Season of Blood Revealed (Diablo 4 Season 2)

Everything We Know About Diablo 4 Season 2

Diablo 4’s Season 2 has been revealed as “The Season of Blood”.

It’s a vampire-themed season that is set to go live on October 17th.

With Season 2 comes new content and a ton of highly requested quality-of-life changes.

Here’s what we know so far, check back as we’ll keep adding more news as it comes out.

Still working your way through Season 1? Head to our D4 platform to explore the best Diablo 4 builds.

What is Diablo 4 Season 2’s Release Date and Time?

“The Season of Blood”, aka, Diablo 4 Season 2 releases on October 17th at 10 AM PDT.

With any launch, there is always a chance for delays but that is the timing that Blizzard has cited.

As soon as it’s live, we’ll have brand-new builds curated by our experts set up and ready to go for you to try!

The Story

Newly turned ravenous vampires have set off towards Sanctuary under the command of their master.

This event is causing terror to the people, with many innocents falling victim to the teeth of their predators.

It’s up to us to arm ourselves, hunt the hunters, and ultimately uncover the true intentions of the evil in charge!

Quality of Life Changes

It’s no secret that Diablo 4 has been in a rough spot lately. There are a lot of widely regarded issues that the community’s expressed, and it’s kept a lot of players from enjoying the game.

With Season 2, we’re moving in a positive direction! We’ve got a ton of updates coming from little tweaks to complete shifts in direction!

Renown

Renown has been a popular topic ever since Diablo 4 launched. While Renown offers a fun progression system initially, it can quickly become very repetitive. When Season 1 launched, small adjustments were made in order to allow map progress and Altars of Lilith Renown to carry over from the Eternal Realm. This was a step in the right direction, but ultimately left players redoing the same old quests and dungeons again and again. No more.

The Season of Blood removes all Renown restrictions and allows progress to remain account-wide! This applies to both the Eternal Realm and the Seasonal Realm, so no matter how you prefer to play, you’ll be able to save progress everywhere. This is a massive win for everyone. Now we can spend more time on the actual endgame and seasonal content without sacrificing the power of 100% Renown. Better yet, any time invested into Renown will no longer feel completely wasted when creating new characters or moving into the next season. Fantastic change!

Gems & Stash

Stash space, or more specifically the lack thereof, has been a constant issue since the beginning. It’s a necessity to the genre, yet it’s lacking in many ways compared to the standard of ARPG’s today. Thankfully, it’s about to get a bit better.

Once Season 2 begins, gems will no longer take up inventory space, and instead be stored under crafting materials. Another huge QoL change that will help free up stash space and make gems far easier to manage. Additionally, there will be a search bar and filters we can use at our stash, further speeding up the constant process of inventory management. Overall, we’re still going to need additional tabs before the stash issue is fully resolved.. But things will certainly feel a lot more manageable with Season 2.

Endgame

Before we jump into the new endgame content, let’s have a look at some changes that affect our current experience.

First off, both Legion Events and World Bosses have had their spawn timers decreased. In the case of World Bosses, the drop is nearly half what it was; going from six hours to only three and a half hours! Additionally, warning timers have been increased to help notify players to participate in these collaborative events. This will open many more opportunities to challenge these behemoths, and hopefully fix the issues where players have nobody else to assist them.

Regular World/Dungeon Events have increased mob density, making it more enticing to stop by and do them.

Tree of Whispers will now offer far greater gold and experience, both from completing Whispers, and from turning in all ten Grim Favors. There are also changes to the way the reward Caches work. Instead of having increased odds of obtaining the chosen item slot, we’ll simply only receive that type of gear. To top it off, these items will come with increased item power, further enticing the rewards. Standard Whisper Caches provide rewards of +10 item power, while upgraded Whisper Caches are +20 item power. Lastly, any Nightmare Sigils awarded from Whisper Caches will be within five levels of the player’s highest completed Nightmare Dungeon. A great change to help reduce the amount of scrapped Sigils.

Helltides follow the same pattern as Tree of Whispers, offering increased gold and experience. Helltide chests will also be marked differently on the map in order to properly dictate which types of items they contain.

Nightmare Dungeons have gone through a number of improvements. For starters, players will now be able to avoid the extra loading screens and teleport directly inside the dungeon. Next, the dungeon layouts have been reshaped to avoid dead-end moments that punish exploration. The “milestones” within each dungeon now follow a better (often circular) path to ensure players can keep moving forward and reduce backtracking. Great changes that will smooth out the experience. Further changes include adjustments to certain Afflictions, increased Paragon Glyph experience, and Sigil rewards. Sigils will always be rewarded upon completing a Nightmare Dungeon, instead of after defeating a Nightmare Dungeon boss, which isn’t always an option.

