Diablo 4 Developer Update Livestream Recap for Season 3 – January 18

It’s time for another Diablo 4 Developer Update Livestream Recap! Adam Fletcher, Community Lead, was joined by Daniel Tanguay, Lead Seasons Designer, Madeleine James, Game Designer, and Adam Jackson, Lead Class Designer. The most recent developer update focused primarily on the theme, mechanics, gameplay, and items for Season 3 of Diablo 4, the Season of the Construct. More detail about the upcoming changes can be found here.

Season 3 Release Date

Theme

• Will be packed with new content, including the new Seasonal Questline.
• Introducing new repeatable events including the Vaults, a new type of dungeon, and the Arcane Tremors, which is a new overworld activity.
• The Gauntlet and Leaderboards will be added later in the Season.
• The new Questline for Season 3 deals with the Vizjerei Mage Clans and their Construct creations.
• The Season protagonist, Ayuzhan, is a member of the Ennead Clan, who, along with Zoltun Kulle, had decided to take the Vizjerei Constructs and make them their own by using the Loom.
• Their plan was to develop these Constructs as weapons against the High Heavens and the Burning Hells so humanity could flourish on Sanctuary.
• However, that endeavor did not go as planned, causing Kulle to abandon the project, which created a rift in his partnership with Ayuzhan.
• That rift was exploited by the Demon Malphas, who also will be added to the list of Endgame bosses.
• After ruling over the Vaults for many years, Malphas has now decided to expand his reach over the rest of Sanctuary.
• The Seasonal Questline will begin in Gea Kul, where the Wanderer learns of recent events involving the Constructs.
• As the Wanderer travels through the Vaults, they will find different pieces of the Seneschal Construct.
• When the Wanderer finally locates and rescues Ayuzhan, the mage will assist them in rebuilding the Construct Companion to aid in the battle against Malphas
• .Malphas is the first stationary boss who has possessed the most powerful Construct, known as The Guradian, has transformed into the embodiment of the Vault, and will utilize elemental resources at his disposal to engage in battle with the Wanderer with the Loom in the background.
• The new Seasonal town is called The Gatehall, which is the gateway between the Vaults and the world above.
• The Gatehall will evolve into a town, including Construct vendors and a waypoint, as the player progresses through the Questline.
• Vaults can also be accessed via the overworld.

Mechanics

• The Seneschal Construct is a pet-sized companion (yes, you can pet your Construct), which can be imbued with two skills via the new Construct Menu by socketing two of the 12 different Governing Stones.
• Each skill can be modified using up to three of the 27 different Tuning Stones.
• The Stone effects can either allow the Senechal to do damage directly to enemies or buff the player with support Stones.
• The Stones will drop during various Seasonal activities and can also be crafted at a workbench.
• Additional Stones of the same type can be used to upgrade socketed Stones.
• The Seneschal will also scale one-to-one with character progression to feel like an extension of the player.

Vault Dungeons

• There will four types of Vaults available throughout the Season, which are an extension of Malphas.
• They will be filled with a variety of new and different hazards and traps, as well as Construct enemies, that will end in a Danger Room.
• The Danger Room will challenge the player with multiple unforgiving hazards and traps simultaneously.
• Defeating Vault enemies will reward players with an abundance of gold and loot.
• After defeating some of the initial challenges in a Vault, the player will find a statue of Zoltun Kulle.
• The player can offer a Pearl of Warding to the statue, each of which will grant three stacks of Zoltun’s Warding, which is a buff that will yield extra rewards if the player is able to maintain the buff stacks by avoiding the hazards while fighting enemies.
• The Vaults are fully dungeons that can also be run as Nightmare versions, with even more difficult combat and greater rewards.
• The Nightmare Vaults can be accessed using unique Seasonal sigils called Vault Sigils.

World Events

• Arcane Tremors are a new event located in the overworld in the vacinity of Vault entrances.
• The player will battle the enemy Constructs that have spilled out of the Vaults to do Malphas’ bidding by invading Sanctuary.
• Players will search for roaming bands of Constructs while attempting to locate and collect Cores.
• Depositing multiple Cores into a special brazier will summon one of the Heralds of Malphas.
• Defeating a Herald of Malphas will yeild Pearls of Warding and other rewards.

