Hello wanderers, it’s been nearly a month since Season 10 launched, and we’ve finally received news about Season 11. Officials previously announced that Season 11 would bring significant changes, with many systems receiving overhauls, and the official announcement confirms this.
Season 11 adjusts several core mechanics, including loot drops, monster combat, defense, and the seasonal system. Let’s take a look at these changes and their impact.
Equipment Crafting
Let’s start with the area that will have the biggest impact on players: Equipment Crafting. Tempering has been completely overhauled. Once you have enough Diablo 4 items, you can choose the affixes you want to add to your equipment, rather than having them randomly assigned. Furthermore, each piece of equipment can now only have one Tempering affix, and Tempering Charges required for Tempering are infinitely rechargeable.
Masterworking has also undergone a complete overhaul. It no longer increases existing affixes on equipment, but instead increases the item’s base damage, armor, or resistances. Items can be crafted up to level 20. Upon reaching that maximum level, a final die roll will be performed, resulting in a core reward. This reward upgrades a random common affix on the item to a high-level affix. These changes will undoubtedly reduce the randomness of crafting equipment, making it easier for players to obtain their desired equipment in the later stages.
Monster And Loot Drops
Season 11’s monster AI has been upgraded, making them smarter and more deadly. This increases the difficulty of the early game, forcing players to be more careful in their positioning to dodge skills and avoid attracting too many monsters while leveling.
In addition to the increased monster difficulty, loot drops in the early stages have also been significantly adjusted:
- Normal items: Drops will take longer.
- Magic items: Bonus affixes will appear more frequently.
- Rare items: Drops will be rarer before level 30.
- Legendary Items: Rare until level 40, after which their drop rate increases rapidly.
Players may need to focus on specific dungeons to obtain the necessary Codex of Power Aspects or buy Diablo 4 items from IGGM to transition early on. After level 40, with better gear and powerful abilities, the experience should be similar to previous seasons.
In addition, elite monsters have gained over 20 new monster affixes, and their minions now inherit some of these affixes.
Defense Systems Overhaul
Toughness
Season 11 introduces the concept of Toughness, a value from Diablo II. It represents the total amount of damage you can withstand from each damage type after all damage reductions are taken into account. Think of it as the maximum single hit of damage you can withstand.
Armor And Resistances
Armor and resistances have also received a complete overhaul. Armor now reduces all types of damage (physical and non-physical), and a new type of physical damage resistance has been added. The armor and resistance penalties imposed by Torment difficulty have been removed, encouraging players to challenge higher difficulties.
Both now have diminishing returns based on rating, requiring players to stack these stats. The exact distribution depends on the payoff curve, but overall, improving defense is becoming easier, allowing players to stack armor and resistances without a cap to improve survivability and avoid instant kills.
Potions
- The base potion capacity has been reduced to 4 potions (regardless of reputation bonuses).
- Potions now instantly restore 35% of maximum health.
- Potions now automatically refill one potion every 30 seconds.
Regarding potion adjustments, Life on Hit modifier has been reintroduced with a short cooldown to prevent it from becoming overly powerful multiplied by monster density, and Diablo 4 items with health regeneration and health-on-kill modifiers have also been increased in value.
With the whole system plus the improvement of monster power, combat and survival have become more important. Sufficient potion reserves are now a symbol of survivability, rather than just a meaningless process that would only waste Diablo 4 gold.
Fortify mechanic has also been redesigned. It has been transformed from a damage reduction effect into an additional health reserve. While your health is below full, possessing boosts regenerates a percentage of your maximum health per second, consuming an equal amount of boosts.
Progression And Endgame
Season Rank
This is a completely new system. Players advance through Season Rank by completing challenges, such as Capstone Dungeons. Each rank has its own specific challenges. The permanent rewards of Renown system remain exclusively in Eternal Realm, while the additional benefits associated with Renown during the season, such as Skill Points and Reputation Points, have been moved to the new Season Rank system:
- Rank 1, 2, and 3: Bonus Skill Points.
- Rank 3, 4, 5, and 6: Bonus Reputation Points.
Capstone Dungeons
Capstone Dungeons have been reintroduced to the game. This provides a clear goal and challenge to the leveling process, far superior to the current lackluster monster-farming method.
There are five new core dungeons, unlocked at different levels and difficulties:
Torrid Menagerie
- Suggested level: 30
- Difficulty Tier: Normal
Hellish Descent
- Suggested level: 50
- Difficulty Tier: Expert
Unseen Awakening
- Suggested level: 60
- Difficulty Tier: Torment I
Tempest Oasis
- Suggested level: 60
- Difficulty Tier: Torment II
Sins of the Many
- Suggested level: 60
- Difficulty Tier: Torment III
Ascend The Tower
Ascend the Tower is a new, multi-stage, timed dungeon mode designed to test player skill, similar in function to Greater Rifts in Diablo III.
Players have 10 minutes to complete randomly generated floors, progressing by killing monsters and collecting energy orbs. After destroying the tower, four shrines will appear. The first three will always have three different effects, while the fourth will have a random, repeating effect. This reduces the randomness in farming.
This will replace The Pit as the new end-game leaderboard, and you’ll be ranked by successfully completing the spire within the allotted time. The new leaderboard is more detailed, with separate leaderboards for Hardcore and Normal modes, as well as for solo, 2-player, 3-player, and 4-player teams. This is undoubtedly better than the previous ranked mode, but it may also be affected by RMT.
Overall, IGGM believes that the changes in Season 11 will make the early game experience slower and more challenging, and new players may need more than 10 hours to reach level 60. Players can experience the specific changes on the PTR.