General Improvements

Diablo 4 is finally making some huge changes that will make the game far more accessible to the average player. It’s no secret that levelling is a real grind, especially compared to the previous titles. While Diablo 4 was designed with a slower pace in mind, it was to the point where hitting max level felt far out of reach. With Season 2, that all changes.

Experience bonuses are no longer additive.. They are multiplicative! According to Blizzard, it’s estimated to be 40% faster to reach level 100. This is an exciting change that should help players level at a moderate pace. Not too fast, but no longer monumentally slow!

Speaking of fast, mounts now have increased speed and are less likely to get caught on barricades. In fact, they now have the ability to break them down! Traversing the map already takes enough time without a silly bone wall blocking our entire path.. So I’m very happy to hear our horses are a little bit smarter! Best of all, the mount cooldowns have been halved, further reducing downtime.

Another way the map has been improved is with the addition of extra Stashes and Waypoints. There are a total of ten new Waypoints; two in each region. These are placed nearby important vendors for ease of access. Important NPCs such as the Occultist and Purveyors of Curiosity have also been moved to more convenient locations.

Normal, Magic, and non-sacred Rares will no longer clog up inventories when playing on World Tier III or IV. These will automatically convert into crafting resources when dropped. This will save so much time! We’ll no longer have to filter through as many items, and in turn, we’ll have more available inventory space. The only potential downside is that we’re unable to vendor these for gold on higher difficulties, but it’s been noted that there are adjustments in place to help compensate the difference.

Seasonal Content is a big part of bringing players back to the game. However, a key issue with Season 1 is that it prohibited those who hadn’t previously finished the Campaign. Sure, you could create a Seasonal Character.. But you were unable to participate in the new content. Not great.. Now that’s changing! Players are now able to select “Skip the Campaign” so long as they’ve completed the Prologue. So come join the Season of Blood!

Mechanical Changes

One of the fundamental issues with Diablo 4 is its poor balancing and use of resistances. Armor is the definitive best defensive stat, to the point where resistances are often completely disregarded. Additionally, Vulnerable Damage and Critical Strike Damage were so far above and beyond everything else that it limited the builds that are viable. If your build didn’t make use of these stats, it was immediately inferior and generally not worth considering. Mechanics such as Overpower were extremely weak in comparison. With Season 2, everything is about to change!

Armor & Resistances

Armor is no longer the definitive defensive stat in the game. Instead of functioning as a catch-all, players will now have to build Resistances, because Armor will no longer have any effect against elements! Now Armor will better represent its own purpose; providing physical damage reduction.

Elemental Resistances have been simplified. No longer do we have a poor scaling and complex multiplicative formula. Now, it’s just additive. Stack together whatever percentages you have up to a base cap of 70% damage reduction. Throw in some new effects and you could even reach 85% damage reduction! We’ve also learned that increasing percentage points of higher number Resistances will offer more total effective life. Blizzard references greater effectiveness from 60% to 65% over 20% to 25%. It’ll be interesting to see how the numbers align, but this looks great so far!

While this could technically be seen as a nerf, it’s a necessary and fantastic change for the greater health of the game. Players will have to do more than just stack as much Armor as possible. It’s been said that through itemization, elixirs, skills, and paragon, players should be able to sustain proper Resistances. It’s estimated that a level 80 character should be able to reach the 70% base cap.

This also helps balance Sorcerers and Necromancers by making Intelligence useful instead of irrelevant. Great change!

Damage Buckets

In Diablo 4, damage is calculated through various multipliers. “Damage Buckets” refers to damage that comes from different sources or effects. So long as these sources fell into a different “bucket”, they are multiplied together, creating insanely high numbers in the process. Most of these multipliers come with a requirement. However, some are far easier to achieve than others. This is where Vulnerable Damage and Critical Strike Damage come in. In our current environment, the top builds are able to consistently apply the Vulnerable condition and deal Critical Strike Damage with ease. Additionally, the math allowed builds to stack up percentages to push this damage to extraordinary numbers. The damage output of these builds far surpassed other sources, and so it became the only real way to play.

With Season 2, only the base amount of bonus damage from Vulnerable and Critical Strike Damage will be multiplicative. It’s no longer possible to stack huge percentages. Here are the base multipliers.

