Diablo 4 Season 2: Start Date And Everything We Know About Season Of Blood

After a rocky first season, Diablo IV Season 2 is looking to incorporate many of the features fans have been asking about since before the game's launch, along the way introducing new mechanics for players to sink their teeth into. Since its reveal in August, Blizzard has been sharing more about Season of Blood and what fans can expect come Season 2's launch today. Here's everything we know about what's coming next to Diablo IV.

Season Of Blood Release Date And Start Time

Blizzard had previously said its goal was to release new Diablo IV seasons quarterly, and it looks to be sticking to that vision. Season 2 started today, October 17, although its launch was postponed by a couple hours due to technical issues. While it is now live, cross-play is not functioning.

Patch Notes

Blizzard has released the full Season of Blood patch notes for Diablo IV, and they amount to about 14,000 words. The list of changes are extensive, so be sure to check out our breakdown for what to expect.

Diablo IV Steam Release

A Battle.net exclusive on PC for the first four months of Diablo IV's life, Blizzard's ARPG will be releasing on Steam on October 17, the same day Season of Blood kicks off. The Steam version of Diablo IV will support cross-play and cross-progression between platforms, and will include Steam Achievements as well as the ability to invite friends using their Steam friends list. A Battle.net account will be required to play.

Twitch Drops

Not unlike at the launch of the game, a new batch of Diablo IV Twitch Drops will be available once Season 2 is live. Select items will be available across the course of multiple weeks, so you'll need to repeatedly tune in to eligible streams to collect them all.

Season Of Blood Story And New Content

A new season means a new seasonal quest line, and Season 2 will see players teaming up with a vampire hunter, Erys, to defeat the latest threat to Sanctuary. Erys is voiced by actress Gemma Chan in her video game debut. Players will partner with Erys to hunt down the vampire master behind a series of murders, with players along the way contracting vampirism themselves. In addition to the seasonal quest line, a new seasonal event, Blood Harvest, will also be available. Similar to Helltides, one area of the map will become overrun with vampiric forces and become a great place to gather resources needed for the season. A new system tied to Blood Harvest, the Hunter's Acclaim board, will see players progressively unlocking new rewards like items, Legendary caches, Vampiric Powers, and more by completing Blood Harvest-related activities.

Season Of Blood Vampiric Powers

As for the new Vampiric Powers players will be able to get their hands on, there are in 22 all. As players progress through the season, they'll be able to spend a new resource, Potent Blood, on unlocking and upgrading powers via a new tab in the game's character screen. Characters can have five active powers at a time.

There is, however, a catch. Simply unlocking the powers isn't enough. Players will additionally need a new type of armor, Pact Armor, to activate said powers. There are three types of Pacts total: Ferocity, Divinity, and Eternity. Certain powers will require a certain number of Pacts in order to become active. One example Blizzard has given is a pair of gloves that provides one of each Pact type. A certain Vampiric Power may require one Ferocity to activate, leaving one Divinity and one Eternity still available to be used on another power.

As for the powers themselves, they come in two varieties: Minor Vampiric Powers and Major Vampiric Powers. Minor powers are less powerful but also require fewer Pacts to activate, while Major Vampiric Powers are far more potent but require a total of six Pacts. Below is the full list of powers players will be able to choose from.

Minor Vampiric Powers (1–3 Pacts Required):

• Anticipation (1 Divinity): Your Ultimate Skills gain 20% Cooldown Reduction. Your Ultimate Skills gain 12% increased damage for each nearby enemy affected by your Damage Over Time effects.

• Coven’s Fangs (2 Divinity): Your Conjuration, Companion, Minion, and Bat Familiar attacks deal 52% increased damage to Crowd Controlled enemies. Lucky Hit: Your Conjuration, Companion, Minion, and Bat Familiar have up to a 30% chance to inflict Vampiric Curse when hitting enemies.

• Domination (1 Ferocity): You deal 24% increased damage to enemies who are Stunned, Immobilized, Frozen, or Feared. If they're also Injured and not an Elite, they're instantly killed.

• Feed the Coven (1 Eternity): Lucky Hit: Conjuration, Companion, Minion and Bat Familiar attacks have up to a 60% chance to restore 10 Primary Resource to you and increase your Damage by 10% for 4 seconds.

