Diablo IV is getting a major overhaul on the heels of its one year anniversary. Blizzard recently revealed almost every major change to come in season 4 later this month, and fans are excited for the action-RPG to finally fix some of the biggest complaints players have had since launch.
Season 4 is called Loot Reborn and it goes live on May 14 at 1:00 p.m. ET. It’ll be the first new update since Diablo IV arrived on Game Pass for subscribers on Xbox and PC, and on paper at least, it’s a strong case for why players should care about the fun but inoffensive demon clicker again. While changes to Legendary gear, affixes, and the Codex of Power were first teased back in April, a new Blizzard blog post outlines the upcoming itemization rework in much more detail.
Traditionally, Diablo IV seasons have only brought changes to the game’s Seasonal Realm. In this mode, players must create a new character from scratch and then journey out into Sanctuary, completing old story content or new seasonal activities while utilizing unique seasonal items, powers, and buildcrafting opportunities. In Loot Reborn, however, the biggest changes will impact players’ core Eternal Realm characters as well, making it the perfect opportunity for lapsed players to return and continue grinding with their original hero.
Here are the key ways Loot Reborn is overhauling gear, crafting, and other loot-oriented systems:
Loot
- Fewer items drop from slain monsters
- Legendary gear affixes reduced to three, rare gear only has two
- Affixes will be more powerful (higher numbers) and easier to understand (fewer modifiers)
- Materials gained from salvaging are increasing
- Blacksmith activities will be cheaper
- Enchanting rerolls will cost less gold
- Sacred items will only be in World Tier III, Ancestral times will only be in World Tier IV
- Uniques can drop in all tiers, Uber Uniques can drop at level 55
- Items with Greater Affixes (Ancestrals and Uniques) drop with a distinct audio cue and icon
- Each affix on an item has a chance to be a Greater Affix in World Tier III and IV
- Crude gems are gone, normal gems are available at level 51, flawless at 71, royal at 91
- Diamonds have had all resistance values increased
- Topaz now boosts intelligence, sapphires boost willpower, amethyst boosts strength, emeralds boost dexterity
Aspects
- Aspects extracted from Legendary items are now permanently stored in your Codex of Power
- Can be used indefinitely and will only keep the most powerful version found
- Aspects with max rolls are denoted with a special border
- Codex of Power keeps the highest Aspect (Seasonal or Eternal) when Seasonal Realm resets
Tempering
- Tempering manuals are collected and permanently unlock affixes like the Codex of Power
- Each manual lets you add one affix from six different categories: Weapons, Offensive, Defensive, Mobility, Utility and Resource
- Ancestral items can have two Tempered affixes from different categories
- Tempering Durability limits the number of times an affix can be added
Masterworking
- End-game crafting system using materials from The Pit of Artificers
- Improves overall strength of all affixes on a weapon massively upgrades one every fourth tier
- The affix that receives the bonus will turn blue, then yellow, then orange
- Fully masterworked weapons can be rest to boost different affixes
It’s a lot to digest, but the end result should be a lot less junk dropping and more investment in improving and modifying your best gear, especially in the late game. Permanently unlocking Aspects and Affixes will hopefully cut down on a lot of tedious RNG grinds, while the best drops will still be reserved for those moments when you finally get really lucky. We’ll see how it ends up working in practice, but I’m excited to actually feel something in Diablo IV again come May 14.
Season 4 will bring other changes and new content to the base game, and Helltide events are one of the chief beneficiaries. Surviving a Helltide onslaught will increase your threat level until you eventually become Hell-Marked and swarmed by an even bigger mob of demons, until a Hellborn embodying one of Diablo IV’s classes hunts you down. Baneful Hearts earned during Helltide exploration let you initiate Accursed Rituals, which end with the arrival of a Blood Maiden who’ll drop valuable rewards. Helltide events will also now be available starting at World Tier I.
Pit of Artificers is a new timed boss rush mode for earning Masterwork crafting materials. Players earn Runeshards throughout the world and use them to activate the Obelisk in Cerrigar and descend into a pit. Players in groups of up to four have 10 minutes to kill everything in sight and defeat a boss before moving on to the next level of the pit.
Finally, there’s a seasonal story surrounding a mercenary group called The Iron Wolves. Defenders of everyday commoners, the mercenaries are being mysteriously killed off with players left to discover why. That’s the extent of what Blizzard detailed about actual new seasonal content circumstances. Some players suspect this means Season 4 will be content light compared to the previous ones, with Blizzard having invested instead in overhauling deeper systems. If that’s the case, it seems like a worthwhile trade-off, especially ahead of Diablo IV’s Vessel of Hatred expansion later this year.
Or it could just be that Blizzard is keeping Loot Reborn’s story content close to the vest until closer to release. A developer livestream on May 2 will dive deeper into the upcoming changes, with full patch notes for season 4 going up soon after.
