The Diablo IV Season 4 PTR: What You Need to Know
Originally Posted by Blizzard (Official Post)
Change is coming, wanderer. Do you dare immerse yourself in what lies ahead for all of Sanctuary?
The first Public Test Realm (PTR) for Diablo IV is on the horizon, offering you the chance to test upcoming changes and features for Season 4! PTR will be available from April 2 through April 9 for players with a PC Battle.net account.
The purpose of the PTR is to test updates and features alongside you before the launch of Season 4. Then we’ll take your feedback from PTR to make adjustments to Season 4 before it goes live for everyone. Your experience in Sanctuary is shaking up in a big way: here’s an overview of what you need to know.
Itemization
We have three guiding pillars for our itemization updates: quality over quantity, the best items having a journey of power and improvement that you can work toward, and of course, having items feel satisfying and exciting to use.
For a full list of what’s new or adjusted for Classes, check out the Class Update patch notes here, but here’s a summary of the itemization changes:
Basic Item Updates
- Reduced number of affixes: now 3 on Legendary items, and 2 on Rare items.
- Smaller pool of more potent affixes.
- More relevant affixes (eg: ranks of a single Core Skill).
- Only Sacred items in World Tier 3, only Ancestral items in World Tier 4.
- Affix values are tuned up to be punchier; we want you (and the fiends of Sanctuary) to really feel them!
- New affixes and positioning of affixes:
- Resource per Second
- Resource on Kill
- Lucky Hit: Apply Vulnerable
- Life per Hit
- Basic Skill Ranks
Miscellaneous Updates
- Legendary items dropped from enemy level 95+ are always 925 item power.
- Gems are simpler, more useful, and have a much longer crafting tail.
- Gems now have Core stats, and the more conditional bonuses have been simplified.
- Salvage, crafting, and rewards have all been tuned.
- Significantly reduced item drop rates (less time sorting, more time slaying!)
- Item rerolling gold cost capped when Enchanting.
- Material removal and consolidation.
- Forgotten Souls can now be obtained from Whispers and are now a global rare drop from Elites.
- Uniques appear earlier.
- Some Uniques now dropping starting in World Tier I and II.
- All Uniques can now drop in World Tier III.
- Uber Uniques can start dropping from monster level 55, drops at 925 item power.
New crafting system: Tempering
- This new system will allow you to add affixes to your items at the Blacksmith through a new reusable item that can drop from most content in-game, called Temper Manuals!
- These are categorized like the Codex of Power (eg: Resource, Mobility, etc)
- Once gained, you retain these for unlimited use!
- Each manual contains a handful of affixes; you are able to attach one at a time.
- Affixes can be rerolled up to the item’s Temper Reroll limit.
- Ancestral items can have two Tempered affixes from different categories.
Greater Affixes
- Only appearing on Ancestral Legendary and Unique items, these are more powerful versions of normal affixes, with a 1.5x multiplier on the affix’s maximum roll.
- An item with a Greater Affix will be immediately obvious, with a unique audio cue, as well as a I up to a IV next to the item name indicating how many affixes are Greater.
- eg: Helm (Ancestral) – II
- Each affix on an item has a chance to be Greater in World Tier III & IV.
- Players cannot Enchant into a Greater affix – they can only be found!
Masterworking
- A late-game crafting system to upgrade items, using materials gathered from The Pit.
- Improves the value of your current affixes.
- There are 12 upgrade ranks.
- Every 4 ranks, a single affix is massively upgraded.
- Other ranks slightly increase the value of all affixes.
Codex of Power updates
- All Legendary Aspects now appear in the Codex of Power, so you can focus on chasing great items instead of managing your inventory.
- The highest roll Legendary you salvage is stored in your Codex.
- Legendary Affix ranged increase based on item tier (Normal, Sacred, Ancestral).
- Most Legendary Affix ranges have been increased.
- The UI has been revamped, now includes manual and keyword search.
- You can also favorite Legendary Aspects to make them easier to find!
