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Diablo 4 Season 11 PTR brought many changes, such as leveling, crafting, and new leaderboards, but the experience wasn't as good as Season 10.

However, Season 11 hasn't officially launched yet (its release date is December 9th), so there's still plenty of time to fine-tune it. In a recent developer interview, the developers discussed their plans for Season 11 and future updates, even hinting at the next expansion for Diablo 4.

Sanctification

Sanctification is one of the seasonal features of Season 11. Its operation is similar to Vaal Orb in Path of Exile. Using it on an item might give it better affixes or remove its useful affixes, rendering it worthless, and the item cannot be sanctified further. This feature is mainly for trying to upgrade items that are close to their endgame value; players can also choose not to use it.

The developers understand that players don't want to destroy valuable and unique gear and Mythic items, but they also feel that a completely risk-free experience would reduce player excitement. They believe that ideal sanctification should allow for an unlimited number of sanctifications of the same item, rather than a single, decisive result.

They plan to protect very high quality Diablo 4 items; for example, sanctifying Ancestral and Mythic items will not remove their affixes and will yield better results. Sanctifying rare items, however, still carries risks.

Masterworking

In PTR 2.5.0, Masterworking has been significantly modified. It now only increases the item's base stats, such as weapon damage, jewel resistances, and armor values. This prevents players from acquiring significant amounts of key modifiers like cooldown reduction, attack speed, crit, and skill levels through Masterworking, resulting in a substantial decrease in character strength.

The developers believe the current Masterworking system is similar to Blacksmith's Whetstone and Armourer's Scrap in Path of Exile; the gear-up process is monotonous and uninteresting, simply clicking to upgrade until the maximum level, failing to provide players with surprise and satisfaction.

They mentioned adding a new Masterworking bonus on top of the existing one, though they didn't specify what it would be. Any change, however, would be beneficial.

The Towers Rewards

The Towers is a new leaderboard system with more detailed rankings than The Pit, but it lacks rewards, resulting in a lack of player motivation. According to PTR data, even the strongest classic Barbarian builds are far from reaching floor 150 in The Towers, and after the new patch, even reaching floor 100 may be difficult.

The developers have reduced the HP of the Towers bosses and shortened the reward interval from every 10 floors to every 5 floors, up to floor 150. They believe that even with these changes, reaching floor 150 will still be extremely difficult. They speculate that players' progress in The Towers will typically be about 10 floors lower than in The Pit.

They plan to design The Towers as a more competitive endgame mode, differentiating it from the more diverse and fun-filled Pitfalls mode. This will involve optimized map generation rules, such as prioritizing upward routes, reducing unnecessary dead ends, and preventing important enemies from spawning in remote corners.

Finally, based on player feedback, they plan to offer rewards for players challenging The Towers. For individual players, rewards based on clearing specific floors will be introduced, such as gear and transmogs. Players who rank high on the leaderboard will receive functional rewards, prestige titles, and halos (cosmetics).

Finally, a Build Viewer will be added, making all builds on the leaderboard public and transparent, while also optimizing the leaderboard UI and notifications.

Future Update Plans

The development team stated that the future focus is on adding depth to existing content, rather than simply bloating the game with a large number of new events. They don't rule out adding new content but prefer to refine the existing systems.

Magic Item Upgrades

The developers mentioned considering giving magic items affixes and making them upgradable. This could make more types of items valuable in the endgame. This isn't without precedent; at least in Diablo II, magic items proved useful due to their potentially high specific skill bonuses.

However, to encourage players to forgo some legendary aspects in favor of magic items, their affix strength would need to be five to six times greater than it is now. This change is expected to be implemented as early as Season 12.

Chaos Uniques Items

Season 10 Chaos Unique items, including Chaos Perks and Chaos Rifts, are highly popular mechanics among players. The developers are happy to integrate them into the game, but they need to find a suitable way to avoid disrupting long-term balance and diversity. They mentioned that some Chaos Perks might return as Legendary Aspects.

Gold And Material

The developers' long-term goal is to ensure that gold primarily comes from killing monsters rather than selling items. They have already significantly increased the amount of gold piles dropped by monsters in Season 11.

They are also considering changing Boss Materials to a currency, so they don't take up inventory space, but the trade-off might be that they will become untradeable.

