Season 27 Light’s Calling Preview
Hear, hear, Nephalem!
The light beckons for your faithful return to Sanctuary—Season 27, Light’s Calling, will begin on August 26 at 5 p.m. PDT/CEST/KST. For an in-depth look at the seasonal theme, rewards, and the balance changes made between the end of the Patch 2.7.4 PTR and now, take a gander below.
Seasonal Journey
Season 27 Theme
Looking to turn the tide of an unremitting war between light and darkness, the Angels of the High Heavens have embedded a token of their righteousness in Sanctuary. Cunning Nephalem seeking an advantage in combat will undergo an angelic trial, crystallizing a symbol of their morality into pure, otherworldly perfection. The specific celestial force imbued within by the divine is unknown—an answer waiting to be sought on the battlefield. Go forth, Nephalem!
Season 27 introduces Light’s Calling, our new seasonal theme. Valiant Nephalem who recover Angelic Crucibles, a new consumable item, may use them to Sanctify any equippable Legendary item, infusing it with one of three new class-specific powers at random. We wanted to use Angelic Crucibles to lean into the expertise of each class, further exemplifying its respective prowess, but through a nuanced lens. The High Heavens are home to ethereal splendor, bursting with boundless radiance—we wanted to provide players with a taste of untainted power as doled out from Heaven itself.
Season Cosmetic Rewards
Beginning with Season 17, we began reintroducing previous rewards to make them available to players who may have missed them the first time around. For Season 27, this means awards originally available from Season 15 are returning. In addition to the Chest and Glove slots of the exclusive Conqueror Set, a series of portrait frames themed around the struggle of the Eternal Conflict will be available. For the eager cosmetic pet collectors, Belphegor is keen to keep a grip on your coin as it accompanies you on your adventures across Sanctuary!
As in past seasons, two new End of Journey cosmetic rewards will be obtainable during Season 27. Stand hand-in-hand against demonic threats with the Corvus Cadaverous pet and emphasize your cerebral nature with the Laurels of Knowledge portrait.
Season Journey Rewards
If you’ve been diligently slaying demons for the past few Seasons and reached Conqueror in the Season Journey each time, you’ve surely accrued a few extra stash tabs by now. But players who have not yet earned a total of five stash tabs via the Season Journey can still unlock an additional one by completing the following tasks at the Conqueror tier:
- Finish a level 70 Nephalem Rift on Torment XIII difficulty within five minutes.
- Level three Legendary Gems to level 55.
- Complete two Conquests this Season.
- Kill Malthael at level 70 in one minute and 30 seconds on Torment XIII difficulty.
- Slay Greed on Torment XIII difficulty.
- Reach Greater Rift level 60 Solo.
- Use Kanai’s Cube to augment an Ancient Legendary item with a level 50+ gem.
- Use Kanai’s Cube to reforge a Legendary item.
Season Conquest
Speaking of Conquests, we’re rotating those, too! Returning for Season 27 is Sprinter/Speed Racer, where you’re challenged to complete all of Diablo III’s campaign from Act I to Act V at level 70 in under one hour! Next, we have Avarice/Avaritia, where all that glitters is gold—that is, if you can complete a 50 million gold streak outside of The Vault or its Inner Sanctum. Boss Mode/Worlds Apart is a different kind of race; destroy all the bosses in Diablo III at max level on Torment X before your 20-minute timer ends! A fan-favorite for those who enjoy unconventional builds, The Thrill/Superhuman requires completion of a Greater Rift level 45 to be completed Solo, but without any Set items equipped. Finally, Masters of the Universe/Masters of Sets stretches your class set knowledge by requiring a Mastery Rank completion of eight different Set Dungeons; get ready to start collecting!
Haedrig’s Gift
Finally, the Class Sets available for completing certain chapters in the Season Journey courtesy of Haedrig’s Gift have rotated once more. We’ve listed the available Sets below. For those new to Seasons, here’s how it works:
Completing Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of the Season Journey will reward you with three of Haedrig’s Gifts. Each Gift contains a few pieces from one of your Class Sets. Players can only unlock one Class Set in this manner per Season across Hardcore and Non-Hardcore, so choose wisely!
The set you will receive depends on the Class of the character you’re playing when you open each Haedrig’s Gift. To collect a full Class Set, you’ll need to open all three on the same character.
Here are the sets granted by Haedrig’s Gift in Season 27:
- Barbarian – Wrath of the Wastes
- Crusader – Roland’s Legacy
- Demon Hunter – Unhallowed Essence
- Monk – Raiment of a Thousand Storms
- Necromancer – Bones of Rathma
- Witch Doctor – Helltooth Harness
- Wizard – Tal Rasha’s Elements
Patch Notes
Below you will find the patch notes for the upcoming update to Diablo III: Patch 2.7.4.
Note: All changes apply to all versions of Diablo III, including PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC unless otherwise indicated.
