Blizzard Entertainment recently revealed the heavyweight content of the ninth season of Diablo IV in advance, with the new season named “Sins of Horadrim”. Although the eighth season was unusually short, the rich updates in the ninth season are enough to excite players.
All new content for the ninth season will be available for testing in the Public Test Server (PTR) 2.3.0 patch starting next week, May 27th Pacific Time, and will continue until June 3rd (Tuesday). The official launch date for the ninth season is set for early July. Quick overview of new content highlights:
1. Horadric Strongroms
The new season introduces the “Heraldim Chamber of Secrets”, which are some “powerful mini dungeons” that can be randomly encountered in Nightmare Dungeons. After entering the Chamber of Secrets, players must defeat groups of powerful enemies within a limited time. If the timer is reset to zero, all advanced Diablo 4 items in the secret room will be permanently blocked. There are three ways for players to increase their chances of discovering the Heraldim Chamber in the dungeon:
- Raise the difficulty to Torment mode.
- Upgrade Pathfinder using the Heraldim reagent (new season currency).
- Find and use Nightmare Dungeon runes with specific affixes to ensure the creation of the Chamber of Secrets.
Escalation Nightmares
In the ninth season, a new endgame activity called “Upgrade Nightmare” has been introduced for the toughest players of Diablo. This mode links three Nightmare Dungeons together, with each dungeon increasing in difficulty due to the addition of more affixes. After successfully clearing the third dungeon, the final challenge will be an epic showdown with the battle boss Astaroth.
In the upgraded Nightmare encounter, Astaroth will ride his multi headed Hellhound and jump off during specific stages of the battle, forming a dual boss battle. It is recommended that players prioritize setting fire to Astaroth or deal maximum damage when his mount falls to the ground.
New affixes for underground cities
The entire underground city of the sanctuary will also receive multiple new affixes, adding more variables and challenges to each exploration.
Horadric Spells
In the ninth season, players will have the opportunity to create their own personalized spells. The Heraldim spell consists of three freely selectable components:
- Catalyst: The core of spells, determining their basic damage and effects.
- Infusions: Element modifiers, such as switching spells to flame or toxin types.
- Arcana: Up to three can be added to provide gains and additional effects for spells.