Season 4 Campfire Chat Wrap Up

The Season 4 Campfire Chat just took place. The panel consisted of Joseph Piepiora (Associate Game Director), Adam Jackson (Lead Class Designer), Colin Finer (Lead Live Game Designer), Deric Nunez (Lead Seasons Designer), and Adam Fletcher (Associate Director of Community). The topics included PTR Learnings, class balancing, Season 4, and Q&A. See all the major points below.

The Dev Team discussed general items, the PTR, and what has changed since then.

There was a reiteration of the changes to items. Rare items have only 2 affixes, Legendaries have 3 affixes. Greater Affixes are a cool new addition that can give you 150% of the normal bonus to an affix. Also, lowering the quantity of affixes, but upping the quality of them on gear was a big step forward. They eased how some damage works, "Damage on Tuesday," and simplified some requirements/conditions. Killing monsters at level 100 now guarantees Item Power 925 loot, reducing inventory sifting. Ultimately, it's about getting a good item and working on it.

Not too much has changed since the PTR. Allowing players to skip the animations was added. Also, a stat range was added to the preview of the rolled affix to help make it clear how good of a roll it is.

A lot of the system is unchanged. The skipping feature has been made better with the non-critical ranks being auto-skipped. There is no fail rate for the later ranks of Masterworking, however material costs are adjusted a little bit to compensate. Also, the conversion of materials with caches was stated to be made better from the PTR, with a long-term solution in the works post Season 4.

The Pit was stated by the community to be a little too easy. Adjustments have been made to increase monster health to not always be one-shot. Also, Masterworking materials have been shifted into deeper tiers of when you receive them.

The players in a group, that did not open The Pit level should receive 50% of the rewards of the player that did open it. This was an increase and hopefully not make group running The Pit feel so punishing.

Andariel has been added along with the Tormented version (monster level 200). The effort vs reward wasn't good enough. The team reduced the Summoning Material requirements (for Tormented versions only) to 3x from 5x with 5x the total rewards given. Other Bosses besides Duriel and Andariel have a smaller chance to drop an Uber Unique now.

The Dev Team will be curating a bunch of Legendaries that are focused around a certain build. These will come from completing certain Objectives/Chapters to help get players up to speed quicker. The five build styles are:

A lot has changed with Helltides. The Accursed Rituals to summon the Blood Maiden for great loot and Boss Summoning Materials.

The Threat Meter, as it fills up, more ambushes and visits from the Hellworm happen more frequently. When full, a Hellborne attacks you. Defeating it grants more loot and Summoning Materials for Lord Zir. Helltides are now in World Tiers 1 and 2. Some elements like the meteorites and roaming bosses aren't present. This is to make Helltide fun but not too crazy for lower levels.

Iron Wolves are a permanent part of Helltide. In Season 4, seasonal players will be able to heed the "Call of the Wolves." As you participate and work through the Seasonal Quest line, you'll earn reputation for earning juiced-up rewards, capped off at the end with a Resplendent Spark. Cosmetics as well can be earned.

Finally, exclusive to seasonal characters is a new Elixer, Profane Mindcage. It increases Helltide monster level, Cinders drop rates, and Threat gain. They are obtained from Hellborne and also through the reputation rewards.

The Dev Team discussed Itemization, the PTR, and what has changed since then.

The Team brought up three major areas they took lessons from PTR. They received a lot of feedback at addressed each one for Season 4.

With Armor being an infinite scaling stat (right now in Season 3) the team went back and capped the amount of Armor you need at Level 100. This is to give the player a goal to hit, a goal that is clear and not hidden, and most importantly not waste gear affix slots by going over the capped amount.

Other affixes are getting caps too. This is just as much for server performance as it is to keep the game in check.

Some QoL in the form of de-cluttering all those Dust Devils has been implemented as well as for Frozen Orb and its new Unique Item. Fortify got buffed to make up for the loss of some Defensive affixes and Druid Wolves getting some love too. This was by no means everything, but just a sampling.

Visual improvement for Dust Devils.

The new Scoundrel's Kiss originally made a line of arrows, meaning Rogues would have to get up close and a little too personally to get all the damage out of it. In Season 4, you just point and click, and all arrows go to that location instead.

The team had to get things right for Season 4, but this doesn't mean Seasonal Powers are gone for good.

Season 4 shouldn't be impacted that much, at most it will be a week shorter.

PTR only issue.

Nope, it just resets the timer.

Nope, just the player who used it.

The team is seeing how things work out in Season 4 and will adjust from there.

Not right now, but open to discussion.

The team is open to discussions.

The Maxroll Diablo 4 Team has been hard at work since the PTR to get all our guides and resources ready for this game-changing update! 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 3 experience!