The Season 4 of Diablo 4 will arrive in just under a couple of weeks. While we've been aware of many major changes coming to the game for some time, the stream promised some significant reveals. It was expected to unveil the season theme, which was previously unknown, as well as any adjustments based on player feedback from the PTR.

Season 4 Overview

First, let's delve into the seasonal theme. The Blizzard have a general theme centered on fire and the forge, which is anticipated to be the primary topic of discussion until the season officially launches. 

The upcoming season is titled Loot Reborn, a name that may seem somewhat straightforward but also marks a departure from previous season themes. Unlike past seasons, which typically revolved around specific themes, this season's focus is on the changes made to the game itself.

While there are some season-exclusive elements, there are no distinct season-specific powers, which may disappoint some players. Essentially, the season is built upon the revamped loot system and extensive alterations to Helltide, serving as the foundation for the season's content, despite the Helltide also being an internal realm feature.

Helltide Changes

Before moving on to the seasonal bit specifically, we should also talk about changes made to the Helltide since the PTR, which are essentially just changes to drop rates in various ways. The Infernal Loot will drop far more, Pain Warthful Hearts will drop more and more consistently.

Blood Maidens, the big altar bosses, now just drop far more loot, including summoning materials for Lord Zir and a percentage chance at summon materials for various different endgame bosses too. One final relatively notable change: Helltide chests now take half of the channel time to open, 1 and a half seconds down from 3.

Seasonal Events

The seasonal part that won’t be returning in the future, will be the Iron Wolves reputation system and extra events based around the Iron Wolves in Helltide and the new Call of the Wolves seasonal event that all that is contained within because it’s essentially just a name for the questline and reputation system. So essentially, we’re just taking the stuff that they changed as a permanent feature for Diablo 4 and making it the seasonal mechanic.

Then there is also a new consumable called the Profane Mindcage. This raises the level of monsters in the Helltide for its full duration by 10 and also raises the cinder drop rate during this effect, as well as increasing your threat meter gain too.

Uber Uniques

Then we have some Boss Ladder specific changes, most notably that all Uber bosses now have a decent chance of dropping Diablo 4 Items that are Uber Uniques. It was related to us as being slightly lower than Duriel and the Andariel, but that means all the Uber bosses now have a proper chance for Uber Uniques to drop from them as well. The tormented bosses, which is the secondary super high-end tier of the Boss Ladder, now cost 3 times the summoning materials instead of the 5 times that were originally tested in the PTR.

There have been significant adjustments to both Nightmare Dungeons and the Pit of Artificers. They now yield varying amounts of Murmuring Obols at higher tiers, a crucial development considering the alterations made to the gambling vendor in towns. This vendor will now consistently provide 925 item power items if you're at Level 100, a substantial enhancement.

Final Thought

One of the most notable changes from the PTR to the current version of the game, unrelated to player feedback, aims to refine the balancing of deeper and more challenging endgame content. Armor effectiveness offering 85% damage reduction against Level 100 enemies from Diablo 4 Season 4 onwards.

As well as that, just a number of changes to make performance a bit smoother on some of the results of the new systems to while also increasing power in return where necessary to sort of just even it out. We will see more of when we get the full picture on season release, but the season journey has been adjusted to sort of give each class a full strong build by Level 100.