• Vulnerable Damage: x20%
• Critical Strike Damage: x50%
• Overpower Damage: x50%

It will still be possible to increase Vulnerable Damage and Critical Strike Damage in your build. However, they will be additive instead of multiplicative. All of this is intended to help rebalance the numbers and allow builds to focus on their own damage types, instead of having to abide by one specific broken combination. Damage-Over-Time builds will love this change, as they can’t utilize Critical Strike Damage.

Since this is an overall damage nerf, there will be adjustments to monsters in order to compensate the difference. We’re told to expect a similar feel in difficulty with enemies being adjusted for the new power level. And if the numbers feel off, Blizzard is ready to adjust them accordingly.

Lastly, Overpower Damage was emphasized to be much stronger, but current details are vague, so we’ll have to wait and see how it works when the patch goes live.

Unique Items

One of the most exciting parts about any ARPG is the gear, and in Diablo, it’s Uniques! Unique Items have been core to the series, offering fresh ways that can fundamentally change how your character plays. It’s a way to modify your abilities beyond simply checking the boxes on the skill tree. Unfortunately for Diablo 4, that feeling has been missing for a while now, as most of the Uniques have missed the mark.. But not for much longer!

The devs want to breathe new life to existing Uniques and make them feel special. One inherent issue is that many Uniques only apply to a particular build or two. If a player picks up a Unique that doesn’t fit, it really detracts from what otherwise should be a fun and exciting experience.

One upcoming change to help compensate for this is allowing existing stats to roll with higher ranges. By widening the percentage bracket, it’s now possible to gain an above-average stat that exceeds the potential of non-Unique items. Additionally, players can obtain stats on Unique items that normally aren’t possible for that particular gear slot (ex. Cooldown Reduction on a weapon). This makes finding a Unique so much more exciting, as even without its skill-modifying property, it can still offer a power boost that’s well above the norm. Perfect fit or not, Uniques will be valuable!

As for the special abilities, many Uniques are getting buffed or reworked to function better than before. They’ll also have the chance to gain new Unique-only stats (see above image). This makes re-rolling affixes even better and further deepens the realm of possibility. We’ve got a lot of new goodies to enjoy!

New Endgame Content

The Season of Blood will introduce five new and returning endgame bosses. These can be challenged on both the Seasonal and Eternal Realms, allowing players to experience the new content however they choose. These bosses begin at World Tier III with some of the more challenging fights existing solely at World Tier IV. Players will have to take part in various tasks across Sanctuary in order to unlock each individual boss encounter.

Conquering these bosses will give players a good chance at acquiring specific Unique items. Each boss has its own variety of Uniques, including some that are exclusive to that boss. There’s also a chance of obtaining boss-specific cosmetics, so even if you’ve got all the items you’re looking for, there’s another reason to hunt them down!

The general formula is pretty simple.

1. Play through your choice of endgame content.
2. Farm and gather enough summoning materials.
3. Summon the boss encounter.

As you can see, you’ll only be able to fight the boss one time per summon. So be sure to keep any excess summoning materials for the future!

Let’s take a further look at each boss.

Endgame Bosses

Grigoire, The Galvanic Saint

• World Tier III & IV
• Gather Living Steel from the Tortured Offering in Helltide.

Echo of Varshan

• World Tier III & IV
• Defeat Grotesque Debtors during Whispers of the Dead for a chance at obtaining parts of Varshan’s body. Whisper Caches guarantee one part.

The Beast in the Ice

• World Tier IV
• Gather Distilled Fear by completing Tier 30+ Nightmare Dungeons, then craft the Glacial Fissure Nightmare Sigil.

Dark Master

• World Tier IV
• Defeat a World Tier IV World Boss or complete a Legion Event to acquire Exquisite Blood.

Echo of Duriel

• World Tier IV
• Defeat Grigoire and Varshan in World Tier IV, collect their Mucus-Slick Eggs and Shards of Agony.

If your goal is to farm a specific Unique for your build, you’ll now have a clear path to obtaining that item. A welcome addition! Then, if you want to take on an even greater challenge.. Make your way through two initial bosses to get to Duriel. Unlike the other four, Duriel is special, and has increased odds of dropping Uber Uniques! If you want to farm Diablo 4’s most coveted items, now’s your chance!

These new bosses provide a direct link from our current endgame activities to a more exciting finale. It’s an awesome way to tie it all together, and it should help revive some of the less popular endgame content.

The Season of Blood

The Season of Blood brings a ton of new powers for players to build around. Acquiring and equipping these powers appears to be similar to the Malignant Hearts of Season 1, but I’m sure the real fun will come down to experimenting with various combinations!

