Diablo 4 Doubled Judgement’s Single-Target Damage — Paladin Players Still Aren’t Convinced

Blizzard clearly knows Diablo 4's Judgement Paladin needs help.

The Season 15 PTR gave it help.

Quite a lot of help, actually.

Judicator Oath now makes Judgement deal 100% increased damage when it hits only one enemy. Aspect of the Judicator was buffed. Blessed Shield gained another way to increase Judgement damage. Paladin's core Strength scaling went up as well.

On paper, this sounds like the moment Judgement finally graduates from interesting idea to serious endgame build.

Paladin players who tested it are considerably less convinced.

Blizzard Specifically Targeted Judgement’s Single-Target Problem

The most obvious Season 15 change is attached to Judicator Oath.

If Judgement hits only a single enemy, it now deals 100% increased damage.

That is effectively double damage under the right circumstances.

And those circumstances are clearly aimed at bosses.

Judgement-based builds could already deal with groups more comfortably because marks and detonations naturally spread through packs. Single-target encounters were where the build frequently started looking as though it had forgotten why it entered the dungeon.

Blizzard's solution is simple.

One enemy.

Twice the Judgement damage.

Unfortunately, Diablo bosses have developed the inconvenient habit of bringing friends.

Adds Can Turn the Bonus Off

That is the biggest criticism appearing in post-PTR Paladin feedback.

The Judicator Oath bonus requires Judgement to hit only one enemy.

If a boss summons adds, or ordinary monsters remain close enough to be caught by the skill, the condition is no longer satisfied.

So the build's special single-target solution can disappear precisely during a boss encounter.

One player demonstrating the build after the PTR closed argued that this forces Judgement Paladins to clear surrounding enemies before receiving the bonus again, costing both boss damage and time.

It creates a peculiar situation.

The skill is better against one target.

The boss is one target.

Until the boss invites Greg and three skeletons over.

Blessed Shield Is Becoming Almost Mandatory

Blizzard also strengthened the interaction between Blessed Shield and Judgement.

The Shield of Justice variant already detonates Judgement and empowers subsequent Blessed Shield throws.

Season 15 adds another effect: detonating Judgement now increases your Judgement damage by 50% for five seconds.

That is a considerable bonus.

It also creates another complaint.

Why should Blessed Shield be the obvious skill for scaling Judgement?

Players arguing for more Judicator variety point out that the Paladin has several Judicator skills, but this one interaction makes Blessed Shield increasingly difficult to avoid if the goal is maximizing Judgement itself.

The result risks turning a system that should support several builds into another familiar Diablo equation:

You technically have choices.

One of them is just much better.

Aspect of the Judicator Got Buffed Too

Blizzard did not stop with the Oath.

Aspect of the Judicator previously increased Judgement's damage and size by 40–60%.

Season 15 raises that to 60–80%.

Aspect of Watkin's Law was also redesigned so Judicator Skills can consume and immediately reapply Judgement while using Judicator Oath, although this can only happen once every three seconds per enemy.

There is clearly a deliberate attempt here to make Judgement flow better through a full Judicator build rather than existing as a mark players apply because another skill tells them to.

The issue is whether the numbers and interactions are finally strong enough at the highest difficulties.

PTR Players Say the Answer Is Still No

Feedback throughout the Season 15 PTR repeatedly described Paladin single-target damage as one of the class's biggest weaknesses.

One tester said that even with the new 100% Judicator Oath bonus, high-end bosses remained painfully slow and suggested Judgement would need dramatically larger increases to compete with stronger builds.

Another player dedicated much of the PTR to a Judgement Paladin and managed to push into the high Pit 120s.

That was better than the previous season.

But the player still described the build as behind stronger Paladin options and far behind the top output available elsewhere.

That does not prove Judgement is mathematically doomed.

PTR characters, gear, player skill and build decisions vary enormously.

But it does show that doubling one part of Judgement's damage has not immediately convinced the people actually trying to push it.

Cathedral Song Still Sounds Expensive

The new Cathedral Song design has attracted criticism too.

In Season 15, consuming Judgement 100 times calls down Spear of the Heavens onto a random enemy.

Judgement consumed on bosses counts as ten.

That sounds considerably more reasonable against a single boss.

In large packs, however, the reward is still one Spear targeting one random enemy after a substantial number of consumptions.

Some testers are already asking Blizzard either to reduce the requirement or dramatically increase the payoff.

One heavenly spear after one hundred administrative procedures does feel slightly bureaucratic for divine intervention.

The Paladin Buff Is Bigger Than Just Judgement

It is worth remembering that Judgement does not exist in isolation.

Season 15 also increases Paladin's core Strength damage scalar from 1.25% to 1.625% per 10 Strength.

That is a broad class-wide damage increase.

Combined with the Judicator changes, Season 15's live version could therefore perform noticeably better than the same build did before the PTR.

Blizzard still has time to adjust numbers based on the test.

The PTR is finished.

The balance pass is not necessarily finished with it.

The Idea Is Good. The Conditions May Be the Problem.

There is something fundamentally appealing about Judgement.

Mark enemies.

Condemn them.

Build around divine punishment.

It is exactly the sort of mechanic a Paladin should have.

The concern after Season 15 testing is that too much of its power remains attached to conditions that can become awkward in actual endgame fights.

Double damage against one enemy sounds excellent.

Until two enemies stand next to each other.

A 50% Judgement boost from Blessed Shield sounds excellent.

Until every Judgement build feels obligated to use Blessed Shield.

The Season 15 PTR made Judgement stronger.

That part is not really in dispute.

The question is whether Blizzard has made it strong enough to justify all the hoops players still have to jump through.

Judgement has been passed.

The Paladin community is requesting an appeal.

Sources

Blizzard Entertainment: The 3.2.0 PTR — What You Need to Know

Diablo IV Forums: Paladin Judgement — PTR Feedback

Diablo IV Forums: Paladin Feedback Season 15 PTR

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Diablo 4 Players Say the Damage Gap Between Builds Has Reached Thousands of Times

Diablo 4 has never been particularly afraid of large numbers.

Millions became billions.

Billions became trillions.

Eventually the damage numbers started looking less like combat information and more like somebody had accidentally pasted a bank statement onto the screen.

But a new community calculation illustrates the problem in a much more useful way.

According to players examining Diablo 4's highest endgame tiers, the difference between clearing level 120 and level 150 can represent a required damage increase of roughly 4,142 times.

Not 4,142 percent.

Four thousand times.

And that is before comparing how quickly the strongest builds actually complete the content.

How Do You Get From 120 to 4,142 Times More Damage?

The calculation being discussed on Blizzard's forums starts with a claimed scaling factor of approximately 1.32 times per tier after level 120.

There are 30 steps between 120 and 150.

Multiply the requirement by 1.32 thirty times and you get:

1.32³⁰ = approximately 4,142.

So if one build is only strong enough to clear 120 and another can just barely clear 150 under otherwise comparable conditions, the second build theoretically needs thousands of times more effective damage output.

The original forum post puts the required increase at roughly 414,207%, or about 4,142 times.

Suddenly "this build is a little stronger" feels inadequate.

Clear Speed Makes the Comparison Even More Absurd

The player behind the calculation then adds another layer.

If the level 120 build takes nine minutes to finish its run while the level 150 build finishes in three minutes, the effective damage difference becomes even larger.

The post estimates that scenario at roughly 12,426 times the damage output.

That number is obviously a simplified comparison rather than an official Blizzard balance metric. Different encounters, movement, survivability and build mechanics complicate any direct damage calculation.

But the broader point remains difficult to ignore.

The upper end of Diablo 4 allows an extraordinary difference between viable builds.

The Real Problem Is Build Balance

Big numbers themselves are not necessarily bad.

If every build dealt twelve trillion damage instead of twelve million, the game could theoretically function exactly the same.

The problem begins when one optimized build exists on an entirely different mathematical planet from another optimized build.

A 10% balance difference can be adjusted.

A 30% difference can be adjusted.

Even double damage can be understood without requiring advanced mathematics and spiritual guidance.

Thousands of times more output is different.

It means that simply buffing the weaker skill by 20% does almost nothing to close the practical gap.

Multipliers Are Doing a Lot of the Damage

Diablo 4's modern builds stack numerous multiplicative bonuses from skills, Paragon, Legendary Aspects, Uniques, class mechanics and seasonal systems.

