Diablo 4’s Season 5 will boost Uniques to ridiculous levels, and will finally have Infernal Hordes live up to its name with challenging, overwhelming waves
Blizzard delivered on its promise to reveal all the remaining details about what’s coming to Diablo 4 with Season 5: Season of the Infernal Hordes. The upcoming season was properly unveiled earlier in the week, but we didn’t get specifics on core design changes until the developer update livestream.
Alongside publishing the massive full change log for patch 1.5.0 – the one that kicks off the new season next week – the developer also delved deeper into class changes, the mega boosts coming to Uniques, the tweaks made to Infernal Hordes and more.
To begin with, Blizzard has turned its attention to the game’s Unique and Mythic Unique items. Season 5 will introduce 50 new Legendaries and Uniques, and given all the boosts Diablo 4’s loot has received elsewhere thanks to Season 4: Loot Reborn, it made sense to bring Uniques’ power in line with Legendaries.
More specifically, Uniques were kind of made less interesting as a result of practically every other piece of gear getting more powerful. New systems like Tempering and Masterworking also gave players more freedom in creating their perfect item, which further deemphasised the thrill of chasing Uniques.
With 1.5.0, Blizzard is adding some of those powerful stats to Uniques, which not only boosts their already staggering power, it also creates a place for them within the loot grind meta. The developer is hoping that players will once again create builds around the Uniques’ highly-curated stats, which will hopefully make chasing them a worthy goal again.
The Infernal Hordes, of course, being the premier new endgame activity in Season 5, has seen a fair bit of love since the PTR. Access to the wave-based mode has been greatly improved, thanks to a boost in the drop rates of the Compass used to enter the mode.
Within the Infernal Hordes rounds themselves, you’ll also find bosses to be less tanky, and experience mini-events more often. Monster spawn rates have also been increased, so you’re going to feel overwhelmed at the start of every wave.
Likewise, Infernal Hordes rewards have been increased, especially when it comes to the Burning Aether currency.
The update also brings a number of buffs to the different classes, separate from the gear changes. Interestingly, core stats for all classes are being tweaked so that you get more damage by by reaching a lower number of core stats. For instance, Rogues will get 1% more damage per 9 Dexterity rather than 10.
You’ll be able to experience all of that when Season 5 arrives in Diablo 4 on Tuesday, August 6 at 10am PT, 1pm ET, 6pm UK, which is also when patch 1.5.0 will be released.