2.3 PTR Campfire Chat Wrap-Up

It's now time to think about the 2.3 PTR update for Season 9! Blizzard just finished the Season 9 2.3 PTR Campfire Chat! Read everything you need to know here!

PTR Need to Knows

• 2.3 PTR goes live on May 27th until June 3rd.
• Boost will be available immediately after the PTR goes live.
• Share your feedback on Diablo 4 PTR forums!

State of the Game

General Thoughts

• Leveling feedback from last PTR was fantastic, and they are happy with the leveling pace of the game.
• They want to create further activity variety across both leveling and endgame. They are also looking to increase the rewards from these activities.
• Blizzard believes that the diversity of the meta in Season 8 is in a pretty good spot. Lightning Spear Sorc was mentioned as a bit too strong, and Spiritborn as too weak.
• One of their main pillars for class balance is that any coherently put together build should be able to get into Torment 4 and have reasonable success doing it.
• Overpower was mentioned as too oppressive, and their desired outcome is that the additive damage scaling is reduced by roughly 80%.

Nightmare Dungeon Revamp

Nightmare Dungeons are getting a revamp in the upcoming Season 9 PTR.

• The newly Horadric Strongrooms are a mini-dungeon found within Nightmare Dungeons
• Within the Horadric Strongrooms, you earn Horadric Attunement that improves the chest you gain after defeating the miniboss.
• You can maximize the amount of Horadric Attunement you get by interacting with different gizmos.

Escalating Nightmares

• This newly added gameplay allows players to fight through three Nightmare dungeons in a row.
• Requires a Sigil to open.
  • These drops from Torment 1+ in Horadric Strongrooms
• You fight Astaroth from the base game in this mode!

New Seasonal Power: Horadric Spells

The Seasonal Power for Season 9 is Horadric Spells, the Diablo 4 variant of "build-a-bear", featuring Horadric Spell components!

Catalyst

• The Catalyst gives the Spell its form and its function.
• They can be assigned to your skill bar by dragging and dropping them to one of the six slots within the interface.
• They have a separate Cooldown, Lucky hit, and rank 10 bonus.

Infusion

• Infusion changes the damage type of your Catalyst and adds additional effects.
• There are 5 different infusions available to you, one for each element.
• The Fire one, for instance, destroys enemy structures and deactivates monster affixes such as Chilling Winds.

Arcana

• Arcana changes the behavior of the Catalyst to fit your builds.
• These changes could be Catalyst size, giving you Unstoppable, or destroying enemy barriers!
• These are unlocked at something called Horadric Wayfinders.
• These can also be Legendary, which changes their behavior based on the equipped Catalyst.

Horadric Jewels

• Similar effects from Season 7 Occult Gems.
• Earn Tomes from Strongrooms, starting in Torment 1.
• You bring the Tomes to a crafting station and craft them with the Seasonal material Horadric Phials and Gem Fragments.
• These also further buff your Catalyst!

Season 9 Class Balance

• Overpower Damage scaling was too oppressive and powerful. The additive damage scaling is getting reduced by roughly 80%.
• Additive Damage has been rebalanced to be healthier for the game.
• Basic Skills' base damage is getting doubled (and even tripled in some cases!) to make them feel more impactful.
• Max Resistance is getting increased from 70% to 75%, and certain Unique items will have their All Resistance reduced.
• Key Passives for multiple classes are getting capped or significantly reduced for balancing purposes.

Character Class Changes

Each class will get a new powerful Unique Item and multiple Legendary Aspects revamped to magnify your renowned demon crushing prowess!

The following were the highlights of each class. Check the PTR Patch Notes for more detailed information.

Barbarian

Druid

Necromancer

Rogue

Sorcerer

Spiritborn

Future Plans

We hope you enjoy the Season of Belial's Return with the aid of our Season 8 updates. Our focus for Season 8 is to make sure our Build Guides are always solid with all the new item updates, new features, and mechanic changes. We are also continuing to work on more updates for D4Planner!

If you haven't already, head over to our Discord to stay up to date with our content development.

Written by: Avarilyn