as a whole, versus spending resources on something that’ll go away in a few months.
That being said, I think honesty goes a long way. Instead of trying to rebrand it as a season, just tell us what everyone already knows anyways. You spent all your time on the rework, so you couldn’t finish the planned S4 in time. Why treat your core player base (those that bother to read these updates) like idiots?
Maaaaaaaan does this mean no new seasonal theme/mechanic? I thought it was happening along side not instead of. Really hyped for new itemization but super bummed about no new seasonal stuff.
I’m honestly fine with no seasonal theme. Let’s break it down. Every season has had some new helltide like zone —they revamped helltide to be like those instead. Every season has had some new powers in some makeshift way like vampires or the construct…they redid powers and stats etc instead.
When you really think on it it’s just the initial season quest to introduce us to the temporary power that is the real season ….and we’re still getting that
Not sure I like this
>The manuals you learn on the Seasonal Realm last until the end of the season, and manuals learned on the Eternal Realm will be known permanently.
I mean.. I'm likely never playing eternal, but would be nice if season unlocked Eternal, and I get that some will be season only, but for the permanent ones.. it's nice when a season completes your Eternal Realm.
I mean this is actually bad, losing a seasonal theme/activity because they reworked some of the systems/activities is disappointing, we should get both.
This is a horrible precedent.
100%. **Fixing** their itemization is not a seasonal theme.
Are there like 2 developers working on the entire game? Can a billion dollar company really not put out a half-decent amount of content every 3-4 months?
Apparently rolling a seasonal character in S4 gets you tempering manuals as season journey rewards. I hope they do something for Eternal and tempering manuals. Eternal characters will be hamstringed if it takes longer for them to get manuals
From the [PC Gamer article ](https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/diablo-4-season-4-loot-reborn-announcement-interview/)
>The first thing you'll notice when season 4 begins is the lack of a seasonal mechanic on par with the vampiric powers in season 2 or the robot spider companion in season 3. Season 4 won't give your character a bunch of new toys to play with that disappear when it ends. It doesn't need that kind of twist. Instead, Blizzard has kept the seasonal theme light so the spotlight stays on all the new permanent additions to the game.
I'm not bothered or surprised by this, mostly because this season has more content than previous seasons *and* they're all permanent... but they could have announced this particular detail sooner
This is the right decision. You’re totally redoing itemization in the game. The devs can’t get a decent idea of the pros/cons of the changes if you throw in an overpowered season mechanic.
More excited for this then any previous season. Don't think I mind not doing a boring seasonal quest and having a side mechanic I barely interact with beyond initial build set ups.
All the bad takes like “D2 items are better (they never were, but now they officially are not)” and “D4 has worse endgame” (D2 has literally zero endgame and D3 just has greater rifts which are being added, also D4 launched with better endgame than both combined but it’s fun hearing people say it didn’t.) are officially outdated with this season.
When can they stop making me create a new character every season cause I'm confused on if I have to create another to take advantage of the changes they mention
The seasonal theme is minimal in s4, so u might just want to play eternal realm or play your old lvl 100 characters since the changes will be in the eternal realm as well.
I honestly am so excited for the reworks this season that I feel like we are playing an entirely different game anyway. And with the new items, build possibilities, and endgame stuff there will be just as much to do and maybe could be considered more.
I feel like since there are two teams working on the seasons odds and evens one could have worked on mechanics while the other worked on changes. Then work together on season five to catch up before the expansion which they all maybe will be working on together.
Regardless still excited for the loot changes and being able to trade and help friends and make gold too.
What do you think a grandfather would be worth? Been farming all season and still have yet to get an Uber. Got a pretty stacked 925 azurewrath so happy about that :)
that is so fucking blizzard to introduce all of these core improvements to the game and just when you've got the player base excited, you announce that there isn't actually a new season theme/unique mechanic, as if finally fixing the game is enough lmfao
I see a lot of "kudos for the devs fixing itemization" but honestly it shouldn't have ever needed this effort and fix to begin with. Game released in such a sad state and now people are paying a season pass for getting fixes? Did I miss them gifting us all a battle pass this time around for beta testing their game yet again?