Season 15's PTR provides another reminder of how quickly these values accumulate. Soul Splinters can provide large multiplicative damage bonuses, while Blizzard is simultaneously changing core-stat scalars, class mechanics, Unique powers and numerous other multipliers in an attempt to keep classes aligned.

The danger is that multiplicative systems compound.

Give two builds the same 20% bonus and the stronger build remains stronger.

Give the stronger build several additional interactions that multiply together and the gap can become enormous very quickly.

This is how Diablo eventually arrives at builds separated not by percentages, but by entire postal codes.

Not Everyone Thinks This Is Actually a Problem

There is an important counterargument.

Some players responding to the discussion say the extreme final tiers exist precisely to expose how powerful the very best builds can become.

If one player is happily progressing at 120 with a self-made build, another player clearing 150 does not necessarily diminish that experience.

The highest levels can function as prestige content rather than something every class and every skill is supposed to reach.

That is reasonable.

Diablo does not need every build to finish identical content at identical speeds.

If it did, buildcrafting would become considerably less interesting.

But Extreme Builds Can Still Shape the Rest of the Game

The opposing argument is that extreme outliers eventually influence Blizzard's decisions.

When the strongest builds trivialize available content, players ask for harder content.

Blizzard adds harder content.

The weaker builds then find themselves even further behind.

The forum discussion specifically points to progression systems such as Glyph leveling as an example where a stronger build's ability to cruise through high tiers can create a materially different experience from someone playing off-meta.

That is where this stops being purely a leaderboard problem.

Diablo 4 Has Been Here Before

Damage inflation is hardly new to Diablo.

Diablo III eventually reached a point where enormous multipliers, escalating Greater Rifts and increasingly absurd set bonuses became fundamental parts of the game.

Diablo 4 has already undergone major restructuring of its progression and difficulty systems once.

And the current community discussion is increasingly asking whether the numbers are beginning to run away again.

One player in the thread suggests another eventual number squish may become unavoidable if damage continues expanding at this rate.

4,142 Times Is a Warning Sign, Not an Official Balance Number

The important thing is not to treat 4,142x as Blizzard announcing that one class officially does 4,142 times more damage than another.

It isn't.

This is a community calculation based on the reported scaling requirements between the highest endgame tiers.

But it provides a useful illustration of why Diablo 4's balance conversations have become so difficult.

When the top of the game requires exponentially more power, tiny differences become large differences.

Large differences become ridiculous differences.

And eventually somebody opens a calculator and discovers that one build apparently lives four thousand builds away from another.

At that point, perhaps the problem is no longer that the number needs another zero.

Perhaps it could lose a few.

Sources

Diablo IV Forums: Multipliers, the 1,242,600% Imbalance!

Blizzard Entertainment: The 3.2.0 PTR: What You Need to Know

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Diablo Immortal Is Running Four Mirrored Jewels Events in a Row — Save Your Crests

Diablo Immortal is currently doing something it normally makes players wait considerably longer for.

Mirrored Jewels is running again.

And again.

And again.

And then once more for good measure.

As part of Diablo’s 30th Anniversary celebration, Blizzard scheduled four Mirrored Jewels events back-to-back, effectively giving players four separate opportunities to dramatically improve the value of an Elder Rift run between late July and August 26.

We are currently in the third event.

Which means if you have been sitting on Legendary Crests, now might be a good time to remember why.

The Third Mirrored Jewels Event Is Live Now

Blizzard’s full anniversary schedule looks like this:

• July 29 – August 5
• August 5 – August 12
• August 12 – August 19
• August 19 – August 26

Each reset happens at 3:00 a.m. server time.

So as of August 15, the third Mirrored Jewels window is active.

And when it ends on August 19, another one begins immediately.

No week off.

No mysterious lunar calendar.

Just more gems.

What Does Mirrored Jewels Actually Do?

Mirrored Jewels is an Elder Rift enhancement that can be activated for a single run.

When active, every Legendary Gem you receive from that Elder Rift is accompanied by an additional random Legendary Gem of the same type and random quality.

The underlying Legendary Gem drop probabilities do not increase.

Instead, the event duplicates the successful Legendary Gem rewards you do receive. Blizzard has historically recommended activating Mirrored Jewels on an Elder Rift using 10 Legendary Crests to maximize its potential value.

In simpler terms:

You are not becoming luckier.

You are making your luck count twice.

Which is about as close to financial planning as Diablo Immortal usually gets.

This Is Why Saving Crests Can Matter

The important part of Mirrored Jewels is that the opportunity is limited.

If you are planning to spend Legendary Crests anyway, activating the event on a full 10-Crest Elder Rift gives the mechanic the maximum number of Legendary Gem rolls to work with.

That does not guarantee a 5-Star masterpiece.

Mirrored Jewels does not secretly turn Sanctuary into Christmas morning.

But if one of those Crest rolls produces something valuable, the event gives you another Legendary Gem alongside it.

That makes spending Crests during Mirrored Jewels significantly more attractive than casually burning them on ordinary Elder Rifts between events.

Four Events Changes the Usual Calculation

Normally, Mirrored Jewels feels like one of those moments where players suddenly remember they should have saved more Crests.

This anniversary run is different.

Blizzard has given everyone four consecutive opportunities.

If you already used Mirrored Jewels during the first two weeks, the August 12 reset created another event window.

And August 19 creates one more.

That means players who have been earning Legendary Crests throughout the anniversary period can potentially spread their resources across several Mirrored Jewels runs instead of treating the event as a single all-or-nothing moment.

Don’t Confuse Double Rewards With Double Drop Rates

This distinction is worth repeating because Diablo loot terminology has been responsible for several headaches over the years.

Mirrored Jewels does not double your chance of obtaining a particular Legendary Gem.

Blizzard explicitly states that Elder Rift Legendary Gem probabilities remain unchanged.

The event adds another random Legendary Gem of the corresponding type and quality structure when a Gem reward is generated.

That can still be extremely valuable.

It is simply not the same thing as doubling the underlying odds.

The casino remains a casino.

It just occasionally hands you two envelopes.

You Still Have Two Windows Left

If you missed the first Mirrored Jewels events, there is no need to mourn your terrible calendar management yet.

The current event remains active until August 19 at 3:00 a.m. server time.

Then the final anniversary Mirrored Jewels event begins immediately and continues until August 26 at 3:00 a.m.

That gives players another chance to collect Crests before the final window closes.

So if your inventory currently contains a respectable pile of Legendary Crests and you were considering casually throwing them into an Elder Rift tonight, check Mirrored Jewels first.

There are few experiences in Diablo more painful than discovering you spent the useful resource one day before the useful event.

Except perhaps doing it four times in the same month.

Sources

Blizzard Entertainment: Celebrate 30 Years of Diablo in Diablo Immortal

Blizzard Entertainment: Seek Abundance in Tong Shi’s Renewal

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Diablo II: Resurrected Is Changing Its Ladder Reset Schedule Starting With Season 15

Diablo II: Resurrected players are used to Ladder resets.

Characters move over.

Stashes require attention.

Somebody reaches level 90 approximately seven minutes after you have finally decided on a character name.

But starting with Season 15, Blizzard is changing the rhythm of the reset itself.

Instead of treating the patch and new Ladder as one closely connected launch moment, Diablo II: Resurrected will now have a gap between the end of the old season, deployment of the new patch and the beginning of the next Ladder race. Blizzard says future seasons will follow a similar schedule.

Season 15 Has Three Different Dates

The important thing this time is not to remember one date.

It is to remember three.

• August 17: Ladder Season 14 ends at 11:00 a.m. PDT, which is 8:00 p.m. CEST.
• August 18: Patch 3.3 begins rolling out.
• August 21: Ladder Season 15 begins at 5:00 p.m. PDT.

For European players, that final launch happens on August 22 at 2:00 a.m. CEST.

So when Patch 3.3 arrives on Tuesday, do not immediately create your new Ladder character and wonder where everyone is.

The race does not begin until Friday evening in North America and early Saturday morning in Europe.

This Is the New Model Going Forward

The most important sentence in Blizzard's announcement is easy to overlook.

The developers describe this as a “slight adjustment” to Patch and Ladder timing and explicitly say that future seasons will use similar timing.

That means Season 15 is establishing a new pattern:

End the old Ladder.

Deploy the update.

Then open the new race several days later.

