During the Diablo 4 Campfire Chat on February 29, Associate Director of Community Adam Fletcher, Associate Game Director Joseph Piepiora, and Lead Live Class Designer Adam Jackson talked more about the Gauntlet, Leaderboards, Vampiric Powers, and provided a brief preview of Season 4. The Patch Notes 1.3.3 for the Mid-Season update will be posted tomorrow, so check back here at Pure Diablo for that as well.
The Gauntlet
- The Gauntlet will be released on Tuesday, March 5th along with the Mid-Season update.
- Any player who unlocks WT4 can compete in the Gauntlet.
- A new Gauntlet replaces the current one at the beginning of each week.
- The Gauntlet is accessed by locating the Horn of Trials, which can be found at the end of the longest dock in Gea Kul.
- To make it a fair competition, the dungeon layout, including enemy positions and affixes, will be exactly same every time.
- Players will be unable to change their character’s Gear, Skill Tree, or Paragon Boards during a Gauntlet run.
- Players will be on a timer and will have 8 minutes to achieve the highest score possible.
- Every enemy, including trash and bosses, as well as some Silver and Gold chests (keys will be a rare drop from specific enemies) will drop Proofs of Might that will contribute to the score.
- Enemies within the Gauntlet are at Level 124, which is meant to test players’ fully leveled and geared characters.
- The difficulty will be comparable to a Level 70 NMD, so players will not need to concern themselves as much with enemy damage and survivability.
- Speed, utility, and strategy will be the most important factors.
- The Gauntlet will feature two new shrines called Pillars.
- The first type, the Pillar of Proving, will respawn all the enemies in the dungeon. This means that a high score will partly depend on clearing the dungeon multiple times in a single run.
- The second type is called a Pillar of Glory and will increase the player’s score for the duration of the buff. Players will ideally want to pull mobs toward this type of Pillar to gain the highest score possible.
- Normal shrines will also be part of the dungeon and will always be in the same location or drop from the same bosses.
- Shrine effects of different shrines can stack and it’s best to layer different types of shrines rather than clicking the same type of shrine again before that buff has run out.
- Stringing Shrine buffs will also yield a continuous movement speed buff.
- Players will need to determine the optimal path through the dungeon to maximize shrine benefits.
- Players must also prioritize all actions and activities, including casting skills, dealing damage, choosing which Bosses to kill, and progressing forward, in order to improve the ratio of score achieved to time spent running the dungeon.
- Care will need to be taken to avoid dry caused patches by eliminating too many enemies without respawning more in order to ensure a continuous stream that will maximize the total number of points available. Players who have accomplished the Avarice Conquest in Diablo 3 will already be familiar with this concept.
- At the conclusion of every Gauntlet run, the player will be presented with a Trial Complete announcement that will display the player’s score, rank, stats, and any associated rewards.
- Players will level their way up through four Seals, beginning with the Seal of the Blooded and culminating in the Seal of the Worthy.
- Players who achieve the Seal of the Worthy will be rewarded with Item Caches for all four levels, each of which will contain an Ancestral Legendary or Unique 925 gear item.
- Over the course of each week, players will discover that there will be multiple viable approaches to each Gauntlet as they search for the META, such as:
- Ignore the Bosses and focus on wiping out as much trash as possible.
- Ignore the trash and focus on being a Boss Hunter and spawning shrines.
- Focusing on maximizing Shrine duration by tweaking your character build accordingly.
- Each class will likely shine more by following one or two specific strategies depending on its respective capabilities.
- Dying during the Gauntlet with a Softcore charatcer will result in a score penalty.
- Reviewing player profiles on the Leaderboards will provide insight on some of the best builds but not on the best strategy for running the dungeon.
- Bone Spear Necromancer may prove to be one of the best builds for players to use on their initial runs through the Gauntlet due to its mobility and ability to spread its damage as well as pulling mobs.
- The other builds that were featured in the livestream were Lightning Ball Sorcerer and HOTA Charge Barbarian.
The Trials call you forth, wanderer. Fight to earn your place on the Leaderboards when they arrive on March 5. Each week you can master a new Gauntlet: a fixed non-linear Dungeon that will have you fighting to earn the mightiest score. Who will fight to dominate the competition, earn coveted Seals, and carve their place on the Leaderboards. Do you have what it takes to become undeniable?
