The Diablo 4 endgame and itemization are the two most important changes needed according to our community polling. Thankfully these are two areas that Blizzard has focused on for Season 4.
Helltide Updates
Since Helltides were changed to run almost continuously it has given players more to do and they are about to be expanded upon.
The first significant change is Helltides will now run on World Tier 1 and 2 making them accessible to everyone.
Helltides will now also have a higher density of monsters with a few surprises. A new threat meter is being added and when that builds up while killing mobs, the player will start being ambushed by more enemies when the meter is full. Expect lots of and dynamic mob spawns to ramp up the difficulty.
Helltides are also getting a new public event boss called the Bloodmaiden. As players romp around the Helltide they’ll be picking up new rare summoning materials which need to be deposited at summoning pedestals to spawn a Bloodmaiden. Everyone in the vicinity can jump in and take on the fight.
New mini-events are also being added making Helltides an even more dangerous place.
Boss Ladder Updates – Andriel is Back
A new boss is coming to the Boss Ladder in Season 4, Andariel. It always seemed a shame she was restricted to the two encounters in the storyline so this is a welcome addition. Expect some of her Diablo 2 signature moves.
Andariel can be summoned by collecting summoning materials from Beast in the Ice and Lord Zir.
The big news is Andariel will have the same drop table as Duriel which means there’s at least another boss in the pack that’s going to drop those Uber Uniques.
On the subject of Uber Uniques, every endgame boss now has a 0.5% chance to drop an Uber Unique which is going to make that surprise drop feel like something rather special.
Stygian Stones are a new material that drops inside the Pit and these can be used to summon level 200 versions of each endgame boss on the Seasonal realm. These super hard versions, which Blizzard was calling Ultra bosses last week, require 10X the amount of summoning materials. To make that effort worthwhile, they do drop 10x the amount of uniques. This means you can save up the materials and you don’t need to do continual Duriel or Andariel runs to get those Ubers. It’s harder but the reward is greater.
The Ultra version will also drop an account-bound Respledent Spark as a first-time reward.
The Pit
In Season 4 players will be entering The Pit for the first time but what is it? The Pit will unlock for players after completing the first Tier 45 Nightmare Dungeon and will require one Runeshard to enter at the Artificer’s Obelisk in Cerrigar. These Runeshards can be dropped from all endgame content.
The pit is similar to Diablo 3’s Greater Rifts with more than 100 difficulty Tiers to tackle. The Pit will also feature different tilesets and monster families to add variety. Also, expect some surprise cameos from the boss pool inside The Pit such as the Shade of Lilith.
When you die in the Pit you are not ejected from the Pit as you were in Abattoir of Zir, you just won’t get the Mastery but there’s a time penalty of 30 seconds.
Players will be keen to tackle the pit because it’s the primary source of the best Masterworking Materials so there’s a good incentive to get stuck in. You will need to push hard to get the better rewards and there are three tiers of Masterworking materials to obtain.
Is there Enough Diablo 4 Endgame?
I read so many complaints about the endgame from what would appear to be a vocal minority who often can’t explain what they want from the endgame. Will these changes be enough to satisfy them? Probably not, but the addition of another boss and the Pit will give those 100 players something to aim for as they finetune their weapons with Masterworking.
In essence, the development team is giving players more to do and more to aim for in this update. I would love to see longer Seasonal quest content but it looks like we’ll have to wait for Vessel of Hatred later this year for some substantial story content.
What are your thoughts on these changes? Let us know in the comments.