• Hectic (3 Divinity): For every 5 Basic Skills you cast, one of your active Cooldowns is reduced by 2 seconds.

• Hemomancy (3 Eternity): Your attacks deal 80% of your Maximum Life as Physical damage to nearby enemies. This can only occur once every 4 seconds. You heal for 1% of your Maximum Life for each enemy damaged this way.

• Infection (1 Ferocity): Hitting enemies with direct damage infects them with Pox. Inflicting Pox 8 times on an enemy expunges their infection, dealing 70% Poison damage.

• Jagged Spikes (1 Ferocity, 1 Divinity): Thorns have a 10% chance to deal 300% increased damage and Chill enemies for 8%.

• Prey on the Weak (2 Ferocity): You deal 16% increased damage to Vulnerable enemies. Enemies are Vulnerable while affected by a Vampiric Curse from your other Vampiric Powers.

• Rampart (1 Divinity, 1 Eternity): After not moving for 3 seconds, you gain a Barrier for 40% of your Maximum Life for 6 seconds. This effect can occur once every 20 seconds.

• Ravenous (3 Ferocity): Lucky Hit: Up to a 20% chance to increase your Attack Speed by 40% of your Total Movement Speed for 6 seconds.

• Resilience (2 Eternity): You gain 1% Damage Reduction for each 2% Life you are missing.
• Sanguine Brace (1 Divinity, 1 Eternity): When you kill an enemy, Fortify for 6% of your Base Life. While you have more Fortify than half of your Maximum Life, you gain 8% Critical Strike Chance.

• Terror (1 Ferocity, 1 Divinity, 1 Eternity): When struck, you have a 14% chance to Fear nearby enemies and Slow them by 80% for 2 seconds. You are guaranteed to Critically Strike enemies who are Feared.

• Undying (1 Eternity): Casting Skills heals you for 3% Life. Double this bonus while below 50% Life.

Major Vampiric Powers (6 Pacts Required):

• Accursed Touch (6 Divinity): Lucky Hit: Up to a 44% chance to inflict Vampiric Curse on enemies. Enemies with the Vampiric Curse have a 15% chance to spread it to other surrounding enemies. Accursed Souls deal 200% increased damage.

• Bathe in Blood (3 Divinity, 3 Eternity): While Channeling a Skill, you form a pool of blood beneath you. While channeling a skill in a pool, your Channeled Skills deal 40% increased damage and you gain 30% Damage Reduction. A pool can only form once every 8 seconds.

• Blood Boil (6 Eternity): When your Core Skills Overpower an enemy, you spawn 3 Volatile Blood Drops. Collecting a Volatile Blood Drop causes it to explode, dealing 60% Physical damage around you. Every 20 seconds, your next Skill is guaranteed to Overpower.

• Call Familiar (3 Ferocity, 3 Divinity): Casting a Mastery, Weapon Mastery, Macabre, Wrath, or Imbuement Skill calls a bat ally to attack nearby enemies, dealing 80% Physical damage with a 30% chance to Stun.

• Flowing Veins (2 Ferocity, 2 Divinity, 2 Eternity): You deal 60% increased Damage Over Time to enemies that are moving or affected by a Vampiric Curse.

• Metamorphosis (2 Ferocity, 2 Divinity, 2 Eternity): When you Evade you turn into a cloud of bats, becoming Unstoppable for 4 seconds. Enemies along your path take 160% Physical damage and are inflicted with Vampiric Curse.

• Moonrise (6 Ferocity): Hitting an enemy with a Basic Skill grants you 4% Attack Speed for 10 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Upon reaching maximum stacks, you enter a Vampiric Bloodrage, gaining 160% Basic Skill damage and 15% Movement Speed for 10 Seconds.

Season Of Blood New Endgame Bosses

Blizzard is looking to spice up Diablo IV's endgame with Season 2 by introducing five new endgame bosses, each tied to specific endgame activities and drop exclusive Unique items and cosmetic items. These bosses are not tied exclusively to the new season and will be accessible to characters on the game's Eternal Realm and seasonal realms.

