During the Diablo IV Campfire Chat: PTR 2.2.0 held March 7, the developers discussed details about Season 8. Some of the components will be tested in the Public Test Realms.

  • No longer planning on doing mid-season balance updates
  • Developers will react to egregious things that pop up early in the Season.

State of the Game

  • Season 6: It took players between 15-17 hours to reach Level 60.
  • Season 7: It took players an average of 9 hours to reach Level 60. Level 30 approximately 2-3 hours.
  • Players were getting a Legendary every 3-4 minutes within an hour of playing.
  • Don’t like the feeling of Legendary item quality being the only quality so early.
  • Overall progression speed and number of players reaching Torment 4 has over doubled
    • On average, it only takes 15 hours (from level 60) to hit Torment 4.
    • 50% of players hit Torment 4.

Adjustments

  • Legendary drops during level up reduced.
  • Magic items can have up to 2 affixes.
  • Rare items can have up to 3 affixes.
  • Legendary is still the best quality at max level.
  • Torment 1 now starts at Pit Tier 10.
  • Torment (and Pit scaling) is increasing by 20%.
  • Torment 4 will be equivalent to Season 7 Pit Tier 76.

Lair Bosses

Vessel of Hatred’s Urvar and Harbinger are returning as Season 8 bosses. The Harbinger will be up there in loot table tier with Duriel and Andariel. Both Urivar and Harbinger will also drop Tributes and Runes.

The Lair map UI has been improved to show more info about the lair such as what Lair Boss is summoned there and how much summoning material requirements are needed to summon the boss, and whether there is a chance to drop Ancestral Unique Items and Mythic Unique Items.

Belial, Lord of Lies will be added to the game as a boss (harder than Duriel and Andariel) as a new Pinnacle Challenge on par with Echo of Lilith.

Belial will pop up often, everywhere, in the open world in Season 8. Think of The Lich King or Xal’atath showing up all over the place in World of Warcraft in their respective expansions — but with a twist. Defeating and looting any of the Lair Bosses has a small percent chance to spawn a smaller version of Belial.

Let’s say you defeat Andariel. If mini-Belial spawns and you defeat him, you get double loot of Andariel’s loot table.

Something peculiar about Belial is that the very rare mini-Belial spawn drops Betrayer’s Husk (summoning keys) required to eventually summon the large version of Belial (an Exalted Lair Boss). When you defeat Exalted Belial, a green ghostly treasure chest spawns. When you click it, you have the option to mimic the loot table of a specific Lair Boss from a menu of choices. Season 8 is focused on the return of Belial, Lord of Lies. These Apparition Incursions invade areas of Sanctuary, altering reality.

Apparition Incursions

  • Fast-paced, Boss-Rush-style event.
  • 10 Apparition Bosses (randomized)
  • Showdown against Belial!

Seasonal Powers

The Seasonal Powers are known as Boss Powers. You obtain your Boss Powers by defeating each of the Lair Bosses: including Lilith, Harbinger of Hatred, Duriel, Andariel, and Belial. The fun part about these Seasonal Powers is that as your Paragon increases, the Boss Powers also scale up. In addition, each Boss Power can be upgraded up to Rank 20 by pressing F on them.

  • 24 Collectible powers from the first-time kill of targeted Bosses.
  • Each power has 2-sides to activate
    • Main (x1)
    • Modifier (x3)
Belial's Eye Beams
Lilith's Wind of Hate
Duriel's Burrow
Urivar's Lobbed Bombs
Grigoire's Lightning Square

Character Class Changes

  • Ultimate Scaling Capped – The Ultimate Scaling is capped at 200% damage.
  • Incidental Crowd Control – Some item affixes with Crowd Control effects have been replaced with something else so that the player has more agency on Crowd Control via other methods.
  • Damage Over Time (Terminology Update)
    • Shadow -> Corrupting: Shadow Damage Over Time will now be known as Corrupting Damage.
    • Lightning -> Shocking: Lightning Damage Over Time will now be known as Shocking Damage.
    • Cold -> Frostbite: Cold Damage Over Time will now be known as Frostbite Damage.
  • BARBARIAN
    • Barbarian’s Physicality – In past Seasons, meta builds have focused on Dust Devils and Earthquake.
    • Double Swing – Season 8 meta will focus on Double Swing (with the Twin Strike Unique) to make that more impactful.
    • Whirlwind – Buff and rework incoming (Gohr’s Devastating Grips unique)
    • Mighty Throw: New unique item named Bane of Ahjad-Den.
  • DRUID
    • Cataclysm Snapshotting – Not intended. Cooldown reduction created a continuous spam of the skill before the previous one expired.
    • Stone Burst – Season 8 will focus on elevating Stone Burst to the meta. A channeled Earth core skill. A Legendary Item has been reworked to allow it to Overpower when detonated at maximum size.
    • Gathlen’s Birthright – New Unique Item promotes staying in Human form to obtain damage bonuses and damage multipliers with Nature Magic skills. Depending on your Skill Tree choices, you can potentially have 3 Key Passives active for 10 seconds.
  • NECROMANCER
    • Blood Wave – in Season 7, the developers agreed they overshot the Ultimate skill as the S+++ build with the new Uniques. They will tone it down.
    • Blood Lance – Very popular to destroy multiple enemies arching between them in The Pit and the Infernal Hordes, but falls flat against a single target Boss. In Season 8, if you hit a Boss or single target that has already been lanced, it will take more damage, making it more viable against Bosses.
    • Minions – The new Unique named Sanguivor, Blade of Zir focuses on Minions.
  • ROGUE
    • Traps – Poison Trap has been under-represented, while Death Trap is more popular.
    • Poison Trap vs Death Trap – Poison Trap will be adjusted in Season 8 to promote it as a standalone build.
    • Scoundrel’s Leathers – This Unique Chest item will be reworked for Season 8. Every 10 seconds, when you cast a trap, you will get a bonus Death Trap. The new Unique Item: Bands of Ichorous Rose focuses on Poison Trap.
  • SORCERESS
    • Ice Shards – New Unique Item named Hail of Verglas adds +8 Ranks to Ice Shards and spreads out with 2 additional shards — which allows you to hit more enemies with it (think of Multishot) and increase damage plus stacks damage.
    • Crackling Energy – This skill now has the Shocking Damage tag.
    • Meteor and Meteorites – They won’t be able to scale with each other’s damage.
  • SPIRITBORN
    • Rushing Claw – Not in the most popular builds in Seasons 6-7. The two upgrade choices have been buffed. The second option increases the charges up to 12, but using it consumes all the charges doing massive damage in a wider area. When you increase your cooldown reduction, you gain more damage output with this choice, and promotes a very different playstyle.
    • Storm Feathers – The new unique item will make Storm Feathers more useful in the Spiritborn toolkit.
    • Sunbird’s Gorget – New Unique Item named Sunbird’s Gorget. Picking up a Storm Feather gives the Spiritborn a fire aura (so to speak). Every 5 additional Storm Feathers intensifies the firestorm and activates a damage multiplier.

The Season 8 PTR 2.2.0 begins on March 11 and ends on March 18. The Developers wish that players share their feedback in the Diablo IV PTR forums. You can download the PTR the day before (March 10 around the afternoon, California time).

The PTR Boost will be available 2 days after the PTR begins. It will be up on March 13.

Something PTR Testers will notice is some term known as The Reliquary. The Developers plan to reveal details about The Reliquary closer to the launch of Season 8. Stay tuned. The Reliquary is a rework of the Battle Pass system.

The Developers are working on a Roadmap for Diablo IV to share with players at a future time before the Season 8 launch.