With the release of Vessel of Hatred, Diablo IV has seen its most significant changes since its original launch in June 2023. Adding a completely new region, Nahantu, along with a wealth of added characters and modes and a brand-new story, the expansion pack is the very definition of a game changer. But it goes even further than that, bringing in entirely new ways to upgrade items, a revamp of the World Tiers, new animal-morphing classes, and a new level cap. However, we meet change without fear, offering a litany of guides to get you up to speed.
For instance, Diablo IV now has NPC Mercenaries you can hire to come with you on your brawling, but you’re only going to find them by following a specific series of quests. Then there are those Spiritborn classes that let you pick between being able to possess the powers of a Jaguar, Eagle, Gorilla, or Centipede…Wait, centipede? No, we’ve checked, that’s definitely correct—and apparently one of the best choices for end-game content.
And this all follows on from piles of massive changes earlier this year, which saw the introduction of loot-fest The Pit, a new way to improve loot called Tempering, the addition of Mythic Uniques, and Infernal Hordes to battle. It’s mayhem!
But worry not, as here we’ve collected every guide we’ve published for Diablo IV’s big changes, which will see you flying toward the new level cap in no time at all.
Last week, Microsoft laid off 1900 video game workers across its various studios. This included cuts at recently acquired Activision Blizzard. And one employee, before being laid off, used a Blizzard company perk to walk away with nearly 10 years of World of Warcraft subscription codes.
Diablo IV’s Strongholds Are A Great Way To Level Up This Season
The video game industry’s terrible 2023, which saw thousands of people laid off across multiple companies, has continued into 2024. As of January 29, according to Kotaku’s layoff tracker, nearly 6,000 cuts have been made at places like Unity, Riot, Bethesda, Twitch, Discord, and Activision Blizzard. One developer at Blizzard realized what was happening and took advantage of a company perk before losing access.
As spotted by PC Gamer, on January 25, the same day the layoffs at Blizzard happened, former product lead Adam Holisky tweeted that once he “realized what was happening” and that he was one of the nearly 2,000 people losing their jobs that day, he made sure to “jump into Keyring and use all the 1-year [pre-paid World of Warcraft] subscription codes” he had yet to activate.
He then shared a screenshot that shows that he doesn’t have to pay for his World of Warcraft subscription until October 14, 2033. That’s one hell of a parting gift and beats a watch or pizza party, that’s for sure.
“Free game time is a well-known employee benefit,” Holisky added on Twitter. “I just never used all the codes I got over the years. It’s nothing sketchy or immoral.”
I reached out to Holisky and he explained to me that Keyring is an internal system at Blizzard where employees can access digital game codes that they “earned for whatever reason.”
He clarified that he had stockpiled these one-year codes while working at Blizzard for nearly five years. Another employee who was laid off at the company tried a similar tactic, but it seems so many others were trying to get their codes before getting laid off that they all crashed the Keyring service.
So Holisky was like Indiana Jones sliding under the door and grabbing his hat at the last second, except the stone door is horrible layoffs causing 1,900 people to be out of work and the hat is a decade of key codes. And while a decade of WoW subscription time is a nice prize, I assume most folks would rather have a job instead.
Just in time for the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, Blizzard is letting you playDiablo IV for free for one full week on Steam right now. That’s a pretty sweet deal among a crop of other pretty sweet deals that Valve is offering as part of the PC gaming store’s massive annual Autumn Sale.
Blizzard tweeted on November 21 that the action-RPG has a free trial going on until November 28. If you head toDiablo IV’s Steam page right now, you can get the demon-slaying, loot-hunting game for the low until the end of the week.
“Give thanks and drag your friends to Hell,” Blizzard said. “Play Diablo IV for free on Steam, from now until November 28th at [10 a.m. PT / 1 p.m. ET].”
This free Steam trial coincides nicely with a gold and XP bonus Blizzard is also running in Diablo IV. Dubbed Mother’s Blessing Week, folks playing the game will earn 35 percent more gold and experience points until November 27. This bonus applies to everyone, including people running amok in the Eternal and Seasonal realms, as well as players across all four World Tiers (Diablo IV’s interpretation of difficulty setting). Blizzard really wants this game to take over your Thanksgiving holiday, it seems.
Diablo IV—out now on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox—is running its second season of content, the Season of Blood. The new update, which brought the game to Steam on October 17, adds gameplay changes (like revamping inventory management) and story content while promising an easier grind so folks can level up faster. It’s the first of many seasonal drops, which will be interspersed between yearly paid expansions. The first DLC, Vessel of Hatred, arrives next year, bringing with it a new class to play and a new region to explore.
Blizzard revealed the latest hero to join the ever-growing roster of its shooter Overwatch 2 at Blizzcon 2023. During an interview at the convention, Polygon got more details about Mauga, what players can expect from him, and the process of creating a new tank.
