Dev Stream Details
===Release Date===
Stepping out from the shadows that once obscured them, the Dark Master’s Blood Seekers swoop in to prey upon unsuspecting mortals. Their ravenous appetites have grown—the Season of Blood will soon ooze throughout Sanctuary!
Diablo IV’s second season begins on October 17 at 10 a.m. PDT. Dare to look fanged destruction in the face and send it back to Hell with a new Season Journey, Questline, Season Event, deadly blood-driven enemies, Battle Pass, and more. Plus, new Uber Endgame bosses have arrived in Sanctuary to increase the variety of endgame activities in Diablo IV. These havoc-wreaking bosses are hard to topple but can drop Unique items and Cosmetics found nowhere else. We’re shedding light on all the grisly details—read on for a comprehensive look at Season of Blood’s contents.
Beginning with Season of Blood, players will now have the option to skip the Campaign after completing the Missing Pieces quest from the Prologue on the Seasonal Realm. Choosing to do so will allow you to jump right into content from Season of Blood.
Patch 1.2.0 goes live on October 17 too! Visit this article on October 10 after our upcoming Diablo IV Campfire Chat for more information on Class balance, new Unique items, sweeping changes to Resistances, and a great deal of other quality of life updates and bug fixes.
===Mechanics===
Driving a stake into the heart of the Dark Master’s plan will require you to wield their same savagery—Vampiric Powers. What was once a forbidden art shall become Sanctuary’s salvation. But to wield it, you’re going to need blood, Potent Blood. Acquired from fallen adversaries, Potent Blood can be spent in the Vampiric Powers tab within the Character menu to unlock a random power or power upgrade. Vampiric Powers can also be unlocked by completing the Seasonal Questline and from the Blood Harvest Seasonal Event. We’ll cover the latter in detail later.
After learning a Vampiric Power, you can spend Potent Blood in the powers tab to take its might to the next Level. Each power can be upgraded to a maximum of Level 3 and up to five powers can be equipped to your character at a time. When you hover over a Vampiric Power, you’ll notice it displays anywhere between 1–3 symbols and numbers—these are called Pacts and the number is their associated cost. This is where Pact Armor comes into play.
====Unpack Your Vampire Power Through Pact Armor====
There are three Pact types in total. Using the above image for reference, from left to right, they are called Ferocity, Divinity, and Eternity. Keep your eyes peeled for Chest armor, Pants, Gloves, Boots, and Helms containing Pacts that drop during Season of Blood because they are needed to activate your Vampiric Powers. Once you have both Pact Armor and Vampiric Powers equipped, you’ll need to ensure that the armor you’re wearing provides Pacts that match the activation cost listed on the power.
Let’s use the above Legendary Gloves as an example. They provide 1 Ferocity, 1 Divinity, and 1 Eternity Pacts. If you have a Vampiric Power that requires 1 Ferocity to activate, then this item alone covers the requirement, and you still have 1 Divinity and 1 Eternity available. If you equip a second Vampiric Power that requires both 1 Divinity and 1 Eternity to activate, the boots still provide enough Pacts to activate both powers.
====Customize Pact Armor to Your Needs====
You might not always have armor with the right Pacts to activate the Vampiric Powers in your collection. The Dark Master’s servants have devised two types of items to remedy this situation: standalone Pacts and Cleansing Acids.
Standalone Pacts are used to add a specific type of Pact to an item of your choice (this can only be done if the maximum amount of that Pact type isn’t already on that item). Cleansing Acids are used to remove Pacts from an item.
These crafting items can be pried from the clutches of Blood Seekers, as well as acquired from the Blood Harvest Season event, Season Journey, Opulent Coffins, and through the new Questline. Use these tools to ensure you always have Pact Armor that matches the Vampiric Powers you’d like to use.
====Bleed New Blood into Your Build====
Now that you’ve learned of Vampiric Powers and Pact Armor, let’s look at the 22 Vampiric Powers available in Season of Blood. All Classes can wield any Vampiric Power, and in doing so, they will sculpt your character into a vampire-killing machine. Will you seek to diversify your collection of powers or concentrate your resources on maxing out a handful of them?
The new Vampiric Curse keyword has been added to complement these terrifying powers. Look out for it as you read about each power.
Vampiric Curse: Killing an enemy affected by your Vampiric Curse stores their soul. Casting a Defensive, Macabre, or Agility Skill will unleash stored souls to attack nearby enemies. You can hold up to 8 souls.
See Vampiric Powers.
====Reap Hunter's Acclain from the Blood Harvest Season Event====
Home to the highest chance for receiving Potent Blood and Pact Armor drops is the Blood Harvest Seasonal Event. With a wave of his hand, the Dark Master has dispatched cunning Blood Seekers with armies of vampires to conquest the Dry Steppes, Hawezar, and Scosglen regions of Sanctuary, imprisoning its denizens and causing pandemonium.