Blizzard has not given a detailed explanation for the change, so we should not invent one for them.

But separating a major patch rollout from the competitive Ladder start does have one very obvious practical characteristic: the game update is no longer arriving at exactly the same moment thousands of players are attempting to begin a fresh race to level 99.

Whether that is the specific reason Blizzard made the change remains unconfirmed.

Patch 3.3 Arrives Before the New Ladder

Patch 3.3 is not enormous, but it contains several changes players will want installed and understood before Season 15 starts.

It adjusts Terror Zones and Colossal Ancients, changes Sunder Charm drops, fixes several Warlock issues and updates a collection of old items including Bloodletter, Pluckeye, Bane Ash, Gravenspine, Blinkbat's Form, The Ward and Manald Heal.

We have already covered Blizzard's last-minute change to Manald Heal, which switched from Faster Run/Walk to Faster Cast Rate.

There is an important restriction, however.

Blizzard says the newly changed versions of these items will be available only in the Reign of the Warlock Ladder. Previous Ladder-only items, meanwhile, become available in Non-Ladder with the new season.

So Patch 3.3 arriving on August 18 does not mean you can immediately start collecting every new Season 15 item outside the new Ladder.

Season 14 Characters Move to Non-Ladder on August 17

The old character transition still works as expected.

When Season 14 ends, its Ladder characters move into their corresponding Non-Ladder groups.

The Season 14 Shared Stash becomes a new set of Withdraw Only tabs, allowing players to retrieve those items during Season 15.

But there is another deadline hiding inside that reset.

Anything still sitting in the older Season 13 Withdraw Only tabs will be lost when Season 14 ends.

We covered that deadline separately because it is exactly the sort of small administrative detail capable of deleting an item you spent six months refusing to throw away.

The Actual Season 15 Race Starts August 21

Once the new Ladder opens, the usual four modes return:

• Pre-Expansion Ladder
• Pre-Expansion Hardcore Ladder
• Ladder with Lord of Destruction content
• Hardcore Ladder with Lord of Destruction content

The goal remains wonderfully unchanged.

Start with nothing.

Race toward level 99.

Acquire far too many items.

Promise yourself that this season's stash will remain organized.

Lose control of it by Sunday afternoon.

Remember the Gap

The practical takeaway for Season 15 is simple.

August 17 is the reset.

August 18 is the patch.

August 21 is the new Ladder.

And Blizzard says this separated schedule is the model players should expect again in future seasons.

It is not a dramatic redesign of Diablo II.

It will not change your build.

It will not make Baal drop the item you want.

But it is exactly the sort of scheduling change worth remembering before you take Friday off work on the wrong day.

Source

Blizzard Entertainment: Diablo II: Resurrected Ladder Season 15 Coming Soon

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Diablo Immortal Player Spent 4,500 Orbs on an Unusable Cosmetic Upgrade — Blizzard Is Investigating

Spending 4,500 Eternal Orbs on a Diablo Immortal cosmetic is one thing.

Spending 4,500 Eternal Orbs and discovering that you cannot actually use what you bought is considerably less festive.

That is the situation one Diablo Immortal player says they found themselves in after purchasing a Fanal of Hope cosmetic enhancement.

The enhancement requires the underlying Fanal of Hope armor cosmetic.

The player does not own it.

And according to their report, the base cosmetic is not currently obtainable.

After several unsuccessful conversations with Customer Support, Blizzard's development team has now stepped in and says it is investigating the problem.

The Player Thought They Were Buying the Cosmetic

The problem appears to begin with how the purchase was presented.

The player, Issabel, explains that they previously obtained the Fanal of Hope portal from the cosmetic set through its original event.

Because that portal was already attached to their account, Diablo Immortal later displayed an option in the cosmetic interface to spend 4,500 Eternal Orbs on the related enhancement.

Issabel says they believed the offer would provide the displayed cosmetic content.

Only after completing the purchase did they discover that it was actually a modification for the Fanal of Hope base armor cosmetic.

Which they did not own.

The enhancement does not modify the portal they already possess either.

So the account currently has an expensive customization option for an item it cannot equip.

Diablo has always enjoyed making players acquire one item before another item works.

Usually the first item is at least obtainable.

The Base Cosmetic Is Currently Unavailable

According to the player's correspondence with support, Fanal of Hope itself cannot currently be obtained.

The player asked Blizzard whether the base cosmetic was guaranteed to return and, if so, when.

They say they received no confirmation.

That distinction makes the situation considerably worse than accidentally purchasing an upgrade and then simply going back to the shop for the missing component.

There is currently no obvious way for the player to make the 4,500-Orb purchase usable.

They just have to own something they cannot currently acquire.

Customer Support Initially Couldn’t Resolve It

The player contacted Blizzard Customer Support several times.

According to screenshots and messages summarized in the forum thread, multiple Game Masters said they could not reverse the in-game transaction, refund the Eternal Orbs or provide alternative compensation.

Support instead directed the player toward submitting a Bug Report.

When the player then asked for the individual case to be escalated to someone with the authority to resolve it, they say the eventual response was that there was no further escalation path available.

That created a rather magnificent customer-service circle.

Support cannot fix it.

Report it as a bug.

The bug forum cannot issue refunds.

Return to support.

There is no escalation path.

Even Deckard Cain would need a flowchart.

Blizzard Is Now Investigating

The situation changed on August 12.

A Blizzard representative responded directly to the forum thread and confirmed that the team had noticed the report.

More importantly, Blizzard described it as a bug and said it was actively investigating what happened.

The representative also said Blizzard would communicate what steps it intends to take to resolve the situation and acknowledged the multiple support tickets connected to the case.

That does not yet mean the player is getting 4,500 Eternal Orbs back.

Blizzard has not announced a refund, compensation package or technical fix.

But it is the first indication that the issue has moved beyond normal customer-support limitations and reached a team capable of investigating why the purchase was offered in the first place.

The Bigger Problem Is the Purchase Check

The interesting question extends beyond one player's account.

Why was Diablo Immortal willing to sell an enhancement that apparently required a base cosmetic the account did not own?

If the system knew enough about the account to surface the enhancement in its cosmetic menu, players reasonably might expect it to know whether the required base item was present too.

At minimum, a purchase like this should make the dependency unmistakably clear.

Requires Fanal of Hope cosmetic. You do not own this cosmetic.

That would solve quite a lot.

Ideally followed by a purchase button that does not work until the requirement is satisfied.

Computer technology has achieved greater feats.

4,500 Orbs Makes the Mistake Harder to Ignore

The price also matters.

This is not a 50-Orb curiosity accidentally clicked while navigating a menu.

The enhancement cost 4,500 Eternal Orbs, Diablo Immortal's premium currency.

That puts more responsibility on the purchase interface to make clear exactly what the player receives and what else is required before it becomes usable.

We recently covered another 4,500-Orb cosmetic customization feature in Diablo Immortal, showing just how heavily Blizzard is expanding premium appearance customization.

The more complicated those systems become, the more important clear ownership checks become too.

Now We Wait for Blizzard’s Solution

For the moment, this is one player's documented case rather than evidence that large numbers of Diablo Immortal players have experienced the same problem.

That is important.

But Blizzard's decision to investigate suggests there is enough here to warrant attention.

The ideal outcome is straightforward.

Prevent players without the required base cosmetic from purchasing an unusable enhancement.

Clearly label what every upgrade requires.

And find a reasonable solution for someone who already spent the Orbs.

Because 4,500 Eternal Orbs should probably buy you something more useful than the privilege of staring at a cosmetic you cannot wear.

Source

Diablo Immortal Forums: 4,500 Eternal Orbs Spent on Unusable Cosmetic — Blizzard Investigation

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Diablo 4 Players Say Whirlwind’s Weapon Expertise Isn’t Working Properly

Building a Barbarian in Diablo 4 involves a respectable amount of weapon mathematics.

You choose the weapon.

You choose the Expertise.

You choose the Technique.

You read several percentages.

Then, ideally, the percentages happen.

Whirlwind players are increasingly convinced that some of them do not.

A long-running bug report from the Barbarian community says several Weapon Expertise bonuses are behaving inconsistently with Whirlwind, particularly when Dust Devils and certain build combinations are involved. The issue has been tested by players for weeks and is still being discussed as of August 14.

Blizzard has not officially confirmed the problem, so this remains a community-tested bug report rather than an established developer finding.

