Blizzard Unveils Season of the Malignant for Diablo IV

[T0@st]

Well met, wanderer...corruption has befallen Sanctuary in Season of the Malignant, the first Season of Diablo IV. On July 20 at 10 a.m. PDT, a new Season Journey, Questline, Boss, Dungeons, Battle Pass, and more will go live—we'll give you a preview below. On July 18, we'll release another article shedding even more light on what's coming with the new Season, including 6 new Unique Items and 7 Legendary Aspects.

SEASON OF THE MALIGNANT THEME
A deviant form of Lilith's sinister machinations has given birth to a new threat, Malignant Monsters. These decaying abominations roam Sanctuary in a frenzy, mindlessly attacking anyone in range without hesitation. Wanderers will investigate this mysterious malady in a new Questline with the help of Cormond, a former priest of the Cathedral of Light, who also trains you to capture the Malignant Hearts fueling these foul beasts and convert them into build-altering powers. The malignancy that's taken hold of the Burning Hells' armies cannot remain unchecked—you must snuff it out at the source before all of Sanctuary becomes its thrall.



Watch the Season of the Malignant Announce trailer below and steel yourself for the virulent threats that await.

TRANSMUTE MALIGNANCE INTO VENGEANCE
To keep up with the relentless animosity of Malignant Monsters, you'll need to turn their Hearts against them. Slaying Partly Corrupted enemies, a type of Malignant Monster, will drop a Malignant Heart. These can be captured by performing a ritual with the Cage of Binding, an item acquired during the Season's Questline. Partly Corrupted enemies are an unruly sort and won't go down easily. Trying to capture the Heart will cause the Partly Corrupted enemy to be reborn as a Fully Corrupted enemy. If defeated, these amalgamations of rot will drop a version of the Malignant Heart that can be placed into special Infested sockets in your Jewelry in place of a Normal Gem.



Our first season will introduce 32 Malignant Hearts across four categories that provide new, unique bonuses. As you encounter more menacing Malignant Creatures so too will the strength of their Malignant Hearts grow. There's much more to share on the Season's theme and we cannot wait to do so in the future.



One of the best places to acquire Malignant Hearts are in the new Malignant Tunnels, highly replayable Dungeons teeming with fearsome foes to eradicate. Scour this dank system of tunnels for the catalyst of Malignant Monsters and go toe-to-toe against Varshan the Consumed, the newest Boss battle, if you dare.



HOW SEASONAL CHARACTERS WORK
With Season of the Malignant beginning on July 20, we wanted to take a moment to equip you with everything you need to know about Seasons.



To participate in Seasons, a new character must be made on the Seasonal Realm. You do not need to purchase a Battle Pass or any add-ons to play the Seasonal content, but you must have completed the campaign on either the Eternal or Seasonal Realm with at least one character. Once you have completed the Campaign, any Seasonal character will start the game with:

• The option to skip the Campaign.
• Your Mount available immediately.
• All previously discovered Altars of Lilith unlocked, and the corresponding Renown for them.
• All previously discovered areas of the map revealed, and the corresponding renown for them.

Once the Season has ended, the character you made and its progress will be transferred to the Eternal Realm. All items you collected, including in your Seasonal stash, will be transferred too. You can take this character into Sanctuary whenever you please, but Season-specific features such as Malignant Hearts will no longer be accessible.

Our Beliefs Behind Seasons
Seasons provide us with an opportunity to introduce innovative gameplay mechanics into Sanctuary for a limited time. Because Seasons reset, we can create crazy, fun Season themes in a vacuum without needing to worry about balancing it with the mechanics introduced in past or future Seasons—we start from a strong Eternal Realm baseline and build on top of it.

Seasons are also a place for players to explore and tinker. We encourage you to try a new Class or different builds for a Class you've grown fond of—our Seasons are a chance to get creative while demolishing demons.

Additionally, Seasons present an equal playing field. Our Seasons are designed for new characters to conquer the nightmarish challenges brought on by a Season's theme and to progress through the Seasonal Journey together.

