Diablo 4 Season 8 plans to toughen up the Blizzard RPG’s endgame, and you’ll have the chance to try out the upcoming update and D4 patch 2.2.0 in just a few days via the PTR. In its latest campfire chat, the developer lifts the lid on the long-awaited return of Belial – Lord of Lies, one of the seven Lesser Evils, and a key antagonist in the Diablo 3 campaign – as he makes a fresh bid for Sanctuary. Alongside the first glimpses of his arrival, Blizzard promises much more challenge than in the current season, but with a wealth of new ‘boss powers’ to mix up your builds.
I love Diablo 4, and Vessel of Hatred was a real breath of fresh air, but there’s an overwhelming feeling that there’s not really anything challenging in the RPG of late. It’s fun to plow through hordes of demons, but if nothing ever really pushes back, even in the higher tiers of Torment and The Pit, then it all starts to feel a bit mundane. While I had fun playing, I found myself wrapping up my time with Season 7 remarkably soon, especially for the first post-expansion outing, because I finished everything of note so quickly.
We’re spoilt for choice in the ARPG space right now between Path of Exile 2, Last Epoch, Torchlight Infinite, and upcoming 2025 releases such as Titan Quest 2 and Grim Dawn: Fangs of Asterkarn, so there are always other options to turn to. But this is Diablo – the grandfather of the genre might not want to be the most ‘hardcore’ offering on the table, and I think that’s fine, but it also shouldn’t be so breezy that it feels like it’s stepping out of the way of its younger associates.
Fortunately, Blizzard seems in agreement. The team notes that 50% of all players reached Torment 4 in the latest season, and says it wants to make levelling tougher, with the goal of only about 10% of players climbing to the highest-difficulty peaks of Diablo 4 Season 8. You’ll see less legendary loot as you progress, making other gear feel more worthwhile, and the scaling on the endgame Pit tiers will be dramatically higher. Pit 76, the Torment 4 boundary, will be about five times tougher than Season 7, and it’ll be hard for even the best Diablo 4 builds to climb all the way to 150.
Three new faces are joining the boss ladder – Urivar from the Vessel of Hatred campaign, Mephisto’s meaty wolf the Harbinger of Hatred, and Belial. The Lord of Lies can make a brief appearance in the new Apparition Incursion event that will appear around the Diablo 4 map, but his ultimate form will take its place as the new pinnacle encounter, sitting above Duriel and Andariel as the final challenge of Season 8. Boss keys have also been slightly reworked; challenging a fight is now free, and you’ll spend your key to open a loot chest that drops after beating the boss.
The other big addition for Season 8 are boss powers. These are new abilities that will further amplify your builds, with 24 up for grabs that must be earned by beating Diablo 4’s world bosses, pinnacle bosses, and new apparitions in the Apparition Incursions. Each comes in two parts, a ‘main’ skill and a less-potent ‘modifier,’ and you can activate one main power and three modifiers at any one time. That should make overcoming the various challenges around Sanctuary feel more immediately rewarding, and open the door to potential new builds.
Of course, you can expect plenty of balance changes across all the Diablo 4 classes as well. Druids are getting some boosts to make playing in human form more rewarding, there are some ways to amplify Necromancer minions and blood skills, and Rogues will be leaning back into traps. If you’re a Path of Exile player who loves the iconic Righteous Fire build, you might enjoy the new Sunbird’s Gorget unique amulet for Spiritborn, which whips up a similar firestorm that whirls around your character to melt everything you run past.
The Diablo 4 Season 8 PTR will run from Tuesday March 11 to Tuesday March 18, giving players the chance to test everything coming in patch 2.2.0. You’ll need to have the game via Battlenet to join, but PC Game Pass users will also be able to access the PTR by reaching the Battlenet client via the Xbox app. Read through the full patch notes courtesy of Blizzard to see what you can expect.
If you’re looking for something else to satisfy your loot lust in the meantime, here are the best games like Diablo to play in 2025. We’ve also got even more of the best co-op games you and your friends can enjoy together right now.
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