The Next Expansion

Finally, Zaven, the game's Associate Director of Expansion, hinted that all Diablo fans should pay attention to The Game Awards on December 11th. He strongly suggested that there would be an announcement about Diablo IV expansion pack, and perhaps we'll even see an exciting trailer.

That concludes the main content of this developer interview. Overall, the official team has listened to player and community feedback while also having its own update plans, and Season 11 experience should be better than the PTR.

Since its launch, Diablo 4 has released a new season every 2-3 months, accompanied by various updates and new seasonal content related to the season's theme, ensuring there's always something new to play and keeping the game fresh and dynamic.

However, besides this type of new content, sometimes the release of a new season brings long-term, historical changes that will have a profound impact on the future development of Diablo 4.

Take Season 11 as an example. Although it won't be available until December 9th, a month later, 2.5.0 PTR has already largely confirmed the new content it will bring, as well as the long-term updates we're talking about.

We've previously introduced the seasonal content of Season 11 in several articles; this time, we'll bring you the overall changes that will begin with the new season and analyze their impact.

Skip The Campaign, Unlock Waypoints Directly

If you choose to play the new season, you'll need to create a new character. This means that everything, from leveling up to farming available Diablo 4 items, will have to start from scratch.

Furthermore, at the start of each season, you had to traverse the map on horseback or on foot to clear the fog, unlocking corresponding areas and waypoints so you could teleport directly to specific locations later.

While this process wasn't difficult, repeating it every season was incredibly tedious and time-consuming, even if you knew the map and waypoints by heart.

Fortunately, after two years of this "torture," Diablo 4 finally decided to remove this mechanism starting with Season 11!

This means that once you've completed the campaign before, you can skip the process of unlocking basic waypoints to get them directly. At least in Season 11, you can immediately start farming XP and gold, reaching endgame faster.

As for the waypoints added in Vessel of Hatred DLC, once you've completed the campaign within it, you can also skip them and directly enjoy the full map and travel experience.

This way, veteran players no longer need to endure the pointless fog of war cleanup every season, while new players can still experience the campaign and gradually explore the game's areas.

More importantly, if you're a veteran player who has completed campaign at least one time, you'll be able to complete farming much faster in all new Diablo 4 seasons than before (before Season 11), allowing more time to enjoy the new season's exclusive gameplay.

Frankly, this change should have been implemented a long time ago, as the player community has been complaining about the repetitive fog of war cleanup for a long time. But regardless, it's finally here.

The Impact Of The New Mechanism On Eternal Realm

As you should know, the entire game is divided into the seasonal realm and Eternal Realm. The former is used to experience the new season, while the latter is a relatively stable realm storing all characters from previous seasons.

Generally, most players will prioritize experiencing the seasonal realm, but if you really like a character and their builds created in a particular season, or if you want to delve deeper into the game's fundamental mechanics and general events, Eternal Realm is a better choice.

Since seasonal content is not carried over to Eternal Realm, it's essentially unaffected by seasonal updates, except for character additions. However, Season 11's adjustments to the gear upgrade mechanism seem to change this.

First, Tempering and Masterworking mechanics have reformed the way affix upgrades affect gear, either by reducing the randomness of selected affixes or by directly influencing the upgrade's effect on the gear itself.

Second, Season 11 will add a new mechanic called Sanctification, allowing you to further enhance your gear after utilizing other mechanics. Once Sanctification is complete, your gear cannot be altered further.

Based on 2.5.0 PTR, these updates have received mixed reviews from players, and whether they are truly worthwhile remains to be seen after the new season launches. However, you'll find that they will definitely impact build usage in Eternal Realm.

Builds are essentially combinations of skills, gear, and other combat bonuses, such as Season 10 Chaos Perks, tailored to a specific class or combat scenario to maximize offensive/defensive damage.

Related: Diablo 4 Players Debate Chaos Armor Removal | Should This Mechanism From Season 10 Be Retained In Season 11?

Since Eternal Realm doesn't retain seasonal mechanics, builds are essentially the same regardless of which season's character you play, except for class differences.

However, Sanctification introduced in Season 11 means that the gear component of your builds will undergo a fundamental change. Previous gear will become obsolete due to the inability to obtain Sanctification.

