Blizzard have released the patch notes for patch 2.7 as well as the start times, different modes of play available, and more for Season 4. The patch brings more character slots, item and class changes, as well as more QoL improvements for both PC and console.
Season 4 Notes (Source)
We celebrate your prophesied return, adventurer.
Countless demons have met their timely demise at the end of your weapon, yet their onslaught doesn’t relent. Sanctuary needs its savior! Return on May 4 to wreak havoc among the Burning Hells’ ranks in Ladder Season 4! Read further through this tome to glean information for feature improvements, quality-of-life updates, and bug fixes that will be released with Patch 2.7.
Quest Log
Quality-of-Life Updates and Bug Fixes
Ladder Season 4
Our previous Ladder Seasons for Diablo II: Resurrected have showed just how adept adventurers were at saving Sanctuary, racing to be the first to cement their names on the Leaderboard, while striking fear into the tormented hearts of their demonic adversaries in the process.
Ladder Season 4 will begin on May 4, ushering in a new opportunity for brave adventurers to race to Level 99 and amass powerful loot along the way. We cannot wait to see which determined souls carve their name into the Leaderboard this time.
Ladder Season 4 Launch Timing:
North America
May 4, 5:00 p.m. PDT
Europe
May 5, 2:00 a.m. CET
Asia
May 5, 10:00 a.m. KST
As it was with previous seasons, Ladder Season 4 will feature different modes:
Version
Description
Pre-Expansion Ladder
The standard version of Ladder play that encompasses playing only with the original four acts.
Pre-Expansion Hardcore Ladder
The hardcore (only one life) version of Ladder play that encompasses playing only with the original four acts.
Ladder
The standard version of Ladder play that encompasses playing five acts, as it includes the “Lord of Destruction” expansion content.
Hardcore Ladder
The hardcore (only one life) version of Ladder play that encompasses playing five acts, as it includes the “Lord of Destruction” expansion content.
For those new to Ladder Seasons, you might be wondering what happens to your Shared Stash loot once the current season ends.
Once Ladder Season 3 ends, all Ladder characters will be transferred to their respective non-ladder group. All items in that character group’s shared stash go into a new Withdraw Only set of Shared Stash tabs, denoted by a check marked Past box. Any items from Ladder Season 2 stored in the Withdraw Only tabs will be lost at this time. You will have all of Ladder Season 4 to withdraw any items you would like to keep from Season 3. When Ladder Season 4 ends, this withdraw only set of stash tabs will be overridden with any items in the Ladder Season 4 Shared Stash. Be sure to get any items out before then or they will be forever lost!
Patch 2.7
On May 2 at 10:00 a.m. PDT, a variety of feature adjustments, quality-of-life updates, and bug fixes will go live with Patch 2.7.
Feature Adjustments
Players will now have 4 additional Character Slots available across all Online Modes.
The first time a Ladder character from a previous season is used in a non-Ladder game, the ability to Reset Stat and Skill Points at Akara will be reset. Characters from previous Ladder seasons who have already been used in non-Ladder games are ineligible.
Developer’s Note: We want to encourage players to experiment with their builds. If you have already burned through your Akara respecs while on Ladder, then you can do additional respecs for more experimentation after the character becomes a Non-Ladder character.
All Chat Lobbies have been outfitted with an automated system which will remove malicious messages from those conversations.
Quality-of-Life Updates and Bug Fixes
Gameplay
The Next Hit Delay system now only applies to missiles created by casting the same skill.
Each Assassin Martial Arts charge-up skill trigger is treated as a different cast of a skill for Next Hit Delay purposes.
Developer’s Note: We have revised Next Hit Delay to become an easier concept to grasp while still maintaining its original design goals. This change will alleviate some headaches in multiplayer and smooth the edges of certain character builds.
Knockback has been removed from the Bul Kathos’ Sacred Charge 2-Handed Sword.
Developer’s Note: Bul Kathos is a powerful set, but the Knockback incurred from Sacred Charge made using it feel clunky for Melee characters. Considering the rarity of the set, we opted to increase the viability of the weapon and the weapon set as a whole.
Druids are now able to shapeshift directly between their Werewolf and Werebear forms.
Developer’s Note: Shapeshifter Druids using the Metamorphosis Rune Word are encouraged to swap between their Werebear and Werewolf forms to get the most out of the bonuses. In practice, this is a little clunky because you must shapeshift to Werebear, hit a monster, shapeshift back into Human, wait a second, Shapeshift to Werewolf, then hit a monster (or wolf then bear, depending on your preference). We’re taking out the middleman (literally) to make swapping between forms feel cleaner.
The Assassin’s trap skills now benefit from +% To Elemental Skill Damage modifiers.
Developer’s Note: We have identified an issue with +% to Lightning skill damage not applying to lightning sentries on Nintendo Switch offline games. We plan to amend this issue in a future patch and apologize for any inconvenience.
Fixed an issue where Mephisto would drop from lower-level treasure classes when Terrorized.
Fixed an issue where an Assassin dying with Martial Arts charges active could cause a crash in Offline play.
Fixed the issue where the Assassin’s traps weren’t benefiting from resistance reduction in Offline play.
General
Fixed a translation issue for the Reached max character limit text in Polish.
Fixed an issue where progressing between towns and connected zones from Acts II, III, and V would cause an abrupt lighting change when terrorized.
Fixed an issue where the icon to denote a monster is Terrorized wasn’t properly displaying in certain languages.
Fixed an issue where the Amazon’s audio cue for dodging an attack would play when non-Amazon characters used the Evade skill granted by the Hustle Rune Word.
Amended various stability issues encountered during Online play.
Ladder Play
Fixed an issue where messaging for the next Ladder Season was inaccurate during the pause between seasons.
Fixed an issue where characters that were recently converted from Ladder to Non-Ladder would not display as such and failed to join games.
Fixed an issue where Rune Words exclusive to an upcoming Ladder Season could be created in the current season.
Fixed an issue where converted Ladder characters would be incorrectly displayed with the Ladder flag.
PC Specific
Fixed an issue where controller input would stop registering if the user swapped to Legacy graphics while the animation for selecting a character in the character creation screen was playing.
Players will now be notified of when they’re running the game with old, extracted data.
Console Specific
Fixed an issue where a player’s displayed location on the Friends List wouldn’t properly update on Xbox consoles.
Fixed an issue where players on Nintendo Switch would not appear in the Recently Played With tab.
Fixed an issue where the localized text for Personalized Items on console displayed all gendered pronouns at once in Polish and Spanish.
Modding
Increased the total limit of state entries from 255 to 511.
Added DataVersionBuild.txt. It is recommended that mod authors include this file in their mods to reduce unexpected errors between game versions.
New columns have been added. Developers of existing Offline Single Player mods can remake their changes with new data or they can add new columns manually before merging.
TreasureClassEx.txt, cubemain.txt, UniqueItems.txt
“ladder” -> “firstLadderSeason”, “lastLadderSeason”
Runes.txt
“server” -> “firstLadderSeason”, “lastLadderSeason”
Enter a New Plane of Hell
Diablo IV will launch on June 6, unveiling a new piece of Sanctuary for you to unshackle from Lilith’s dominion. Everyone is invited to get a taste of the horrors and delights that await during Server Slam from May 12–14. Grab your weapon, adventurer—your quest continues.
Thank you for your continued support. We cannot wait to see you overcome Hell in the great race to Level 99 during Ladder Season 4!
-The Diablo II: Resurrected Team