But if the testing is correct, some Whirlwind Barbarians may have been optimizing around bonuses that were not actually doing what they thought.

Dust Devils Appear to Ignore Weapon Expertise

The biggest complaint concerns Dust Devils created through Whirlwind.

According to the original report, Barbarian players testing different Weapon Expertise options found that none of the tested Techniques appeared to modify the damage of the Dust Devils generated by Whirlwind.

That feels particularly strange because Dust Devils have become deeply integrated into modern Whirlwind builds.

Blizzard has repeatedly updated the interaction over the last several seasons, including changing Dust Devil damage and giving Whirlwind-generated Dust Devils additional offensive utility.

From a player's perspective, if the Dust Devils are part of what the Whirlwind build is producing, it is natural to expect the Barbarian's weapon bonuses to matter somewhere in that equation.

According to the testers, they currently do not.

Polearm and 2H Axe May Have an Even Stranger Problem

The second issue is more specific.

Players report that Polearm and Two-Handed Axe Expertise initially affect Whirlwind itself, but under certain setups the bonuses disappear roughly half a second into the channel.

The reported combination involves Aspect of Anger Management and Whirlwind's Tornado modifier.

When testers removed the relevant gear and modifier, they say the Expertise bonuses began working normally for the full Whirlwind channel again.

That is the sort of interaction that makes Diablo build testing delightful.

Remove one legendary power.

Change one skill option.

Discover that your axe has apparently remembered how to be an axe again.

2H Sword Appears to Work Better, But Not Completely

The community has also tested Two-Handed Sword Expertise.

According to the same bug-report thread, it appears to work on Whirlwind's direct damage more consistently than Polearm or Two-Handed Axe.

But even here, players report that the bonus still does not carry over to the Dust Devils.

So "working" comes with an asterisk large enough to require its own weapon slot.

This May Have Affected Build Guides

That is where the issue becomes more important than an obscure tooltip disagreement.

Players in the thread note that Polearm Expertise had continued appearing in Whirlwind recommendations while the problem was being investigated.

The original tester later explained that the community itself had largely taken the interaction for granted until theorycrafters began checking the actual numbers and noticed damage was missing.

That does not mean every Whirlwind guide has been fundamentally wrong.

It does mean the expected value of certain Weapon Expertise choices may be different if the community testing proves accurate.

And in an endgame where people happily rearrange half a Paragon board for a few percent more damage, that matters.

We Don’t Know How Long It Has Been Happening

There is also uncertainty around when the behavior began.

One player believed Polearm Expertise worked normally during Season 13.

Another tester says the community is no longer confident about that and considers it possible the problem has existed for much longer without being noticed.

That is plausible simply because Diablo 4's damage systems are enormously complicated.

When a build contains multiple Expertise bonuses, aspects, skill modifiers, Paragon effects and secondary damage sources, a missing multiplier does not necessarily announce itself with flashing red text.

Sometimes the monster just dies slightly less enthusiastically.

For Now, Treat the Testing as Community Evidence

At the time of writing, Blizzard has not responded publicly to the bug report or confirmed that Weapon Expertise is malfunctioning with Whirlwind.

That distinction is important.

The testing described by players is detailed and has been repeated across several weeks, but it remains player testing.

If you are running Whirlwind, it may nevertheless be worth checking your current Weapon Technique rather than assuming every listed bonus is affecting every part of the build.

Especially if your damage seems lower than the spreadsheet promised.

Because somewhere in Sanctuary, there is apparently a Barbarian staring at a Polearm and asking the most dangerous question in modern Diablo:

Is this percentage actually doing anything?

Sources

Diablo IV Forums: Barbarian Expertise Not Functioning Properly for Whirlwind

Blizzard Entertainment: Diablo IV Patch Notes

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Diablo 4 Players Say Spawn of the Damned Is Still One-Shotting Hardcore Characters

There are many respectable ways for a Hardcore Diablo 4 character to die.

A boss you underestimated.

A terrible pull.

That moment when confidence becomes stupidity approximately three seconds before the death screen appears.

Being instantly killed beside a Helltide Hellworm by something you never saw is considerably harder to accept.

But that is exactly what Diablo 4 players have been reporting for months.

A long-running bug report about Spawn of the Damned has resurfaced again this week, with another player reporting an apparently instantaneous death near a Hellworm despite having thousands of Life and Fortify.

Blizzard has not officially confirmed that Spawn of the Damned is bugged, so this remains a player-reported issue rather than an established game bug.

For Hardcore players, however, that distinction offers limited comfort when the character is already dead.

The Reports Started Back in May

The original report appeared on Blizzard's Diablo IV forums on May 2.

The player described repeatedly being killed during Helltides by something identified in the death message as Spawn of the Damned.

According to the report, their health remained above 90% before suddenly dropping to zero, without an obvious attack, ground effect or visible Spawn of the Damned appearing first.

Another player responded that the same thing had happened while approaching a Hellworm.

Then came another.

A tanky Druid with full Life, Fortify, Barrier and Damage Reduction reportedly died instantly near a worm.

Then a Warlock player reported a similar death while fully buffed.

By this point, a pattern was beginning to emerge.

Not proof.

But certainly enough to make Hardcore players look at Helltide worms with rather more suspicion than usual.

The Reports Never Completely Stopped

The thread continued receiving reports through May and into July.

On July 3, another Hardcore player said Spawn of the Damned had killed them instantly beside a Hellworm.

Four days later, a Necromancer player reported dying twice despite entering the encounters with full Life, Fortify and Barrier.

And now the issue has surfaced again.

In a new post added on August 14, a player reported losing a level 61 character on Hard difficulty after encountering a Hellworm during Helltide.

The character reportedly had more than 4,500 Life and partial Fortify.

The player ran away from the worm, stopped to open a chest and was then killed by Spawn of the Damned before the other nearby monsters had even reached them.

That death reportedly occurred on August 12.

What Exactly Is Killing Them?

That remains the problem.

The reports consistently associate the deaths with Spawn of the Damned and Hellworms, but players do not appear to agree on the exact mechanic responsible.

Some suspect the enemy may be spawning directly on top of the character.

Others wonder whether there is a spawn or death effect dealing damage before its visual warning becomes visible.

It is also possible that the creature simply has unexpectedly high damage under certain circumstances.

Until Blizzard investigates or explains what is happening, those possibilities remain speculation.

What makes the issue unusual is not simply that players are dying.

Diablo is quite committed to that part of the experience.

It is that several players describe being unable to see or react to whatever dealt the lethal damage.

Softcore Players Have Reported It Too

This is not exclusively a Hardcore complaint.

Players in the same thread have reported similar one-shot deaths on Softcore characters.

The difference is obvious.

On Softcore, an unexplained death costs some time and perhaps a few choice words directed toward the monitor.

On Hardcore, it costs the character.

That makes any potentially invisible or unavoidable burst of damage much more serious.

Hardcore Players May Want to Treat Hellworms Carefully

Without an official confirmation, we cannot tell players that every Hellworm is carrying a secret delete-character button.

Most Helltide encounters clearly do not end this way.

But the reports now span more than three months and multiple classes, and several explicitly involve Hardcore characters dying beside Hellworms with defensive layers active.

If you are playing Hardcore, there is therefore a reasonable argument for giving Hellworms some extra space until the situation becomes clearer.

Not because Spawn of the Damned has been officially confirmed as broken.

It has not.

But Hardcore has always rewarded unnecessary paranoia.

Sometimes the chest really can wait.

Blizzard Has Yet to Explain It

The most frustrating part is that the original bug report is now months old.

At the time of writing, the thread contains no official Blizzard response confirming the cause or stating that a fix is underway.

That does not necessarily mean Blizzard is ignoring it. Bug reports can be investigated without public replies.

But from the player's perspective, the uncertainty remains.

Maybe Spawn of the Damned has an overtuned attack.

Maybe something around the Hellworm is firing before its visuals appear.

Maybe there is another explanation entirely.

Until Blizzard tells us, we simply do not know.

What we do know is that Diablo 4 players are still reporting the same frightening sequence:

Full health.

Hellworm nearby.

Sudden death.

Slain by Spawn of the Damned.

For Softcore, that is annoying.

For Hardcore, that is the sort of sentence capable of ending an evening.