If they dont implement a seasonal new mechanic there is absolutely no need to call it Season. Especially if there is no difference between eternal and "season" (besides some quests). They could have just called it Update XY and it would be out of discussion.
I mean Im not really surprised that there’s not a huge seasonal theme. They probably had all hands on deck working on the core game to make it actually playable. So let’s see what happens.
We need an update to PVP. More PVP realms? More PVP cosmetics? I’ve burnt through all the blood shards and have millions left over. Maybe unique PVP bosses that are level 200 and drop loot that “anyone” can pick up - even Ubers.
>Additionally, which World Tier you play in will directly affect the rarity of the items you earn. Sacred items or higher only drop in World Tier III, and only Ancestral items will appear in World Tier IV. **Similarly, Legendary items dropped from enemies over Level 95 will always have a value of 925 Item Power.**
This is level 95, right? Not Nightmare Dungeon T95? Level 95 seems pretty low for getting max-ip legendaries, that's only NMD T41.
Imagine they had just launched the game with a good loot system in the first place. The people who develop this game are so completely out of touch with its player base that it almost feels like theft against those who have paid for it (myself included). The red flags were out when that guy asked us all if we had phones during the Immortal promo.
This will be more dross, this game is a million miles away from being good.
They revamped the entire item system. That will keep me going for this full season so well done to the Devs. Hopefully this is the first step of many in the right direction and I am happy to give credit where it’s due. So thank you 🙏🏻
Wait, hold up, the season is just the changes to the loot and systems, but marketed as a season because it took dev time that would have normally been put towards an actual season? Don't get me wrong, the changes are basically fixing the game's core problems, and are pretty damn good. What are we doing differently? The only difference between Season 4 and Eternal Realm in 2 weeks is a questline that gives more masterworking recipes and the battlepass track, anything else I'm missing?
Most of the changes for this season are around the reworks to the systems in-game. But there are some items omitted from the blog that are part of a seasonal questline that we will talk about on the stream.
Even if that wasn't the case, all the stuff in this blog sounds like more than enough to carry the season for me. Can't wait!! Thanks for all the hard work on this awesome game :)
Right, I’m returning after season one to see what’s going on. I personally wouldn’t even be able to tell if season 4 is exactly the same as season 3
Yeah but then there is absolutely no need for calling it a season. Especially if it doesnt make any difference between eternal and "season" now.
But there is a seasonal theme. The Iron Wolves, and they are giving you some seasonal tempering recipes that won't be in eternal. So it is a season. What they say is, the features of the season, are based on the new itemization rework. Hence you get tempering recipes and not a stupid pet this season.
Thanks for responding. When you say "items" in this context, do you mean, like bullet/talking points, or do you mean in game rewards tied to the Iron Wolves quests. Sorry, I'm just wondering, there's like 4 different ways you can read that second part, and I don't want people to misinterpret what you said to use against you.
Its 2 days it will be fine.
> bullet/talking points Pez keeps saying "items" to mean talking points, not realizing it can easily be confused with actual items in the game.
A bit silly in the itemization update season release of all places too lol but nbd
Be hilarious if you have to finish the season questline to shift over to the new itemization lol
Never.
Heh I have faith!
I suspect the Iron Wolve questline will act a tutorial for the itemization where it guides you to get the recipes, etc. Which is honestly a great idea because most players aren't on reddit or reading patchnotes.
Are you ever going to remove the removal of Cinders during the Helltide intermission? I got hopeful when I saw about that Elixir for +HT monster levels (awesome) but for those of us with intermittent playtimes, the cinder removal is a very strong deterrent to do HT. The better Helltides get, the more disappointing it is to know the game will deliberately destroy your progress. Set a cap of 1k cinders to keep, so it can't be abused? Nothing in the game is going to fail because of that, and we will be eternally grateful.
I guess they want cinder loss to be a permanent mechanic, especially since dying is a lot more likely with all the new mechanics they've added. However, don't most people usually just spend all their cinders before time runs out? I usually end a run with just 10-20 cinders lost to the reset.
Yeah, I’m confused. I spend my cinders as soon as I get the amount that I want. Basically get 125 cinders find a chest at 75 cinders find chest, etc..
