Unknowingly, Diablo 4 has accompanied you for two years through 8 seasons. Although it has not always performed well, at least it has brought you a good Sanctuary adventure time. Now the second anniversary will come with Season 9.

Diablo 4 officially launched on June 5, 2023, and the currently confirmed release time of Season 9 is July 1 this year (PTR will end on June 3). Therefore, the two-year anniversary celebration event should actually be held at the end of Season 8.

But to be honest, as the opening work of the third year, even if the ninth season cannot participate in the two-year anniversary celebration itself, it should launch more innovative gameplay besides the content shown in the PTR before the official launch to show that the game itself still has development potential.

Based on this, we will introduce you to the events that may be held on the second anniversary, and what additional content we hope Season 9 can bring.

Known 2nd Anniversary Celebration Content

In June 2024, to commemorate the first anniversary of the game, from June 6 to June 20, Diablo 4 brought a series of celebration events including Treasure Goblin, Mother’s Blessing and more. You can get free cosmetic props and Diablo 4 gold and XP bonus opportunities by playing these content.

Although the celebration method this year has not been fully announced and may change, one thing remains unchanged, that is, everything should be based on providing rewards for you! And this year’s reward method is likely to be Reliquary.

It is expected that this celebration event will provide you with a free Reliquary, which may be a combination of a large amount of gold, new cosmetics, new theme rewards, etc. - after all, the anniversary reward cannot be set too single and simple.

What Is Reliquary?

This mechanism is a new form of battle pass launched in Season 8, divided into battle pass Reliquaries and event Reliquaries. The former is related to the daily progress of the game, while the latter is set for special events, such as the upcoming two-year anniversary celebration.

Compared with the previous battle pass, the biggest advantage of Reliquary is that you can decide the priority of obtaining rewards according to your own wishes, rather than in a fixed order. In this way, you can arrange the game progress exploration by yourself.

To be honest, although the mechanism itself is very good, it was complained by players for being too scarce when it was applied in Season 8. It seems that Diablo 4 completely regards it as a profit tool rather than a welfare mechanism.

Based on this, Reliquary provided through the anniversary celebration this time should be the product of the game after learning lessons, so both the quantity and quality of rewards should be better.

What Other Celebration Events Should Be Brought?

Rewards are one aspect, and the way to provide rewards is actually very important! It is fun to get free rewards directly, but it will be more fulfilling to earn rewards through your own efforts. Therefore, in addition to Reliquary, adding new tasks and gameplay should also be good.

To this end, the game can learn from last year’s practice and re-launch the classic Diablo 4 event Treasure Goblin, and get corresponding rewards by hunting these special creatures. In fact, this event was also held in March this year, and the response was still good.

In the past two seasons, Diablo 4 has been considered lacking innovation. Even the highly anticipated Berserk cooperation event was ultimately just another inducement to consumption. Therefore, the game can completely utilize this celebration to combine rewards with new gameplay to change its reputation.

How Should Season 9 Perform?

Although the two-year anniversary celebration should end before the launch of the season, it would be a bit ridiculous if the celebration performed better than the new season.

According to 2.3.0 PTR, the known highlights of Season 9 include the new boss Astaroth, the new power Horadric Spells (and a series of related mechanisms), as well as the update of the nightmare dungeon and the addition of Horadric Strongrooms dungeon.

Among them, the new Escalating Nightmares, as a new endgame dungeon, is actually a chain dungeon consisting of three nightmare dungeons. Each individual dungeon has stackable affixes, and the difficulty of the dungeon will increase as you explore deeper.

New Skill Effects Worth Keeping

Season 9 seasonal power Horadric Spells actually allow you to combine Catalysts, Infusions, and Arcana, three abilities that each have multiple types of power, to craft the combat power that best suits you.

No matter what specific power is utilized, the ultimate goal is to kill or weaken the enemy, but in 2.3.0 PTR, you will find that if you utilize Propulsion as a Catalyst, the large-scale explosion effect it produces can be combined with Floaty Bobble Arcana to form a special teleportation effect in the arena.

On this basis, if you further combine it with Bloody Charm Arcana, you can also kill enemies with less than 20% health in the explosion and reset the skill. In other words, as long as there are enemies nearby that will be killed by the explosion, you can achieve permanent teleportation in this way!

In order to accumulate key resources such as gold and XP, you need to actively farm various dungeons after the start of Season 9, and the teleportation effect provided by this series of Horadric Spells will greatly improve your combat efficiency because your speed and accuracy have been improved.

