Diablo 3’s next season of content is right around the corner, and some of the new loot may be familiar if you’ve played Diablo 2. Blizzard has revealed plans to post some new features it’s testing out for Season 24 to the loot ’em up’s PTR next week, offering some notes on what patch 2.7 will entail.
One of the big themes of Diablo 3 Season 24 will be Ethereals, a new weapon type that you’ll be able to acquire and hunt for in the upcoming seasonal journey. Blizzard says the new loot will roll a powerful set of affixes, a random class weapon legendary power, and a random class passive power. Ethereals also get the unique icons, names, item types, and sounds they had in Diablo 2 – you know, for nostalgia.
“Diablo 2 left us with fond memories when it released more than 20 years ago, and with Diablo 2: Resurrected coming soon, we’d like to introduce a feature to honour that legacy,” Blizzard explains. “For this seasonal theme, our inspiration took shape by reimagining how Ethereal items could manifest in Diablo 3. In Season 24, Ethereals are rare, powerful, and fleeting items, with 21 iconic weapons from Diablo 2 making a return.”
Ethereals will be account bound and can only drop from monsters, chests, and destructibles, but you won’t need to be level 70 to get them. You also can’t get them through Kanai’s Cube or Kadala, and their rarity drop rate is between ancient and primal items.
You’ll also find that each class has three unique Ethereals, with each of them having fixed affixes and one random legendary weapon power roll and class passive skill. They can only be equipped one at a time, though they ignore item durability loss. It’s also worth noting that they don’t stack with the same power supplied through Kanai’s Cube, items, and skills. They can’t be enhanced, transmogrified, dyed, reforged, traded, or augmented, either.
There are 21 Ethereals to collect in season 24, and you’ll be rewarded with the Feat of Strength, Ethereal Recollection if you catch ’em all. They only drop in seasonal play, though, and they won’t transfer to your non-seasonal character when the season ends.
It’s not all about Ethereal items, though. Blizzard is also tweaking the monk and wizard, with the former getting an adjustment to its fire and earth allies and the latter getting a change to its Mirror Image skill.
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Blizzard is also reining in the Aegis of Valour and Masquerade of the Burning Carnival items in the interest of competitive variety as they “have been overperforming for several seasons”. The Inna’s Mantra is also getting changed as Blizzard believes it played too similarly to other monk sets, blunting its identity.
Diablo 3’s Patch 2.7 is set to hit the PTR on June 17 and will be hanging around for two weeks, so you’ve got plenty of time to try some of these changes out. If you want to know how to sign up, you can find some instructions right here.
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