What to Expect from Diablo 4 Season 11

Over 2 years since its release in June 2023, Diablo 4 is now approaching its 11th season, and players can expect a major shake-up to what they’ve come to know so far. Not only is Diablo 4 Season 11 introducing new seasonal activities and mechanics, but the game is also overhauling several systems with permanent changes. Although early feedback from the PTR suggests some of these changes will be controversial among players, the test period has given fans a good idea of what Diablo 4 has in store for Season 11.

Changes Coming in Diablo 4 Season 11

Tempering and Masterworking Are Getting an Overhaul

The change getting the most buzz in the Diablo 4 community is the rework of the game’s gear upgrade system. Since their introduction in Diablo 4 Season 4, players have criticized the Tempering and Masterworking systems as being too RNG-based, and Season 11’s changes aim to address this feedback. In Diablo 4 Season 11, the new Tempering system includes:

• The ability to choose which affixes are Tempered onto an item
• Only one Tempered affix per item
• Temper charges can be restored indefinitely

Similarly, Masterworking will receive the following changes in Season 11:

• Improves the Quality of an item rather than its affix values
• Maximum Quality threshold of 20 with a Capstone bonus once an item reaches max Quality
• Capstone bonus upgrades a non-Greater Affix into a Greater Affix

Additionally, Diablo 4 Season 11 is adding another layer to the gear upgrade pipeline with the introduction of Sanctification. This mechanic allows players to further upgrade an item with a final power boost with potential upgrades like:

• Apply a bonus Legendary power
• Improve an Affix into a Greater Affix
• Add a bonus Affix from a pool of special Sanctification affixes
• Replace an existing Affix with a random Sanctification affix
• Make your item indestructible, preventing it from losing durability

The downside of Sanctification is that players can’t control which of these bonuses is applied to their gear. Sanctifying an item also makes it unmodifiable, meaning players should save this upgrade for after they have completed Tempering and Masterworking a piece of gear.

Divine Gifts Are the Seasonal Powers for Diablo 4 Season 11

Like with previous Diablo 4 seasons, Divine Gifts are the new seasonal power of Diablo 4 Season 11. Divine Gifts can be broken down into three components: a Reward, a Corrupted Gift, and a Purified Gift. Corrupted Gifts give players useful boons at a cost, while Purified Gifts remove that negative cost and double the Reward. Purified Gift slots will unlock as players progress through the Diablo 4 Season 11 Reputation Board.

‘Toughness’ Debuts Alongside Changes to Monster Behavior

While not a defensive stat itself, Diablo 4‘s introduction of the Toughness stat in Season 11 is an attempt to make the player’s overall survivability more apparent when looking at their character. Toughness essentially acts like an aggregator of all defensive stats that factor into a player’s survivability. Stats like Armor, Resistances, and Maximum Life all play into the number shown for Toughness.

This number will provide Diablo 4 players witha general idea of how tanky their build is, which will be necessary with the changes to monster behavior coming in Season 11. Diablo 4 is looking to up the difficulty of enemy encounters to provide players with more of a challenge. To this end, enemies in Diablo 4 Season 11 will respond to players’ actions more dynamically, deal more damage, and have powerful new affixes to keep players on their toes.

Leaderboards Return Alongside the New Tower Dungeon

Following their removal in Season 6, Diablo 4 is finally bringing back Leaderboards with a new endgame dungeon, the Tower. For competitive Diablo 4 players looking to prove that their build is the best, taking on the Tower and earning a place on the Leaderboard will require them to race against the clock, slaying enough enemies to spawn a boss across five floors. With only 10 minutes to clear the dungeon, players will want to utilize the Pylons that spawn to gain buffs and increase their monster-slaying efficiency.

Season Rank Replaces the Seasonal Journey

Rather than the traditional Season Journey, Diablo 4 Season 11 adds the new Season Rank mechanic, which features more challenging objectives that offer improved rewards. Part of these rewards includes those previously locked behind the Renown system, such as Skill Points and Paragon Points, which are no longer permanent across the player’s seasonal Diablo 4 characters. Moreover, Altars of Lilith and Tenets of Akarat now only grant Experience and minor rewards, instead of permanent power for Seasonal Realm characters.

