Diablo III barely got a nod during BlizzCon’s 2015 opening ceremonies, but its panel this evening proved Blizzard has plenty in store for the game.
Game Director Josh Mosqueira headlined the Blood and Treasure panel, emphasizing the Diablo franchise’s patches over its expansions: Yes, patch 2.4 is on the way for Diablo III “very, very, very soon.” Here are the highlights!
- Patch 2.4 includes two new areas — the snowy Eternal Woods and the expanded Royal Quarters in Leoric’s Manor — as well as one new zone, Greyhollow Island. There will also be seven new events, 16 new monsters, and 175 new bounties split between acts 3, 4, and 5, including a new type called Bounty Grounds.
- Buff indicators and damage numbers are due for some optimization and streamlining so they don’t suck up so much UI space.
- Blizzard is aiming to shrink the experience gap between soloing and grouping in several ways: reducing monster health based on group size; reducing the XP bonus from items; increasing monster XP by 50%; and porting killstreaks from the console edition.
- Empowered Rifts are amped-up Greater Rifts that are intended to be a heavy gold sink for those who have too much and not affect folks who don’t have much at all. The highest-end Greater Rift will cost 540,000,000 gold just to get in the door.
- And Kanai’s Cube will get a new recipe that allows you to permanently augment an ancient item by sacrificing a legendary gem.
- Expect a “no-set set” of gear and 24 set dungeons with special gear-set objectives.
- Blizzard will kick off Season 5 with a Rebirth system, which allows you to start your character over from level 1 without losing your hours played, gear, and records.
- Season 4 is intended to end in late December, with a break after that before Season 5 begins. Season 5 itself will run for three months and include five conquests in hardcore and softcore mode, rotating over the seasons just as the season journey objectives will.
- New Season rewards will focus on portait frames, pets, pennants, and wings. But Seasonal legendaries are being cut. (There were gasps and boos after that announcement! I felt bad, but Wyatt jumped in was a good distraction there.) Instead, players will be guaranteed a different six-piece set.
- More bank tabs! You can buy more and you’ll get them as rewards for season journeys, up to 10 tabs — doubling the current stash. Console players will get a boost in slots instead.
The patch will land on the PTR next week “if everything goes well.”
We snapped a few shots of the panel below, and the team has a dev blog up on everything now.
Follow all of Massively OP’s coverage of BlizzCon 2015, Blizzard’s annual fan convention highlighting World of Warcraft: Legion, Diablo III, Overwatch, Hearthstone, Heroes of the Storm, and beyond!
