PTR 2.7.4 Season 27 Overview

Disclaimer: All Information presented here is still subject to change during and after the PTR!
Updated on 07/26

Overview

The Public Test Realm (PTR) for Diablo 3 Patch 2.7.4 begins on Tuesday, July 12 2022 and ends on August 8. During this time there may be periodic maintenances, outages, hotfixes, or minor patches.

• PTR-unique buffs are active to help you on your journey: increased experience gains and double Blood Shard drops. You can also buy new gear for testing from the special PTR vendor, Djank Mi'em, who can exchange Blood Shards for class-specific bags full of Legendary items.
• Class and Balance Changes: Crusader, Necromancer, Wizard, and Monk have received huge changes.
• New Season Theme Testing: Blizzard is looking to gather feedback on the seasonal theme content!

All patch notes are listed below.

Find the Official Blogpost by Blizzard here.

Season 27 Theme: Angelic Crucibles

New Season Theme: Season 27 introduces a new type of consumable item called Angelic Crucibles. Once uncovered by Nephalem, these heavenly artifacts can be used to Sanctify any equippable Legendary item. Sanctifying an item reforges it to have perfect Ancient-level stats on all affixes while also preserving the item's Legendary Power. In addition, this process adds one of three new powers unique to each class.

Season Theme Details:

• Angelic Crucibles and Sanctified Items can only be acquired in Seasonal play and will not transfer to your non-seasonal character when the season ends.
• Angelic Crucibles can drop anywhere in Sanctuary at level 70.
• Players can obtain as many Sanctified items as they would like, however, only one Sanctified item can be equipped at a time.
• Sanctified items can be Sanctified again using another Angelic Crucible.
• No stats are preserved when Sanctifying an item.
• Only level 70 equippable items can be Sanctified—crafted items cannot be Sanctified.
• Followers cannot equip Sanctified items.

Barbarian

• Whirlwind pulls in and holds all enemies within 25 yards.
• Hammer of the Ancients hits in all directions around the Barbarian. Every tenth cast of  Hammer of the Ancients unleashes a powerful shockwave
• Hitting enemies generates stacks of Tempest Rhythm. Activating  Wrath of the Berserker consumes 50 stacks of Tempest Rhythm and startles enemies within 16 yards, causing them to take 2% increased damage per stack for 20 seconds. Max 50 stacks.

Crusader

• Blessed Hammer now crackles with energy damaging enemies within 15 yards of its path. All runes but Dominion now throw the hammer in a direct path in front of the Crusader.
• Every two seconds, call down Fist of the Heavens on a random nearby enemy.
• After casting Falling Sword, you descend from the sky with two Archangels that can cast Consecration and Condemn.

Demon Hunter

• Strafe now casts the last non-channeled Hatred spending ability casted.
• Casting Vengeance unleashes a barrage of rockets that deal damage equal to a percentage of the maximum life enemies possess. The number of rockets fired increases over 30 seconds. Elites and Bosses receive less damage per rocket.
• Firing Cluster Arrow no longer drops explosive ordinance. Instead, it concentrates its explosive force into piercing rays of light.

Monk

• Casting Wave of Light now summons a bell at the target location that deals damage when the caster attacks the bell. Up to seven bells can be active at one time.
• All Way of the Hundred Fists combo punches use the second stage combo punch.
• The target of your Seven-Sided Strike is barraged with spiritual punches for 15 seconds. This can only affect one enemy at a time.

Necromancer

• Your Golem now picks up corpses within 20 yards. Each corpse it stores allows you to cast any corpse spending ability with the max number of corpses consumed per cast. Up to 30 corpses can be stored.
• Enemies within 50 yards are constantly assaulted by the Army of the Dead Unconventional Warfare while this item is equipped.
• Hitting enemies with Death Nova five consecutive times adds a spirit that afflicts an enemy every fifth cast of Death Nova. Up to three spirits can be sent at a time.

Witch Doctor

• Enemies affected by Locust Swarm are also Haunted. When you cast Piranhas, all Haunted enemies within 60 yards are pulled into the pool. A lesser enemy stunned by Bogadile is instantly killed. Elites and Bosses stunned by Bogadile take massive damage.
• Horrify becomes an aura that causes enemies to receive 100% more damage and deal 15% less damage in addition to its other effects.
• You summon two Gargantuan  and three Zombie Dogs periodically. Gargantuans gain the effect of the Restless Giant rune. Zombie Dogs gain the effect of all runes. Enemies hit by Sacrifice are Immolated, causing them to take 100% more damage from your Pets.

Wizard

• Your Storm Armor charges over 30 seconds. Casting Storm Armor at full charge releases a powerful thunderbolt, instantly killing a random enemy within 30 yards. Bosses and Elites are not killed but take significant damage.
• Arcane Orb now periodically spawns up to four orbiting charges that will generate an additional orb when cast. All charges from the Arcane Orbit rune now detonate at the same time.
• Magic Missile fires 10 missiles and gains the effect of the Seeker rune.

