Yesterday, Blizzard hosted a developer live stream to reveal many new details about Diablo IV Season of Witchcraft, scheduled to go live on public servers on January 21 at 10 AM Pacific Time. Arguably, the biggest addition is the long-awaited Armory feature, which allows players to seamlessly change from different saved builds when they are in towns. The Armory is character-bound rather than account-bound, and each character can save up to five different loadouts. On the Armory screen, players will see right away a specific build's Equipment, Skills, selected Paragon Nodes and Glyphs. Notably, switching between loadout slots with different Paragon loadouts is free. If an item saved in the player's Armory loadout is no longer available because it has been sold, traded, or salvaged, an icon will indicate the item is missing in the loadout preview.
The Armory is available in both Seasonal and Eternal Realms. Eternal Realm players can also rejoice, as Blizzard made the Welcome Back Booster (which lets players boost an Eternal Realm character to Level 50, complete with Legendary Items and pre-set class skills) a permanent fixture.
Diablo IV Season of Witchcraft focuses on the Coven of the Witches of Hawezar. These protectors of the Tree of Whispers have noticed that several heads have mysteriously disappeared. They recruit players to track down the missing heads as part of a new seasonal questline that also unlocks three kinds of witchy powers:
- Eldritch - Wield magic that harnesses destructive energies.
- Psyche - Use the defensive powers of the mind and spirit to create visions, focus your attacks, and cause madness in your enemies.
- Growth & Decay - Wield living magic that both heals and harms, increasing health and resources. These spells can create terrible diseases and disruptions.
Players may even discover powers that have been Lost to the Coven. To unlock them, they'll have to find Forgotten Altars, which can be located in random dungeons. Additionally, Occult Gems have been added. These seasonal socketables provide additional affixes and add Witchcraft tags to the player's Skills, complementing the new Witchcraft Powers. Occult Gems are crafted from materials earned by completing Whisper Bounties and returning Fugitive Heads from Headhunts.
Last but not least, Diablo IV Season of Witchcraft adds three new Legendary Runes for owners of the Vessel of Hatred expansion. Nagu generates 100 Offering, asking the player to maintain at least 1 active Summon for 5 seconds, gaining Offering for each up to 6 Summons. Igni generates 25 Offering and stores Offering every 0.3 seconds; players must cast a non-basic skill to gain the stored Offering (up to 500). The last one is an Invocation Rune called Chac; it costs 25 Offering to invoke Druid Lightning Bolts, striking a nearby enemy for 220% weapon damage.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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