Season 23 starts on April 2nd

Season 23 will begin on April 2, at 5PM (PDT/CET/KST) shortly after the release of Patch 2.7.0, a new Diablo 3 update. This is a major content patch includes a Follower system revamp, leaderboard changes, and Legendary item changes. Patch 2.7.0 is expected to be released on March 30. Read on to find out about the final Patch notes and our opinion on them, what they mean for your Season start and the overall impact on the META.

Find the official Blogpost by Blizzard here.

Update 03/26 - Firebird's Finery (6) Bonus
You gain 4000% 2000% 5000% increased damage while Ignite is applied to a target. Hitting an Ignited enemy with a non-channeling fire spell deals Ignite damage multiplied by Combustion stacks.

Developer Note:

Follower Changes

Patch 2.7.0 revamped the follower system giving all 3 hirelings new powers and the emanate system. We will publish a complete Follower Guide in the next days. Join our Discord for regular updates. For now these are the key takeaways:

1. The emanation system allows followers to share certain Legendary and Set powers with you. The most important ones are: The Flavor of Time, Nemesis Bracers, Avarice Band, Sage’s Journey and Cain’s Destiny. Click the guide above for the full list.
2. Follower’s powers are based on their mainstat (maxed at 25,000, but they have a 2.5x multiplier so you only need 10,000). This means we stack Intelligence on the Enchantress, Dexterity on the Scoundrel and Strength on the Templar.
3. Followers share 20% of their Experience, Magic and Gold Find stats with you.
4. Legendary gems do not work on followers, except Esoteric Alteration and Mutilation Guard.
5. Cooldown Reduction does not work for any follower skill except the Templar’s Heal.
6. Followers never deal significant damage; you’re on your own to clear the content.

Update: Now the Scoundrels Night's Veil skill is nerfed from a maximum duration of 10 seconds to a new maximum duration of 4 seconds. This makes the skill slot and other Followers more competitive while still remaining a strong DPS choice especially when timed with Convention of Elements 4 second damage window!

Here is our recommended build for the Scoundrel:

GR Pushing Scoundrel

This Scoundrel setup provides the Critical Hit Chance from Anatomy, 10% increased damage from Piercing Shot, and the insane Critical Hit Chance cloud from Night’s Veil.

Stat Priorities:

Since we have the immortality token, we do not need to stack survivability on our Scoundrel.

Dexterity > Attack Speed.

Key Items:

• The Flavor of Time: For double duration on Pylons.
• Nemesis Bracers: For more progression from Elites.
• Oculus Ring: For 85% increased damage.
• Unity: For 50% damage reduction if you're also wearing one.
• Ice Climbers: To make your follower immune to Freeze and Immobilize effects.
• Leoric's Crown and Cain's Destiny: For more Experience and Attack Speed.

Item Changes

General Updates

• Teleport - Adjusted Wizard's Teleport animation speed.

Opinion: Let's hope this is a net positive adjustment to reduce the cast animation similar to the Monk's Dashing Strike. With all the nerfs coming below to the reworked Firebird's Finery Wizards will need this!

• Land of the Dead Invigoration - Now removes all resource costs.

Opinion: Most likely a removal of interaction with Captain Crimson's Trimmings (3) Bonus resulting in permanent invulnerability.

• Rathma's Shield passive skill now has a 60-second cooldown

Opinion: The new 60 sec cooldown makes Rathma's Shield a completely dead passive for any build.

Demon Hunter

• Gears of Dreadlands (6) Bonus buff to 15,000 %
  Hungering Arrow pierces a maximum of 4 times while wearing The Ninth Cirri Satchel

Opinion: This is a around 2-3 Greater Rift Tier buff compared to the PTR. Looks like GoD DH will go from S-Tier straight to B-Tier but will remain a top Demon Hunter build.

Necromancer

• Bones of Rathma Rework
  (2) Bonus: Your permanent minions reduce the cooldown of Army of the Dead by 0.25 0.50 second each time they deal damage. Your skeletal warriors (Command Skeletons) spawn faster, and your revived (Revive) minions no longer expire.
  (4) Bonus: Your minions no longer take damage. You gain 1% damage for 15 sec each time one of your minions deals damage. Max 75 stacks.
  (6) Bonus: Each permanent active minion increases the damage of Army of the Dead and Bone Spirit by 500%, up to 8500% 9000%.
• New Bracers - Bonds of C'Lena
  Army of the Dead and Bone Spirit deal 300-400% increased damage. Bone Spirit deals an additional 2% increased damage for 5 sec each time Army of the Dead hits any enemy. Maximum of 500 stacks. Army of the Dead deals 75% to 100% increased damage or double this bonus against an active target of Command Skeletons.
• Defiler Cuisses
  Bone Spirit damage is increased by 400-500% for every second it is active and will also freeze enemies. Maximum of 5 seconds.

