Diablo 4 Season 11 PTR Overview: Tempering and Masterwork overhauls, System Changes and More

Season 11 is not that far off and this upcoming PTR they'll be taking another look into itemization, focusing on Tempering and Masterworking, defences and healing, smarter enemies and new end game challenges.

The Diablo 4 2.5.0 PTR, will be live October 21 through 28 for PC Battle.net users, previews permanent systems that reshape how you build, survive, and compete in Diablo IV season 11.

All of these changes, item systems, defence reworks, smarter monsters, and the arrival of The Tower will apply to both Seasonal and Eternal Realms once the season begins.

Season 11 reshapes item progression to be cleaner and more straightforward, minimizing the randomness of the older system. Tempering and Masterworking now lean fully into what they were always meant to be: player-driven customization.

Tempering

Tempering is no longer a slot-machine system. You can now choose the specific affix you want to apply to your gear from any unlocked Tempering Recipe. The goal is control crafting toward your build rather than praying for it.

• Items can now only hold one Tempered affix, but you can change the Tempering affix indefinitely, allowing you to adjust an item as needed.
• You are now able to choose the Temper you want; the random-roll frustration is gone.

Masterworking

Masterworking has been simplified into a linear climb toward item perfection. It no longer boosts individual affix values but instead increases the Quality of the base item raising its damage, armor, or resistances.

• Items can be Masterworked up to Quality 20, with each upgrade adding 2–5 Quality levels.
• Once an item reaches maximum Quality, you can rol it one last time for a Capstone bonus, upgrading a random non-Greater affix into a Greater Affix.
• You can then re-roll the Masterworked Greater Affix as many times as you like, spending Obducite and Neathiron, without resetting Quality.

With Season 11, monster combat has been rebuilt to make every encounter more dangerous, more reactive, and far less routine.

Improved Monster Behaviour

Each monster type now has a defined role and distinct identity in battle and will now be more dynamic in how they approach and respond to you in combat.

Deadlier Enemies

Blizzard is making some bold claims here, and I can't wait to see the changes, but moving forward you should expect enemies to test your defences more and will deal damage much more regularly.

• Monster affixes have been strengthened, demanding attention before you can safely move to weaker mobs.
• Packs now spread out more naturally, reducing the effectiveness of area nukes and forcing tactical targeting.
• The old “Champion” enemies have been reworked into coordinated Champion Packs, increasing threat density while improving variety.

Elite Updates

Elites received the largest overhaul of all.

• Over 20 new affixes have been added across Sanctuary.
• Elites now spawn with minions that inherit a portion of their powers, adding layered danger to each pull.
• Affix overlap has been reduced for cleaner combat logic, while visual clarity improvements make it easier to identify what’s killing you before it does.

Season 11’s 2.5.0 PTR introduces a full redesign of defensive mechanics, healing, and Fortify. The goal is to make survivability consistent across classes and to clarify how mitigation actually works as you climb into higher Torment tiers.

Toughness – A New Core Stat

Toughness measures how much raw damage (of each type) you can absorb after all mitigation, finally giving players a visible effective-health number.

The centrepiece of this system is a new derived stat: Toughness.
Toughness represents your total effective health after all mitigation, summarizing how much raw damage you can absorb for each damage type.

• Toughness appears directly beneath Attack Power in the character panel.
• Hovering over it displays a breakdown by damage type, letting you gauge where your build is weakest.

Armor & Resistances

• Now rating systems with diminishing returns.
• Armor mitigates all damage types, not just Physical.
• New damage type: Physical Resistance.
• Torment penalties for Armor/Resist removed.
• Skills and Paragon Nodes that gave “Damage Reduction” now grant multiplicative bonuses to Armor or Resistances.

Healing & Potions

Healing has been streamlined to emphasize decision-making instead of spam. Potions are now finite but powerful, turning health recovery into a tactical resource rather than background noise.

• Base Potion capacity is set to 4 for all characters, regardless of Renown.
• Each Potion instantly restores 35 % of total Life on use.
• A new passive regeneration restores one Potion every 30 seconds during combat.
• Life on Hit has been improved and reintroduced as a potential affix, now with a brief internal cooldown to prevent scaling abuse.
• Life Regeneration, Life on Kill, and Healing % values have all been raised and appear more frequently across gear.
• Potion upgrade tiers have been removed, since Potion effectiveness now scales directly with maximum Life.

Fortify Redesign

Fortify has been completely reimagined to complement the new healing system. Instead of acting as a passive damage-reduction state, Fortify now functions as a secondary Life pool that fuels regeneration.

• When you gain Fortify, it stacks up to your Maximum Life.
• If your Fortify is below that threshold, you’ll heal for a percentage of your Maximum Life per second, consuming the same amount of Fortify in return.
• You’re considered “Fortified” while you have any Fortify remaining.

The familiar Renown system is being retired from the Seasonal Realm and replaced with a new progression structure: Season Rank.