EARN REWARDS WITH THE SEASON JOURNEY AND BATTLE PASS
As you hunt down Malignant Monsters for their build-enhancing Hearts and partner with Cormond to discover the source of the corruption, you'll earn rewards from the Season Journey and Battle Pass.



The Season Journey is broken into Chapters with tasks to complete. As you progress through the Journey, you'll earn rewards befitting Sanctuary's defender, such as new Legendary Aspects, a Mastery Title, and a Scroll of Amnesia, which provides a free Skill Tree and Paragon Board reset. The Journey also provides Favor—the resource used to climb through the Battle Pass' Tiers—which is also earned naturally by playing the game, whether it be killing demons, completing Quests, and more.



The Season of the Malignant Battle Pass begins on July 20, 10 a.m. PDT and hosts 90 Tiers, 27 Free Tiers and 63 Premium Tiers. Smoldering Ashes are earned from the Free Tiers, which can be spent on Season Blessings that provide you with a bonus to earning experience, Gold, or Obols depending on the Blessing you choose. The bonuses gained from Season Blessings only last until Season of the Malignant ends.

If you get the Premium Battle Pass, not only will the rewards of the Free Tiers will be yours to wield as you choose, but Awoken Armor Sets, Mount and Mount Armor, Platinum, and more await you!

If you purchased the digital Deluxe or Ultimate Edition of Diablo IV and want to redeem your Battle Pass for this Season, navigate to the Seasons section of the Shop and select the option to activate your Battle Pass. Players also have the option to skip Tiers by spending Platinum at a cost of 200 Platinum per Tier skip. Keep in mind that your Tier Skip might unlock a Tier that rewards Smoldering Ashes, but you must meet certain Character Level requirements to claim them.

ACQUIRE HELLISH NEW LOOKS FROM THE SHOP
We're dialing up the heat in the Shop with new Equipment, Armor, Accessories, Mount and Mount Armor bundles that will have you slaying in style. Starting on July 20, you'll want to pay Tejal a visit to browse her wares—remember to check back often as she'll update her stock throughout Season of the Malignant.



One such rarefied find from the far reaches of Sanctuary is the Mother's Protection collection. It's pictured above for the Necromancer, but there's a unique look for each Class.

CATCH UP ON THE DIABLO DEVELOPER UPDATE LIVESTREAM
Multiple planes of Hell converged during the Diablo Developer Update Livestream on July 6.



We sat down with developers from both Diablo IV and Diablo Immortal to get a taste of what's coming for each game and answer questions from the community. To watch the video on demand of the livestream, visit this article.

DIABLO IV PATCH NOTES
Looking for the latest round of patch notes for Diablo IV? Check here for a full inventory of all patches implemented for each platform.

We'll see you in Sanctuary!

• The Diablo IV Team

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[Chrispy_]

Meh.
I'm €70 into D4 and it's a repetitive, unfinished game with little effort spent on it outside of quest cinematics and story that feel like it's about 20% of the actual plot so far.

• Two of the five classes are fundamentally broken
• Inventory and skill management is a joke.
• It's missing so many basic QoL features that it feels rushed and incomplete, rather than a design choice. Blizz already solved all these problems in D3, why fail to learn so catastrophically and repeat decade-old mistakes?
• Balance hasn't happened yet. I feel like an alpha tester discovering issues so obvious that they shouldn't even be trialled as a beta.
• The loot is very very limited, quite boring, and there's almost no synergy.
• You are punished for experimenting with new builds. It's like Blizzard doesn't understand what makes modern ARPGs good.

Honestly, if you've bought it, like me, let's see where these seasons go. The game is free from this point onwards, so you might as well give them a chance to realise what they promised.
If you haven't bought it yet, just don't. Play PoE instead, for free*

* - if you don't hate it, spend like $11 on a currency tab and a premium tab. You can get those half price about one weekend a fortnight, as well.

 

[JustBenching]

Meh.
I'm €70 into D4 and it's a repetitive, unfinished game with little effort spent on it outside of quest cinematics and story that feel like it's about 20% of the actual plot so far.