With the upcoming midseason patch, there will be impactful class balance changes and Seneschal Companion updates coming in the patch that introduces this challenge dungeon, so we will be actively monitoring feedback to make tweaks with the Gauntlet in mind. To read more on the upcoming changes, please read our Diablo IV Patch notes.
TEST YOUR PROWESS IN THE GAUNTLET
This adrenaline-fueled challenge is available to all classes in the Seasonal Realm, whether they’re normal or Hardcore. Once you’ve gained access to World Tier IV, travel to the southwestern port in Gea Kul. At the end of their longest dock sits the formidable Horn of Trials, activate it to access the Gauntlet. Even though the Gauntlet is accessible to you upon reaching World Tier IV, Monster levels will be beyond level 100, so characters that have hit Level 100 will be most likely to triumph in the carnage ahead.
The Gauntlet is a fixed layout, non-linear dungeon that changes weekly. It’s an endgame dungeon where mastery, cunning, and skill will achieve the highest score. Your score is based on how many Proofs of Might you can earn from killing Monsters and opening chests within the 8-minute time limit. Each time you enter the Gauntlet during the week, it will be identical so you can devise your most efficient mode of slaughter and let the corpses mark your progress.
The Gauntlet concludes each week on Tuesday, 8 a.m. PST with the next completely different Gauntlet emerging at 10:15 a.m. PST. Strive for your personal best and fight to the bitter end each week before the next Gauntlet begins anew.
PROVE YOUR MIGHT
Proving your might is the name of the game. Proofs of Might—which dictate your overall score—can be earned by killing endless hordes of monsters and opening chests. Pillars can increase the number of Proofs you earn, either through score multipliers or respawning the monsters you just killed. While score-based Pillars increase your Proofs of Might, power-based Shrines can also spawn in the Gauntlet. After killing a boss within the dungeon, a shrine will appear where they have been slain. Activate the Shrine to receive one of the various shrine effects available, which will be identical each time the same boss is killed within the Gauntlet.
Ferocity, efficiency, and strategy will lead you to eternal success in the Gauntlet. Considering this is a fixed-layout dungeon, each time you enter for the week, the dungeon layout will be identical. Attempting different routes and adjusting your build will be paramount to mastering each week’s layout.
You will be able to respawn upon death in the Gauntlet, but you will lose a third of your score each time you perish. However, you or your teammate can recover all your lost Proofs of Might at the place of your last death upon returning to the dungeon.
SEAL YOUR LEGEND
As your score increases, so does your rank within Trials. Your final score can earn you Seals—the mark of your prowess in the Gauntlet for that week. Earning Seals proves your mastery to fellow wanderers. There are four ranks of Seals to earn:
- Seal of the Blooded
- Seal of the Steadfast
- Seal of the Iron-Willed
- Seal of the Worthy
The Seal of the Blooded is what most of you will strive to earn first, while the Seal of the Worthy will only be granted to those who have dedicated themselves to absolute bloodlust in the Gauntlet. The score needed to earn each Seal will vary week by week, depending on the layout of the Gauntlet and the class you’re playing. These scores scale with Party size: larger groups will have an easier time earning a higher score than solo players and will be tracked in a separate Ladder Leaderboard.
It will take some sweat to reach the highest Seals—do not expect a feeble showing to rank you among the greats.
CACHES TO PLUNDER
Earning Proofs of Might is your sole priority within the viscera-strewn passageways of the Gauntlet, so Loot will be rewarded upon completion. Regardless of whether you’ve earned a Seal, if you participate in The Gauntlet, you’ll still obtain a minor cache after each run.
Upon the weekly reset of the Gauntlet and depending on your best score, you’ll earn Caches of Trials. The higher the score, the better the Cache you’ll earn for that week. Earning a Cache of Trials guarantees one Ancestral Legendary, and scales in rank with the Cache awarded. Earning the Seal of the Worthy will grant the most coveted treasures as they are guaranteed to drop items with level 925 power.
Earning a Seal of a higher rank will still grant you the rewards of a lower Seal, with the Seal of the Worthy granting you all Seal Caches available for that week. You can also earn multiple Seals for the multiple Gauntlet ladders that are available.
LEADERBOARDS & HALL OF THE ANCIENTS
Leaderboards are separated by Ladders for Class, Party size, Normal and Hardcore.