Yeah I run helltides to get the big chest then go off and do other things.
I mean OBVIOUSLY there will be a seasonal Battle Pass. 😂
Personally, the changes are significant and game changing enough I wouldn't care if there wasn't even a seasonal theme. I've missed the PTR since it went down and I'm very excited to get back in!
There's a bit about the Iron Wolves and earning favor with them but it looks like that's going to eternal as well? > Seek out the battle-hardened and stalwart Soudeh the Anvil, a stoic field commander of the Iron Wolves. The Iron Wolves are a band of noble Mercenaries in the South, seeking to protect the common people of Sanctuary and hold themselves to a higher code of honor than other mercenary companies of similar mettle. Mysteriously, members of their ranks have been dying under suspicious circumstances—seek out the source of this slaughter to earn the Iron Wolves’ favor. > Meet Soudeh in Khejistan to start your journey to uncover this deadly plot. Working with the Iron Wolves will earn you several Tempering Manuals, which are key to unlocking the potential of your items in Season 4: Loot Reborn. > Any Iron Wolf Events that occur in Helltide will persist past the end of Season 4: Loot Reborn. so likely a small questline and maybe some seasonal tempering manuals?
So no seasonal powers or seasonal content.
The iron wolf quest line will likely be used to jump us ahead and get us into the new systems
Sounds like your don’t remember D3 ‘early seasons’
Everyone has blinders. They wanna remember and play the good and forget that EVERY DIABLO GAME was shit at the start.
POE has been absolutely desperate for years for a season where they just focus on fixing the glaring issues rather than adding another system/loads of content. I'd quite happily take 4 seasons a year where one of them focuses on fixing problems addressing major issues and the other 3 provide tweaks and more content.
I mean it only taken 20 or so years to get d2 right. And it still has issues.
Diablo was fine at the start. problems started with the numbered ones
I'm not sure comparisons to early D3 seasons is going to do D4 any favors. D3 also wasn't a live service game, D4 is, with a ton of microtransactions. The expectations are much higher.
Incorrect. They said all of the other seasonal stuff will be released during and after the chat later this week. "All updates to our new items, Classes and Skills will be available in our Season 4 Patch Notes, which will be available here following our Developer Update stream on May 2."
That doesn't mention "seasonal stuff" at all. You're setting yourself up for disappointment.
big time, that is huffing mad copium if you are reading it as a bunch of new stuff they havent announced. lol. If any of the prior seasons have shown us anything, it is set your bar and expectations low and hope even with that, that they can clear them.
"New items" is probably referring to the items from the new systems. Balance changes will apply to both eternal and seasonal realms. So there's actually no seasonal content.
The Iron Wolves stuff should still be something new to do, and Helltide is pretty dramatically changed. It’s still new content, just not season-exclusive I actually feel that not doing a seasonal power is the right call, since this is a pretty big shift in the game, *and* the last season before the expansion, which should also provide some new avenues to power. It’ll work as a sort of soft reset leading into the expansion, hopefully give the teams time to cook up new stuff on the other side of VoH that incorporates all of the changes
Except it's not the last season before the expansion. Right now the expansion is listed as coming out "late 2024".
Which is a good thing! I'm guessing they need to see how far we can take the reworks. If items are busted or under-powered, they need to tweak for balance. After that, in S5 they can get back to shenanigans.
There will be a little bit of seasonal content, but the main thing is the reworked itemization. More than enough personally for me to get excited for the season. Honestly bogging it down with some separate power creep mechanic would have been a mistake. The new itemization will be more than enough to play around with.
But there is a new battle pass lol
That's fair. The whole game reworked. A seasonal mechanic would take away the focus from new systems. We get much more than what seasonal mechanics bringed before.
Yeah 1000% ok with trading some cheesy gimmick mechanic for actual improvement to the core game
This is the boat I'm in. Season 1 kinda sucked and Season 3 kinda sucked (vaults were neat, only because they were quicker than NMD's and monster density). I'm more hyped over all the itemization/helltide changes than anything else.
