The Diablo 4 AoZ Campfire Chat just took place. The panel consisting of Joe Shely (Game Director), Joseph Piepiora (Associate Game Director), Adam Fletcher (Associate Director of Community) with special guest Rich Bantegui (Senior Community Manager) playing through a demo of the Abattoir of Zir Seasonal Event. They discussed the AoZ Seasonal Event, Midwinter Blight Holiday Event, Itemization and Q&A. As a reminder, we should be getting Patch 1.2.3 Notes early with the AoZ event going live Tuesday, December 5th and Midwinter Blight coming on Tuesday, December 12th. See all the major points below.
Abattoir of Zir
The Dev Team gave us a good amount of information regarding the event past what we knew from BlizzCon 2023.
- Coming Soon! - Will be available on December 5th until (almost) the end of the season!
- Post 100 Content - The challenge rating is meant for players who are close to, if not, Character level 100.
- Requires Unlocking - Need to complete the Season Journey to unlock the AoZ Seasonal Event.
- Special Crafted Sigils - Bloodforged Sigils are crafted at The Occultist.
- More Difficult - There are 25 total Tiers with more challenge between Tiers than you would expect between Tiers of Nightmare Dungeons. Tier 1 of AoZ is roughly equal to a Tier 104 Nightmare Dungeon (if it existed).
- Afflictions Unknown - You will not know the Afflictions you have, for extra mystery and challenge.
- "One life to live" - You have 1 life to complete the event, everyone is Hardcore now : )
- No multiplayer advantage! - If 1 person in your group dies during the event, the run ends. Grouping up does not provide an advantage, no reviving!
- Timed Event - You have 10 minutes to fill the progress bar, summon the Boss, and kill it.
- Bosses, handle them! - When the progress bar is filled, 3 Blood Seekers Bosses will spawn.
- Rewards - On your first completion, you'll receive the Tears of Blood, a massive amount of Glyph XP (1,000 XP at Tier 1) along with the normal item rewards.
- Enemy scaling - The Dev Team wanted to focus more on monster health scaling than both health and damage equally, as with large scaling between Tiers, the event would quickly become impossible.
- Different each time - Each time you will see different layouts, tile sets, etc.
Midwinter Blight Holiday Event
The team gave a small update beyond what we knew about the event at BlizzCon 2023.
- Coming Soon-ish! - Will be available on December 12th until January 2nd!
- Gillian (new NPC) - A new guide for the first Holiday Event.
- One Region - Takes place in Fractured Peaks.
- Take on the Horror - Take on the new foes to eventually summon the Red Cloaked Horror.
- Rewards! - New themed cosmetics along with a new Elixir (that persists after the event) that grants bonus effects and XP when consumed.
Itemization
The Dev Team wanted to give a glimpse into what they are currently thinking about Itemization and what they have planned. These changes are slated to start truly arriving around Season 4.
- Parsing items - The Dev Team wants to make sure that the mental bandwidth required to figure out if an item is good or not is lessened.
- Grouping Affixes - Looking at how Affixes roll and see how to avoid situations where an item can come with, as an example, 3 or 4 +Skill Ranks to... Affixes.
- "Items should be a journey" - Getting a good item should be the start of that item's journey and being able to do many things to it, more than what can be done now.
- Wholistic approach - There are plans to bring a bunch of changes. These changes can't be pieced out due to the fact the game would suffer until all updates would be implemented.
- Helltide Update - Helltide will be changing due to the positive feedback on the Blood Harvest event in Season 2. Helltide will now be up for 55 minutes and ONLY down for 5 minutes before the next! This was a result of feedback and looking ahead for making sure the event not being up would cause a bottleneck in gathering resources.
- 925 Item Power "issue" - With Duriel coming in and guaranteeing 925 loot, it makes other sources of loot not feel good. Other Bosses, and events, don't provide enough opportunities to get 925 loot to warrant long term farming. The Dev Team is looking into upping those other sources.
Community Questions
Does the Diablo IV team plan to bring "Pay for Power" to the game?
No! There are no plans to bring "Pay for Power" to the game, making sure the game is fair, even down to stash space.
Gold trading improvements?
The Dev Team is looking into improvements, especially for console players for trading gold in Season 3.
Why is AoZ considered Seasonal content?
The Dev Team wants it that way, but more so because it allows them more freedom to make something without worry of how to balance it long term. They will gather feedback for possible future ideas.
Can we expect a future version of the AoZ event?
The Dev Team is looking into feedback with AoZ and also other forms of challenging content in Season 3 and beyond.
Loot Filters?
Being able to filter your loot should be a baseline part of any ARPG. They are looking at loot filters, but with major changes in Itemization coming, a filter released today wouldn't work. One thing at a time.
More types of Blood Seaker style events?
The Dev Team likes these events and how it can help interrupt the normal play loop and give moments of challenge.
More color palettes for transmogs?
Could always use more feedback. More can be done for the system.
Necromancer movement speed improvement?
This is something the Dev Team knows and can handle over time. The Sorcerer's on reliable way to apply Vulnerable with Frost Nova is something else that was brought up that is being looked at possibly.
And that's the AoZ Campfire Chat Wrap Up! All in all, the feedback, direction, and future updates are trending in the right direction. Future Seasons getting bigger and more refined. Itemization, a sore spot, is getting some much need love. Lastly, Holiday Events with mid-season updates keep the game more alive and not a one week play session. Keep sending the team your feedback, they are listening and wanting of it.
Abattoir Endgame Variants Incoming!
The Maxroll Diablo 4 Team is hard at work updating our Endgame Build Guides as we get ready for the upcoming Abattoir of Zir Seasonal Event! Stay tuned later on in the week when our event guide plus builds become available.
With that said, head over to our Discord and select the D4 role in #roles to stay up to date with our content development to make the most of your Season 2 experience!
Written by: Dredscythe
Reviewed by: Northwar