Source

Diablo IV Forums: One Shot Bug — Spawn of the Damned on HC

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Diablo Immortal Reset Everyone’s Loyalty Points — Here’s Where They Went

If you opened Diablo Immortal after the August 12 update and wondered where your Loyalty Points had gone, there is some good news.

Blizzard did not delete them.

It moved them.

With the arrival of Inferno XIV Legendary Essences, every existing Loyalty Point was automatically converted into Legacy Loyalty Points.

Meanwhile, the regular Loyalty Point counter essentially begins a new cycle for Inferno XIV.

It sounds alarmingly like a reset.

Technically, it is.

But your old currency has not vanished into the same mysterious dimension that contains every useful Legendary item you salvaged by accident.

Why Did Blizzard Reset Loyalty Points?

The reason is the arrival of a new generation of Legendary Essences.

Inferno XIV Legendary Essences were added to Diablo Immortal's Loyalty Bonus system after the August 12 maintenance.

Blizzard separates current-tier Essences from older ones so players cannot simply stockpile a huge amount of current Loyalty Points before a new Essence batch arrives and immediately buy everything.

Instead, when new Legendary Equipment enters the system, the previous Loyalty Point balance is converted into Legacy Loyalty Points.

New gear from the current difficulty then starts generating fresh Loyalty Points for the new Essence pool.

It is essentially Diablo Immortal putting last season's currency in a different wallet.

Your Old Points Became Legacy Loyalty Points

This distinction is important.

If you had 300, 600 or considerably more Loyalty Points before the update, those points did not simply disappear.

They became Legacy Loyalty Points.

Legacy Loyalty Points are designed for unlocking older Legendary Essences from previous difficulty tiers.

Regular Loyalty Points, meanwhile, are used for the newest group of Essences associated with the current difficulty.

So the two currencies now serve different parts of the Legendary Essence catalogue.

How Do You Earn New Loyalty Points?

After the August 12 update, Legendary Equipment obtained in Inferno XIV can be extracted into regular Loyalty Points.

Those new points can then be spent through the Loyalty Bonus system on Inferno XIV Legendary Essences, provided you have unlocked Inferno XIV difficulty.

The basic loop is therefore:

• Reach Inferno XIV.
• Find Legendary Equipment there.
• Extract unwanted Legendary Equipment.
• Earn Loyalty Points.
• Spend those points toward new Inferno XIV Essences.

It is Diablo Immortal's attempt to put a safety net underneath one of the game's oldest frustrations.

You can still fail to find the exact Legendary power you want.

You just no longer have to depend entirely on the floor eventually becoming sympathetic.

The Loyalty System Was Built for Exactly This

Blizzard introduced the current Loyalty Bonus structure so duplicate Legendary drops could gradually become progress toward an Essence players had not yet collected.

Extracting qualifying Legendary Equipment grants Loyalty Points, and those points can eventually unlock an uncollected Essence.

When an Essence is part of the newest difficulty tier, its cost begins relatively low and increases as more new Essences are unlocked for that class.

Older Essences use Legacy Loyalty Points instead.

That separation lets Blizzard regularly introduce new powers without allowing months of saved currency to instantly remove the hunt.

Whether you consider that sensible progression design or an extremely elaborate method of making you farm more Legendary trousers is a matter of perspective.

This Reset Is Now Part of the Normal Cycle

The August reset is not an unexpected emergency change.

Blizzard changed the Loyalty Bonus system in 2025 so Loyalty Points would convert into Legacy Loyalty Points whenever new Legendary Equipment was introduced, rather than waiting for a server to reach a new difficulty threshold.

That means players should increasingly expect this process whenever Diablo Immortal launches another major batch of Legendary Essences.

New powers arrive.

Current points become Legacy points.

A new Loyalty Point cycle begins.

Sanctuary has invented fiscal years.

Inferno XIV Has Plenty of New Essences to Chase

The timing matters because Diablo Immortal has just added a substantial new round of Legendary Affixes and Essences across its classes.

We recently covered the 60 new Legendary Affixes added in the August update, giving players another large collection of build tools to experiment with.

The Loyalty Bonus reset is the less glamorous administrative machinery sitting underneath that update.

New powers would be rather difficult to chase if the system still treated them exactly like equipment from several difficulty tiers ago.

So Where Did Your Loyalty Points Go?

If you logged in after August 12 and saw your regular Loyalty balance drop, do not panic.

Your previous Loyalty Points were converted into Legacy Loyalty Points.

You can still use those for older Legendary Essences.

To start earning regular Loyalty Points again, you need qualifying Inferno XIV Legendary Equipment, and Inferno XIV must be unlocked if you want to spend those points on the new Essences.

Nothing was stolen.

Nothing expired.

Blizzard simply moved your demon-hunting store credit into another column.

Which is considerably less dramatic.

But also considerably nicer than discovering that months of points had actually gone to Hell.

Sources

Blizzard Entertainment: Celebrate 30 Years of Diablo in Diablo Immortal

Blizzard Entertainment: Burn Through the Darkening Decades

Blizzard Entertainment: Discover Secrets Hidden in the Sharval Wilds

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Diablo 4’s Mother’s Blessing Is Live — Don’t Waste the Week

Diablo 4 has quietly given players one of the best reasons to return to Sanctuary before the next season takes over the conversation.

Mother’s Blessing is live again.

The limited-time event began on August 11 and gives players increased Experience and Gold for one week. That makes the next few days unusually useful for finishing characters, leveling something new or simply building a healthier pile of gold before Mother changes her mind.

And unlike a complicated seasonal mechanic involving seventeen currencies and a suspicious altar, taking advantage of this one is remarkably simple.

Play Diablo.

Kill things.

Receive more stuff.

This Is a Good Week to Level an Alt

If you have been considering another character but did not particularly fancy dragging it through the slower parts of progression, this is probably the moment.

Mother’s Blessing increases Experience at a multiplicative rate, meaning the bonus works alongside the other tools Diablo 4 already provides for accelerating progression.

That makes high-density activities particularly attractive.

Helltides, Nightmare Dungeons and other content where monsters arrive in industrial quantities let you turn the temporary XP boost into actual progress quickly.

You do not need to invent a revolutionary farming strategy.

The general rule is wonderfully Diablo:

The more demons you can fit onto the screen before everything explodes, the better.

Gold Is Worth Farming Too

Experience is the obvious attraction, but the Gold bonus may be equally useful depending on where your character currently sits.

Endgame Diablo 4 has developed a remarkable talent for making enormous amounts of money disappear.

Enchanting gear costs Gold.

Masterworking consumes resources and Gold.

Changing equipment, experimenting with builds and generally refusing to accept that the third reroll was probably good enough can steadily chew through your reserves.

Mother’s Blessing provides a convenient opportunity to rebuild that bank balance while doing content you would probably have been running anyway.

If your character is already finished with leveling, this is where the event still has some value.

Season 14 Is Entering Its Cleanup Phase

The timing is also interesting.

Diablo 4’s Season 15 PTR has now finished, and much of the hardcore community has already started talking about Soul Splinters, Challenge Dungeons, Legacy Uniques, Rebirth and everything else waiting in the next update.

Season 14 is still here.

But psychologically?

We are beginning to pack the furniture.

That makes Mother’s Blessing useful as a final cleanup opportunity.

Finish a character you abandoned at an awkward level.

Push some remaining Paragon progression.

Experiment with the build you kept promising yourself you would try.

Or simply farm enough Gold that the next expensive idea does not immediately bankrupt you.

Don’t Expect a New Game Mode

There is also a fair criticism of Mother’s Blessing.

It is not particularly exciting.

Players reacting to the event on Blizzard’s forums have already pointed out that Mother’s Blessing has become one of Diablo 4’s recurring fallback events alongside things like March of the Goblins.

There is no new boss.

No unusual dungeon.

No bizarre mechanic involving Lilith opening a seasonal casino beneath Kyovashad.

It is simply more XP and more Gold.

For players who have already reached their progression goals, that may not be enough reason to return.

But boring and useful are not mutually exclusive.

A hammer is not very exciting either.

It remains quite effective when you actually need a hammer.

Use It Before August 18

The current Mother’s Blessing window lasts one week from its August 11 launch, putting the end around August 18.

That leaves only a few days to take advantage of it.

If you are already completely finished with Season 14, there is no reason to manufacture homework for yourself.

Sanctuary will survive without you.

Probably.