“Mauga is a damaged-based tank, and how he sustains himself and his team is through damage,” said lead hero designer Alec Dawson. He was designed based on his weapons, with his abilities centered around doing as much damage as possible. The designers hope this focus on damage will make him more appealing to new players.
The team wanted to ensure his abilities felt good when using both chain guns, but they also wanted to make sure players couldn’t “wipe people out immediately.” To combat that, Mauga has a big spread on both of his guns. At the same time, this makes him a threat in close quarters. “You don’t want to play with Mauga up close unless you know you’re going to take him out,” said Dawson.
Mauga’s Overrun charging ability makes him virtually unstoppable, even against sleep darts. “He uses it to get where he wants to go,” said Dawson. For a nice cherry on top, whenever Mauga directly hits an opponent while using Overrun, he’ll slam them to the ground, stunning them while other nearby opponents will be sent flying.
Image: Blizzard Entertainment
Mauga’s ultimate, Cage Fight, creates a zone that traps opponents and blocks healing from the outside of it. What makes his ultimate even more dangerous is that Cage Fight stays active even if Mauga dies. Support hero Lifeweaver can pull Mauga out of the ultimate, but the enemy players will still be trapped inside until the ability runs out.
Even though he’s a tank, Mauga can do more damage than some DPS heroes, said Dawson. To counter that, opposing teams can attack Mauga while he’s reloading or has burned through his abilities. “He’s such a big body that he really needs support. He needs a high healing output to keep him up at times.”
When it came to creating Mauga, the dev team worked closely with a culture consultant team to ensure the studio displayed him in a way that would be respectful to the Samoan community. “We worked with a traditional tattoo artist from the Samoan culture to guide us. We tried to get as authentic as possible and as close to real as our engines could handle. And it turned out great,” said hero design producer Kenny Hudson.
Image: Blizzard Entertainment
When Mauga was first being tested, the team originally had one iteration where his right gun only dealt critical damage to enemies in the air to help tanks fight flying-based heroes. As time went on, the team scrapped that, and now the right gun deals critical damage whenever an enemy is set on fire first with his left gun. But the idea to have him use two big guns was something the dev team always intended to do. “We always kinda knew that he was going to be a tank with two big main guns, and we wanted to make them just as important and just as useful to players as the other one. We didn’t want one to outshine the other,” said Hudson.
One of the challenges the dev team faced was making the visual cues noticeable to players when Mauga uses his Cardiac Overdrive ability, which allows Mauga and his team members to heal whenever they damage an opponent. So the dev team revisited an old idea where Roadhog’s ability would heal everyone around him. This helped them find the “sweet spot” of not overwhelming the player with too much going on screen. “We don’t like throwing things away. Even if it doesn’t work out for a certain hero, it can come back later on for another one,” said senior test analyst Foster Elmendorf. To help further prove their point, Elmendorf explained how Mauga’s ultimate was originally D.va’s, which involved her making “a dome of lasers.”
The team has been working on Mauga for some time. Originally, he was supposed to be released in season 2 instead of Ramattra, “but the team really wanted to take some more time to get the kit just right,” said Dawson. Pushing Mauga back allowed the dev team to polish him up and ensure his abilities played smoothly with one another.
At BlizzCon 2023, Blizzard announced it’s preparing to enter what it’s calling World of Warcraft’s “Worldsoul Saga,” a multi-expansion story arc in the MMORPG that it plans to roll out over the course of the next three expansions.
Diablo IV’s Strongholds Are A Great Way To Level Up This Season
During the convention’s opening ceremony, Warcraft Executive Creative Director Chris Metzen explained that the Worldsoul Saga will bridge the gap between the first 20 years of World of Warcraft and whatever Blizzard has planned next for the long-running MMORPG. The tenth expansion, titled The War Within, will kick things off and will be followed by the eleventh and twelfth expansions, called Midnight and The Last Titan, respectively. The next three expansions form a trilogy that will usher in the next era of World of Warcraft storytelling.
After Metzen outlined the next three expansions, Blizzard showed a cinematic trailer for The War Within, which featured long-time World of Warcraft figures Anduin and Thrall getting into a heated discussion before the camera panned to the Sword of Sargeras, a giant sword that was stabbed into the surface of Azeroth during the events of the Legion expansion.
Blizzard Entertainment
Following this, Blizzard showed a trailer running down new features, including new zones to travel around in Azj-Kahet, Isle of Dorn, The Ringing Deeps, and Hallowfall. Players will also be able to take part in cooperative PvE instances called Delves, transfer progression between multiple characters through Warbands, and take advantage of expanded Hero Talents. Check out the trailer below:
Blizzard Entertainment
The War Within will launch in fall 2024. While past World of Warcraft expansions have launched around two years apart for years, Metzen says Blizzard is looking to release Midnight and The Last Titan with less downtime between. However, he didn’t give a specific timeline. It’s possible World of Warcraft’s next three expansions could launch annually, and that the next era of the MMO could be a reality in the next few years. Before that, however, World of Warcraft now have three more expansions to look forward to.