Vampiric Powers & Pact Armor

There are a total of 22 Vampiric Powers available in Season 2. What’s notably different about these is that all 22 are class-agnostic. In theory, this should open up more potential builds, or at the very least give us more options to test out.

Vampiric Powers are powerful and unique season-exclusive abilities that power up your character. They can be unlocked through the Seasonal Questline and from the Blood Harvest Seasonal Event. You can have up to five powers active at a time, and each one can be upgraded to a max of level 3. In order to activate a Vampiric Power, you must pay its activation cost.. And to pay its activation cost, you must have Pact Armor.

Helms, Chest Armor, Pants, Gloves, and Boots all can contain Pacts. Pacts pay for activation costs and come in three types; Ferocity, Divinity, and Eternity (the order matches the above item). When you select your desired Vampiric Power, you must have enough corresponding Pacts to use it. Let’s use the item above as an example. Say we have a Vampiric Power which requires one Ferocity Pact and one Divinity Pact. Our Shattered Runic Gloves has one of each Pact, so we can use the Ferocity Pact and Divinity Pact to activate the power. The Eternity Pact was not needed, and so it’s still useful for any additional Vampiric Powers, as we have not yet expended it.

If we had a second Vampiric Power which requires one Divinity Pact and one Eternity Pact, we would need another Divinity Pact. Once a Pact is in use, it won’t be available for another power unless the prior power is disabled.

Of the 22 existing powers, most are Minor while a few are Major. Minor Vampiric Powers require anywhere from 1-3 Pacts to activate. Major Vampiric Powers require 6 Pacts. In addition to Pacts, we also need to obtain Potent Blood to unlock and upgrade our Vampiric Powers. Potent Blood is acquired by simply slaying enemies. Additional sources can be found during Blood Harvest Seasonal Events.

Alongside these powers comes an additional bonus keyword known as Vampiric Curse. We don’t know the entire details just yet, but here’s the tooltip description.

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.

Just like Season 1, we can earn consumables that help fix our gear to appropriately line-up with our Vampiric Powers. Standalone Pacts, like the above Pact of Ferocity, can be used to add a specific Pact to an item of choice, provided that it doesn’t exceed the maximum amount on that item. If you look back at those Shattered Runic Gloves, you’ll notice the item has 3/5 Pacts. In this case, we could expand the gear with two more Pacts at most.

On the other hand, if we want to remove unnecessary Pacts from an important piece of gear, Cleansing Acids can reset it to zero. Overall pretty standard to expect, but it’s good we have the options. Both types of consumables can be obtained from Blood Seekers, Opulent Coffins, the Season Journey, the new Questline, and Blood Harvest Seasonal Events.

Blood Harvest Seasonal Event

The Blood Harvest Seasonal Event takes place in the Dry Steppes, Hawezar, and Scosglen regions. Completing these events will build your Reputation (Hunter’s Acclaim) as you climb tiers to unlock useful rewards. During the event you have a chance to acquire Blood Lures which can summon (consumable-dropping) Blood Seekers.

Be on the lookout for Seeker Keys. These can either free prisoners to improve Reputation or unlock Seekers Caches which contain Pact Armor, Pact Consumables, and Potent Blood.

New World/Dungeon Events have been added to give players more ways to fight off Blood Seekers, and ultimately farm more seasonal goodies.

New Season Blessings

During the Season of Blood there will be five Season Blessings to choose from; three of which are new.

• Urn of Blood: Boost the Hunter’s Acclaim you earn from Blood Harvest activities.
• Urn of Helltides: Boost the chance to receive an extra equipment item from Helltide chests. The extra item will be of Legendary rarity or better.
• Urn of Swift Travel: Boost how quickly your Mount recovers from sprinting.

It’s cool to see some variety with these bonuses. I enjoy a more season-themed way to spend Smoldering Ashes, instead of just the generic options from Season 1.

Seasonal Stash

At the end of a Season, all items will go into a withdraw-only stash tab on the Eternal Realm. Players have until the end of the next season to retrieve any desired items. Anything left in this Seasonal Stash by the end of the following season will be replaced and no longer accessible.

This is pretty standard to expect, but here’s hoping we get some additional stash tabs soon because it’s going to get full fast!

Conclusion

So, how do you feel after the announcement? While we’ll have to play to truly know, after seeing all the fantastic quality of life updates, I’m optimistic. I especially like how they’ve tied our current endgame to the new bosses; incentivizing us to dip back into what otherwise could’ve become forgotten content.

October 17th is coming soon and more patch news is just a week away!