• Two of the five classes are fundamentally broken
• Inventory and skill management is a joke.
• It's missing so many basic QoL features that it feels rushed and incomplete, rather than a design choice. Blizz already solved all these problems in D3, why fail to learn so catastrophically and repeat decade-old mistakes?
• Balance hasn't happened yet. I feel like an alpha tester discovering issues so obvious that they shouldn't even be trialled as a beta.
• The loot is very very limited, quite boring, and there's almost no synergy.
• You are punished for experimenting with new builds. It's like Blizzard doesn't understand what makes modern ARPGs good.

Honestly, if you've bought it, like me, let's see where these seasons go. The game is free from this point onwards, so you might as well give them a chance to realise what they promised.
If you haven't bought it yet, just don't. Play PoE instead, for free*

* - if you don't hate it, spend like $11 on a currency tab and a premium tab. You can get those half price about one weekend a fortnight, as well.

It feels like a mobile game to be honest, a farcry from the usual blizzard polish. And it's very repetitive.

 

[Chrispy_]

It feels like a mobile game to be honest, a farcry from the usual blizzard polish. And it's very repetitive.

My biggest gripe is that it's a step backwards from D3 in so many ways.
Yes, it has a big map
Yes, it has lots of quests
Yes, it's pretty.

But D3 is polished and finished. Blizzard's Diablo team knows that the endgame is either experimenting with different builds based on loot you've acquired that might enable experimentation, or min-maxing the build you've committed to. Both endgame outcomes require inventory space, and build management systems to save, tweak, and test changes. D3 had this. Other games have this. Why did Blizzard remove the solutions to problems they've already solved?

So much of D4 is broken or missing:
Sets don't exist yet, uniques are few, boring, and as broken as they are imbalance.
Crafting is minimal, obfuscated and expensive
Resistances are completely broken, just like stat balance and class balance.
The servers are still shaky with all members of my party frequently complaining of shared, often-fatal lag spikes, stuttering, and performance problems.

D4 feels about as unfinished and lacking content as POE's open beta in 2013. There are so many better, older ARPGs than D4 that it's absolutely staggering that D4 is so bad. Not only did Blizzard IGNORE all the mandatory, "we take this for granted today" QOL features of the competition, they ignored Diablo 3.

When you say "mobile game" that feels about right; Rushed low-effort game that was given too much budget and expanding on a broken, low-interest premise. Diablo 1, 2, and 3 had more depth, endgame, features, and appeal than D4, and I wasn't even a huge D1 fan. Blizzard have succeeded in failing to learn a single lesson that they taught themselves, while incredulously remaining ignorant of their competition that has risen in the intervening 11 years since their last effort.

 

[Nephilim666]

I'm enjoying it, maybe I haven't played enough to get bored of the repetition?
It *does* feel a lot like Diablo Immortal though, which lends credibility to the "it's like a mobile game" statements above.

 

[Prima.Vera]

Season of Boredom.
This is by far the worst Diablo ever made, and definitely the most boring. Even D3 had a better story and campaign. And what's with the WOW kind of quests? Nobody ask for that!

 

[Wye]

Meh.
I'm €70 into D4 and it's a repetitive, unfinished game with little effort spent on it outside of quest cinematics and story that feel like it's about 20% of the actual plot so far.

• Two of the five classes are fundamentally broken
• Inventory and skill management is a joke.
• It's missing so many basic QoL features that it feels rushed and incomplete, rather than a design choice. Blizz already solved all these problems in D3, why fail to learn so catastrophically and repeat decade-old mistakes?
• Balance hasn't happened yet. I feel like an alpha tester discovering issues so obvious that they shouldn't even be trialled as a beta.
• The loot is very very limited, quite boring, and there's almost no synergy.
• You are punished for experimenting with new builds. It's like Blizzard doesn't understand what makes modern ARPGs good.