Although Diablo 4 is always used to cancel or weaken such accidental events in the PTR in the official season, this function is completely worth retaining. Because it does not destroy the game balance too much, and also provides game fun for players.

In short, whether it is a new season or a new celebration, it is worth looking forward to. Fortunately, they are not far away!

Because of the mediocre performance of Diablo 4 in the past two seasons, which has caused complaints from players, the game has brought news of the new season faster than ever before, and opened 2.3.0 PTR on May 27.

Although this may divert your attention, no matter what, the work at hand still needs to be done! Even if you have lost interest and confidence in Season 8, completing the reward tasks will lay a solid foundation for you to enter Season 9.

In order to restore the reputation of the season as much as possible before the end, Diablo 4 Season 8 also released patch 2.2.2 on May 27. The patch does not contain many changes, but Masterworking craft-related ones should be the most concerned.

Based on this, we will focus on Masterworking and introduce you to the main content of patch 2.2.2, as well as other details worth paying attention to.

What Is Masterworking?

First of all, you need to be clear that Masterworking is actually an endgame system in the game. You can utilize it to increase the value of affixes for specific existing items to make them more powerful because the 8-12 separate upgrade levels Masterworking provides.

It should be noted that Masterworking must be performed at the blacksmith, and the relevant craft materials must be farmed in important dungeons such as Nightmare Dungeons, Infernal Hordes, and Kurast Undercity.

What Changes Have Been Made To Masterworking In Patch 2.2.2?

In recent seasons, I don’t know if you have found that even if you have enough Diablo 4 gold and Obducite, the craft materials consumed for a Masterworking are indeed too much. Many players in the game community have also reported this problem and said that it even makes them not want to utilize Masterworking anymore.

But to be honest, this system is really useful for improving your game battle win rate and experience, because the gear upgraded by Masterworking is much more powerful than before, which can effectively solve battles that you could not deal with before.

Perhaps because the players’ resentment accumulated by Season 8 could no longer be ignored, through patch 2.2.2, the game reduced the number of materials required for Masterworking (excluding gold and Obducite as supporting consumables).

This way, you can perform Masterworking more times than before, and the crafting efficiency and combat efficiency will be further improved. However, it should be noted that this “reduction” is only for the number of materials, and does not mean that the difficulty of farming them or the number of drops will change.

What Else Are Included In Patch 2.2.2?

Although you may hope that Season 8 will be more interesting with a new patch, unfortunately, apart from Masterworking changes, the other patch contents are mainly to fix bugs and improve the player experience.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed the screen reader not reading the decoration details in Reliquary menu.
• Fixed the screen reader repeating the classes supported by Reliquary decoration items.
• Fixed the screen reader reading the season journey goal as a score.
• Fixed the screen reader not working properly when viewing Steam friends.

Season 8 Content Adjustments (the following issues have been fixed):

• Progression could be blocked if you left the dungeon while Slay the Ghosts’ objective was active during Buried Hope quest.
• Stronghold shrine could become un-interactive when defeating Duz-Agur in Eriman’s Pyre using Avarice’s Explosive Ore, one of the main boss powers.
• Apparition of Kirma could shake during a jump attack, causing the boss’s attacks to malfunction.
• The teleport effect of Jah rune was not working when equipped with the main power Duriel’s Burrow.

Gameplay Adjustments (the following issues have been fixed):

• Grigoire’s Hoard Chest could sometimes be opened without defeating the boss.
• Captain Willcocks, a rare monster in Hawezar, could become invincible if damaged too quickly.
• Obducite could be accidentally dropped by a player and picked up by any other player.
• Raven of the Tree no longer interacts with you after closing reward selection without selecting a reward.
• In some cases, the lair boss chest does not open properly through interaction.

User Experience Improvements:

• Tree of Whispers icons for Ked Bardu on the map.
• Fixed an issue where the season journey objectives completed before unlocking the chapter were not displayed as completed.
• Fixed an issue where the game could freeze after double-clicking the create character option in the character selection menu.
• Fixed an issue where the attack wave counter in Infernal Hordes was not updated on time.
• Fixed an issue where Devout Champion achievement sometimes did not unlock properly.
• Now the party vote will no longer time out and fail if someone leaves the party during the vote.
• Other visual, performance, and audio fixes and improvements.

Finally, I want to mention that in fact, in addition to the gameplay itself, the performance of Berserk crossover event launched in Season 8 is far from what you expect.

Originally, crossover should be a win-win activity, but the excessive emphasis on crossover item trading and the lack of novel gameplay ultimately led to the low evaluation of Diablo 4 Berserk crossover.