But if you still have an alt to level, Paragon progress to make or an expensive Gold habit to support, this is exactly the sort of temporary bonus worth exploiting while it is active.

Mother is feeling generous.

Historically, that never lasts very long.

Sources

Diablo: Mother’s Blessing Returns — August 11, 2026

Diablo IV Forums: Mother’s Blessing Week

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Blizzard Quietly Changed Manald Heal’s Season 15 Buff Before It Even Went Live

Manald Heal was finally about to become interesting.

For a few glorious days, Diablo II: Resurrected's famously disappointing Unique Ring had something no other ring could casually offer:

10% Faster Run/Walk.

Then Blizzard changed its mind.

Ahead of Ladder Season 15, the official Patch 3.3 notes have been quietly updated. Manald Heal will now receive 10% Faster Cast Rate instead.

No announcement. No developer note. No explanation.

Just one letter disappearing from the abbreviation.

FRW became FCR.

And somehow that one letter has started a surprisingly serious Diablo II argument.

Manald Heal Was Originally Getting Faster Run/Walk

When Blizzard first published the Season 15 Patch 3.3 notes, Manald Heal was listed as receiving +10% Faster Run/Walk.

Copies of the original patch notes shared when the announcement went live still show the FRW version. By August 13, however, players noticed that Blizzard's official page had changed.

The current Patch 3.3 notes now read simply:

Manald Heal: Added +10% Faster Cast Rate.

Ladder Season 15 does not begin until August 21 at 5 p.m. PDT, or August 22 at 2 a.m. CEST in Europe, so Blizzard has changed the item before the new version has even reached the live Ladder.

Why Are Players Upset About 10% Run Speed?

On paper, this sounds microscopic.

Ten percent movement speed.

On Manald Heal.

This is not exactly Enigma being deleted from the game.

But the original change was interesting because Faster Run/Walk on a ring is unusual. It would have given Manald Heal a distinct identity rather than simply adding another stat commonly found elsewhere.

That mattered particularly for early melee and martial characters.

Manald Heal already has Mana Stolen Per Hit, making it a natural leveling option for weapon-based builds struggling with resource sustain. Faster movement would have complemented that role nicely.

Hit things.

Steal mana.

Run toward the next thing slightly faster.

Diablo II has built entire careers on more complicated concepts.

Faster Cast Rate Pushes It Toward Casters Instead

The replacement bonus changes the audience considerably.

Faster Cast Rate is obviously useful for spellcasting characters trying to reach important casting breakpoints, and some players have pointed out that a low-level Unique Ring with 10% FCR could still be useful during progression.

That is fair.

The problem is that casters already have considerably more ways to obtain Faster Cast Rate than melee characters have ways to put Faster Run/Walk on a ring.

That is why much of the community reaction has not been "10% FCR is useless."

It is more:

"Why replace the weird stat with the normal one?"

The FRW version gave Manald Heal a reason to exist that was specifically Manald Heal's.

The FCR version makes it compete with Rare and Magic caster rings that can eventually provide additional useful affixes.

Not Everyone Thinks the Change Is Bad

There is another side to the argument.

Several players discussing the change on Blizzard's forums argue that 10% Faster Cast Rate could make Manald Heal genuinely useful during early leveling, particularly before stronger Rare rings and other caster equipment become available.

War Cry Barbarians have been mentioned as one possible beneficiary, while any low-level caster trying to hit an early breakpoint could find the ring more appealing than before.

And frankly, getting players to look at a Manald Heal without immediately sighing is already progress.

The Bigger Story Is That Blizzard Is Touching Old Uniques

The argument also reveals why Patch 3.3 has attracted more attention than its modest size might suggest.

Blizzard is actually changing old Diablo II items.

Bloodletter gets Faster Run/Walk.

Pluckeye gets Increased Attack Speed.

Bane Ash and Gravenspine gain Faster Cast Rate.

Blinkbat's Form gets significantly more movement speed.

The Ward gets a socket.

Even Angelic Raiment receives new bonuses.

These are not enormous endgame revolutions, but they suggest Blizzard is willing to dig into parts of Diablo II's loot table that have spent decades gathering dust.

That makes every individual choice more interesting.

Bring Back the Running Ring?

Maybe Blizzard has internal testing showing that Faster Run/Walk on Manald Heal caused problems.

Maybe FCR simply fits the intended identity better.

Maybe the original note was a mistake from the beginning.

We do not currently know.

Blizzard has not explained the edit.

What we do know is that for several days, Diablo II players were strangely excited about putting on two Manald Heals and running around Sanctuary a little faster.

That opportunity may now be gone.

Manald Heal is getting buffed either way.

It just went from becoming weirdly unique to becoming another caster option.

And in a game where practically every item has been analyzed for a quarter of a century, weirdly unique might have been exactly what it needed.

Sources

Blizzard Entertainment: Diablo II: Resurrected Ladder Season 15 Coming Soon

Diablo II: Resurrected Forums: Manald Heal Changed to +10% FCR

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Is Diablo 4’s PTR Solving Problems — Or Spoiling Every Season Before It Starts?

Diablo 4's Season 15 PTR did exactly what a Public Test Realm is supposed to do.

Players broke things.

They found strange item interactions, argued about class balance, pushed Challenge Dungeons far beyond sensible limits and discovered combinations Blizzard will now have several opportunities to stare at nervously before launch.

That is useful.

But now that the PTR is over, another question is gaining attention:

Does publicly testing every new Diablo 4 season also spoil too much of it before players ever get there?

The Next Season Arrives Before the Current One Has Left

A discussion on the official Diablo 4 forums this week raised an interesting objection to Blizzard's current PTR structure.

The complaint is not simply the familiar argument that Blizzard does not act on enough feedback.

It is about timing.

When a public PTR opens during an active season, much of the Diablo conversation immediately moves forward.

Content creators start testing next season's builds.

Build makers begin calculating the next meta.

New items are catalogued.

Interactions are tested.

The strange new seasonal mechanic becomes something we have already watched somebody use for six hours on YouTube.

Meanwhile, the current season is still standing in the corner holding its coat.

Season 15 Was Solved Surprisingly Quickly

The Season 15 PTR ran from August 4 through August 11 and exposed players to Soul Splinters, Challenge Dungeons, Overland Ambushes, Legacy Uniques, Mythic changes, new Charms, Rebirth and the Horadric Post. Blizzard explicitly said the purpose was to gather feedback, tune balance, eliminate bugs and test new systems before release.

And the community did what the Diablo community does.

Efficiently.

Within days, players were already comparing Soul Splinters mathematically, identifying powerful combinations, testing extreme Challenge Dungeon builds and discovering questionable interactions between new items.

We have spent much of the last week writing about exactly that.

By the time Season 15 actually arrives, anyone who has followed the PTR closely will already understand a significant part of its mechanical vocabulary.

That removes some mystery.

Blizzard Apparently Understands the Problem Too

The most interesting evidence may actually come from Blizzard itself.

This PTR deliberately did not contain everything coming in Season 15.

Blizzard said the different feature selection was intentional because it has more to reveal at BlizzCon and did not want everything coming with the season available before the company had a chance to talk about it.

Which is reasonable.

It is also a tacit acknowledgement that discovering something before launch has value.

If revealing everything months in advance made absolutely no difference to the player experience, there would be little reason to hide anything.

There Is a Very Strong Counterargument

The forum debate is far from unanimous.

Several players immediately pushed back on the idea that PTRs are killing seasons.

One obvious problem is scale.

Most Diablo 4 players probably do not install the PTR, read every datamine, watch hours of testing or spend Wednesday evening calculating whether Splinter of Hellfire has murdered their Critical Strike build.

For those players, Season 15 will still contain plenty to discover.

Others point out that seasonal ARPG populations naturally decline as a season gets older. By the time a PTR appears, many of the most active players have already completed their goals and moved on anyway.

And there is another uncomfortable truth.

Even without a PTR, Diablo players are extraordinarily good at solving Diablo.

Remove the public test and the strongest builds would probably still be identified within days of launch.

The spreadsheets cannot be stopped.

They can only be delayed.

PTRs Catch Things We Would Rather Not Discover at Launch

There is also a practical reason Blizzard keeps doing this.

Diablo 4 is enormous.

Every new item interacts with skills, Paragon nodes, Aspects, gems, Charms and other systems across multiple classes.