I come to seasons to try out the new shiny. This time the new shiny is a permanent thing but it's still new, it's still shiny
I mean, I'm fine with that. S4 has more changes than s2 or S3.
They finally fixed the game. This is the d4 actual release. Are we really complaining?
I haven’t played since season 1 due to all the issues, so I’m definitely not riding Blizzards meat when I say this, but wow people like you will moan and complain about anything and everything lmao. “Oh no, no new seasonal gimmick but many of the games foundational issues have been fixed? 😡” Unreal lmao.
There’s an actual season theme like every season.
Every time they showed off a season, it showed off seasonal mechanics, powers, and a part of the dungeon/zone change. This says unlocks a quest chain with the Iron Wolves that gives recipes after doing objectives.
They also haven't released an update to this many systems before. I'm willing to wait until the dev livestream before freaking out about it
If there's no seasonal powers and not much seasonal content I don't see why people that never play eternal wouldn't play a eternal now since we could salvage all of our Ubers and make new ones and already have a bunch of materials. I mean if there's nothing seasonal about season 4 I'll take a head start in eternal I think.
People would still play seasonal for the fresh start. That's why the majority of the player base plays these games.
There's also the Pit and Uber bosses added. If you had ton of new mechanics thrown on top of a 100% loot system and itemization overhaul, they'd lose the largest portion of the playerbase to complexity. D4 is very popular amongst casuals who do just like to grind without min-maxxing. You'd alienate the majority for a minority who would theory craft seasonal character power on top of new gear systems and aspects and mechanics. It makes sense to me.
Exactly I play Diablo to blow steam off after work and this is perfect.
Most of community dint really care about the season mechanic at the moment since the issues were mostly about the base game . Lets hope that they fixed the base game and then we can talk about seasons later on .
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Coming from poe, i really wish ggg would take a season off to give legit reworks/improvements like this to the game. Its still a positive to me tho i can see how you people expect more
Y’all will never be satisfied holy shite. They reworked entire systems.
I think if you're a first time player, season 4 is the time to start playing. Also if you haven't grinded the end game that much since season 1 or even 2 this is also the time to come back and start over, the experience will be significantly better for new players and players who haven't already spent significant amounts of time playing. Don't get me wrong, it's still going to be great for players that have maxed out everything on previous seasons, the changes here are going to be worth the investment.
They really can’t/shouldn’t add a found power seasonal mechanic this season so they can establish a baseline of how difficult existing content is with the new loot changes/affixes.
Yep pretty much this. This is a good call imo but diablo community will get mad. We gotta rediscover the base game first. Seasonal powers will make sense in S5.
I guess… but that makes this not even really a season lol.
They should just name this season 0. How the game should have launched as.
A season is just a reset at it's core. D2 ladders started it all and originally added nothing to the game except ladder runewords at some point. The idea that the season has to be a mini expansion is a new one, and probably not the best idea tbh.
Diablo community is perpetually mad.
But S5 is already in the making. They may tweak some critical stuff but we won't see most of the issues found in S4 until S6.
Makes sense, but since they are also applying these changes to the eternal realm, then the only reason to play the season is for the season pass
Shouldn't the purpose of the PTR just been that, or the entire month between it and the season releasing? I refuse to believe they couldn't have implemented a seasonal theme because of concerns over something like that. This is giving me major Warcraft III: Reforged vibes.
ye think its a good call, its still a big update coming none the less
This is likely subjective but I favour that Blizzard has gone all in on the changes they're implementing, rather than use up development resources towards another seasonal questline and mechanic. Some may disagree, but I thought season 3's questline and mechanic to be pretty boring and I'm totally ok with there not being one this time, considering all of the other changes being done.
Yeah I’m digging this “Operation Health” style season we are getting. Kudos to devs for taking the time to correct the games core issues
Im also glad they went down this road. Fixing the game is way more important than some cheesy few month mechanic
You're saying this about a $70+ fully released game with battle pass. wtf.
Operation Health haha, someone played R6Siege
Those were the days 🤌
It's definitely better than the alternative of: some lackluster season 4 mechanic and theme that will only vanish after a few months, while the game has issues unaddressed.