Capstone Dungeons Return

As a part of the change to the Seasonal Rank system, Capstone Dungeons are returning as gates between 5 of the 7 seasonal ranks. The new Capstone Dungeons in Diablo 4 Season 11 include:

• Torrid Menagerie
  • Suggested level: 30
  • Difficulty Tier: Normal
• Hellish Descent
  • Suggested level: 50
  • Difficulty Tier: Expert
• Unseen Awakening
  • Suggested level: 60
  • Difficulty Tier: Torment 1
• Tempest Oasis
  • Suggested level: 60
  • Difficulty Tier: Torment 2
• Sins of the Many
  • Suggested level: 60
  • Difficulty Tier: Torment 3

Lesser Evils Invade Sanctuary in Diablo 4 Season 11

The theme of Diablo 4 Season 11 is centered on the Lesser Evils, the four demons that rank just below Diablo‘s Prime Evils. Diablo 4 already features 3 of the 4 Lesser Evils as Lair Bosses, but these foes will appear in new locations during Season 11. Duriel can be found replacing Blood Maidens in Helltides, Belial will start appearing in the Pit, and Andariel can spawn in the Kurast Undercity, meaning only players with the Vessel of Hatred expansion can access all Season 11 content.

Azmodan Joins the World Boss Rotation

The fourth and final Lesser Evil finally debuts in Diablo 4 as well. Returning from Diablo 3, Azmodan, Lord of Sin, will spawn as a permanent new World Boss, joining the other three World Bosses currently in rotation. Diablo 4 has not introduced a new World Boss since the game’s launch, so the addition of Azmodan is a long time coming.

Diablo 4 Season 11 Adds New Uniques

As has become tradition with each Diablo 4 season, each class will gain a new unique in Season 11. These Uniques include:

• Barbarian — Chainscourged Mail (Unique Pants)
  • +51-65 All Stats
  • +424-457 Maximum Life
  • 8.1-8.8% Cooldown Reduction
  • +2-3 to Brawling Skills
  • Unique Affix: Casting a damaging Brawling Skill disables it afterwards. When all of these Skills that are on your Action Bar are disabled, they become re-enabled with their Cooldowns refreshed. Your Brawling Skills deal 50-100%[x] increased damage for each disabled Skill.

• Druid — Khamsin Steppewalkers (Unique Boots)
  • Inherent: Attacks Reduce Evade’s Cooldown by 0.5 Seconds
  • +16.5-25.0% Movement Speed
  • +41.5-55.0% Crowd Control Duration
  • 16-25% Nature Magic Cooldown Reduction
  • +2-3 to Bad Omen
  • Unique Affix: Damaging 200-100 Enemies with Storm Skills grants a charge. Casting any Defensive Skill will grant Max Movement Speed and Unhindered for 1 second for each charge used. While charged, enemies you run into are Immobilized for 1 second.

• Rogue — Death’s Pavane (Unique Pants)
  • Inherent: +15% Dodge Chance while Channeling Dance of Knives
  • +9.0-11.0% Critical Strike Chance
  • +16.0-25.0% Movement Speed
  • +2-3 to Dance of Knives
  • +62.5-85.0% Agility Damage
  • Unique Affix: Dance of Knives drops knives from enemies hit. Picking them up grants you 1 Charge and increases your Dance of Knives damage by 10-20% for 6 seconds, stacking up to 3 times.

• Necromancer — Gravebloom (Unique One-handed Mace)
  • Inherent: 10% Attack Speed
  • +80-94 Intelligence
  • +424-457 Maximum Life
  • +36.5-50.0% Chance for Golem to Hit Twice
  • +1-2 Golem Mastery
  • Unique Affix: You raise 3 smaller Golems that each deal 40-60% of normal damage and gain 30%[+] Attack Speed. Your Golems respawn 50% faster.

• Sorcerer — Orsivane (Unique One-handed Mace)
  • +99-113 Intelligence
  • +424-457 Maximum Life
  • +57.0-75.0% Non-Physical Damage
  • +3-4 to Core Skills
  • Unique Affix: For each Defensive Skill not on your Action Bar you deal 20-40%[x] increased damage and gain its associated Enchantment Effect.

• Spiritborn — Path of the Emissary (Unique Boots)
  • Inherent: +30% Movement Speed
  • +16-25% Movement speed
  • +155-200% Core Skill damage
  • +1-2 Core Skill ranks
  • +26.5-40% Impairment Reduction
  • Unique Affix: Every 12-4 meters you move, invoke a Core Skill from your primary Spirit Hall.

While these Uniques could be tweaked before the official patch notes for Diablo 4 Season 11 are released, there are a few clear standouts already. Sorcerers and Spiritborns are getting great all-around Uniques with the Orsivane and Path of the Emissary, which will likely become key components of the best Diablo 4 Season 11 builds. The Rogue is also getting a nice tool to aid one of Diablo 4‘s best 1-button builds with Death’s Pavane’s Unique effect on Dance of Knives.

Released

June 5, 2023

ESRB

Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language, In-Game Purchases, Users Interact