Blizzard admits Chaos Waves in Infernal Hordes were fun but risked overwhelming the mode’s purpose, buildcraft and varied runs. In their own words, “if they appear too often, they begin to crowd out the core identity of buildcraft that the mode is known for.”
To keep Chaos Waves exciting and prevent them from dominating every run, Season 10 brings several changes:
- Reduced Frequency
- Chaos Waves per Infernal Horde run are now cut down to 1 / 1-2 / 2, depending on the length of the run (6/8/10 waves).
- More Unpredictability
- They no longer spawn at fixed intervals, making appearances less predictable.
- Rarity Tweaks
- Specific Chaos Wave types, such as Aether Goblins, will now be rarer.
- Reliquary Adjustments
- Aether on-kill chance in the Reliquary Chaos Wave lowered from 25% to 10%.
- Reliquary no longer drops if you are immune when Chaos Lightning hits.
- Quality-of-Life Updates
- Spirit Chaos Wave ghosts respond better to collisions, and the Aetheric Mass can no longer be healed (Blizzard jokes it is “surprisingly ticklish“).
Lunatic Siege Chaos Wave
One of the best variants, the Lunatic Siege, saw targeted improvements to make it more rewarding:
- Chaos Rifts drop more Aether.
- Max Aether from a full-health Aetheric Mass raised from 80 to 200.
- Closing Chaos Rifts can now spawn new ones, steadily ramping up intensity.
Wider Infernal Horde Changes
Chaos Waves were not the only aspect Blizzard touched in Season 10. Infernal Hordes as a whole have been overhauled to make Aether gains more consistent and rewarding.
Base Aether Adjustments
- More baseline Aether
- Aether Masses (1 → 3), Aether Fiends (2 → 4), and Soulspires (1 → 5) now grant more Aether.
- Aether Goblins slightly nerfed (25 → 20 Aether).
The developers added that this should make “blasting monsters” more impactful, rather than relying solely on lucky Infernal Offering rolls.
Aetheric Masses
- Spawn chances for Teeming, Hellish, and Anchored Masses boosted (30% → 50%).
- “Puffing Masses” now drop bonus Aether per Offering selected.
- New mechanics for “Massing Masses” and scaling Hellborne spawns to make runs more dynamic.
Soulspires
Blizzard admits Soulspires were underwhelming before, and now they are much more fun and exciting:
- Rising Spires can appear twice per run instead of once.
- Draining Spires now grant 3 Aether instead of 1.
- Precious, Treasured, and Coveted Spires have rebalanced multipliers and rarity to better reflect the boosted base Aether.
- Corrupting Spires reworked into Hungry Spires, pulling enemies and players inward and increasing Aether drops.
- Reworked Rising Spires now spawn one at the start of each wave, empowering enemies inside.
Fiends, Lords, and Hellborne
- Colossal Fiends and Fiendish Legions now properly interact to spawn Aether Lords.
- Hellborne rarity rebalanced.
- Summoned Hellborne moved to Legendary
- Ambushing Hellborne to Common
- Summoned Hellborne spawns toned down (20% chance vs 100% before).
Miscellaneous Updates
- Boss changes
- Burning Butcher buffed with more health/damage
- Bartuc now uses new shield mechanics instead of going invulnerable.
- Offerings
- Rebalanced rarity
- Descriptions now more detailed
- Less predictable
- Other Changes
- Champion monsters no longer appear
- Burning Rain/Hell’s Wrath Aether gains boosted
- Other various Offering rarities adjusted
Chaos Waves are not gone, but they are no longer the centerpiece of every Infernal Horde run compared to Season 10 PTR. Instead, these balance changes bring them back to being a chaotic, rare treat and not the main event.
Combined with wider Aether and Offering changes, Diablo 4‘s endgame grind this season should now feel less luck-dependent and more consistently rewarding.