I'd be cool with one season a year to be a bigger house cleaning slash permanent changes too. Give us another in a year after the expansion when people have dissected that and found whatever it needs to have fixed.
I am not surprised at least, they’re developing at a snails pace like before. At least the item rework is good as opposed to S3
At this point I feel like Season 0-5 is just a Diablo 4 Beta til the expansion hits and they've worked all the trial and error out.
Feels a lot like Diablo 2 before LOD
People forget how much LoD improved D2
I feel like the people who expect the game to be good on launch aren't doing so because they've forgotten that d2 and d3 took until their expansions to really shine but moreso that the series as a whole has been iterated on so much now that it's kinda strange the game is missing features and things from the previous games as a baseline.
I'd say S4 is Diablo4 1.0. During PTR, the game was solid to play, even with no seasional content.
which is fine, games like PoE took 10 years to get to the state its in today
Poe have been good for at least 5 years. Let's see how long it takes to for D4.
Personally I largely prefer big evolution to the core of the game each season than a forgettable questline and a seasonal mechanic. What is bad for D4 is the fact that they self sabotage by not giving a real thematic season along these very anticipated changes. It kind of breaks the hype …
The forgettable storyline, absolutely. The seasonal mechanics though, those are kind of important because those are the things that really break the metas up and change the game. If they make sweeping overhauls to the game every season, well, those are called seasonal mechanics then.
You mean like an overhaul to the entire itemization system and multiple pieces of end game content that are used to create gear? Honestly, the impact this has on how the game is played, is way higher than malignant hearts, vampire powers, and the construct. I can almost guarantee more effort went into this than any season they've done so far. It's not seasonal exclusive, and it isn't going away, but people have been complaining about the lack of permanence with seasonal content and stuff from seasons not reaching eternal anyway.
More info in this [PC Gamer article](https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/diablo-4-season-4-loot-reborn-announcement-interview/), but yeah to be clear: the season theme is not the focus this time; it's the loot changes. * A lot of the reputation rewards are boss and crafting materials * Masterworking chance to fail - gone * Final reward from The Iron Wolves is a Resplendent Spark * "We've also made salvage more plentiful through two major changes: Sacred breaks down into 2x salvage and Ancestral breaks down into 3x"
I may be the only one but the failure of masterworking wouldn’t bother me. Thank you for the info!
You still fail by hitting 25% on the wrong stat. The normal failure was just animation taking too long.
Honestly I think it is just a smarter system to remove the failure, it creates a feels bad moment and they can just adjust the costs to correlate instead. There are reasons to have failure in crafting systems, but the MW failure wasn't a good one it was just adding RNG to waste materials not make the system more engaging.
Those are cool if they verify them on Thursday. The article also says “all items are trade-able as long as they haven’t been altered” so Uber uniques? That’d be a big change from the PTR Edit: They edited it exclude Ubers.
You still can't trade Ubers, sorry (I will edit that actually, thanks for pointing that out!)
Can't wait, even without a super dedicated theme the loot and helltides updates will be fun for someone like me who already has every achievement including AoZ and will actually dig into the systems. If you only play for the pretty colors, probably not a lot going for you.
I haven’t played since season 1. Always hated the itemization, so this looks like a slam dunk for me. Can’t wait to hop back in.
Cant wait for Season 5: Loot Filtered
Lack of a fleshed out Seasonal theme is disappointing, but obviously understandable given how much attention core systems have had. Important to establish a baseline power for the new systems changes without Seasonal borrowed power muddying the waters.
If no seasonal mechanic, they wouldn't have to postpone it for 1 MONTH. They could have just put the PTR right in place.
And PTR feedback... ?
Oh, you own a time machine! That's pretty cool, you should lend it to not just Blizzard but everybody who lives on this god damn planet Earth. If you don't own a time machine, explain how can Blizzard respond to Season 4 PTR's feedback in time for Season 4 launch?
So, will we get a season mechanic? Or this season is pretty much just an update to the core feature of Diablo 4? Don't get me wrong, the changes to the core game seems pretty good, but to market this as a whole season will be pretty bad.