Endgame Activities

• The Gauntlet and Leaderboards will launch later in the Season.
• This is another new type of Dungeon that unlocks in WT4 and will be tuned to target Level 100 players and challenge them to find the most optimal path through the dungeon.
• These new dungeons are fixed layout, non-linear progression, and designed to test the best and most powerful characters.
• Players will strive to achieve high scores by collecting Proofs of Might.
• Players will encounter various types of shrines that will yield different effects, such as enhancing the player’s power, respawning enemies, or applying a score multiplier.
• Chests throughout the dungeon will contain keys that will increase the player’s score.
• Each rung of The Gauntlet ladder will also reward players with Seals, beginning with the Seal of the Blood and culminating with the Seal of the Worthy, which can be displayed in-game by the player.
• Players who achieve the Seal of the Worthy will then be eligible to begin competing on the weekly Leaderboards.
• There will be an overall Leaderboard, as well as Class Leaderboards, Party-Size Leaderboards, Hardcore Leaderboards, and Platform Leaderboards.
• The Leaderboards can also be filtered by Friends and Clans.
• The principal rewards for ranking on the Leaderboards are glory and bragging rights.
• The IGNs for the top ten players from each weekly Leaderboard will be etched forever in the Hall of the Ancients.

Season Journey & Battle Pass

• The Season Journey will no longer include PvP objectives.
• The rewards will be improved and will be a good way to start earning Governing Stones and Tuning Stones.
• The rewards for the later chapters will now include a number of Ancestral Legendaries, including some 925 power items.
• Completion of the early Chapter Objectives will no longer be required to progress through the Seasonal Questline.
• There will be lots of new Cosmetics, including new Town Portal skins, emotes, and several emblems.
• Season Blessings have been adjusted to complement the new Season mechanics.

New Endgame Bosses

• The Boss ladder introduced in Season 2 will return in Season 3 with some improvements, including the addition of Uber Malphas, who will be encounterd in an Uber version of the Vaults during the late endgame.

Balance Changes

Barbarian

Druid

Necromancer

Rogue

Sorcerer

Going Forward

Gameplay Changes

How have the team’s thoughts changed in regard to balance since Diablo 4’s release?
– In the quest to make items useful and interesting, the team over budgeted certain stats. Now the team wants players to be able to solve challenges with more than just gear in ways that are more thorough and thoughtful.

How will group play in Vaults work?
– The Vault will behave pretty much like other dungeons, however players that leave the Vault will lose the Zoltun’s Warding buff.

What are the plans for Druid and Necromancer minion builds?
– The Devs are aware of player feedback wanting minions to be more impactful. The Devs want the relationship between the player and the minions to feel more visceral and are currently working on buffs and a number of other items.

Will Uber Uniques drop from Uber Vaults?
– Uber Uniques are still the domain of Duriel, however some unique Tuning Stones will drop by defeating Uber Malphas.

What are the plans for fixing snapshotting?
– The Devs are aware of the issue and are working on a fix.

Will we encounter Zoltun Kulle?
– Zoltun’s head and blood are lost to time, however players will hear his voice via lore books (by the same Diablo 3 voice actor as far as we know).

Can paragon glyphs be leveled up in the Vaults?
– Yes in the Nightmare versions of the Vaults.

How man times can players run the Gauntlet per week?
– Players will have unrestricted access to this WT4 activity with no Sigil required.

Is the comprehensive Itemization update still on track for Season 4?
– Yes, the Devs are on track with this to have it ready in time.

Any updates to the social features?
– Yes, plans are still in the works to improve all of those features.

Will there be any new opportunites to get Uber Uniques?
– The Boss Ladder is still the best way to do that and more Beast in the Ice materials will drop in Season 3.

Will there be any updates to improve the field of view?
– The Devs are aware of the issue but there’s nothing in the works at the moment.

Will there be any update to improve the Codex of Power?
– The work on this is currently underway and it will be part of a future Season.

Will it be possible to inspect the builds of the top Gauntlet players?
– Yes, it will be possible to see what builds the top players have equipped at the moment when their builds are inspected.

Is there any possibility of Malphas becoming a permanent endgame boss?
– This will be a possibilty depending on player feedback and experience.

Watch the Developer Update Livestream