Helltide Reborn
A tide so nice we made it twice, here’s what’s new in the revamped Helltide event to bring the depths of Hell to the surface of Sanctuary:
Helltide Threat
- As you battle through Helltides, you will generate Threat – how much will be determined by the difficulty of monster and how often you’re securing Tortured Gifts within Helltide. Dying will reset your Threat.
- There are three Helltide Threat Tiers, with each increasing the danger and frequency of monster ambushes. At Tier 3, you will become Hell-Marked.
- Achieving maximum Threat will initiate a brief ambush frenzy of maximum enemy density. The ambush will end with a final Hellborne spawn, an immensely powerful agent of Hell, resurrected from the tortured souls of Sanctuary’s most powerful champions. There are five variants representing each Class in Diablo IV.
- Upon activating the Hellborn ambush, your Threat will reset.
Accursed Ritual
- Baneful Hearts can primarily be earned through opening Tortured Gift chests and can be used at the Accursed Ritual location.
- A scene of shocking gore, the Accursed Ritual is the ultimate testament to the disturbing lengths the manic Cultists will go to appease their dark wishes. It is here where you can begin the Accursed Ritual.
- Deposit three Baneful Hearts to begin the ritual, and you will be swarmed with a dense demonic ambush. Other players within your subzone will be alerted that the ritual has begun if they wish to join you in your fight.
- This ambush will climax with the arrival of the Blood Maiden, an immensely powerful demonic creature who will offer great reward upon her death.
World Tier I and II adjustments
- To get players into the thick of Helltides much earlier in their overall Character journey, the PTR will see these upcoming adjustments to help make Helltide more fun and rewarding in World Tier I & II.
- All Tortured Gifts are Mystery Chests.
- No roaming bosses or ambient meteors.
- Less monster density overall compared to World Tier III and IV.
The Pit of Artificers
There are rumors that deep within the network of dungeons crisscrossing the north of Sanctuary, there are strange varieties of ore, perfect for crafting exceptionally crafted armor with secret Horadric techniques.
- Upon entering World Tier IV, you’ll receive a priority Quest to complete a Tier 46 Nightmare Dungeon. Upon completion, you’ll begin to collect Runeshard during endgame activities. Collect enough Runeshard to ultimately activate the Obelisk in Cerrigar.
- Activating the Obelisk will send you to The Pit. Your goal will be to slay enough monsters before a 10-minute timer runs out. Each player death removes time from the clock: first death removes 30 seconds, second death removes 60 seconds, third and subsequent deaths will remove 90 seconds.
- If you slay enough monsters, a portal will appear, taking you to the boss’s arena.
- Killing the boss before the timer expires will grant you Masterworking materials and unlocks the next tier of The Pit.
- Killing the boss with 4-6 minutes to spare grants you an additional Tier unlock.
- Killing the boss with 6 or more minutes to spare grants you two additional Tier unlocks.
- The Pit has hundreds of Tiers of difficulty.
- If the Mastery timer expires before you finish running through the Pit you’ll still receive loot, but won’t receive any Masterworking materials.
- The Pit can be undertaken with groups up to four, with the player who opened The Pit receiving the lion’s share of materials.
- Only the player who opened The Pit has the chance of receiving the Materials used for summoning Tormented Echoes.
Boss Ladder Updates
- The Echo of Andariel joins the ladder in our Season 4 PTR, in the same bracket as her brother Duriel, with the same Uber Unique drop rate. With a mix of Shadow, Fire, Lightning, and her iconic Poison attack, Andariel stands ready to face all who dare fathom her demise.
- Summoning parts can be acquired from Beast in Ice and Lord Zir.
- Tormented Echoes of all ladder bosses can be summoned with Stygian Stones, obtained from deep within The Pit.
- Stygian Stones are needed along with an increased amount of summoning materials, but fear not – they also drop more rewards!
- Tormented Echoes will be level 200.
- All items dropped are item level 925.
- Defeating your first Tormented Echo drops one Resplendent Spark as a first-time reward (account bound).