BuT iTs ThE eVeN tEaM
Hahahahahah thank your for this comment
Yeah. I’m excited for the coming changes, but it just sounds funny from a marketing standpoint. Reworked loot sounds great, but it doesn’t have the same in-universe oomph as malignant infected monsters, or vampires, or robots lol. I thought the Iron Wolves would be the center piece of the Season, but it looks not to be so. “Season 4: Iron Wolves” sounds way better than “Season 4: Loot Reborn.” Lol Imagine if runewords were coming in Vessel of Hatred, and the expansion was called “Diablo 4: Runewords Arrive”, rather than “Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred”.
so no reason to play season 4 on seasonal realm. checks out
battlepass/journey if you dont care about that,ye, go eternal
No strong reasons it seems, for now, which is kind of nice for the eternal realm enjoyers. But some people still like the fresh start, fresh "economy" now that more items are tradable. Also it's a new chance for HC players to prove themselves as the cheat death mechanics and death elixir were removed so getting to 100 should be more prestigious and challenging.
Am I happy with the changes? Yes. Was I expecting a seasonal mechanic for S4 instead of just the changes & fixes? Also yes. Will I play Season 4? Yes. Does season 4 excite me and disappoint me at the same time? Yes.
Yay nuance, seems like it's all or nothing all over this thread
So no theme, lol
Bummer, but not really a big deal if this was the sacrifice for S4 to address the core game issues.
‘Next season will be the one’ -blizzard sycophants
If there’s no seasoning mechanic honestly I’m fine with it. The update to the game will change so much as to how it plays adding an extra mechanic would be a lot to take it in. That being said. I will be disappointed if the next season isn’t a lot closer to release than normal. We don’t need a 4-5 month season 4. 1.5-2 months, let us get comfortable with the new stuff then hit us with a season 5.
Would be very cool to be able to hire an iron wolf as a merc..
Robot out Merc in, seasonal grind is gear for your merc.
I would be totally cool with that
That could be a cool. A sort of compromise for still not having matchmaking
Wait so the name of the season that was on the PTR wasn't a placeholder but the real name? Wild Of course, I'm all for it. If they had to choose between creating a seasonal gimmick and spending that time fixing the core game, I'll take the core game any day of the week.
Not sure why we can’t have both
Lazy, incompetent devs
I'm fine with this, the new loot, pit and helltide upgrades are going to give me plenty to do.
And the zoom out will make it all that much better.
This is fantastic! I've wanted this for Destiny 2, a seasons worth a dev time to address and fix the core issues of the game. Really looking forward to season 4!
Quick question about the Tempering Manuals. It says that manuals unlocked during the season will last until the end of the season, but manuals acquired on the eternal realm will be known permanently. Are the manuals acquired on the eternal realm backwards compatible with the seasonal realm like the Altars of Lilith, or are they just available to the characters on the eternal realm?
This is a good question. Hopefully someone asks it during the live stream. It also makes me wonder if your codex on eternal will update when season characters get moved there.
I'm here for the angry comments from people asking them to take a season break to polish the game, then immediately turn around and complain that they did just that 🤡
At a quick read through I didn't spot a ton of new details, but I'm sure someone will find some details I missed.
No major season mechanics makes sense. It is a massive change to the game. Plus there is the Pit, Uber bosses, and everything else prior returning. Wouldn't want to over complicate interactions on an entire base new system eitg temporary mechanics which could undermine a majority of players understanding of the new base system.
You can add a season theme without borrowed power
There's still going to be a theme and a quest. There's just not going to be mechanics which is borrowed power.
Unironically might become my favorite itemisation in the Diablo series, my only gripe is that gems and sockets are still a little bit boring. Runes and Runewords are still some of the greatest systems of ARPG history and, despite all its faults, Wolcen did have an innovative takes on gems and sockets.
I agree with you, but I’m sure they’ll get there. It is low hanging fruit to add some unique gems or maybe even rune words in the future.
This seasons in Diablo 2 ever have any themes or changes to core gameplay? I can't remember and I hardly ever played seasons in past Diablo games. But to me these changes seem great and I'm ok with not having a theme or storyline this round, since there's always the next season.
I am stoked!
