Diablo IV Season 5 PTR Overview: New Questlines, Events, and Quality of Life Updates

Jul-02-2024

 

 

The second Public Test Realm (PTR) for Diablo IV is coming soon, giving players the opportunity to test upcoming changes and features for Season 5. The PTR will be open to players with PC Battle.net accounts from June 25 to July 2.

 

The purpose of the PTR is to test updates and features before the release of Season 5. Adjustments to Season 5 will then be made based on player feedback. Below is an overview of the content for Diablo IV Season 5 PTR.

 

 

 

New Eternal Questline: Eye of the Enemy

Season 5 tells a new story where enemies are vanquished, alliances change, and unexpected friends emerge from the shadows. The PTR features a new questline that takes place after the events of the main questline, available in both Seasonal and Eternal Realms, and will continue to remain in the Eternal Realm after Season 5 ends.

 

Head to Hawezar in World Tier III and investigate the unrest among the city's inhabitants. Completing this questline will enable you to fight the Legion of Infernal Hordes, a new game event in Season 5. Note that you only need to complete this quest once per account.

 

 

Slaying Hell Demons

The Hellwave is just the beginning of terror. In the Realm of Hatred, face what seems to be an endless legion of Hell's demons that grow stronger daily. Hell Demons is an event where you can slay demons while earning Burning Aether to unlock powerful Season 5's weapons and rewards. Successfully slaying demons will allow you to battle the powerful Demonic Council.

 

Using the Hell Compass to Enter the Realm of Hatred

The Hell Compass can be obtained by defeating endgame bosses, Hellwave events, Nightmare Dungeons, and Whispering quests. After completing the new Eternal Questline, you will receive the Hell Key.

 

 

Legion of Infernal Hordes

The Legion of Infernal Hordes has a time limit for each attack, with a total of eight waves, each lasting 90 seconds. Collect Burning Aether during an attack wave, to be used at the end of a successful Infernal Hordes attack. At the end of 90 seconds, kill any remaining enemies and choose between three Hell affixes. Once chosen, the next wave will begin.

 

Successfully kill all the enemies in your attempt to enter the Season 5's well of Hatred, then fight the Fallen Council. Defeat the Fallen Council and use the Burning Aether obtained to unlock Hell Loot.

 

 

Hell's Gift

After defeating each wave of enemies, Hell will tempt you with Hell's Gift. Hell's Gift lets you choose from three different blessings and curses to change your battle. Choose wisely—Hell's Gift will stack during your Legion of Infernal Hordes fight. Many Hell's Gifts can be activated simultaneously! Hell's Gift is your opportunity to increase difficulty to earn more Burning Aether, or choose a more moderate Hell's Gift if the intensity is too high.

 

 

Burning Aether

Burning Aether can be obtained by killing Aether Demons and Aether Lords, or destroying Soul Spires and Aether Chunks. Burning Aether is earned individually, whether playing solo or in a team. This allows you to decide how to use it at the end of the game.

 

 

Hell Loot

After successfully completing the event, you will use Burning Aether to unlock Hell Loot. Completing the Legion of Infernal Hordes event will allow you to unlock four different types of Hell Loot:

- Equipment Loot

- Material Loot

- Gold Loot

- High-Level Equipment Loot

This Hell Loot guarantees items with high-level affixes!

 

 

Hell Compass

The Hell Compass has eight levels, with difficulty and world tier changing with each level. Each level of the Hell Compass increases the number of waves, starting with five waves at levels 1-3, up to a maximum of 10 waves at level 8. It also increases the initial difficulty of monsters, enhances the effectiveness of rewards, and reduces the number of revivals. The Hell Compass can be upgraded to higher levels using Abyssal Scrolls, which can be obtained at levels I-III and are needed to elevate its level to the maximum VIII.

 

The Hell Compass can be used at the following levels and world tiers:

- Level I: Usable in World Tier III

- Level II: Usable in World Tier IV, including enhanced crafting material affixes and increased drop rates for legendary and unique items!

- Levels III-VIII: Usable at level 100, including enhanced affixes and high-level equipment loot.

 

 

Fighting the Fallen Priests

If you manage to survive the Legion of Infernal Hordes, the Fallen Council awaits you. These noble priests were originally meant to protect us from the demon Mephisto during the events of Diablo II, but they Season 5's were corrupted and became champions of the very demons they swore to resist.

 

The Fallen Council consists of five members, each with different unique abilities. Each time you face the Fallen Council, three different members will randomly be selected to fight you. Be cautious of their unique abilities when encountering them.

 

Once you deal enough damage to the Fallen Council, their attacks will become more frenzied. Stay vigilant if you want to survive. After defeating the Fallen Council, you can spend your Burning Aether on Hell Loot.

 

 

 

New Equipment and Powers

Season 5 introduces new legendary items, unique items, and item powers. These new legendary and unique items can be obtained by killing enemies in Sanctuary, but have the highest chance of appearing while playing the Legion of Infernal Hordes.

 

 

Endgame Bosses and Quality of Life Updates

Season 5's Developer are making several quality-of-life improvements to the way endgame boss fights are accessed.

 

Endgame Bosses

You no longer need to reset dungeons to replay the same boss. After killing them, the summoning altars will reappear, allowing you to use more resources to play them again.

Summoning Varshan now only requires Malignant Hearts. Shaky Hands, Black Femurs, and Chattering Skulls have been removed from the game.