They can also be filtered by Friends and by Clan to see how you measure up against your closest allies. For those of you who want friendlier competition, apply these filters to individual Ladders to see whom among your friends is the deadliest of all.
Class specific Ladders will only be designated for those playing Solo. This means there are 16 possible weekly Ladders to ascend in total. Your best score across all Classes, Characters, and platforms are the ones that will mark your tenuous spot amongst the Great. You do not need to have cross-play enabled to have your score rank on the Leaderboards, but you do need to enable cross-play to view that leaderboard in-game.
Note that while the Ladders for each weekly Leaderboard will be active once the Gauntlet arrives on March 5, we will be waiting to launch our Gauntlet contest until we have been able to balance it around your skills and abilities. Considering this midseason update introduces class balance updates and changes to the Seneschal Companion, we want to ensure we can monitor your feedback and make updates as needed. More details for the Gauntlet contest will be revealed soon!
If you manage to secure your place in the Top 100 of any Ladder, you will also earn a Conqueror’s Crest Mount Trophy.
If you can manage to become the greatest among us and place in the Top 10 on any of the Leaderboards, you will have your name and character immortalized in the permanent Hall of the Ancients, allowing future legions of wanderers to gaze upon your coveted performance.
Best the Trials and master the Gauntlet when it goes live on March 5.
Leaderboards
- These reset each week when a new Gauntlet is released.
- There are Solo Leaderboards for each class, Party Leaderboards that vary with party size, as well as HC Leaderboards.
- Each Leaderboard has a Ladder that players will climb.
- Each rung of the Ladder awards a seal that players can display.
- A player will be ready for Leaderboard competition when they reach the Seal of the Worthy.
- The top ten players on each weekly Leaderboard will be immortalized in the Hall of Ancients.
Mid-Season Updates
- This will go live on Tuesday, March 5th and will include the Gauntlet.
- Vampiric Powers.
- Six powers will return in a slightly modified form in order to ensure their long-term durability.
- They will return as Legendary Aspects rather that Unique Powers, as was the case in Season 2.
- Snapshotting.
- The Devs want to remove this from the game as much as possible.
- Construct Updates.
- Resolved an issue where the Seneschal would benefit from certain character skills.
- Various Tuning Stone powers have been adjusted.
- The Tempest Governing Stone no longer gains bonus damage and duration when it is reapplied.
Class Updates
Season 4 Plans
- Season 4 will feature a PC Battle.net PTR that will go live prior to the end of Season 3.
- The Devs will be presenting another Campfire Chat in the next few weeks to provide more information.
- Future Seasons may or may not include a PTR.
- Many changes pertaining to Itemization are also in store.
Are there any updates to Uber Uniques?
– Patch 1.3.2 added the ability for players to craft Uber Uniques of their choice by salvaging unwanted Ubers to yield the Resplendent Spark material. The next Patch will reduce the number of Resplendent Sparks needed from 5 to 4.
Will Season 4 add any new endgame content?
– Tune into the next Campfire Chat that will focus on the Season 4 PTR.
Why does the Gauntlet start at a difficulty level equal to only a Level 70 NMD?
– The Devs want the Gauntlet to be available to players as soon as they reach WT4. The Gauntlet is designed to be challenging from a strategic standpoint, rather than survivability as in the case of the AoZ.
Will the Gauntlet score for parties also have a breakdown for individual player?
– The score for parties will be only the score for the party as a whole.
Will the Gauntlet Leaderboard be region locked?
– No, the Leaderboards are global.
Will the Seneschal accompany the player in the Gauntlet?
– Yes, as well as all future Seasonal powers.
Why is the mob density in the Gauntlet so minimal?
– The challenge is to find the best strategy to pull mobs and to respawn enemies.
Is there any possibility of getting better cosmetics through gameplay rather than the shop?
– The Devs are actively discussing this issue and will have updates in the future.
Where can players find the new Legendary Vampiric Aspects?
– These Aspects will not be part of the Codex of Power and will drop in the same ways as the other random Aspects.
Will Nightmare Vaults return after Season 3?
– They will not be returning in Season 4, however the Devs are considering content like this for future Seasons.
Are there any plans to add an Armory?
– The Devs are planning to add this at some point in the future and will be taking some steps in that direction for Season 4.
Next Campfire Chat
The next campfire chat focuses on the upcoming PTR and will take place on 14 March.