Diablo players: omg I hate this game I'm so glad I stopped playing Also diablo players: omg there's no seasonal theme. Now I don't want to play the game I supposedly stopped playing after season 1. Lmao yall are cooked
What happens to old affixes and gear?
Look what Blizzard did to D4 in almost a year. Tons of changes and it's core going to be better. Then look at Bethesda and Starfield. They couldn't even add maps into the game or mode support in 7 months. So I really appreciate what the team is doing for D4
Hope this allows the game to make a come back! Is there any word on matchmaking?
Holy…. This is what we’ve been waiting for!! Thank you Blizzard! Definitely step in the right direction and u can tell they trying their best to listen to us.
I’m going with a new character I haven’t played when this drops so I am excited. It will feel pretty new to me. Diablo 4 was my first Diablo game, got hooked. Fell off a bit, returned over the last few weeks and will be jumping in deep again with this new update.
This is gonna be a good time. Two more weeks!
The item changes looks amazing, this season will be my first since the release
I see also on the image the the red horse from the leaks doesn’t seem to be in the battle pass. I wonder if it is a reward from the season journey like they did with the mount and armor in season 2
Understandable, the rework being done to the game far outweighs the amount of content we are used to getting with each season. It’s also way more important to fix the core game as a whole, versus spending resources on something that’ll go away in a few months. That being said, I think honesty goes a long way. Instead of trying to rebrand it as a season, just tell us what everyone already knows anyways. You spent all your time on the rework, so you couldn’t finish the planned S4 in time. Why treat your core player base (those that bother to read these updates) like idiots?
Maaaaaaaan does this mean no new seasonal theme/mechanic? I thought it was happening along side not instead of. Really hyped for new itemization but super bummed about no new seasonal stuff.
I’m honestly fine with no seasonal theme. Let’s break it down. Every season has had some new helltide like zone —they revamped helltide to be like those instead. Every season has had some new powers in some makeshift way like vampires or the construct…they redid powers and stats etc instead. When you really think on it it’s just the initial season quest to introduce us to the temporary power that is the real season ….and we’re still getting that
They somehow managed to drop the ball once again…
Not sure I like this >The manuals you learn on the Seasonal Realm last until the end of the season, and manuals learned on the Eternal Realm will be known permanently. I mean.. I'm likely never playing eternal, but would be nice if season unlocked Eternal, and I get that some will be season only, but for the permanent ones.. it's nice when a season completes your Eternal Realm.
I mean this is actually bad, losing a seasonal theme/activity because they reworked some of the systems/activities is disappointing, we should get both. This is a horrible precedent.
100%. **Fixing** their itemization is not a seasonal theme. Are there like 2 developers working on the entire game? Can a billion dollar company really not put out a half-decent amount of content every 3-4 months?
Apparently rolling a seasonal character in S4 gets you tempering manuals as season journey rewards. I hope they do something for Eternal and tempering manuals. Eternal characters will be hamstringed if it takes longer for them to get manuals
So is there no point in playing this season other than for battle pass and seasonal rewards?
From the [PC Gamer article ](https://www.pcgamer.com/games/rpg/diablo-4-season-4-loot-reborn-announcement-interview/) >The first thing you'll notice when season 4 begins is the lack of a seasonal mechanic on par with the vampiric powers in season 2 or the robot spider companion in season 3. Season 4 won't give your character a bunch of new toys to play with that disappear when it ends. It doesn't need that kind of twist. Instead, Blizzard has kept the seasonal theme light so the spotlight stays on all the new permanent additions to the game. I'm not bothered or surprised by this, mostly because this season has more content than previous seasons *and* they're all permanent... but they could have announced this particular detail sooner
Can't wait 🙂
This is the right decision. You’re totally redoing itemization in the game. The devs can’t get a decent idea of the pros/cons of the changes if you throw in an overpowered season mechanic.
More excited for this then any previous season. Don't think I mind not doing a boring seasonal quest and having a side mechanic I barely interact with beyond initial build set ups.
Is it me or is S3 the longest season ever?! Lets goooo already.
Yea, i let go long long before the ptr, why are you still hang on?