This means that after Season 11 ends, if you want to play in Eternal Realm at your strongest, all the builds you crafted during Seasons 1-10 will be ineffective, as they cannot compare to builds affected by Sanctification and the updated Tempering and Masterworking.

Overall, this change won't negatively impact your Diablo 4 experience too much, as Eternal Realm's playability is inherently lower. However, this is a historic change for Diablo 4 itself.

Besides the confirmed changes Season 11 will bring to Diablo 4, the specific release date of the second DLC should also be revealed soon. Previously, it was only known to be in 2026.

Last year, the development team hoped to release the second DLC in 2025, but ultimately postponed this plan by a year when releasing the roadmap. With 2025 drawing to a close, players' curiosity is even stronger.

In short, Diablo 4's performance throughout 2025 has been relatively uneventful, but the changes brought by Season 11 may mean that the game will bring you new surprises in 2026. Let's look forward to it!

Diablo 4 Season 11 PTR has ended. Based on the official announcements, while the core gameplay remains unchanged, many key systems have been completely overhauled.

Current feedback suggests that Season 11 changes have slowed down the game's progression. The developers have adjusted monster difficulty and early gear drop rates. It's difficult to say whether these changes improve the experience, but they have certainly had a significant impact on every class.

Season 11 Changes

In addition to numerous class balance changes, Season 11 also introduced seasonal content, significantly revamped Tempering and Masterworking systems, and added Tower activity to replace The Pit.

This ranking uses the new Tower activity instead of The Pit as the benchmark. This is because Tower has a complete Leaderboard system, providing a reliable data source. All data is currently based on the PTR, so adjustments are likely to be made before release on live servers.

Class Rank

No.6 Rogue

• Highest Leaderboard Record: Tier 94 Tower clear.

Dance of Knives Rogue build was too powerful in the early PTR, so it was subsequently nerfed, resulting in mediocre performance in high-level content. Currently, the best performing build is Death Trap Rogue, a common top-tier build for several seasons. Other potential builds include Heartseeker Rogue and some other Basic Skill Rogues.

Melted Heart of Selig, after its rework, increases the main resource cap by 3% per point of primary attribute. When injured, resources are deducted first, then health, but maximum health is reduced by 75%. Recovering full resources within 3 seconds after 6 seconds of no damage is deducted.

This allows the resource cap to exceed 500, enabling Death Trap to receive its full damage boost after becoming a core skill with other Diablo 4 items. Beastfall Boots allow Rogue's next skill after using their ultimate to increase damage by consuming resources, thus utilizing the abundant resources provided by Melted Heart of Selig.

No.5 Sorcerer

• Highest Leaderboard Record: Tier 103 Tower clear.

Sorcerer is currently in a somewhat awkward position. Firstly, Teleport Enchantment has been nerfed, meaning its cooldown on the live server will be longer than on the PTR. Chaos Powers, such as Mana Shield, which were relied upon last season, have been removed, returning damage output to normal levels.

Sorcerer's new unique item in Season 11, Orsivane, allows defensive skills not on the skill bar to activate their enchantments and also provides increased damage. While this frees up skill bars, the benefits cannot fully compensate for the loss of Chaos Power and Teleport enchantments.

The another top Sorcerer build in PTR 2.5.0 is Crackling Energy. Esadora's Overflowing Cameo and Galvanic Azurite Ring can significantly increase the damage and generation of Crackling Energy.

Other promising builds include Hydra Sorcerer build and Frozen Orb Sorcerer, and these builds benefit from the reworked Banished Lord's Talisman.

No.4 Necromancer

• Highest Leaderboard Record: Tier 103 Tower clear, but slightly faster than Sorcerer.

Necromancer has consistently been in the upper-middle tier for several seasons, demonstrating remarkable stability. The current leaderboard is dominated by traditional builds built around Shadow Blight and its key passive, while Bloodwave Necromancer build, reliant on Chaos Perks, has weakened in Season 10.

Necromancer gains a new unique item in Season 11, Gravebloom, which replaces a single Golem with three smaller Golems, offering higher attack speed and a chance to deal double damage, significantly boosting golem damage. Therefore, Golem Summoner Necromancer build is a strong contender for the new season's S-tier build.

No.3 Druid

• Highest Leaderboard Record: Tier 105 Tower clear.

