Summary
Diablo 4developer and publisher Blizzard Entertainment has announced the patch notes for the upcoming 2.1 Public Test Realm, or PTR. The PTR allows Blizzard to collectDiablo 4player data and feedback for a short period before the full season launch to ensure the balance, functionality, and fit of the new content.
Diablo 4has experienced lasting user retention since its 2023 release, due in part to the increasing popularity of its seasonal releases, which have offered some major adjustments to the gameplay, new items, enemies, quality-of-life updates, and more.WhileDiablo 4’s season 6 brought some popular additions, season 7 will be mixing things up again with loads of novel content. The new season is expected to launch sometime in January 2025. Blizzard’s PTR 2.1 Campfire Chat revealed much of what players can expect in the new year, but the newly-released PTR patch notes give a complete breakdown of the upcoming changes.
Inan article on its website, Blizzard walks players through all the 2.1 PTR features, which will be available for players to try from December 3 to May 22, 2025. Some highlights among these include the new Armory, an area in town where players can save and swap character builds, and Witchcraft powers, including Eldritch, Psyche, and Growth and Decay. Also forthcoming are the gruesome Headrotten, new enemies available within the Headhunt subzone. And, thanks to the patch,Diablo 4will now feature weaponized amphibians, which can be summoned using Witchcraft.
Defeating Headrotten bosses will grant access to new socketable Occult Gems. Also included are new runes, a host of Legendary aspects, andnew unique items for allDiablo 4classes, including Spiritborn. Blizzard is eager to get its hands on as much feedback as users are willing to submit. Players can share their perspective through the in-game feedback tool, or by visiting theDiablo 4PTR forums. The PTR can be accessed through Blizzard’s Battle.net app by opening the game version menu and installing the PTR client.
WithDiablo 4’s season 6 set to end on January 21st, players participating in the PTR will get first crack at familiarizing themselves with season 7’s new features. While all the elements of the PTR are still considered in development, and therefore subject to change, it’s safe to assume the majority of the fresh content will be waiting for players in the full release in early 2025. On the heels of the first expansion,Vessel of Hatred, andwithDiablo 4on sale until early December 2024, it’s a great time to jump into the game.
Noc
Cir
Developer’s Note:Exhausted in this case refers to a cooldown for the effect.
New Items and Tempering Recipes
Slice and Dice – Utility Aspect
Strike of Stormhorn - Unique Focus
Developer’s Note:The inherent affix replaces all sources of Chance to Cast additional ball lightnings with Chance to cast a Super Ball Lightning.
Hammer of the Ancients
Wrath of the Berserker
Call of the Ancients
Prime Call of the Ancients
Iron Maelstrom
The following Skills Tree upgrades which directly deal damage will now scale up their damage with increased Skill Ranks of the base Skill.
Cataclysm
Petrify
The following Skills Tree upgrades which directly dealt damage will now scale up their damage with increased Skill Ranks of the base skill.
Charged Atmosphere
Spirit Boons
Spirit Offering unlocks reduced from 100 to 60 per Spirit Animal.
Deer – Gift of the Stag
Enhanced Blight
Paranormal Blight
Developer’s Note:The impact Freeze works with the smaller projectiles from the Ebonpiercer Unique item.
Army of the Dead
Blood Wave
Bone Storm
Affliction
Legendary Aspects
Numerous Legendary Aspects from Spiritborn are becoming available to the Necromancer which supports its Block archetype:
Developer’s Note:These items are still exclusive to owners of the Vessel of Hatred expansion.
Tempering
Profane Cage – Defensive Temper Recipe
Developer’s Note:Spiked Armor can still be found in the Thorn Army recipe.
Rain of Arrows
Supreme Rain of Arrows
The following Skills Tree Upgrades which directly dealt damage will now scale up their damage with increased Skill Ranks of the base skill.
Agile Augments — Weapon Recipe
Sorcerer
Developer’s Note:All Sorcerers eventually use Burning and Conjuration builds. The focus behind all of these changes is to try and fix these outlying issues and open more build options. As always, we will continue to monitor the effect this has on Sorcerer’s power level.
Supreme Inferno
Unstable Currents
Icy Touch
Conjuration Mastery
Developer’s Note:The power of Conjuration mastery in the endgame limits all Sorcerer builds to become which build can summon the most conjurations possible. We are looking to redistribute the power boost gained from this passive into other parts of the Sorcerer kit.
Aspect of Searing Wards
Gravitational
Developer’s Note:The previous version of this affix has been reworked into Okun’s Catalyst.
Tempering Recipes
Nightmare Dungeons
A new Affix has been added, Elemental Totems. While in Combat, one of three Totems can spawn.
Storm of the Wilds
Song of the Mountain
Loot Updates
Developer’s Note:It doesn’t feel good to get an item that has multiple Greater Affixes with poorly rolled power. This change will make it so that a 4 GA item will always have a good roll on the Unique power.
Affix Updates
Items that have affixes that are class specific are no longer class-restricted. Instead, the specific affix is now class-restricted.
Developer’s Note:Any affixes that are inactive due to being incompatible with your class will be explicitly called out as disabled on item tooltips.
Developer’s Note:The majority of these affixes are from class-specific Tempering recipes. To acquire them on other classes the item must be tempered by the class that has access, then transferred.
Restricted to Barbarians and Necromancers
Restricted to Barbarians and Sorcerers
Restricted to Barbarians, Necromancers, Druids, and Sorcerers
Summons and Minions Update
All skills that summon entities, such as Necromancer Minions, Druid Companions, Sorcerer Conjurations, are now all tagged as Summon skills for consistency across classes.
Developer’s Note:Summoning Skills have behaved inconsistently across the Classes, making it hard to know how to scale their damage or what effects would interact with your Summons. This update aims to standardize their interactions across the board by attributing the damage they deal to the player, rather than the Summoned unit. This means that damage from your Summons will be able to trigger all of your Lucky Hit effects, and interact with all of your damage modifiers, multipliers, and triggers. Note that effects such as Ring of Mendeln still properly increase their damage output based on the damage bonuses you have for the specific Minion type that triggered the effect. Additionally, specific changes for Necromancer have been implemented to reflect these changes, which can be seen above in the relevant section.
User Interface and User Experience
Infernal Hordes and Strongholds
Necromancer
Rogue
Developer’s Note:The following effects and affixes still do not work properly in the context of Shadow Clone:
Diablo 4
WHERE TO PLAY
Diablo® IV is the ultimate action RPG experience with endless evil to slaughter, countless abilities to master, nightmarish dungeons, and legendary loot. Embark on the campaign solo or with friends, meeting memorable characters through beautifully dark settings and a gripping story, or explore an expansive end game and shared world where players can meet in towns to trade, team up to battle world bosses, or descend into PVP zones to test their skills against other players – no lobbies necessary – with cross-play, cross-progression, and couch co-op on Xbox.This is only the beginning for Diablo® IV, with new events, stories, seasons, rewards, and more looming on the horizon.
