In a stream today, Blizzard said that the next season of Diablo 4 “breaks the mold” of the massive changes it made to the game in Season 2 last year. And for the first time, you'll be able to try out all the new features before the season goes live via a playtest server in a few weeks.
Since Season 1, players have been begging Blizzard to offer a PTR or public test area for the new seasons of Diablo 4 – as was the case with Diablo 3 and Diablo 2 Resurrected. The rocky start of Season 3 last month was a major example of what can happen when Blizzard's internal testing doesn't meet player expectations. Progression-blocking bugs and a disappointing seasonal pet weren't the way anyone wanted to start a new season, and Blizzard agrees.
However, there will not be a PTR for every season, Blizzard explained in today's stream. “It depends on the extent of the changes we make, but we are definitely planning a PTR for Season 4,” said Adam Fletcher, deputy community director. A date for the PTR and what to expect in Season 4 will be announced in another stream in “a few weeks.”
Details about what's coming in Season 4 remain vague, but Blizzard has promised to make major changes to how loot works. For now, it's worth saving items or using them to craft materials. You'll need to practice quickly searching for valuable stats for each individual item, which can take longer than running through an entire dungeon.
The goal of Season 4, as Blizzard has said in previous streams, is to make items valuable regardless of whether they represent an upgrade for you. And if you look at other action RPGs that do this well, like Last Epoch and Path of Exile, I think it's pretty safe to assume that it's some kind of crafting system that allows you to upgrade the items that are really important to you.
Significant changes to the Necromancer minions in Season 4 were also hinted at in today's stream. Season 3's spider pet showed how much fun a minion can be when its power actually scales with the character, unlike the skeletons necromancers can currently summon. “Servant [are] “Making it feel really good is one of our big priorities,” said lead live class designer Adam Jackson. “There will be a lot more in Season 4 [the changes coming in next week’s mid-season patch.]”
Blizzard showed off a demo of The Gauntlet, Diablo 4's new weekly leaderboard dungeon, on the same stream, and it looks to be an exciting addition to its endgame activities. It will arrive on Tuesday with a mid-season balance patch.