A week involving thousands of determined players doing deliberately ridiculous things provides information internal testing cannot easily reproduce at the same scale.

Season 15 demonstrated that perfectly.

Players found buggy item interactions, questioned balance changes and stress-tested new systems before those problems reached the live game.

That is considerably less romantic than discovering everything naturally on launch day.

It is also considerably better than discovering that your new seasonal mechanic crashes when somebody puts the wrong gem into Leoric's Crown.

Maybe the Problem Is Not the PTR

The better solution may therefore sit somewhere between public testing and complete secrecy.

Season 15 is already experimenting with that balance.

Blizzard showed enough permanent systems and mechanics to collect useful data while deliberately holding other content back.

That could become a healthier model.

Test the systems that genuinely need thousands of players trying to destroy them.

Keep some bosses, encounters, story elements and seasonal surprises out of the test.

Let theorycrafters inspect the plumbing without giving everybody a guided tour of the entire house before opening day.

Diablo Needs Bugs Fixed. It Also Needs Surprise.

Public PTRs are useful.

They are also inherently strange for a seasonal game built partly around discovering new things.

Every successful test makes launch more stable.

Every successful test also teaches us more about the season before it begins.

There probably is no perfect solution.

But Blizzard's decision to deliberately hide part of Season 15 suggests the company already understands the tradeoff.

Maybe that is where future PTRs should go.

Show us enough to break the game.

Just leave us a few demons we have not already met.

Sources

Blizzard Entertainment: The 3.2.0 PTR: What You Need to Know

Diablo IV Forums: Strong Objection to the Current Diablo IV PTR Process

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Diablo Immortal Just Retired Three Wing Materials — Here’s What Happens to Your Old Wings

Diablo Immortal has started cleaning out another corner of its increasingly enormous cosmetic system.

This time, it is wings.

Three existing Wing Material types can no longer be obtained through Wing Customization following the August 12 update:

• Mirror Glass
• Spectrum Crystal
• Astral Prism

Before anyone begins checking their character's back for missing decorative architecture, there is some important good news.

Your existing wings are safe.

Blizzard says wings already created with those materials, along with their refinement records, remain unaffected and can continue to be used and retained.

The materials themselves are simply leaving the active customization pool.

You Can Keep the Old Wings

This is not the same kind of retirement Diablo Immortal recently applied to Legendary Essences or the Issatar Imbued Set.

Nothing is being deactivated.

If you already have wings using Mirror Glass, Spectrum Crystal or Astral Prism, their appearance remains intact.

The associated refinement records remain intact too.

What changes is your ability to produce more of them.

Blizzard says the three outgoing materials can no longer be locked during Wing Customization and can no longer appear through random refinement.

So if you already have a particularly nice old combination, congratulations.

You now own the Diablo Immortal equivalent of discontinued wallpaper.

Three New Wing Materials Take Their Place

The old materials are being replaced by three entirely new material series:

• Frost
• Mother of Pearl
• Voidrealm

These are now part of the Wing Customization system and form the next stage of Blizzard's expanding Awakened Wing progression.

The important word here is progression.

Diablo Immortal's wings stopped being simple Resonance trophies quite some time ago. They are increasingly becoming a customization system of their own, complete with materials, refinement records, scores, saved appearances and leaderboard rewards.

Apparently attaching two enormous glowing objects to your shoulder blades was only the beginning.

The Maximum Wing Score Is Now 10,200

The new materials also push the upper end of the system higher.

Blizzard has increased the maximum possible Wing Score to 10,200.

New server-wide reward tiers have been added at Wing Scores of 10,100 and 10,200, giving the most dedicated wing refiners another pair of milestones to chase.

Whether that sounds exciting or like a spreadsheet has grown feathers probably depends on how deeply you are already invested in the system.

Favorites Might Be the Better Change

The more immediately useful addition may actually be the new Favorites feature.

Once a player refines a Wing above a Wing Score of 8,000, they can permanently save up to four refinement records as Favorites.

Favorited records are removed from the normal refinement history and preserved permanently, which means a particularly good result no longer has to sit precariously in a rolling history while you continue experimenting.

Players who already owned a Wing above 8,000 before the update automatically unlock Favorites.

That may sound like a small quality-of-life improvement.

If you have ever accidentally refined away from something you immediately wanted back, it probably sounds considerably larger.

Diablo Immortal Is Rotating Cosmetics Too

The wider pattern is becoming increasingly clear.

Blizzard is not only rotating Legendary powers and Set items anymore.

Parts of Diablo Immortal's cosmetic progression are beginning to rotate as well.

The difference is that the wing system is handling the transition much more gently.

Your old result stays.

Your old refinement record stays.

Only the ability to generate more versions using those materials disappears.

That is probably the least painful version of retirement possible in a game built around collecting things.

And with Frost, Mother of Pearl and Voidrealm arriving immediately afterward, Blizzard clearly does not intend for the Wing Customization menu to get any smaller.

Just different.

And, inevitably, slightly more complicated.

Sources

Blizzard Entertainment: Burn Through the Darkening Decades

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Diablo Immortal Adds Cosmetic Dyeing — But Unlocking It Costs 4,500 Eternal Orbs

Diablo Immortal has finally added something players have been asking for in one form or another for years.

Proper cosmetic dyeing.

There is, naturally, a catch.

For the new Temptation’s End customization feature, that catch is 4,500 Eternal Orbs.

Blizzard added dye customization for the Temptation’s End and Temptation’s End Collector’s Edition cosmetics in the August 12 update, allowing owners to change their colors using an expanded collection of dye settings.

But before you start coordinating your demon-slaying wardrobe with your favorite Legendary Gem, the dye system itself has to be unlocked.

For 4,500 Eternal Orbs.

Sanctuary’s tailors have apparently discovered premium pricing.

The New Dye System Is Limited to Temptation’s End

The important detail is that Blizzard has not introduced a universal dye system for every cosmetic in Diablo Immortal.

At least not yet.

The feature currently applies specifically to Temptation’s End and its Collector’s Edition variant.

Those cosmetics have returned as part of the latest Revenant Market, which also brings back Reigning Harmony and Born Ablaze alongside the new Terror’s Bane Diablo-themed skin.

After upgrading Temptation’s End, players can customize its colors.

Blizzard describes the paid unlock as providing a range of color options and expanded dye settings.

That could make it one of Diablo Immortal’s more flexible cosmetic systems, especially for players who already spend a worrying amount of time making their character’s armor match their wings.

You know who you are.

4,500 Eternal Orbs Is the Real Headline

The customization itself sounds useful.

The price is what people are going to notice.

Eternal Orbs are Diablo Immortal’s premium currency, used for everything from cosmetic purchases to other paid systems.

Blizzard’s patch notes state plainly that players can unlock Temptation’s End dye customization for 4,500 Eternal Orbs.

That is not the price of an individual dye.

It is the cost Blizzard lists for unlocking the customization feature for these cosmetics.

And because Eternal Orb bundles and real-money pricing can vary between platforms and regions, the safest comparison is simply the official number Blizzard gives us.

4,500 Orbs is not a small unlock.

Cosmetics Are Becoming More Customizable

The dye feature also fits into a much broader cosmetic push in the August update.

Blizzard introduced three new Wing Material series: Frost, Mother of Pearl and Voidrealm.

The maximum Wing Score increased to 10,200.

Players with sufficiently advanced wings can now permanently save up to four refinement records through the new Favorites feature.

Loading screens can now show your selected cosmetics and wings, while Battleground MVP share cards also display your character’s equipped appearance.

In other words, Diablo Immortal increasingly wants your character to look distinctive everywhere.

Including while the game is loading.

Which is impressive dedication to fashion.

The Question Is Whether Players Want to Pay for the Paint

There is nothing inherently wrong with adding more cosmetic customization to a free-to-play game.

In fact, dye systems are exactly the sort of feature that can give premium cosmetics more value over time.

The interesting question is whether players see 4,500 Eternal Orbs as a reasonable extension of an existing premium outfit or as another expensive layer placed on top of something they already bought.

That distinction matters.

Especially because Temptation’s End itself is returning through the Revenant Market rather than being handed out as part of the update.

For players who love the cosmetic, more control over its appearance is genuinely welcome.

For everyone else, this may simply be another reminder that Diablo Immortal’s endgame has two very different currencies.

Power.

And looking fabulous while acquiring it.

