Diablo 4 Season 2 - Season of Blood Developer Update Livestream Summary

Diablo IV Posted 2023/10/04 at 12:35 PM by PopularTopular

New Endgame Bosses

Bosses will be unlocked by completing specific endgame content.
Each boss has a specific loot table, giving players the ability to target-farm specific items.
New endgame bosses will persist through to future Seasons.
Certain bosses will require specific resistance gear in order to defeat them.
The final Uber boss, Duriel, will have a chance to drop Uber Unique items.

New Endgame Content Progression

Vampiric Powers

Players will be able to collect up to 22 class-agnostic Vampiric Powers.
Armor pieces will drop with three different types of Pacts, which will activate these Vampiric Powers.
Players will be able to Cleanse and Inject Vampiric Powers from armor.
Vampiric Powers can be unlocked and upgraded by collecting the Seasons's currency - Potent Blood.

Blood Harvest

A new open-world event similar to Helltide.
Blood Harvest will be available starting at level 1 and will rotate between open-world zones.
Currency earned during Blood Harvest will stay with the player, even after the event ends.
Will not replace Helltides.

Item Changes

Gems will no longer drop, players will automatically receive Gem Shard materials, which can be used to craft Gems.
Overall Enchantment costs have been reduced.
Crafting materials will drop in place of low-quality gear.
Normal and Magic items will no longer drop in World Tier III.
Only Ancestral items will drop in World Tier IV.

The Item Power of loot will be directly correlated with Monster level.
Whisper Caches will provide a +10 Item Power reward, and Legendary Caches will provide a +20 Item Power reward.
Helltide cache rewards will provide a +20 Item Power reward.

UI/UX Improvements

Stash can now be Sorted and Filtered.
Auto-run has been added.
Items can be marked as "Favorite" and cannot be sold or Salvaged.
Extracted Aspects with the same Legendary Power will be grouped together when Sorted.

Streamer mode has been implemented to hide identifying information.
Combat text can now be hidden.
Minimap has been zoomed out.

Endgame Activities

Nightmare Sigils from Whisper Caches will always be within 5 levels of the player's highest completed Nightmare Dungeon.
Gold rewards from Whispers have been increased.
Experience from Whispers and Helltide Events has been increased.
Whisper Caches have been fixed to always give the correct item slot chosen.
Helltide Chest icons are more clear.

Nightmare Dungeon Changes

Nightmare Sigils will now teleport the player directly into the Nightmare Dungeon.
Nightmare Dungeon Events will have higher mob density.
Nightmare Dungeon Event NPCs will now be more resilient and will no longer be one-shot.

Traps will be more clear and CC against players will be reduced.
Paragon Glyph experience will be increased.

Completely removed, or made Dungeon Objectives much easier to navigate.
Dungeon layouts have been changed to limit backtracking.

Nightmare Dungeon Afflictions

Backstabbers - When Close monsters attack from behind, the player will become Vulnerable.
Monster Critical Resist - Monster attacks momentarily reduce the damage of Critical Strikes.
Death Pulse - Will no longer allow multiple instances of Death Pulse to stack.

Lightning Storm - When the player avoids the lightning strike, they will receive a 35% Movement Speed increase for 5 seconds.
Drifting Shade - Will be activated for less time and will have a higher respawn time.

World Event Changes

Legion Events
Time between Legion Events has been reduced from 30 to 25 minutes.
Warning timer has been increased from 5 to 10 minutes.
Fixed a bug preventing Legion Event pins from showing on minimap.

World Bosses
Spawn timer has been reduced from 6 to 3.5 hours.
Warning timer has been increased from 30 minutes to 1 hour.
Fixed a bug preventing World Boss pins from showing on minimap.
A world message will be sent to all players 15 minutes before the World Boss spawn.

Mounts

Mounts will be less likely to get stuck on twigs and pebbles.
Mount speed boost can now break through barricades.
Base Mount speed increased.
Speed boost duration has been increased, and all cooldowns have been decreased.

Towns & Vendors

There is now an Occultist at the Tree of Whispers.
Stashes have been added to every town that has a Waypoint.

Additional Stashes have been added to capital cities.
Gambling vendors have been relocated closer to their respective Waypoint.

General Improvements

Renown rewards will be automatically unlocked for all characters.
will now automatically be consumed whenever a Hardcore player disconnects from the game.
Incense will grant an Experience bonus and persist through death.
Experience bonuses will now be Multiplicative with World Tier.
Open-world monsters in World Tiers III and IV will now scale to the player's level.

Battle Pass Changes

Smoldering Ashes will now unlock automatically and will be spendable at earlier levels.
3 new Season Blessings

Comment by MalrunedHuge W for Blizzard and Diablo.Comment by yseratheawakenedHuge W for Blizzard and Diablo.Comment by paluchrobReally hoping they fix the gold scaling for item stat rerollingComment by BarcasaurI wish we didn't have to wait for the reaper of souls for Diablo 4 for it to maybe become good.Comment by PuupiStill no real endgame?

Guess I'll keep waiting then.Comment by Eldrichlulz @ the lightning storm changes. 5 seconds of a speed buff after the fact isn't going to change the fact that having to run to the bubble in the first place and twiddle your thumbs is annoying AF if you're not a ranged spec. I'll still be salvaging any sigil with it, assuming I even play S2.

And hey Blizzard, while you're changing lightning storm to only activate in combat, you should also fix all those other afflictions that literally say they only activate in combat but actually activate whenever they want like Nightmare Portal, Volcanic, etc.Comment by SilkRofl low effort nonsense again. QoL changes that should have been in at launch are not a patch. Try again in S3 ABK.Comment by Whatdoyouwantwell i guess we are more and more in D3 like game.

It is what it is anyway, they just can't make decent ARPGs anymore.Comment by Nimbis84It should not take a full season for developers to realize there should be better gear at level cap. Glad they're fixing it I guess.Comment by SugarInFurs3 seconds of Unstoppable every time you dodge PogChamp

Especially if it breaks stuns too sheeeeeshComment by SixpacDrop rate of uber unique items on Uber Duriel?Comment by johntravolta342A lot of good changes and additions. Hopefully the season can keep me interested for like 2 weeks this time around, that's all I ask for from seasonal game like this.Comment by FiredemonsGuess we're getting out of beta bois (whoever is left) ... it's the season of bugfixes.Comment by iamaddictedtowowStill have to store aspects instead of just updating the ones in codex when you find a better version? LComment by Notaworgenthese are really good season 2 patch notes, i am more likely to try season 2 now.Comment by nick00000do dungeons still have forced objectives / backtracking O.o ?Comment by voreoHopefully by Season 3 they'll have things sorted with this. Since that's when the leaderboards are meant to be in as well.Comment by NeveahScottisStill not bothering to replay the entire game every season. No thanks. Worse Seasonal system than almost every other MMORPG, save for D3 and PoE, which are just as bad.Comment by MatijaDid they post any news about reduced price for respec and button to reset full paragon board more easily?Comment by MalvientGood to see Blizzard responding to all the alpha and beta test feedback instead of rushing to release the game. Another 6-9 months and it should be good for release.