It’s time for the big reveal of Season 9! After a shorter than usual Season 8, Blizzard are sharing the details on the upcoming content update, and we’re covering all the highlights! We know the Horadrim are the theme and Nightmare Dungeons are getting a big rework, so now let’s hear all the details.
Highlights
- Patch 2.3.0 PTR will run from May 27 through June 3.
- The class balance is quite good in Season 8, just the Spiritborn is lacking behind a bit.
What to Expect from the 2.3.0 PTR?
- Horadric Spells are new borrowed powers available in Patch 2.3.0.
- The new Season introduces updates to Nightmare Affixes.
Nightmare Dungeon Updates
Through dungeons you find gizmos that help you upgrade loot at the end.
Horadric Strongrooms
- Horadric strongrooms are potent microdungeons. Their entrance is hidden inside Nightmare Dungeons.
- The goal is to collect Horadric Attunement from slaying enemies.
- The attunement improves the Chest earned by defeating the mini-boss.
Escalating Nightmares
- Progression that allows you to fight through a series of Nightmare Dungeon (3 specifically).
- New affixes are added with each dungeon, increasing both difficulty and reward efficiency.
- Culminates with a Boss fight.
- Requires an Escalating Nightmare Sigil, which currently starts dropping in Torment 1 Strongrooms.
- At the end of your run, you will need to look for this totem that you interact with to port to the next dungeon.
Astaroth Reignited
- Astaroth is a recognizable face from the Diablo 4 base game.
- They’ve put in Astaroth as the face of Season 9.
- They have updated the combat mechanics.
- This boss will be excluded from the boss ladder.
Horadric Powers
- Catalyst is the foundation of your spell. It gives it form and function.
- Think of your Catalyst as an extension of your skills. You can bind it to any skill you prefer.
- The devs revealed one more Catalyst called Cosmic Anomaly with a passive and active component. This one is centered around summons.
Infusions
- Infusions are items that change the elemental damage type and the function of your Catalyst. Here’s Smoldering Ember that destroys enemy structures (waller walls, tether points that chain you to the ground).
Arcana
- Arcanas are tuning knobs for your Horadric Powers, they drop in Seasonal content randomly. They tune the Catalyst to your playstyle.
- Arcanas allow you to overcome some downsides of your class.
- For instance, Necromancers will gain access to Unstoppable via the Tranquil Stone.
- There are 5 Legendary Arcana. They care about each individual Catalyst. The same Legendary Arcana has 5 different variations.
Horadric Jewels
- Are very similar to Occult Gems from Season 7.
- Earn Tomes from Strongrooms starting in Torment I.
- Craft with Horadric Phials and Gem Fragments.
- Socket to further bolster Horadric Spells and your build.
- In total, there will be 15 Horadric Jewels.
- The blog post about the 2.3.0 PTR will be available right after the steeam.
Character Class Changes Overview
What to expect in Season 9?
- Overpower Nerfs – Currently it feels like you need to work on Overpower to optimize your damage. That’s why it will be nerfed in Season 9.
- Additive Damage Rebalanced
- Basic Skills Buffed – They’ve begun evaluating Basic Skills in the game, comparing their balance across the board. Each Basic Skill has been thoroughly reviewed, and in most cases, this has resulted in their damage being doubled or even tripled.
- Max Resistance – Right now on live, if your max resistance for every element is caped at 70% it will be capped at 75%. The max cap with resistance effects is 85%. Some of the resistance outliers have been nerfed, but the cap has increased a bit to offset the nerfs.
- Key Passives – They don’t want key passives to scale infinitely. With that in mind, they will scale to 75% multiplicative damage.
Barbarian Changes
- The Legendary Earthquake Paragon node has been nerfed.
- Hooves of the Mountain God are new Ancestral Unique Boots available to Barbarians in Season 9.
Druid Changes
- Cataclysm shouldn’t be the only/best/mandatory way to play the Druid. They nerfed Cataclysm modifiers.
- A lot of legendaries that talk to Grizzly Rage and poison in particular have been updated
- Rotting Lightbringer is a new Druid Unique which creates poison puddles on the ground that let you splash poison on enemies.
Necromancer Changes
- Soul Rift and Blood Wave (Ultimates) have been too powerful.
- Soul Rift does everything right now, so they’re nerfing the functionality and it will no longer generate a barrier.
- Blood Wave has been the other Ultimate skill Necros take.
- The Hand of Naz is a new Unique for those who want to play a summoner build with their Skeletal Mages. You need to tank for your Mages, though.
Rogue
- Death Trap, similar to Soul Rift, did everything, so they’ve nerfed Eyes in the Dark unique.
- Infiltrators and Bursting Venoms.
- Eaglehorn Buff
- Deathmask of Nirmitruq is a new unique in Season 9 for Rogues. It lets you attack very fast and drains your life, so you need to manage it carefully, so you don’t die.
Sorceress
- Lightning Spear nerf incoming in Season 9.
- Burning Skills have been buffed by roughly 25%.
- Ophidian Iris, is an Ancestral Unique, that summons a three-headed hydra. For each head you would have above 3, the hydra goes larger and deals more damage per additional heads. These hydra will do splash damage.
- Lucky Hit Chance on Hydras has been increased, the baseline Mana cost has been removed.
Spiritborn
- Will be the best beneficiaries of the Basic Skill rebalance mentioned earlier.
- The Deflection Aspect with the Razor Wings build has been reworked. It will increase the Razor Wings damage when you deflect.
- The Hunter Reset will still has the cooldown reduction theme but it won’t be a feast/famine anymore.
- Balazan’s Maxtlatl is a new Unique that works with Poison/Thorns builds.
System Updates
- Elites and Bosses granting Seasonal reputation.
- Lair Hoards granting Seasonal Currency.
- It will be easier to port to Nightmare Dungeons in Season 9.
Nightmare Sigils
- New Nightmare Sigils Affixes:
- New positive affixes in varying rarities.
- Negative affixes avoid penalizing specific elements or builds.
Legendary Reworks
- Blizzard has substantially reworked multiple legendaries for each class for Season 9 instead of introducing new Legendary Aspects.
Legendary Item Drop Rate Updates
- They are increasing quality of items per difficulty Tier!
- This also applies to Lair Boss Unique drops.
- Enriching the progression journey for all players.
Resource Economy
- The Legendary Rune drop rates will be increased across the whole game.
- Tribute of Harmony increased Rune drops.
- All Undercity Tributes now drop a Rune.
- Whisper cache resource increase
- Jewelry cache costs reduced.
- Increased Gems from Infernal Hordes.
Reliquary Improvements
- Based on feedback, they’re making changes to the Reliquaries. Highlights will most likely be highligted in the blog post preview later today.
- They’ve heard feedback on the ongoing Berserk x D4 collab.
Q&A
- How do Necromancers get survivability in Season 9? With the new Seasonal Horadric Spellcraft you have fortify through blood magic, you have other ways of generating barriers from legendaries.
- The Nightmare Affix changes will also hit Eternal / permanent game.
- In 2.2.2 they are going to significantly reduce the amount of non-gold and non-
Obducite resource materials it costs to masterwork from ranks 1-4 and on the reset. - No answers for Horadric Powers being a permanent part of the game right now. But if some of those resonate with players, they might bring them back in some form/way.
- There are no balance changes planned for Season 8.
Livestream Link
Check out the livestream VoD below.