Features Offered for Testing
We will have servers for PTR in our largest regions: North America, Europe, Korea and Japan, South-East Asia, and Australia. Once you log-in through Battle Net, your account will carry over the following account-based progress:
- Campaign Completion
- Mounts and Skill Points
- Fog of War
- Altar of Lilith Stat bonuses
As so many of the changes apply to the endgame, the following features will be offered:
- You will be able to instantly boost your character to Level 100.
- Upon entering the PTR and arriving at Kyovashad, there will be an NPC named ‘PTR boost’. They will only have one dialogue option, which is Boost me to level 100’
- Upon boosting, you will receive:
- 100 million gold
- 1,000 Obols
- Two random sets of Ancestral gear at item power 920
- Upgraded Potions
- Fully unlocked Paragon Glyphs
- Up to 10 Tempering Manuals (class specific)
- Base amount of all consumable materials
- Does not include materials for resources specifically earned for Masterworking, Scattered Prisms and Resplendent Sparks.
- Materials to enter the Pit and Nightmare Dungeons are granted.
- Completed Class system mechanics (eg: enchantments for Sorceress, etc).
- Note: This boost can be repeated with new characters on the PTR, and you can trade between characters as needed.
- Fog of War will be completely cleared.
- Additionally, regardless of whether you choose to boost your character for the PTR, Legendary drop rates will be doubled.
Some things will be missing intentionally so we can test the flows we want to keep an eye on, and the Codex of Power won’t be fully unlocked.
How to Provide Feedback
Your feedback on the changes you will see and experience on the PTR is incredibly important to us, and is vital in ensuring that these changes for Season 4 are the best they can be when they go live in Diablo IV proper. If you participate in the PTR, please let us know what you think!
You can provide feedback through the in-game feedback tool or the Diablo IV PTR forums. Pressing the ‘Esc’ key while in the in-game menu will bring up the ‘Report a Bug’ menu. You can select the dropdown filter and select the ‘In-game feedback tool’ to provide feedback without leaving the game.
How to Install the PTR
Here are the steps to join the PTR:
- Open the Blizzard Battle.net App and select Diablo IV from your Games list.
- In the selector above the Play button, there is a game version drop down menu.
- Select the option 'Public Test Realm'.
- Click Install to Install the PTR client. This becomes a Play button when ready.
- Click Play to log in to the PTR, and select any of the available Test Servers.
- Create a new test character.
- Enter the game and test Season 4!
If you’re a PC Game Pass or Game Pass Ultimate user, you’ll be able to access the PTR through the same flow as other Battle Net users. Access the Battle Net client through the Xbox App, then continue to access the PTR through Battle Net.
Class Updates and Full Patch Notes
There are a lot of changes coming. For a full rundown, you can see our full updates below, but if you’re looking for a tl;dr, you can expect three high-level concepts for Season 4, which will be reflected in the PTR:
- There are many impactful Class updates. We are trying to move the needle, updating systems and designs instead of simply setting damage or health higher or lower.
- We are making flat-damage Legendaries more viable – currently, they don’t scale at the rate we’d like, so now they scale with your Weapon Damage. We’re really interested to watch how this works out, so we’ll be monitoring your feedback both in the PTR and following the launch of Season 4 to see how we might need to change.
- Opening up designs to be more generally useful, so you can make more connections and more builds! If you love Dust Devils on Barbarians, for example, but are frustrated at not being able to create a viable build to keep them in the deep endgame, we are making broad changes to make a build like that possible. We truly want you to play how you want to play and promote real build diversity.
See the full patch notes here.
For more about the PTR, check out our PTR Overview Campfire Chat on YouTube. We want to thank everyone in advance for your participation and feedback. Diablo IV is evolving rapidly, and we are so excited to not only be sharing these changes with you, but to be building and refining them alongside you. This PTR and Season 4 as a whole is just another step on the journey toward all the things we want to bring to Diablo IV – thank you for being a part of it.