Honestly, if Diablo 4 wants to reverse its evaluation and performance from S9, besides improving the quality and creativity of the season, it should change the purpose of development - don’t lose the trust of players for the sake of temporary benefits.

The above is the comprehensive patch 2.2.2 information brought to you. I hope it’s helpful to you and wish you a better experience in Season 8 and PTR!

2.3.0 PTR is in full swing! You can use it to experience and test all the new content you want to experience in the future Diablo 4 Season 9, including finding and utilizing more different builds for each class.

Normally, the strength of all Diablo 4 classes should not differ much to ensure the balance of the game, but due to changes in the mechanism, it is not ruled out that some classes are more suitable for utilizing the new power of the current season-then these classes become the first choice to experience the new season.

Judging from the performance in the current PTR, although Horadric Spells are not exactly the same as the witchcraft power of Season 7, all of them seem to be very suitable for Sorcerer. Going further, you will find that this kind of “mysterious” seasonal power is very compatible with Hydra skills of Sorcerer.

Based on this, we will introduce you how to craft Hydra-centric S9 builds so that you can complete more battles as a Sorcerer as soon as possible in the PTR and the official ninth season.

Hydra Skill Overview

To understand how Hydra builds work, you must first understand the key skill Hydra. In Sorcerer’s entire skill tree, Hydra is an active skill and part of the conjuration cluster. It can be upgraded to a maximum of 5 levels to deal more damage.

More specifically, this skill allows you to summon a three-headed Hydra in combat, which will damage enemies within range by breathing fire for the next 12 seconds. This attack feature makes this skill can help you to get more Diablo 4 gold drops in small dungeons at one time, but you can only summon one Hydra at a time.

In addition to upgrading, Hydra can also be further enhanced like most active skills. Its enhanced versions include:

• Enhanced Hydra
• Invoked Hydra
• Summoned Hydra

How Should Hydra Builds Be Crafted?

Usually, the first step in crafting new builds is to determine the other available skills besides the core skills. As you can see, in addition to the summoning characteristics, Hydra essentially outputs fire damage, so other active skills that match it are also mainly of this type.

Skill Selection

As one of the important active skills, Fire Bolt will automatically fire flaming arrows in battle to cause burning damage to the enemy. With Hydra, you will set off a fire war in Season 9! In addition, you can continue to stack Lightning Spear to output lightning damage at the same time.

On this basis, the passive skill selection recommends Devastation, which can provide you with damage reduction and barrier effects, allowing you to output stable damage while ensuring that your own health is less damaged.

The combination of the above skills will eventually bring you a lot of barrier and buff effects, as well as 60% summon damage, 60% movement speed and 120% mana recovery bonus - this is enough to solve most Diablo 4 Season 9 battles.

If you still have spare energy, you can continue to add Ice Shards to the build. Although it brings another type of damage, it can also effectively weaken the enemy and provide additional attack speed, allowing you to complete the battle faster.

Gear Selection

Good and appropriate gear can amplify the effect of your skills while ensuring your survivability. For Hydra builds, the preferred helm is Harlequin Crest or Heir of Perdition, which can bring you considerable damage bonus.

Since you can directly obtain all Mythic Uniques in the PTR to facilitate your testing of various gear and the effects of new powers, in order to maximize the strength of Hydra builds, you can give priority to gear that can increase your resource generation and resistance, movement speed, and defensive attributes.

In this way, after sufficient testing through the PTR, you can conduct unique item farming more targetedly when entering Season 9, to get ahead in the new season with higher efficiency.

What Needs To Be Added To Season 9 Hydra Builds?

In addition to other skills, Hydra can also work with new power Horadric Spells to further improve the efficiency of related builds, and the short cooldown of Hydra will play an important role.

Among all Horadric Spells, Reactive Ooze can provide you with reliable resource generation, allowing you to gain 5% of your maximum resource generation per second for the next 10 seconds, Frigid Heart can cause freeze damage to enemies, and then run Volatile Crystal to make your Catalyst Horadric Spells deal more damage.

It is worth noting that after completing Horadric Spells matching, you can also earn Horadric Jewels to attach to these seasonal powers to provide them with richer effects. However, please note that not all Horadric Jewels have positive effects.

But if you want to get these jewels, you need to obtain Horadric Tomes in Horadric Strongrooms in Torment 1+ difficulties in advance (teaching you how to make Horadric Jewels) and farm enough materials to craft them.

The above are the main ideas for craft Hydra builds in 2.3.0 PTR and later Season 9. I hope it helps improve your Diablo 4 experience!