Endgame bosses will now drop additional gold instead of rare items.

 

Beast in the Ice

The Beast in the Ice boss fight is now run as a standard dungeon; you no longer need to craft a sigil to enter the fight. Any remaining Beast in the Ice sigils held by previous seasonal or eternal characters can be used to summon the Beast in the Ice without using summoning materials.

The boss fight is now closer to the entrance, so you no longer need to travel through the dungeon before the battle.

Summoning materials no longer require the use of sigil dust.

 

Hellwave and Whispers

Season 5's Developer have significantly reduced the time required to complete Whispering quests. Now, Season 5's Developer have ensured that there are always enough quests in a Hellwave to obtain 10 Marks of Hatred, significantly reducing the time required to complete them.

 

Additionally, icons have been updated to be consistent with other Whispers. Increasing your threat now varies with the health of the monsters killed.

 

Season 5's Developer are adjusting the drop rate of Hearts of Hatred as they were dropping too frequently and felt less valuable.

 

The chance of obtaining a Heart of Hatred from a Gift of Torment starts at 13%, increasing each time you fail to obtain one. Once you obtain a Heart of Hatred, the chance resets to 10%.

 

Hellspawn and Hellwave Assassins now start with a 1% chance of dropping hearts, increasing each time you fail to obtain one, now resetting to 2%.

 

Demon-slaying Whispering quests now include the Fallen, and demon-slaying Whispering quests have now been replaced by cultist-slaying quests.

 

Drop Rewards

The Shining Spark reward obtained after defeating Torment bosses can now be obtained separately in Hardcore and Non-Hardcore modes.

Shining Sparks and Scattered Prisms will no longer be automatically picked up. If forgotten at drop time, they can now be found in the Lost Items storage.

Unique and Mythical unique items can now be obtained from Whispering Chests, rare item suppliers, and Hellwave Gifts.

The chance of finding mythical unique items in all non-boss drop locations has increased.

 

 

Unique Equipment

Starting from Season 5, players will be able to gamble for uniques specifically from treasure merchants, Hellwave Chests, and Whispering quests.

 

To make unique stands out and competes with legendary equipment, developers will make the following changes in patch 1.5.0:

1. Various effects of unique will have higher upper limits and a broader range of roll values. (For example, if a unique currently has a damage increase effect in the range of x40-80%, in Season 5, the damage increase effect will become x40-100% or x40-120%.)

2. Unique affixes will be updated according to equipment changes introduced in Season 4:

  - Affixes will be simplified, and many conditional affixes will be removed.

  - Tempered affixes will now naturally appear on various unique items, making them competitive with legendary equipment. Weapons are now likely to have weapon-related tempered affixes.

 

3. Developers aim to avoid universally useful unique items (such as Debot’s Will) and hope unique can fit specific themes. Currently, if unique contains an affix that would not usually appear in that slot, developers indicate they will limit the benefits of other affixes on the item to make it more balanced compared to other choices.

 

 

Treasure Goblins

The quality of loot from Treasure Goblins has improved. They can now drop 1-3 legendary items and 2-6 rare items. The more legendary items dropped, the fewer rare items, and vice versa. For example, if 2 legendary items are dropped, 4 rare items will also drop.

They will now drop 1-2 potions and guarantee drops of common ores, herbs, leather, and gem shards.

 

The amount of gold dropped has increased.

Example:

-Level 1 in World Tier I: 40k gold

Level 100 in World Tier IV: 150k gold

In World Tiers III and IV, Treasure Goblins will also drop Forgotten Souls.

Additionally, they now have a 10/20/30% chance to drop 1-2 scattered prisms in World Tiers I and II/World Tier III/World Tier IV, respectively.

 

 

Weapons

Season 5's Developer now allow more classes to use different types of Weapons. This includes updating innate affixes to make them more useful across various classes and adjusting their conditions. For example, wizards can now use one-handed swords and maces.

 

 

Future Accessibility Projects

In the Season 5 PTR, Season 5's Developer have three significant quality-of-life and accessibility features Season 5's Developer are seeking feedback on. These features are designed to make it easier for players to navigate the world and find quest destinations. These are in-development features, so every piece of feedback helps us make adjustments before their official release in future updates.

 

 

Auto Pin

This new feature automatically places a map pin on the destination of the quest or mission you select from your game log. When a pin is placed, your mini-map will show the route to the selected destination. This will be the default setting when selecting a quest, further enabling other navigation features.

 

 

Audio Navigation Assistance

When this feature is enabled, players will receive spatial audio pings guiding them to the map pin placed on their world map. This feature, combined with auto-pin navigation, allows players to navigate quest content while tracking the destination using audio navigation. For the best experience, Season 5's Developer recommend using headphones for immersive sound. Players can adjust the volume and interval of the pings to find a level that suits their needs.

 

 

Compass

The Compass feature enables an on-screen HUD element that rotates around the player and points to the map pin they placed in the game. Combined with the auto-pin feature, it provides consistent guidance to the player. Players can change the arrow's color to ensure it is visible during the battle against Hell's denizens.

 

You can enable these features in the accessibility menu in the game's settings.

 

Lastly, the endgame has become easier. With the new systems and reduced drop rates, Season 5's Developer will allow items to have a higher drop rate. Items will now show their type and other drop information on the map. You can turn off this setting to reduce on-screen information. The time to defeat Hellwaves has doubled, so you have enough time to kill more enemies and earn more rewards.