•  Diablo 4 's Season of Blood, launching on October 17, 2023, brings a new storyline of vampire hunting with exciting abilities and quests for players to enjoy permanently.
•  The upcoming updates in Diablo 4 include improved inventory management, faster mounts, and other great enhancements.
•  Better management of Nightmare Dungeons in Season 2 will enhance the overall player experience.

 

Diablo 4 is unveiling massive changes to the entire game alongside its second dose of seasonal content, Season of Blood. Mostly, these updates and changes are being brought about due to player feedback and have been in the works since before Season 1 even began. The response to Diablo 4 after its launch several months ago has been a bit mixed, mostly due to observations that these upcoming quality-of-life updates are poised to address.

Season of Blood, the second Season of Diablo 4 has a release date of October 17, 2023. On that day it will not only begin the new Seasonal storyline of vampire hunting but also will release patch 1.2.0 with a long list of game updates. Season of Blood will allow players to enjoy harnessing the vampiric powers of a day walker in conjunction with the traditional character classes, giving fun new abilities and quests to explore. Although that Season story is temporary, the other changes to Diablo 4 will be permanent adjustments to improve the player experience for the base game itself.

 

Diablo 4 Is Coming To Steam

On October 17, Diablo 4 will be made available on Steam, which will allow players on that platform to have access to special Steam achievements, see their Steam friends list, and invite friends over Steam to join them in the game. To play, Diablo 4 will need to be purchased on Steam and then connected to their Battle.net account. This is the second Blizzard game to make the jump to Steam, following Overwatch 2's launch this summer.

 

Hardcore Disconnection Deaths Can Be Prevented

In an online-only game, there is always a risk of being disconnected due to internet outages or issues, and this often causes a character to be left helpless in a dangerous situation where they meet an untimely demise. With this update, if Hardcore players are prepared, they can be saved from this type of misfortune. When a player becomes disconnected while in combat, if the character is holding a Scroll of Escape they will automatically consume the scroll and be teleported to safety.

 

Mounts Will Be More Useful

Mounts in Diablo 4 have received some criticism for being slow and occasionally getting stuck on objects in the environment. Beginning with Season of Blood, horses will be 15% faster base speed, and the cooldown for summoning a mount is decreased by 50%. Additionally, when using Spur, the boosted speed will last longer, and the mounts will be able to break through certain barriers in their path.

 

Renown Rewards Are Permanent

In the first Season of Diablo 4, one of the things that carried over to a Seasonal character was having the Altars of Lilith that were unlocked on previous characters on the account become unlocked for the Season. Now, developers have decided that in addition to the Altars of Lilith and the Fog of War carrying over, all Renown that has been earned in either the Eternal Realm or the Seasonal Realm will carry over, including Paragon Points, potion capacity, Obols, and more.

 

Improved Inventory Management

A major complaint that has been brought up frequently regarding Diablo 4 is the limited bag space and inventory management. Beginning in Season 2, there are many quality of life improvements happening surrounding the inventory. Gems will be stored as a crafting resource, which will need to be taken to a Jeweler to use, but will not be taking up precious inventory slots. Also, in World Tiers 3 and 4 lower-tiered loot will be automatically converted to crafting resources to save space, and gold drop rates at these World Tiers will be increased.

 

Nightmare Dungeons Will Be Better Managed

Diablo 4 will have many improvements to the Nightmare Dungeons after Season of Blood begins, including being able to teleport to the inside of a dungeon to save time from loading screens. Dungeon layouts are more procedurally generated to prevent repetition and have an increased amount of monster density while also having added endcaps and all objectives placed in a main path of the dungeon to limit the amount of backtracking that a character has to do. Nightmare Sigils will be given for completion of a Nightmare dungeon rather than being contingent on a final boss battle.

 

Anyone Can Skip The Campaign To Enjoy Season Content

Creating a new character on the Seasonal Realm is still going to be a requirement for the Season of Blood. Unlike in Season 1, however, all players, even those who have not completed the main campaign on their account, will be able to have the option to skip the campaign on a Seasonal Realm to see the limited-time story of the Season.

 

Vampiric Powers For The Season Of Blood

Diablo 4's Season of Blood will introduce 22 vampiric powers that players can incorporate into their character during the event. Seven of those powers will be considered Major Vampiric Powers and are incredibly powerful but require a lot to activate. Using these abilities, a character can have many of the powers of a vampire without becoming a vampire, allowing them to then hunt down the vampires that are threatening to destroy Sanctuary.

 

Five New Endgame Bosses - With Better Drop Rates

Beginning with Season 2, Diablo 4 will have five additional endgame bosses added to its overworld to create more endgame prospects for players. This will also increase the opportunity to gain Unique and Uber Unique items that only drop from specific bosses. Loot tables have been tweaked to be more favorable for players actually getting some of these special items, including unique cosmetics that are specific for each boss.

 

Faster XP Gain To Reach 100 Quicker

Changes for how characters gain experience buffs are being made, including increasing experience that is gained from defeating monsters above level 50. Incenses in Diablo 4 will now provide a bonus to XP and will not disappear upon a character's death and resurrection. Also, the potency of any experience bonus items such as elixirs or Season blessings will be made stronger, even to a point where they will be higher based on World Tier bonuses as well. All of these things together are said to help players reach 100, the max level, 40% quicker than they previously could.