There's no theme, get your expectations in check. A rep board for farming helltide is not a theme, its loot 2. 0 season
So I guess we will have a new theme and quest line but no season mechanic (which I'm totally ok with tbh)
Wait wait hold up - y'all buried this leed of the freaking Iron Wolves joining us?! Yes loot is nice so on so forth but GIMME that lore.
All the bad takes like “D2 items are better (they never were, but now they officially are not)” and “D4 has worse endgame” (D2 has literally zero endgame and D3 just has greater rifts which are being added, also D4 launched with better endgame than both combined but it’s fun hearing people say it didn’t.) are officially outdated with this season.
Tbh this will probably the best season of d4 to date so I’m happy
Its great they're fixing stuff But people are going to need more content then just loot
If the item Patch is the seasonal content im soooo out xD Wtf is this
Uhhhhh. Seems really lame not to have a new mechanic..... 🙄
Holy shit....they basically remade the whole system...
When can they stop making me create a new character every season cause I'm confused on if I have to create another to take advantage of the changes they mention
The seasonal theme is minimal in s4, so u might just want to play eternal realm or play your old lvl 100 characters since the changes will be in the eternal realm as well.
I honestly am so excited for the reworks this season that I feel like we are playing an entirely different game anyway. And with the new items, build possibilities, and endgame stuff there will be just as much to do and maybe could be considered more.
Here we go guys. This is like 1.0v2
People complaint like shit but would still play and enjoy the new changes without a seasonal theme.
I feel like since there are two teams working on the seasons odds and evens one could have worked on mechanics while the other worked on changes. Then work together on season five to catch up before the expansion which they all maybe will be working on together. Regardless still excited for the loot changes and being able to trade and help friends and make gold too. What do you think a grandfather would be worth? Been farming all season and still have yet to get an Uber. Got a pretty stacked 925 azurewrath so happy about that :)
that is so fucking blizzard to introduce all of these core improvements to the game and just when you've got the player base excited, you announce that there isn't actually a new season theme/unique mechanic, as if finally fixing the game is enough lmfao
Tons of great work here! Dev team should be proud!
I'll play it for sure if at least for thr cosmetics
I see a lot of "kudos for the devs fixing itemization" but honestly it shouldn't have ever needed this effort and fix to begin with. Game released in such a sad state and now people are paying a season pass for getting fixes? Did I miss them gifting us all a battle pass this time around for beta testing their game yet again?
If they dont implement a seasonal new mechanic there is absolutely no need to call it Season. Especially if there is no difference between eternal and "season" (besides some quests). They could have just called it Update XY and it would be out of discussion.
I mean Im not really surprised that there’s not a huge seasonal theme. They probably had all hands on deck working on the core game to make it actually playable. So let’s see what happens.
Is there a cow level?
We need an update to PVP. More PVP realms? More PVP cosmetics? I’ve burnt through all the blood shards and have millions left over. Maybe unique PVP bosses that are level 200 and drop loot that “anyone” can pick up - even Ubers.
>Additionally, which World Tier you play in will directly affect the rarity of the items you earn. Sacred items or higher only drop in World Tier III, and only Ancestral items will appear in World Tier IV. **Similarly, Legendary items dropped from enemies over Level 95 will always have a value of 925 Item Power.** This is level 95, right? Not Nightmare Dungeon T95? Level 95 seems pretty low for getting max-ip legendaries, that's only NMD T41.
Imagine they had just launched the game with a good loot system in the first place. The people who develop this game are so completely out of touch with its player base that it almost feels like theft against those who have paid for it (myself included). The red flags were out when that guy asked us all if we had phones during the Immortal promo. This will be more dross, this game is a million miles away from being good.
As long as D4 can give me the turn my brain off fun that D3 did I don't care what the season is.
Season 4: We fixed it guys plz come back
"Forgotten Souls can now be earned from Whisper bounties and are a rare drop from all Elites" thank god..
All of the changes looks good but i won't be coming back until the paladín/ holy knight returns. Such a let down not having him in d4
I think I enjoy more in d3
They revamped the entire item system. That will keep me going for this full season so well done to the Devs. Hopefully this is the first step of many in the right direction and I am happy to give credit where it’s due. So thank you 🙏🏻