Happy New Year and welcome to the year 1337 in Diablo 4
Happy New Year in Diablo 4
★ January 5, 2025
Need to Know
- Diablo community members have expressed their Diablo 4 wishes for the new year.
- Season 7 will soon be upon us with some long-awaited QOL changes.
- There’s an easier way to get the Butcher Pet in the Diablo 3 Darkening of Tristram event.
- The next annual expansion for Diablo 4 is still a mystery.
The enduring popularity of Diablo gaming has spanned nearly three decades, and this year promises to earnestly continue that tradition. We’ve got four more action-packed Seasons to look forward to, along with lots of new ways to battle the denizens of the Burning Hells. Mephisto has not given up on his ambition to claim dominion over Sanctuary, and Diablo 411 will be here to stand by us all the way as we endeavor to thwart his diabolical plans.
Before discussing more details about Season 7, let’s stop in at the Fat Goose, pull up a chair by the fireplace, and listen to what the locals are talking about these days.
Along with every new year or new Season comes the feedback from the Diablo community about what changes and improvements we’d like to see included in future Patches. This new year has been no exception, and the forums have been packed with the hopes and dreams of Diablo fans everywhere, including the following:
- New “Sword & Board” class.
- New Boons and Banes for the Infernal Hordes.
- New Bosses for the Undercity.
- Additional (Rare) consumables to make Tempering and Masterworking a little less exasperating.
- Direct access to the Stash and Blacksmith via a Pet UI (Premium Battle Pass item, if necessary).
- Goblin kills randomly spawning portals to pocket dimensions.
- New cosmetic rewards for the Dark Citadel.
- New pets with each new Battle Pass (Premium Battle Pass item, if necessary).
Do you have any ideas or suggestions for how to improve or enhance Diablo 4 in the coming year? If so, be sure to share your thoughts and opinions on Twitter or the Diablo 4 Forums because the Devs are listening.
The Season of Hatred Rising (Season 6) is scheduled to end on Tuesday, January 21, 2025. The past Seasons in Diablo 4 have always launched right after the end of the previous Season, and, as of right now, the Season of Witchcraft is expected to follow the same pattern. Season 7 will include some long-awaited QOL enhancements, most notably the introduction of an Armory. The Devs have commented numerous times about how they want to encourage build diversity and experimentation, and the most obvious way to support this is to provide players with a cost-free Armory. A few of the other QOL improvements we can look forward to include the following:
- Paragon XP will migrate from the Seasonal Realm to the Eternal Realm following the end of the Season.
- Ancestral Legendary items will always drop at the top of the range for the Legendary power.
- The completion of Class Quests will be permanent and account-wide.
Diablo 411 will be sharing more details about the upcoming Seasonal theme and mechanics in future articles, so keep an eye out for those updates.
The annual Darkening of Tristram event is upon us and will run through the end of this month, which is particuarly enjoyable for completionists and cosmetics collectors. I wanted to provide some additional details for players who are interested in a potential shortcut for claiming the Butcher Pet reward. To get this exclusive pet, players must successfully complete the An Eerie Red Glow Blurs Your Vision achievement. This achievement requires you to kill Diablo in a solo game starting with a new Level 1 character created during the Darkening of Tristram event. This must be done without exiting the game or disconnecting. This achievement is fairly easy to do provided you already have at least one character at Level 70 with decent gear in the current Season (Season 33):
- Open the game with one of your Season 33 characters.
- Ensure that the Anointed Seal (Items have no level requirement.) is unlocked on the Altar of Rites (Seasonal Realm only).
- Store in your Stash the best gear items that you would like to equip on your new Level 1 character.
- These first three steps must be accomplished in the exact same Seasonal game mode as you intend to use to complete the achievement.
- Leave the game and then create a new Level 1 character in Seasonal Adventure Mode on Normal Difficulty.
- From this point forward, it’s best to avoid leaving or exiting the game.
- Be sure to not invite any other players to your game until the achievement has been successfully completed.
- Proceed with your new Level 1 character to the Darkening of Tristram portal, which is located southwest of the Old Ruins waypoint, without interacting with any enemies along the way.
- This is to avoid leveling up your new character above Level 1.
- Enter the Darkening of Tristram portal and then teleport back to town immediately.
- At this point your Darkening of Tristram game starting with a Level 1 character has been locked in.
- Any additional levels your character gains while running the dungeon will not affect the outcome of the achievement.
- You are now free to equip your new Level 1 character with any of the best gear items in your Stash (see Step 3).
- Apply as many of your roster-wide Paragon points as you want.
- Equip a pet and hire a Follower if you like.
- Level up your new character further, if you wish, by doing endgame activities, such as Nephalem Rifts, Bounties, etc.
- At the same time, it’s recommended to keep the game difficulty on Normal in order to save time, especially if you’re doing this just for the Butcher Pet reward.
- In any case, once your new character is ready to defeat Diablo, then travel back through the Darkening of Tristram portal.
- Proceed northeast to the Old Tristram Cathedral and enter the front door (Labrynth Level 1).
- Now all you need to do is to make your way down to Level 16, updating your skill tree along the way, and defeat the Dark Lord.
The first time I tried this method I was able to simply walk my character down to the bottom level and kill all the enemies I encountered with just the Thorns damage I had in my build. It took me a very leisurely 20 minutes to run the entire dungeon, I was able to one-shot the Butcher and Diablo, and my character was Level 20 when I finished.
I hope you have some fun with this, and let me know if you decide to give this method a try as well as whether you found this guide to be helpful. Be sure to also post a screenshot of your character with your new Butcher Pet. Please also pass this information along to any new or prospective Diablo 3 players you may know; they’ll surely thank you for it.
What’s On the Horizon?
Back in 2023 we learned that we could expect a new Diablo 4 expansion to be released annually. The Vessel of Hatred expansion was officially announced at BlizzCon 2023, nearly a year prior to its release in October 2024. In April of last year, Blizzard announced that there would be no BlizzCon in 2024. However, that, in of itself, doesn’t seem to be a good enough reason for holding off this long to announce the next expansion.
Yes, we do have the release of Season 7 right around the corner, and the Seasonal theme and mechanics appear to be on par with the Vampiric Powers in the Season of Blood. Nevertheless, it seems like it would still be in Blizzard’s best interest to act fast because pretty much everybody who’s anybody is playing POE2 right now.
Keep the pressure on the Devs by posting your comments on Twitter and the Diablo 4 Forums and let them know we need more expansion info as soon as possible.
Holiday Sale
The current Holiday Sale on Battle.net ends tomorrow, so if you have not yet purchased the game and/or the expansion then now would be a great time to do that.
See You Next Time
Feel free to contact me contact me on X if you would like additional information or assistance with Diablo gaming. You can also let me know if you have any ideas or suggestions for future topics here at Diablo 411. In the meantime, be sure to keep an eye on the news feed so you’ll have all the up-to-date info you need to get the most out of your game.
If you believe that any of the information shared above is inaccurate in any way, please let me know, along with a reference for the correct information, so I can update this document accordingly.
Nick Quaglietta (a.k.a. Gazerrick) is a freelance writer who focuses primarily on casual gaming interests and lore for the Diablo community. When not hacking and slashing his way through a new Season, he can be found participating in, and presenting at, various pop culture conventions in southern Arizona. You can follow him on Twitter @Gazerrick9000 for even more of his gaming indulgences.
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