General Game Updates

• Adventure Mode is now unlocked for all accounts by default. Players are no longer required to complete the Campaign to access Adventure mode.
• Default difficulty selection has been updated to be consistent for all players and platforms. All players now have access to Normal-Torment 6 difficulties by default, and upon reaching level 70 with a character, players gain access to Torment 7–Torment 16.
• Uber Boss Realms now automatically close 60 seconds after the Uber Bosses have been defeated. Additional portals to the same Uber Boss Realm can now be opened in a single game session.
• The Experience rewarded upon completion of an Echoing Nightmare has been reduced by 83%.

Items

• Guardian's Jeopardy (2-piece bonus): Your baseYou gain an additional 100% of your base Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Vitality attributes from equipped items.
• Guardian's Jeopardy (3-piece bonus): Your melee damage reduction is increased by 1% per 1000 base Vitality from equipped items. Your missile damage reduction is increased by 1% per 1000 base Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence from equipped items depending on your class.

Item & Class Balance Changes

Crusader

• Armor of Akkhan (2-piece bonus): Judgment has no cooldown and gains the effect of every rune.
• Armor of Akkhan (4-piece bonus): Attacks from Phalanx Avatars reduce the cooldown of Akarat's Champion by 0.5 seconds, and also apply Condemn when attacking enemies that is affected by Judgment.

• Eternal Union: Increases the duration of summoned Phalanx Bowmen and Bodyguard indefinitely.

Monk

• Inna's Mantra (6-piece bonus): Gain the passive abilities of the five runed Mystic Allies at all times. Attacking enemies creates your chosen Mystic Ally that lasts 15 seconds, up to 10 Mystic Allys. The damage of your Mystic Allies is increased by 900% for each Mystic Ally you have out.

• Bindings of the Lesser Gods: Enemies hit by your Cyclone Strike take 150-200% increased damage from your Mystic Ally for 5 seconds. Split Fire Allies gain 3 times this bonus.

Necromancer

• Trag'Oul's Avatar (2-piece bonus): Blood Rush and Siphon Blood gains the effect of every rune. Your Life-spending abilities no longer cost Essence.
• Trag'Oul's Avatar (4-piece bonus): While at full Life, your healing from skills is added to your maximum Life for 45 seconds, up to 300% more.
• Trag'Oul's Avatar (6-piece bonus): Your Life-spending abilities deal 10,000% increased damage and your healing from skills is increased by 100%.

• Iron Rose: Attacking with Siphon Blood has a 100% chance to cast a free Blood Nova. After cumulatively losing 10% of your maximum Life, your Death Nova deals 40% increased damage for 60 seconds. This effect stacks up to 10 times.

• Funerary Pick: Siphon Blood drains blood from 2 additional targets. Each target takes 250-300% increased damage from you unless there is only 1 target, then it gains double the increased damage. The bonus from Siphon Blood Power Shift is now 20% per stack and benefits all skills.
• Bloodtide Blade: Death Nova deals 300-400% increased damage for every enemy within 25 yards, up to 25 enemies.

Wizard

• Delsere's Magnum Opus (2-piece bonus): Casting Arcane Orb, Energy Twister, Magic Missile, Shock Pulse, Spectral Blade, Electrocute, Meteor, or Arcane Torrent also casts Slow Time at a target. This effect will not trigger if the target is already inside a Slow Time bubble. The cooldown of Teleport will reset while you're inside bubbles generated from this set or cast by you.
• Delsere's Magnum Opus (4-piece bonus): You take 75% reduced damage while you have a Slow Time active. Allies inside your Slow Time gain half benefit.
• Delsere's Magnum Opus (4-piece bonus): Enemies affected by your Slow Time and for 5 seconds after exiting take 12,500% increased damage from your Arcane Orb, Energy Twister, Magic Missile, Shock Pulse, Spectral Blade, Electrocute, Meteor, or Arcane Torrent abilities.

• Crown of the Primus: Slow Time gains the effect of every rune and permanently follows you.
• Mirror Ball: Magic Missile fires 2 extra missiles and deals 400-500% increased damage.

• Tal Rasha's Elements (2-piece bonus): Damaging enemies with Arcane, Cold, Fire or Lightning will grant immunity to that element and cause a Meteor of the same damage type to fall from the sky. The same meteor cannot happen twice in a row.
• Tal Rasha's Elements (4-piece bonus): Arcane, Cold, Fire, and Lightning attacks each increase all of your resistances by 50% for 8 seconds.

• The Smoldering Core: Lesser enemies are now lured to your Meteor impact areas. Meteors deals 40-50% increased damage on consecutive hits to the same target. This stacks up to 10 times.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug that prevented the Legendary Spear Empyrean Messenger from dropping.
• Captain Crimson's Trimmings: Fixed a bug that caused the 3-piece set bonus to occasionally drop off.
• Updated Bone Spikes and Siphon Blood tooltips to reflect the appropriate damage values.

We will test all these changes thoroughly, give constructive feedback and enjoy the reworked Armor of Akkhan, Trag'Oul's Avatar, Delsere's Magnum Opus & Tal Rasha's Elements sets. We're also excited to try out the new Season Theme and its unique powers and find the new season's META. See you on the Public Test Server!