A new hero is coming to Overwatch 2 next month. Mauga, the game’s next tank-class hero, will join the Overwatch roster with season 8 and will be the game’s 39th playable character, according to a post on the Nintendo Switch eShop news channel.
Blizzard plans to officially reveal the next Overwatch 2 hero at BlizzCon 2023, which starts Friday, but a first look at Mauga and his abilities have leaked ahead of that.
Overwatch 2 players can get their hands on Mauga earlier than December, however — this weekend, in fact, thanks to a free trial weekend for Blizzard’s game. Mauga will be playable from Friday, Nov. 3 through Sunday, Nov. 5 as part of a sneak peek at season 8 of Overwatch 2.
Image: Blizzard Entertainment
Blizzard describes Mauga as a “powerful brawling Tank Hero who will tear through the competition with his incendiary and volatile chainguns.” Maugau’s kit is designed “to bash through the front lines and brawl his opponents in close-quarter combat, by wielding two powerful chainguns that can either be fire individually or in unison,” Blizzard says.
One of Mauga’s chainguns is nicknamed “Gunny” and can burn his opponents with incendiary charges when they take enough damage. The other gun is known as “Cha-Cha,” which can deal critical hits. Mauga’s Berserker passive ability, Blizzard says, will grant him temporary health whenever he deals critical damage.
Mauga’s front line-breaking power is called Overrun, “a charging ability that cannot be stopped by any crowd control abilities,” Blizzard says, meaning counters like Ana’s Sleep Dart or Sigma’s Accretion. Overrun “stomps into opponents, dealing a powerful knockback.” Another ability, Cardiac Overdrive, creates an aura that reduces incoming damage, “allowing allies to heal themselves while dealing damage.”
Mauga’s ultimate ability, Cage Fight, “traps nearby opponents in a cylindrical fighting ring” with a barrier that “blocks enemy incoming damage or healing from the outside.”
Blizzard says Mauga will be officially released on Dec. 5, when season 8 of Overwatch 2 goes live.
Overwatch 2’s 39th playable hero shouldn’t be a surprise to players who have been paying close attention to the game for the past few years. Mauga made a guest appearance in the 2019 Overwatch comic What You Left Behind, which revealed the tank-class character as a former Talon ally of Baptiste. Mauga hails from Samoa, a location that Blizzard recently mined for a new Control map for Overwatch 2. That map offered hints that Mauga would soon appear in the game, in the form of one of his colorful shirts hanging in a room.
During Gamescom’s Opening Night Live presentation, Blizzard took to the stage alongside host Geoff Keighley to announce that Diablo IV’s next update, Season of Blood, will start on October 17—just in time for Halloween.
Diablo IV – Bear Bender Build
Much like Diablo IV’s current update, Season of the Malignant, Season 2 will introduce five new and returning endgame bosses, and will also come with changes to renown rewards, gem and stash storage, and resistance and status effects. While the studio didn’t divulge details on what those updates will be just yet, Blizzard came through with a new trailer showing off what to expect come this October.
If you thought that looked kinda gruesome, well, I’m right there with you. With vampire hunter Erys at your side, it’ll be up to the two of you to put an end to a new threat roaming the lands of Sanctuary. Erys is voiced by Gemma Chan, who you might recognize from Captain Marvel (Minn-Erva), Raya and the Last Dragon (Namaari), Crazy Rich Asians (Astrid), and Eternals (Sersi), among other films and TV shows. Revealing that this is her first video game performance, Chan, alongside Diablo general manager Rod Fergusson, briefly talked about the “badass warrior companion” Erys, some “cool vampiric powers” at your disposal, and a “big bad vampire lord” you’ll face at Season of Blood’s end.
But that’s not until October 17. For now, Season of the Malignant is still going on, and unfortunately, things haven’t been going well. After a controversial change to player power level, the studio addressed the community by promising to not make classes weaker, which Blizzard is aware leads to a “not fun” experience overall. Here’s hoping things go better with Season of Blood.
Cinderys is a professional cosplayer from France who has been active in the scene for almost a decade now. Over the years she’s cosplayed as a bunch of Blizzard characters, from World of Warcraft to Hearthstone, but her latest Diablo work is terrifyingly good.
The Week In Games: What’s Releasing Beyond Diablo IV
Before we go any further: yes, I said professional cosplayer. As I’ve written about previously, there’s a certain level of cosplay where artists can engage in paid, sponsored work, and Cinderys has been doing this for a while. The Diablo cosplay here, for example, is the result of a collaboration between her, Blizzard France and peripheral company Steel Series, which technically makes this advertising, but also gives Cinderys the time and resources to make something that looks this incredible.
