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Diablo IV needs to get Season 4 right. That’s a pretty universal viewpoint. The previous three seasons have just missed the mark in one way or another but hopes are high that Season 4 will finally set D4 on the path to sustained greatness.
Season 4 is going under the moniker of Loot Reborn and will bring an awful lot to the table, so let’s dig in a bit deeper into what Blizzard has revealed to us, and put it all together in one handy place so that you don’t need to trawl the internet for the best information.
When does Diablo 4 Season 4 release?
Blizzard has just announced that Season 4: Loot Reborn will go live on May 14th at 10 am PT, so at the time of writing that gives us just a fortnight to wait in anticipation. Blizzard’s description of the season reads, “The forges burn with renewed vigor, stoked by braziers to hone the steel of Sanctuary’s finest. Across the land, Hell’s expanded Legions gather and multiply, marshaling their strength to ambush wanderers who fall prey to their Helltide.”
It’s clear from that a lot of new mechanics are going to be introduced so let’s drill down into what May 14th will bring to the game.
What is Helltide Reborn?
Diablo IV’s Helltides have never ‘quite’ worked. There was nothing inherently wrong with them, just after a while there didn’t really feel a need to take part and you never felt as though you were a small part of a bigger environmental event.
That all changes with Helltide Reborn which introduces a Threat rating to your character. The more monsters you slay and the more Tortured Gifts you claim will raise your personal Threat level as the monsters take you more seriously.
There are three Threat levels to climb through during a Helltide and once you hit level three you become Hell-Marked. Now you will immediately be swarmed by a dense pack of monsters you need to fight your way through. Defeat them and one of Hell’s fallen Hellborn warriors will come for you. Survive that, and well, you deserve your acclaim,
Helltides will also now appear in World Tier I and II for the first time, albeit with scaled-down monster levels.
Main Changes in Loot Reborn
For the first time in Diablo IV the season not only affects the Seasonal Realm but overhauls who the game plays in the Eternal Realm as well – so basically a big old patch.
It will reinvent the game’s core systems and refresh how items are earned, how they all function, and how they improve as you level through World Tiers during the season.
It kind of feels now that Blizzard has got to grips with what Diablo IV needs after nearly a year in the wild and making the tweaks and changes to take it to the next level which is brilliant news.
It was always quite complicated for new players to the game to understand the difference in the sheer volume of loot that could be dropped – what was actually better than what you already had equipped?
This has now been modified so that most of this kind of working out is moved to the new Tempering and Masterworking of weapons and gear.
Blizzard explains this as follows, “Instead of seeing an affix that relies on conditional values (+10% damage on non-injured Elites), you’ll see affixes such as base increases to your Movement Speed, Max life, or single ranks of a Core Skill.”
Tempering and Masterworking are new ways to enhance your weaponry and armor into more powerful items than ever before.
Tempering relies on discovering Crafting Manuals and adding their contents to your gear whereas Masterworking “improves the overall strength of all affixes on your weapon, and at every 4th tier, massively upgrades one of your equipped affixes.”
Masterworking involves finding the rarest materials found in the deepest mines, so it doesn’t sound like getting the top-tier gear will be a quick job for most players.
What is in the Season 4 Battle Pass?
Despite a lot of these changes affecting the game overall, there is of course a premium Season 4 Battle Pass with rewards aplenty should you choose to purchase it.
The Battle Pass consists of 90 Reward Tiers (28 Free Tiers and 62 Premium Tiers). As ever, everybody playing the season can earn the Free Tier rewards but if you go for the paid option you can also get your hands on woken Demigod Armor Sets, Platinum, Awoken Demigod Plating Mount Armor, Purified Demigod Thoroughbred Mount, and the Divine Banner Mount Trophy, which unlocks at Tier 90.
The more expensive Accelerated Battle Pass also gets you 20 level skips which you can use if time to complete it may be short for you.
Season 4 Developer Livestream
On May 2 at 11 a.m. PT, there Blizzard will host a Developer Update Livestream, which will take a deep dive into Season 4: Loot Reborn. You can catch this on the Diablo Twitch and YouTube channels.