2.3.0 PTR for pre-testing the main content of Season 9 has been officially launched on May 27. If you have almost completed the progress of Season 8, it is time to enter the PTR and experience the new dungeons and new power Horadric Spells for a week.

Although Diablo 4 has brought almost no fundamental innovations or changes in recent seasons, there are always slight differences between different seasons. On this basis, in order to ensure the balance of the game environment, all 6 classes also need to be adjusted regularly.

Take the latest class, Spiritborn, as an example. Because it was considered too powerful shortly after its launch, it was weakened in Season 7, while other classes were appropriately strengthened to maintain the balance of class strength.

As the game progresses to Season 9, the previous adjustments may no longer apply. Based on this, we will introduce you to the nerfs and changes to classes and other related mechanisms that will be brought about in Season 9 based on 2.3.0 PTR and other information.

Barbarian

Of course, the PTR doesn’t blindly nerf every skill, affix, or other aspect of the game class. After all, balance means adding and subtracting in moderation. But in general, there are some major ability nerfs that you need to pay attention to, because this is related to the efficiency of your Diablo 4 gold farming.

For Barbarian, the first brunt of the nerfs is the skill War Cry, which has been reduced from 100% to 65%, and the glyph that can be paired with it, Wrath, which has been reduced from 160% to the lesser. Since they are the core components of many Barbarian builds, these nerfs mean that you will need to adjust your available Barbarian builds in the PTR or Season 9.

In addition, the attack effect of Bash, one of the main damage skills of the class, has been reduced. Although old patches have buffed this skill in the past, nothing is permanent in the game.

Druid

As a special ranged governing stone, Lightning Bolt can cause lightning damage to enemies by firing a special arc. Although it is not a Druid-only item, it is very effective for Cataclysm Druid builds - unfortunately, the effect of Lightning Bolt will also be reduced from 200% to 100%.

In addition, as one of the classes that can utilize specific overpower skills, Druid can form overpower domination on enemies through Werebear forms, but it is expected that the effect will also be reduced by half.

Changes To Other Classes

Comparatively, Barbarian and Druid have more changes and are more noteworthy. Adjustments to other classes include an overall reduction in overpower effects and Tempered damage. However, it is worth noting that the changes in Tempered damage include both enhancements and reductions.

• Rogue: The reduction in health damage after Stealth has reduced the additional damage that can be formed.
• Sorcerer: Lightning Spear’s damage has been reduced by 40%, and the skill effects of Hydra and Shocking Impact have been weakened.
• General nerfs (for all classes): The reduction of some Tempered damage, reduction of critical damage, basic skills, core skills and ultimate damage.

Nerfs Of Unique Items

At present, the specific nerf values ​​of all unique items that will be weakened are not very clear, but it is certain which items will be weakened, including general unique items and those exclusive to each class.

General:

• Banished Lord’s Talisman
• Locran’s Talisman
• Paingorger’s Gauntlets
• Rakanoth’s Wake
• Shard of Verathiel
• Yen’s Blessing

Barbarian:

• Arreat’s Bearing
• Ramaladni’s Magnum Opus
• Twin Strikes
• Ugly Bastard Helm

Druid:

• Mjölnic Ryng

Necromancer:

• Bloodless Scream
• Deathless Visage
• Indira’s Memory

Rogue:

• Condemnation
• Eaglehorn
• Eyes in the Dark

Sorcerer:

• Axial Conduit
• Esu’s Heirloom
• Fractured Winterglass

Spiritborn:

• Sepazontec

Implicit Affixes Weakened

In Diablo In Diablo 4, affixes are special magical properties. Each gear will have several affixes, or you can add additional affixes to your gear to make them more powerful.

Generally speaking, affixes in Diablo 4 are divided into three categories: offensive, defensive, and utility, which can provide different types of gains for gear, but the implicit affixes that come with gear cannot be changed or removed. In Season 9, it is expected that the implicit affixes of many weapons will be weakened, such as bows, crossbows, and some other long-handled weapons.

The above content is only part of the weakening reflected in 2.3.0 PTR for your reference. However, I want to tell you that the weakening is actually a normal change when Diablo 4 changes seasons. Listing it for you is just to facilitate your adjustment of your new season and PTR arrangements. Normally, they will not cause too much damage to your gaming experience.

In contrast, if you really want to adapt to the new season rhythm as soon as possible after the arrival of Season 9, you should familiarize yourself with the new content through PTR, such as the new dungeons Strongrooms and Escalating Nightmares, as well as the new bosses and new season powers.

The above is all the content introduced to you this time, you can utilize this as a basis to start your PTR exploration. I wish you all the best!