The Echo of Varshan boss, for example, can be summoned by collecting parts of Varshan's body. These body parts are guaranteed rewards from turning in Grim Favors. Another boss, Grigoire, The Galvanic Saint, can be summoned by gathering Living Steel from Tortured Offerings within Helltides. The Dark Master requires items acquired from completing world bosses, while another, the Beast in the Ice, can be summoned from completing Tier 30 or higher Nightmare dungeons. The most challenging of these new endgame bosses requires players to have defeated both Grigoire and Varshan in World Tier IV in order to collect items needed to summon Duriel, King of Maggots, who has a chance of dropping Uber Unique items as well as a rare mount.

Season Of Blood Quality-Of-Life Improvements

Some of the most exciting changes coming with Season 2 are the myriad of quality-of-life improvements confirmed to be coming, many of which fans have long asked for related to inventory and Stash management. Gems, for example, will no longer take up inventory space and will be treated like crafting materials. Improvements are coming to the Stash as well with the addition of a search feature and the ability to apply item filters. Stashes are being added to the game's smaller towns, so trips to larger cities won't be required in order to easily access them. On World Tier III and IV, lower-quality items will automatically drop as crafting resources, which will help keep player inventories less cluttered with junk. Since these lower-quality items will no longer drop and won't be able to be sold for gold, Blizzard will instead increase the gold drop rates at higher World Tiers to compensate.

Season Of Blood Renown Changes

One of the biggest changes will be to how Diablo IV's Renown system works. Come Season 2, the need to grind out Renown by completing side quests, dungeons, and Strongholds for each new seasonal character will be a thing of the past. Instead, Blizzard will make it so Renown rewards are account-wide, meaning if a player has reached max renown on one character, regardless of whether it's a seasonal character or a standard character, those rewards will automatically be unlocked for all future characters. It's a major change that will drastically reduce what felt like a mandatory grind in Season 1 for players who had already reached max renown on a non-seasonal character shortly after Diablo IV's launch. Renown progress made on standard or seasonal characters won't carry over to Hardcore characters, though Renown rewards unlocked on one Hardcore character will carry over to future Hardcore characters.

Season Of Blood XP And Leveling Speed Changes

Another way Blizzard is looking to reduce Diablo IV's grind is by increasing leveling speeds. Monsters above level 50 will reward significantly more XP, with the amount of XP increasing as players level. Blizzard has said it's looking to make the journey to level 100 around 40% faster overall. Changes to XP bonuses will help with that, with XP bonuses from playing on higher World Tiers, Elixirs, and Seasonal Blessings becoming multiplicative in Season 2.

Season of Blood Endgame Changes

Diablo IV's endgame will become less of a grind with Season 2, with activities becoming more rewarding as well, with the amount of gold and XP awarded by participating in Helltides and completing Grim Favors seeing an increase. Additionally, Nightmare dungeons will become less tedious, with Blizzard reducing the amount of backtracking required and allowing players to teleport directly to the start of dungeons, rather than outside the entrance. Nightmare dungeons will grant more Glyph XP as well, reducing yet another endgame grind, and some of the affixes found within them, including Lightning Storm, Death Pulse, and Drifting Shade, will be adjusted to be less punishing. World bosses and Legion events will also spawn more frequently.

Season of Blood Mount Updates

Mounts are receiving a much needed upgrade in Season 2. Gone will be the days of encountering a barricade and having to dismount to destroy it. Come Season 2, the mount Spur ability will allow players to blast through barricades. That will be in addition to mounts being around 15% faster in general and sporting lower cooldowns for actions like manually dismounting and dismounting attacks.

Season Of Blood Class Balance Changes And Updates To Resistances Coming Soon

As Blizzard has previously announced it would, updates are also coming to a number of additional systems, namely how Diablo IV handles elemental resistances and the ways players deal damage. Resistances are regarded by many in the game's community as a fairly worthless stat currently, something Blizzard has pledged will be changing. Damage-modifying status effects like Vulnerable damage or Critical Strike damage currently play too big a role in a character's ability to dish out damage, and Blizzard will be addressing those too, though details on what exactly is changing hasn't been announced just yet.

That's all we know about Diablo IV Season of Blood so far, but Blizzard will hold another Campfire Chat livestream on October 10 to discuss class balance changes and updates to Resistances. This post will be updated as we learn more.