Putting enemies to the sword during Bounties, bursting Blood Blisters, completing World Events, disrupting vampiric rituals, and freeing prisoners, will earn you some Reputation. With Reputation, you’ll climb Tiers containing useful rewards, such as crafting materials, Items, and Pact consumables.
Inside the Blood Harvest, you’ll have the chance to acquire Blood Lures, which summon Blood Seekers for you to extinguish. You can also use any Seeker Keys you find to free prisoners of the Dark Master's army or on Seekers Caches to receive Pact Armor, Pact Consumables, and Potent Blood.
====Crush the Dark Master’s Army in New Events====
There will also be new World Events and Dungeon Events where you can go toe-to-toe with more Blood Seekers and other vampire foot soldiers as well. The dark master’s army calls some of Sanctuary’s Dungeons home—delve into their depths to see what secrets lie in wait.
===New Endgame Bosses===
Reinforcements from the darkest depths of the Burning Hells take hold of Sanctuary, ushering in a new era of death and wanton destruction. This batch of Uber difficulty Endgame bosses are not for the faint of heart, but the chance to receive Unique items and Cosmetic items await those who muster the courage to stand against them. Each boss has a variety of Unique items they can drop, with some of those being exclusive to only that boss. The same goes for the special Cosmetic items they can potentially drop.
You can test your hand at slaying these unsightly abominations in the Eternal or Seasonal Realms starting in World Tier III, with even more intense encounters awaiting you in World Tier IV. These foes will only grant you an audience on their terms.
Below is a list of the bosses and the requirements to encounter them.
Grigoire, The Galvanic Saint (World Tier III and IV): You must gather enough Living Steel from the Tortured Offering in Helltide. In addition to Unique items that can only drop from Grigoire, you also have a chance to receive the Demonbinder Mount Armor Cosmetic.
Echo of Varshan (World Tier III and IV): Defeat Grotesque Debtors during Whispers of the Dead for a chance to receive parts of Varshan’s body. The Tree of Whispers collections—gained from turning in Grim Favors—guarantees a part of Varshan’s body. Once you have enough parts, including a Malignant Heart if you’re playing on World Tier IV, you can summon Varshan. The Flesh-Weld Rod Trophy has a chance to drop from this boss in addition to Unique items that can only drop from Varshan.
The Beast in the Ice (World Tier IV): Gather Distilled Fear while completing Tier 30 or higher Nightmare Dungeons. After you have enough, visit the Occultist and craft the Glacial Fissure Nightmare Sigil, activate it, then you can fight The Beast in the Ice. The Skull Torch and Fell Steed Mount Trophies can potentially drop from this boss, in addition to Unique items exclusive to it.
Dark Master (World Tier IV): Defeat a World Boss on World Tier IV or complete a Legion Event. From these activities you’ll acquire Exquisite Blood. Once you have enough, you’ll be able to summon the Dark Master. The Diadem of the Ancient Helm Cosmetic can potentially drop from this boss, in addition to Unique items exclusive to it.
Echo of Duriel (World Tier IV): Defeat both Grigoire, The Galvanic Saint and Varshan in World Tier IV to collect Mucus-Slick Eggs and Shards of Agony. Once you have enough, you’ll be able to summon the Lord of Pain, Duriel! Out of this group of Bosses, Duriel is the only one who has a chance to drop Uber Unique items. The smoldering Brimstone Mount can also potentially drop from this boss.
Announcement Details
A fanged threat emerges from the shadows in our second Season, Wanderer. At Gamescom: Opening Night Live, the Diablo IV development team announced Season of Blood will begin on October 17.
At the behest of their dark master, a newly turned army of ravenous vampires has set their sights on Sanctuary. The master’s sinister plot remains a shrouded mystery but their pursuit for the blood of innocents has caused an uproar. You must learn to hunt the hunter—your fate depends on it.
Season of Blood will introduce a new Questline for you to uncover, Vampiric Powers to wield against their originators, 5 additional endgame bosses with the ability to target specific Unique and Uber Unique items as a drop, and more.
Additionally, we will introduce some community-requested quality-of-life updates with Season of Blood:
- More efficient Inventory management for Gems.
- Paragon Points, Skill Points, Potion Charges, and Obol capacity upgrades will now carry over into a new Season once achieved with an Eternal or previous Seasonal Realm character.
- Changes to the functionality of status effects such as Vulnerable, Overpower, Critical Strike Damage and also Elemental Resistances.
The updates in the above bullet and the ability to target specific Unique and Ultra Unique items as a drop will be available in both Seasonal and Eternal Realms.
Watch the trailer below to meet Erys, a vampire hunter who stalks these blood leeches throughout Sanctuary, voiced by actress and producer Gemma Chan.
What we’ve shared today is just a slice of what’s in store for wanders in Season of Blood. We’ll share more details about Season of the Blood as we approach its release date.