Fans burned by Diablo Immortal excited by Diablo 3 season 27

Some fans burned by Diablo Immortal return to Blizzard’s previous ARPG and are excited for the imminent Diablo 3 season 27 release date and new sanctified items

Diablo 3 season 27 additions - Leah from Diablo III looking perplexed

While many longtime series fans have made the decision to quit playing Diablo Immortal, some of them aren’t letting that get in the way of their love of loot, and are instead looking forward to the Diablo 3 season 27 release date. The ARPG game’s newest seasonal update is getting some players excited with the release of the PTR preview and update 2.7.4 patch notes, which feature a new item called Angelic Crucibles that can apply unique class-specific sanctified powers to your build.

The biggest highlight from the Diablo 3 season 27 update that arrives on the PTR on July 12, Angelic Crucibles are artifacts that can be used to ‘sanctify’ any equippable level 70 legendary item. Sanctified items gain two specific benefits – firstly, they are reforged to have perfect ancient-level stats on all the item’s affixes while still preserving its legendary power. The real excitement, however, comes from the addition of one of three new, unique, class-specific powers to the sanctified item.

Each class has three sanctified powers to choose from. For example, the Barbarian’s first option causes whirlwind to pull in and hold nearby enemies. The second causes the powerful Hammer of the Ancients ability to hit in all directions and applies a shockwave effect to every seventh cast. The third generates Tempest Rhythm stacks when hitting enemies, which can then be consumed using Wrath of the Beserker to debuff all nearby enemies, causing them to take increased damage based on the number of stacks.

Among the other changes for the new season are the ability to access adventure mode by default on all accounts without having to complete the campaign first, which should be perfect for any new players who want to just jump in and start playing. Also of note is a hefty nerf to the experience rewarded by Echoing Nightmares, a seasonal feature which has been made permanent thanks to its popularity – but with some tweaks to make it a little less of an obligation for players.

The update certainly has some fans excited. In the wake of community site Maxroll’s decision to stop covering Diablo Immortal in protest of its microtransaction practices, some of its team are already speaking in excited tones about the potential for this new season. “In my opinion, this could be the very best season ever of Diablo III as the developers have continued to dominate,” proclaims Maxroll creator Raxxanterax in a video calling season 27 the “best patch of all time.” After an in-depth analysis of the update, Raxxanterax says that “after the Diablo Immortal fiasco, this is a breath of fresh air.”

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Another Maxroll creator, Wudijo, who recently also stepped away from Immortal, says he is “quite excited to see how this will be in action.” In his own video covering the patch notes, Wudijo speaks to the sanctified powers, which he describes as looking really strong, and also says he thinks some of the new set designs are very cool. He highlights Demon Hunter’s sanctified powers as having “possibly the most exciting effects,” in particular the ability to use Strafe to re-cast the last non-channeled Hatred spending ability. He also notes that Monk’s Wave of Light was already a top-tier build, and so he has eyes on its related sanctified power.

With Diablo Immortal having put the series back at the forefront of the videogame zeitgeist but leaving some users feeling disappointed by the new battle pass, it’ll be interesting to see whether players flock back to check out Diablo III’s latest season. Alternatively, perhaps other RPG games such as Path of Exile will aim to pick up the segment of the audience who are looking for something a little more built for PC play. The Diablo 4 release date is still quite a way in the distance, after all, so Blizzard will be hoping Diablo 3 season 28 keeps players excited for the future.