As you can see in this quick making-of video, putting a costume like this together wasn’t easy. There was sewing, of course, but also loads of 3D model work (being sponsored can help with access to that stuff), 3D printing, prosthetics and make-up. Somehow—with a little help at the end from fellow French cosplayer Xia—Cinderys not only got it all together, but built the whole thing from scratch in just a month:
Finally, here’s some footage from Diablo IV’s launch party in France, which shows that the costume not only looks incredible in photos, but was entirely (RELATIVE FOR COSPLAY) practical to walk around in for the night.
The Yakuza Devs Should Cast These Celebs In Their Next Hostess Club Minigame
And they’re going to cost a minimum of $15 (or $40 for a bigger download). Look, I know video game development is expensive, and this is a free-to-play game so money has to be made somewhere, but hrmm. Overwatch fans, drawn in large part to the series for its story, lore and characters, have put up with many missteps over Overwatch 2, but charging $15 for three story missions is certainly asking a lot, and the backlash—taking place mostly over social media, since Reddit is a bust—has been swift.
In Overwatch 2: Invasion, you and your friends can take on three action-packed missions that take place in Rio de Janeiro, Toronto, and Gothenburg—massive maps with complex objectives, and an in-depth storyline that will guide you along the way. You’ll fight against the intensified forces of Null Sector, who will continue to attack until you’ve completely dismantled them. Stay alert for challenging enemies that haven’t been encountered before, such as the powerful Artillery and the deadly Stalkers.
You can get started on your mission to save the world with the Overwatch 2: Invasion Bundle for $15 USD. This bundle includes:
– Permanent access to the Overwatch 2: Invasion Story Missions
– 1,000 Overwatch Coins (equal to the Premium Battle Pass, $10 USD value)
– A brand-new Sojourn Legendary skin ($19 USD value)
– Permanent access to Sojourn as a playable hero for new players: unlocked upon completing Story Mission challenges.
The Overwatch 2: Invasion bundle is intended to give new and veteran players alike the opportunity to explore this brand-new story arc while giving them additional coins to unlock the Premium Battle Pass or to buy cosmetic content for their favorite Hero.
You can also upgrade to the Overwatch 2: Ultimate Invasion Bundle for $40 USD, you will have access to all the above, as well as:
– The Null Sector Premium Battle Pass with 20 Battle Pass skips ($30 USD value)
– An additional 1,000 Overwatch Coins, for a total of 2,000 Overwatch Coins ($20 USD value)
– Two additional Legendary skins for Cassidy and Kiriko ($38 USD value).
I’m sure someone at Blizzard and Activision can and will defend this, pointing to earnings and metrics and forecasts and business strategies, but what are we even doing here when a video game has to be packaged and spelled out like this?
Blizzard is now taking pre-orders on a large, nearly $100 special Diablo IV collector’s box which includes many things. But it doesn’t include the game. And while Blizzard isn’t trying to trick people into accidentally buying this game-free box, it still seems very odd that there’s not even an option to get the game with this pricey package of demonic goodies.
Expensive collector’s editions of video games and movies have become more and more popular over the last decade. Personally, I never felt the need for all the random gubbins and statues usually included in these pricey bundles, but I get it. Some folks just really love to collect everything involving their favorite franchise or series. Whatever floats your boat! Just don’t get confused and think this $100 Diablo IV Collector’s Box actually includes the game it’s named after!
This week, Blizzard started taking pre-orders on something it’s calling the Diablo IV Limited Collector’s Box over on its merch store. This large, spiffy-looking box will cost you a cool $96.66 (I see what you did there…) and includes all of these items:
Occult Mousepad
Cloth Map of Sanctuary
Pin of the Horadrim
Diablo IV Collector’s Edition Art Book
Matted Fine Art Prints (x2) – 18.54″ x 10.79″
That’s very nice and all, but you’ll notice that the game isn’t part of this pricey bundle. Now, Blizzard isn’t trying to deceive anyone. It’s clear in the store description that this box doesn’t contain the game. It also isn’t selling the box on Battle.net but instead on its merch site, further separating it from its video game store. So I’m not trying to imply that Blizzard is trying to pull a fast one and trick diehard Diablo players into forking over $100 for something that doesn’t include the upcoming ARPG. I’m just saying it’s a bit odd, is all!
I guess for folks who prefer buying a digital copy of the game via a third-party site or who might want to provide a physical gift to someone who might already have the game pre-ordered, this is a nice idea. But why not have a different version that is $60-70 more and includes a code for the game? Or even a discount on it! Though that kind of stuff might make things more confusing.
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