Honestly, if you've bought it, like me, let's see where these seasons go. The game is free from this point onwards, so you might as well give them a chance to realise what they promised.
If you haven't bought it yet, just don't. Play PoE instead, for free*

* - if you don't hate it, spend like $11 on a currency tab and a premium tab. You can get those half price about one weekend a fortnight, as well.

This post looks like a fully fledged ad for PoE. There's even an underpage text lol.
Use of hyperboles makes it hard for people to take you serious.
Your "no synergy" claim is conflicting with "punishment for experimenting with new builds". Make up your mind, which one are you claiming?

Season of Boredom.
This is by far the worst Diablo ever made, and definitely the most boring. Even D3 had a better story and campaign. And what's with the WOW kind of quests? Nobody ask for that!

That is your opinion and you are entitled to it.
The sales numbers says a very different story. It is the fastest selling Diablo game, and in fact the fastest selling Blizzard game ever.

Myself I love the graphics and the new campaign, Lilith feels more like a multi-dimensional character than D3's "sheablo".
In fact, pretty much all characters in the Diablo 4 story leave it up to the viewer if they are good or bad, and I could see people arguing both ways.

I do feel they started the first season a bit too early.
I know there are maniacs that reached level 100 in 4 days, but most people didn't had a chance to finish the main story line. Not to mention experiencing the endgame content: hell tides, nightmare dungeons, ancestral lvl 725-820 items and builds enabled by getting over 100 paragon points and certain unique items.

 

[Chrispy_]

This post looks like a fully fledged ad for PoE. There's even an underpage text lol.
Use of hyperboles makes it hard for people to take you serious.
Your "no synergy" claim is conflicting with "punishment for experimenting with new builds". Make up your mind, which one are you claiming?

I don't see any hyperbole or exaggeration. My statements mirror those of just about every build channel, ARPG streamer, and in-depth review of the game. Blizzard have repeated mistakes they've made (and corrected after player backlash) in the past. Sorcerer as a class is fundamentally broken - and Blizzard have admitted themselves that both INT classes are screwed at the moment because resistance is completely broken and won't be fixed properly until season 2. Additionally, sorcerers currently are unviable at endgame without at least 3 of the four defensive skills and one of the two enchantment slots taken up with a non-optional burning requirement, meaning that every single viable sorcerer build to feature in any stream or build guide has just two offensive skills at most, with many of them being a single-skill build.

As for "no loot synergy" conflicting with "punishment for experimenting with new builds", do you even know how D4 loot works? It sounds like you've not played the game at all. The only loot that I could possibly be talking about is the unique loot, because aspects can be applied to any other drops in the game, period. Your build is determined by aspects and unique items which cannot have their aspects changed. Just watch one of the hundreds of videos discussing unique items in D4 if you want to see the complete lack of synergy.

• I like PoE, but I've stopped playing it after 20+ builds over a dozen seasons. Of all the ARPGs I've ever played, this is the best IMO. That's why I recommended it as an alternative to D4, and it's free.
• I like D1, D2, D3, but I've stopped playing them.
• I like Last Epoch.
• I enjoyed Grim Dawn + DLC.
• I've played many other ARPGs like Torchlight 1&2, Titan Quest, Lost Ark and even if I don't rate them, they've all included QoL features that D4 lacks.

Blizzard have a wide catalogue of competition and it would seem they've ignored many lessons they've already learned from previous Diablo games. That is bad, but not as inexcusable as ignoring all the other games on the market. This isn't 23 years ago when Diablo II was the best ARPG. The genre has moved on and players of the genre now expect basic QoL features that just about every other ARPG includes, and Blizzard themselves retrofitted to D2, D2 remastered, and included all along in D3.

If D4 was free to play, labelled as early-access, or not exceptionally expensive, we'd have less reason to be critical of it. But it is not, therefore criticisms like mine and others of the buggy, untested, imbalanced, feature-lacking, half-assed framework of an unfinished game are valid and will remain so until the game content is fleshed out and the promised QoL, balance, and content that should have been included for the $70/€70 price at launch are added.