Sources

Blizzard Entertainment: Burn Through the Darkening Decades

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Five Years Ago Today, Diablo II: Resurrected Let Players Back Into Sanctuary

Five years ago today, thousands of Diablo players did something they had already done hundreds of times before.

They walked out of the Rogue Encampment.

Only this time, the grass had individual blades.

On August 13, 2021, Blizzard opened the Early Access multiplayer beta for Diablo II: Resurrected, giving players their first broad opportunity to experience the remastered classic together online before its September release.

It was simultaneously very new and extremely familiar.

Which, as it turned out, was exactly the point.

The Gates Opened at 10 AM PDT

The Early Access test began on August 13 at 10:00 a.m. PDT and ran until August 17. Access was available to players who had pre-purchased Diablo II: Resurrected or the Prime Evil Collection on supported platforms, while PC players could also earn access through a limited Twitch Drop by watching 2.5 hours of eligible streams.

The fully public Open Beta followed one week later on August 20.

In 2026, a pre-order beta hardly sounds revolutionary.

In 2021, however, this one carried an unusual amount of emotional baggage.

Blizzard was not merely showing people a new ARPG.

It was handing them Diablo II.

Again.

Five Classes and Two Acts

The beta featured five of the final game's seven classes: Amazon, Barbarian, Sorceress, Paladin and Druid. The Necromancer and Assassin remained locked away until launch.

Players could explore the entirety of Act I and Act II, including their remade cinematics, while multiplayer supported games with up to eight players. Cross-progression was also enabled across PC, Xbox and PlayStation during the test.

That meant the beta contained enough Diablo II to answer the question everyone actually cared about.

Had Blizzard messed with it?

The answer, thankfully, was mostly no.

The Weirdest Feature Was How Little Had Changed

Diablo II: Resurrected looked dramatically different.

The new renderer replaced the old 800x600 presentation with high-resolution 3D visuals, rebuilt cinematics and modern audio, while quality-of-life changes included a larger stash and automatic gold pickup. Players could even switch back to the original presentation at the press of a button.

But underneath all that expensive new masonry was the same game engine.

The same monsters.

The same skills.

The same suspiciously addictive sound of a useful item hitting the floor.

And the same compulsive belief that the next boss run would definitely produce something wonderful this time.

It usually didn't.

We went again anyway.

The Beta Was Also a Stress Test for Nostalgia

There was something slightly dangerous about Diablo II: Resurrected from the beginning.

People did not merely remember Diablo II.

They remembered being younger while playing Diablo II.

No remaster can reproduce that.

You cannot patch 2001 back into your life or restore the mysterious biological ability to play until four in the morning and still function normally the following day.

What Resurrected could do was preserve the game closely enough that the old memories still made sense.

The August beta was the first real proof that this might actually work.

Five Years Later, Diablo II: Resurrected Is Still Moving

The more surprising anniversary is not that the beta happened five years ago.

It is that Diablo II: Resurrected is still receiving meaningful updates five years later.

Ladder Season 15 begins August 21, 2026, with Patch 3.3 rolling out beforehand. The update changes a collection of older items including Bloodletter, Pluckeye, Bane Ash, Gravenspine, Blinkbat's Form, The Ward and Manald Heal, while also adjusting Terror Zones, Sunder Charms and Colossal Ancients.

That follows the much larger Reign of the Warlock era, which did something that would have sounded almost absurd during that 2021 beta:

It added a new class to Diablo II.

This is no longer simply a preserved museum piece with prettier lighting.

It has become a strange second life for one of PC gaming's most stubbornly durable action RPGs.

Back to the Rogue Encampment

On August 13, 2021, nobody knew exactly what Diablo II: Resurrected would become.

Players knew the launch date was September 23. They knew Blizzard had rebuilt the graphics without replacing the underlying game. And for one long weekend, they had two Acts, five classes and a very large number of Fallen to kill.

Five years later, we are still killing them.

The graphics are no longer surprising.

The remastered cinematics are familiar.

And somebody has probably found another mathematically superior way to run Terror Zones while you were reading this.

But that first walk out of the Rogue Encampment remains one of the rare examples of a remaster immediately answering the most important question.

Yes.

It still feels like Diablo II.

Now please move.

You're standing on the loot.

Sources

Blizzard Entertainment: Play Diablo II: Resurrected During the Early Access & Open Beta

Blizzard Entertainment: Diablo II: Resurrected — The Gates of Hell Open September 23

Blizzard Entertainment: Diablo II: Resurrected Ladder Season 15 Coming Soon

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Diablo Immortal Retired These Essences — Then Fractured Plane Started Offering Them Anyway

Diablo Immortal spent August 12 carefully removing old Legendary Essences from the game.

Fractured Plane apparently did not get the memo.

Just hours after Blizzard's latest Essence Retirement wave went live, players discovered that Fractured Plane was still offering some of the newly retired Legendary powers through the Chaos Broker.

There is one fairly significant problem with that.

Those Essences no longer work.

Blizzard has already acknowledged the issue and says the team is working to resolve it as quickly as possible.

Monk Players Found Retired Essences Immediately

The bug was documented shortly after the August 12 update, when Fractured Plane became available with Monk among the playable options.

One player reached the Chaos Broker and was offered Consuming Trappings, a Monk Essence that had just been included in the retirement wave.

Consuming Trappings previously changed Flying Dragon into a forward dash that knocked enemies back and stunned them.

Then another retired Essence appeared.

Tiger's Flight, which transformed Flying Kick into a flaming tornado, also showed up among the available Fractured Plane choices.

Which creates an unusual shopping experience.

Here is an item.

You may select it.

It does absolutely nothing.

Retired Essences Are Supposed to Be Inactive

This is not simply a case of an old item accidentally remaining available after Blizzard removed it from normal drops.

The new Essence Retirement system explicitly makes the retired powers inactive.

Blizzard's August 12 retirement announcement states that affected Legendary Equipment is removed from the active drop pool and its corresponding Essence power is rendered inactive.

That distinction matters enormously inside Fractured Plane.

The mode is built around creating a temporary character build from the equipment and powers offered during the run.

If one of those choices contains an inactive Essence, the player is effectively being offered a dead build component.

Fractured Plane Was Supposed to Be Getting Cleaner Too

The timing becomes even stranger because Blizzard specifically adjusted Fractured Plane in the same update.

The developers removed several builds for each class as part of the new Affix rotation, saying there would still be enough options to provide diverse builds during Fractured Plane runs.

So Blizzard was already pruning the mode's build pool.

It simply did not prune all the things that had been deleted elsewhere.

Live-service housekeeping is apparently a little like cleaning a garage.

You throw something away, feel extremely productive, and discover it again behind another cupboard six hours later.

Blizzard Has Already Responded

The good news is that this one does not appear destined to become a month-long mystery.

A Blizzard representative replied directly to the bug report and confirmed that the team is working to get the problem resolved as soon as possible.

That is exactly the response you would hope for.

The bug is easy to understand, easy for players to demonstrate and directly connected to a system Blizzard only introduced yesterday.

There is not much philosophical debate required.

Retired powers should probably not appear in a mode where players are expected to build around the powers they are offered.

This Is the Messy Side of Essence Retirement

We have already covered the larger debate around Diablo Immortal's Essence Retirement system.

Blizzard wants to prevent the Legendary pool from expanding forever, make new Essences easier to find and remove powers that are no longer contributing enough to the wider build ecosystem.

The logic is understandable.

But removing systems from a four-year-old live-service game creates dependencies.

Loot tables remember them.

Build templates remember them.

Old activities remember them.

And apparently the Chaos Broker remembers them too.

The Essence Is Dead. Please Stop Selling It

This is unlikely to become one of Diablo Immortal's great controversies.

It is a bug.

Blizzard knows about it.

A fix is already being worked on.

But it is also a perfect illustration of how complicated retirement becomes once an online game has accumulated years of interconnected content.

Deleting an Essence from the main loot pool is easy.

Making every corner of Diablo Immortal forget that it ever existed is apparently harder.

For now, if the Chaos Broker offers you an old retired Essence during Fractured Plane, perhaps admire it for a moment.

Then choose something that still exists.

Sources

Diablo Immortal Forums: Fractured Plane Offers Legendary Essences That Have Been Removed

Diablo Immortal Forums: Retired Essences August 12

Blizzard Entertainment: Burn Through the Darkening Decades

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