Cataclysm Druid Finally, it's back! This is the result of a combination of multiple mechanics and items. First and foremost is the effect of the reworked Melted Heart of Selig combined with Ancestral Guidance legendary Paragon Node.

Melted Heart of Selig allows Druids to easily acquire tens of thousands of Spirit resources, causing Cataclysm damage to inflate dramatically. Ancestral Guidance, based on the amount of Spirit resources available at the time of casting an ultimate ability, increases ultimate ability damage by 1% per point of Spirit.

Combined with the snapshot mechanic, if you pre-stack a large number of buffs before casting a long-duration ability, ensuring they take effect throughout their duration, Cataclysm damage will reach an incredibly high level.

Cataclysm Druid's current damage is too high, but the developers will probably, like with other similar combinations, set a cap on the buff resources from Ancestral Guidance to limit the build's strength.

No.2 Spiritborn

• Highest Leaderboard Record: Tier 109 Tower clear.

Evade Spiritborn, which performed exceptionally well in Season 10, remains very powerful in PTR 2.5.0. Thanks to the armor system changes, the late-game Evade Spiritborn build can easily achieve extremely high armor. Aspect of Unyielding Hits provides additional weapon damage based on total armor, easily maximizing the weapon's effectiveness and freeing up other equipment slots.

This build has a defensive bug in PTR 2.5.0, making the character nearly immortal. This is expected to be fixed before the live release, but even so, its damage remains top-tier across all classes.

Other classic builds such as Quill Volley Spiritborn, Crushing Hands Spiritborn, and Rake Spiritborn have good balance among their different playstyles.

No.1 Barbarian

• Highest Leaderboard Record: Tier 124 Tower clear.

The current top-tier build is Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian, thanks again to the reworked Melted Heart of Selig. Because Barbarians have four weapon slots, they can stack the highest primary stats of all classes, thus gaining an extremely high resource cap through Melted Heart of Selig.

Their damage primarily comes from one piece of equipment and one skill. Ramaladni's Magnum Opus one-handed hammer increases skill damage proportionally to the current resource amount. Furious Hammer of the Ancients provides critical hit chance and critical hit damage proportionally to the resource amount at the time of skill activation. The injection of thousands of resources into these two scaling sources results in an explosive increase in damage.

Barbarian's strength significantly surpasses other classes, making it highly unlikely that Barbarians in the PTR will survive to the live server. It is expected that the developers will also set the resource gain cap for these two scaling sources at 500 points.

Currently, the various classes shown in PTR 2.5.0 Their rankings may be adjusted on the live server, but overall their damage is far inferior to that of season 10, so players may need some time to adapt.

Diablo fans, are you ready for the ultimate test of courage and skill? Deep within Burning Hells, Warlord of Chaos stirs, inviting brave challengers to venture into the abyss and face their destiny!

Yes, Diablo 4 recently announced a new event, Compass to Carnage. During the event, Sanctuary will transform into a battlefield of chaos and opportunity, not for the faint of heart. More Chaos Waves will arrive in Infernal Hordes, and you'll have the chance to earn more Infernal Compasses and much more!

Event Time & Details

Compass to Carnage event will run from 10:00 AM PST on November 4th to 10:00 AM PST on November 11th.

Breaking news! Due to issues encountered by the developers in Diablo 4 patch 2.4.3, the update will be delayed until November 12th. The Compass to Carnage event, originally scheduled for November 4th, is also planned to be postponed to November 25th and will end on December 2nd.

So, what can you get in this event? The drop rate of Infernal Compasses has increased, Chaos Waves in Infernal Hordes are more frequent, and there's a chance to earn double rewards if you dare to challenge Fell Council. This is a key aspect that most players easily overlook during the event, as each Infernal Compasses you acquire grants you an additional Compass.

More importantly, Infernal Compasses are not just rewards; they are gateways to power. More Compasses also make reaching Fell Council easier than ever before. Imagine the immense chaos power awaiting you.

But don't think everything will be smooth sailing, because with each Chaos Wave in the challenge, Infernal Hordes becomes increasingly chaotic. Furthermore, sealing Chaos Rifts now yields a large amount of Aether, giving you even more reason to jump into the fray.

