Ahead of Diablo 4 Season 14, a new Public Test Realm (PTR) is on the way, with major balance changes, new features, and more arriving next week.
As announced by Blizzard in a new blog post, the 3.1.0 PTR will go live on June 2 at 10am PDT and run until June 9 at the same time, giving you a week to sample the changes arriving in the base game’s upcoming 14th season.
First up, Pandemonium Ruptures are being added – these can be opened by killing “the guardians around Death’s Head Idols,” and the longer you manage to keep them open (by killing monsters and closing Tears), the more tasty loot you’ll earn. Completing a Surging Rupture (a medium-sized one) with Mastery will also give a chance of summoning a Realmwalker (returning after first being added in Season 6) – you can also guarantee a spawn of one of these by completing a Colossal Rupture in the Fields of Desecration.
The reason you’ll wanna do this is because defeating a Realmwalker opens a portal to the Deathtoll Chamber – a mini dungeon that Blizzard says “will be the best source for Betrayer’s Husks, which are required to open the Seasonal Lair Boss’s Hoard in Torment I+.” You can also enter the Deathtoll Chamber “inside a Nightmare Dungeon with the Rupture affix after closing enough Tears within Rupture.” It’ll also boast even more rewards for folks who “complete a special Rupture activity” inside.
As for that new seasonal lair boss, it’s the Corrupted Reaper, found in “Pandemonium Threshold’s entrance in Zarbinzet.” Blizzard reveals “it will also give the best direct drop chances for both Mythic Uniques and Mythic Unique Upgrade currency than any other activity.” And that brings us to a change that’s already proving unpopular – from season 14 onwards, “every Unique can be Mythic,” with the Mythic status changing from an item Rarity to a modifiable Item Quality, letting you “make any Unique item into a game-altering Mythic through Item Quality modifiers.”
Blizzard explains: “This season, any Unique can now drop as a Mythic Unique or be upgraded into a Mythic Unique using the Horadric Cube.”
On the whole, these Mythic changes haven’t been going down very well – one player on Reddit says they “drastically reduce the value and desirability of what is supposed to be the ‘apex item’ tier,” and “the idea of randomizing stats on Mythic Uniques annihilates any remaining value they once had.”
“I’m NOT looking for constant RNG within my RNG,” another says. “Uniques and especially Mythics need some consistency to their stats or they’re just not worth mixing into your build. I’m already gambling if they’ll drop and now I’m gambling if they will drop in a usable state.”
Elsewhere, there’s also a whole slew of balance changes, notably including a big nerf for the Whirlwind Barbarian build. As outlined by content creator Rob2628, a number of incoming changes are going to have a significant impact on the build, including the Limitless Rage aspect being changed from giving you a potential damage buff of 1.5% for every point of Fury to just 0.2%. Heir of Perdition’s damage is substantially reduced from 80% to just 15%, and the Dominate Glyph is “reduced from 23.6% per stack to 1.8% per stack at Glyph Level 150.” The Banished Lord’s talisman’s damage per stack has also gone down from 15-18% to just 8-10%.
As one commenter writes, “RIP barb again for 9 more seasons lmao.” Another says: “Limitless rage from 1.5 to .2 smh thats not nerfing thats destroying.”
All in all, it’s looking like a slightly mixed bag of a PTR, and season to follow – the Mythic changes are already leaving a bad taste in the mouth for many, but it’s not all bad news. Solo Self Found Mode is finally coming to let people craft characters without any help from others, which means no trades to give them a boost. With their own leaderboard filters being added, it’ll allow you to show off something that you’ve done all the work for yourself, with no shortcuts.
What’s more, in perhaps the greatest change of all, “pets can now be renamed.” Be sure to take a look at the complete patch notes if you want to see the full scope of what’s to come.
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