Opinion Army of the Dead version: It is good to see some buffs to Army of the Dead again! The new mechanic of doing more damage to the commanded target is a welcome addition and the 0.50 seconds on the (2) Bonus allows players again to cast Army of the Dead 2 times during a Convention of Elements rotation! This will buff the build into B-Tier territory but still feels a bit underwhelming.
Opinion Bone Spirit version: With the Bone Spirit multiplier of 400% being removed in combination with Land of the Dead Invigoration Captain Crimson's Trimmings this build will fall behind many Greater Rift Tiers and might even be worse than before 2.7.0 with the Defiler Cuisses now being capped to 5 seconds. Overall this will put the build all the way down into C-Tier.

Wizard

• Firebird's Finery rework
  (2) Bonus: Disintegrate Ignites enemies, causing them to take 7500% 3000% weapon damage per second until they die. When you die, a meteor falls from the sky and revives you. This effect has a 60-second cooldown.
  (4) Bonus: Casting Disintegrate adds Combustion stacks that reduce the cooldown of Teleport by 1% 2% per stack. Stacks up to 100 50 times. You gain 80% damage reduction while maintaining Combustion stacks.
  (6) Bonus: You gain 4000% 2000% 5000% increased damage while Ignite is applied to a target. Hitting an Ignited enemy with a non-channeling Fire spell deals Ignite damage multiplied by Combustion stacks.

Opinion: This Set rework sounds super interesting and even has speed run potential to compete with Rat Runs. This recent changes put the manual Spectral Blade Flame Blades into A-Tier while the channeling playstyle around Mirror Image will make it into S-Tier!
Channeling builds (Explosive Blast, Hydra, Mirror Image) will be the dominating playstyle as Deathwish remains a balance issue and a curse for the entire Wizard class! Manual Spectral Blade Flame Blades casting build will have no chance to compete with these.

Update 03/26 - Firebird's Finery (6) Bonus
You gain 4000% 2000% 5000% increased damage while Ignite is applied to a target. Hitting an Ignited enemy with a non-channeling fire spell deals Ignite damage multiplied by Combustion stacks.

• Gazing demise nerf
  The damage of Spirit Barrage is increased by 100-150%. Spirit Barrage gains the Phantasm rune that lasts twice as long, and attack rate from Manitou spectres is increased.

Opinion: The multiplier goes from 3 x 150 % down to 150 % resulting in: 5.5/2,5=2.2 damage multiplier loss or around ~5-6 Greater Rift level nerf. This moves the build from S-Tier to A-Tier. A reasonable change to a slightly overpowered Witch Doctor build. Mundunugu's Regalia Spirit Barrage is still the strongest WD build by around 2 Tiers. However if you are a WD player this feels horrible - other Witch Doctor sets desperately need attention!

All Classes

• Blackthorne's Jousting Mail
  Replaced one minor property with a random elemental damage affix.

Opinion: No need to create a Witch Doctor anymore just to get Swamp Land Waders awesome!

Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue with the legacy version of Etched Sigil buffing unintended effects.
• Fixed an issue with the Follower's cheat death skills activating while the player had a Shield Pylon active.
• Fixed an issue where the Templar would sometimes stop following the player.
• Fixed Revive Personal Army buff not persisting with Bones of Rathma (4) Bonus

Opinion: Nice to see all these bugs addressed especially for the non Season player base legacy Etched Sigil was a big problem!

Group META

The new Follower changes have almost no impact on the current META as these are mostly for solo gameplay (Asheara's Vestments exception for zDh). With the 4th Kanai's Cube gone and thus the loss of Reilena's Shadowhook the Bone Spear Necromancer has lost around 10 Greater Rift Tiers in term of damage. Same goes for the Mundunugu Spirit Barrage Witch Doctor with the recent nerf to Gazing Demise (around 5 Greater Rifts tier damage loss). Overall a lot of "nerfs" so let's see which build comes out on top in 2.7.0!

Overall the current season theme has no real impact on the group META. This current push META still feels very similar to what we played in previous patches. It is refreshing to see Firebird's Finery being a decent alternative and an actual a top tier build overall. The AoV Heaven's Fury Crusader however still dominates the Leaderboards while the Bones of Rathma sets has no impact after the latest adjustments.

Overall Diablo 3 is a better game now after this major content patch: New Followers, new Leaderboards, Firebirds and Rathma are now both playable sets.

Maxroll Updates

Our team is working hard to update Maxroll and all our content (Guides, Tier lists, META) for Season 23 during the course of this week! On top of that a dedicated Follower posts with all mechanics and recommended setups is coming soon! Meanwhile we wish you the best of luck in the final days of Season 22. Stay tuned :)