However, this has sparked controversy. Some players will be happy to use this opportunity to quickly improve their Viz-Jaq'taar Veneration reputation, while others believe the increased chaos is too challenging for casual players. What's your opinion? However, whether you're a seasoned veteran or a Sanctuary newcomer, Compass to Carnage event is an excellent opportunity to prove your skills.

How To Prepare For The Event?

To gain a significant advantage in Compass to Carnage event, advance preparation is essential.

During the event, the number of Chaos Waves in Infernal Hordes will increase dramatically, and Aether drop rate from Chaos Rifts will also be significantly boosted. It's also an excellent opportunity to complete Viz-Jaq'taar Veneration reputation board, so players should accumulate Infernal Compasses through seasonal reputation caches, Whispering Chests, and Nightmare Dungeons, and optimize their character builds for the upcoming challenges.

• Accumulate Compasses: Accumulate as many Infernal Compasses as possible to maximize your participation in Infernal Hordes event and challenge Fell Council to maximize the rewards you can obtain.
• Maximize Aether Drops: Due to increased Aether drops from Chaos Rifts during the event, be sure to actively close all rifts you see to obtain a large amount of Aether.
• Focus on Reputation: Take advantage of this event to increase your Viz-Jaq'taar Veneration reputation level, as the increased Aether and rewards will accelerate your reputation progress.
• Optimize Your Character Build: Before starting the event, select and optimize your build based on the increased number of Chaos Waves and the specific challenges of Infernal Hordes. Because of the increased enemy density during the event, it is recommended to prioritize builds with strong screen-clearing capabilities and AoE damage!

Best Event Build Recommendation

Ball Lightning Sorcerer

To improve your Infernal Hordes farming efficiency, Ball Lightning Sorcerer is a top choice. It's one of the fastest builds in Diablo 4, perfect for clearing Infernal Hordes and other events requiring speed runs.

Ball Lightning Sorcerer excels at farming Infernal Hordes because of its high speed, wide-area damage, and superior mobility, quickly and efficiently clearing large numbers of enemies. More importantly, it can cast Ball Lightning while moving to accelerate farming. Ball Lightning deals massive damage to large groups of enemies, making it perfect for dealing with the dense waves of enemies in Infernal Hordes during events.

While Ball Lightning consumes a significant amount of mana, this build can regenerate mana through synergy with skills like Invigorating Conduit and Crackling Energy, maintaining the high duration of its core abilities.

Furthermore, Sorcerer possesses exceptional mobility, primarily thanks to its Teleport ability, allowing for rapid movement and repositioning to maximize damage output and achieve quick clears.

Bone Spirit Necromancer

Bone Spirit Necromancer's main advantage in farming Infernal Hordes lies in its ability to quickly and efficiently clear large numbers of enemies, thanks to the synergy between Season 10's Chaos Perks mechanic and its powerful skill rotation.

The core strategy of this build is to first cast a Bone Spirit, which then splits into countless Bone Splinters, instantly covering the entire screen and dealing massive damage to all enemies. This build is designed for speed, and through combos and utilizing Alter the Balance, it can even clear an entire Chaos Wave and hordes of enemies in one go.

It's worth mentioning that this build not only excels at clearing mobs but also possesses astonishing single-target damage, capable of quickly eliminating elite enemies and Bartuc bosses in Infernal Hordes.

Death Trap Rogue

Finally, the build we'll mention will probably not be surprising: Death Trap Rogue. This build consistently ranks among the top in almost every seasonal endgame content.

Death Trap Rogue's extremely high speed, massive area-of-effect damage, and sustained skill uptime make it exceptionally effective in farming Infernal Hordes. This build excels at quickly clearing large groups of enemies, making it ideal for Helltides, Chaos Rifts, and other endgame events as well.

This build leverages Crazy Brew Chaos Perk to boost attack speed, and A Beast Cornered to significantly increase damage multipliers, further enhancing its combat effectiveness. Combined with the continuous Death Trap's massive damage to large groups of enemies, this makes it extremely efficient at clearing hordes of Infernal Hordes during Compass to Carnage event.

In any case, Compass to Carnage event is an excellent opportunity to acquire more Infernal Compasses and quickly increase your reputation. It's not just a chance to survive, but a chance to thrive in this hellish realm. Are you ready for the carnage?