Introducing Season Rank

Season Rank replaces Renown as the backbone of seasonal progression. Each Rank acts as a milestone challenge, typically a Capstone Dungeon, that must be cleared before advancing to the next tier. Like prior Capstones, these can be attempted early if you’re confident, but they represent a meaningful step up in difficulty.

Progressing through Ranks grants powerful rewards normally tied to Renown:

• Season Rank rewards additional Skill points at Rank 1, 2, and 3.
• Season Rank awards additional Paragon points at Rank 3, 4, 5, and 6.
• Smoldering Ashes and Cosmetics through associated Season Journey objectives.

Renown in the Eternal Realm

Renown itself isn’t disappearing, its permanence simply moves to the Eternal Realm, where it will now function as a static account progression system.

• All previously earned Renown remains intact on the Eternal Realm.
• Potion capacity bonuses have been removed from Renown and replaced with new benefits better aligned with the reworked healing model.
• Altars of Lilith and Tenets of Akarat now provide Experience and minor rewards instead of permanent stat increases.

The Tower is a multi-stage, timed dungeon built for those who have already conquered everything else.

This first iteration launches in Season 11 alongside the new combat updates, marking the return of Leaderboards to Diablo IV. Both features are in active beta and will continue evolving through future Seasons based on community feedback.

The Tower

The Tower is unlocked through the Artificer’s Obelisk in Cerrigar. Once opened, you can attempt it on any difficulty already available for the Pit. From the moment you leave the starting circle, the clock begins.

Each Tower run features randomized floor layouts and monster families. Progress is earned by killing enemies and collecting Orbs, with tougher monsters providing higher scores. Pylons spawn periodically after destroying the smaller towers scattered through each level. Four appear per run: three unique effects in random order, and a fourth that repeats one of them. Use them strategically to chain your buffs between combat waves.

When enough progress is gained, a random Tower Boss appears. Defeating them before the timer expires completes the run and logs your score for the season.

Leaderboards Return

With the Tower comes the long-awaited return of competitive rankings. The 2.5.0 PTR will run from October 21 to October 28.

After finishing a Tower run, your Tier, completion time, and rank will be displayed both on-screen and at the Artificer’s Obelisk in Cerrigar. The Collection menu can also be used to view your position on the leaderboard.

Leaderboard rankings are split by class and party size, including Solo rankings for each class:

• Barbarian
• Necromancer
• Sorcerer
• Rogue
• Druid
• Spiritborn

Plus separate boards for Parties of 2, 3, and 4.

Entries display your Rank, Player Name, Tier Completed, Time, and Date, with filtering options for:

• Platform (All or PC only)
• Mode (Hardcore or Normal)
• Friends and Clan lists

If cross-platform play is disabled, you’ll have limited access to Leaderboards.

The Tower and its Leaderboards will expand across multiple Seasons, refining how scores are tracked and rewards distributed. For now, they exist as a proving ground—a vertical arena for players to test mastery, speed, and coordination against the smartest monsters Diablo IV has ever unleashed.

In Season 11, the Lesser Evils, Duriel, Belial, Andariel, and Azmodan will begin their assault on Sanctuary in what Blizzard calls Beat Back the Lesser Evils. Helltides, Pits and Kurast Undercity have all been invaded by a lesser evil.

Sanctuary Invaded

Every major activity in the Seasonal Realm now carries a demonic signature.

• Duriel infects Helltides, replacing the Blood Maiden event with parasitic horrors. When your threat level peaks, Pangs of Duriel appear instead of Hellborne packs. Killing them earns Baneful Hearts, the keys to summon Duriel himself.
• Belial manipulates The Pit, warping its layout with deception. Belial Eyes occasionally appear within, summoning phantasmal Apparitions when destroyed. Eliminating enough of these Eyes replaces the final Pit boss with Belial, granting an extra Glyph upgrade on victory.
• Andariel haunts the Kurast Undercity, corrupting Spirit Beacons into volatile traps that yield greater attunement rewards. New Andariel-specific Tributes guarantee her as the final boss in exchange for harsher dungeon affixes.
• Azmodan, the Lord of Sin, stalks Sanctuary itself as a new World Boss. He can appear naturally across regions or be summoned south of Zarbinzet at one of three Summoning Altars. Each altar invokes Azmodan imbued with another Lesser Evil’s influence, Duriel’s corruption, Belial’s deceit, or Andariel’s venom. Defeat his heralds to call him forth, and open the reward chests afterward using Corrupted Essence.

Season 11 isn’t just a content drop; it’s a mechanical rewrite.

Defences, healing sources, and item upgrade path is being rebuilt to make Diablo 4 faster, intuitive, and more expressive in how you build characters. I think with this update we're gearing up the game’s second launch moment.

The 2.5.0 PTR runs October 21 (10:30 a.m. PDT) through October 28 (11 a.m. PDT) on PC Battle.net.

All features above are live there for testing and feedback will shape final Season 11 tuning.