Season 27
Season 27 introduces a new type of consumable item called Angelic Crucibles. Once uncovered by Nephalem, these heavenly artifacts can be used to Sanctify any equippable Legendary item. Sanctifying an item reforges it to have perfect Ancient-level stats on all affixes while also preserving the item's Legendary Power. In addition, this process adds one of three new powers unique to each class.
Season Theme Details:
- Angelic Crucibles and Sanctified items can only be acquired in Seasonal play and will not transfer to your non-seasonal character when the season ends.
- Angelic Crucibles can drop anywhere in Sanctuary at level 70.
- Players can obtain as many Sanctified items as they would like, however, only one Sanctified item can be equipped at a time.
- Sanctified items can be Sanctified again using another Angelic Crucible.
- No stats are preserved when Sanctifying an item.
- Only level 70 equippable items can be Sanctified—crafted items cannot be Sanctified.
- Followers cannot equip Sanctified items.
- The drop rate of Angelic Crucibles has been doubled.
Developer's Note: We heard your feedback regarding the Angelic Crucible drop rate. . . then we doubled it.
New Class-Specific Sanctified Powers
Barbarian
- Whirlwind pulls in and holds all enemies within 25 yards.
- Hammer of the Ancients hits in all directions around the Barbarian. Every tenth cast of Hammer of the Ancients unleashes a powerful shockwave.
- The shockwave now deals 10x damage.
- Hitting enemies generates stacks of Tempest Rhythm. Activating Wrath of the Berserker consumes 50 stacks of Tempest Rhythm and startles enemies within 16 yards, causing them to take 2% increased damage per stack for 20 seconds. Max 50 stacks.
Crusader
- Blessed Hammer now crackles with energy, damaging enemies within 15 yards of its path. All runes but Dominion now throw the hammer in a direct path in front of the Crusader.
- Fixed a bug that caused Blessed Hammer to stop when hitting allies.
- Every two seconds, call down Fist of the Heavens on a random nearby enemy. After casting Steed Charge, this effect occurs more rapidly for five seconds.
- Updated the visual effects of the Fist of the Heavens Sanctified power to differentiate it from Fist of the Heavens cast by players.
- After casting Falling Sword, you descend from the sky with two Archangels that can cast Consecration and Condemn.
- Updated the Archangels abilities to not benefit from bonuses and removed the Heaven's Fury skill.
- Archangels no longer take damage.
- Removed the cooldown to spawn Archangels when casting Falling Sword. A maximum of two Archangels can be present at a time.
- The damage done by Archangels has been reduced.
- The Archangels will no longer cast Condemn and Consecration immediately upon being summoned.
- The Archangels damage has been reduced 33% of its previous value.
Demon Hunter
- Strafe now casts the last non-channeled Hatred spending ability cast.
- Fixed a bug that sometimes caused the Strafe sanctified power to stop casting the Hatred spending ability.
- Fixed a bug that caused the Multishot visual effects to fire in the wrong direction.
- Casting Vengeance unleashes a barrage of rockets that deal damage equal to a percentage of the maximum life enemies possess. The number of rockets fired increases over 30 seconds. Elites and Bosses receive less damage per rocket.
- Fixed a bug in the tooltip to correctly state that damage is equal to a percentage of maximum life, not current life.
- Firing Cluster Arrow no longer drops explosive ordinance. Instead, it concentrates its explosive force into piercing rays of light.
- Updated the Cluster Arrow tooltip to clarify the power and potential interactions with other skills.
- Adjusted the animation to feel more fluid.
- Updated the Cluster Arrow visual effects and sounds.
- Fixed a bug that prevented Cluster Arrow from proccing Restraint and Thrill of the Hunt.
- Fixed a bug where Cluster Arrow didn’t properly cost 40 Hatred.
Monk
- Casting Wave of Light now summons a bell at the target location that deals damage when any player attacks the bell. Up to five bells can be active at one time.
- The Shattering Light rune now respects which way you’re facing when you strike the bell, and your bells can no longer proc your own bells.
- Updated the tooltip to reflect that other players can attack summoned bells.
- Added sounds to the Wave of Light Sanctified power.
- Bells no longer count as kills to other players.
- Bells now despawn if not destroyed within 10 seconds.
- All Way of the Hundred Fists combo punches use the second stage combo punch. Consecutive hits from Way of the Hundred Fists increases its damage by 2%. Max 350 stacks.
- The target of your Seven-Sided Strike is barraged with spiritual punches for 15 seconds. This can only affect one enemy at a time.
Necromancer
- Your Golem now picks up corpses within 20 yards. Each corpse it stores allows you to cast any corpse spending ability with the max number of corpses consumed per cast. Up to 30 corpses can be stored.
- Updated the tooltip to clarify which Corpse skills are impacted by the Sanctified power.
- Enemies within 50 yards are constantly assaulted by the Army of the Dead - Unconventional Warfare while this item is equipped.
- Fixed a bug that caused an unintended interaction with Fate's Vow and the Army of the Dead Sanctified power.
- Hitting enemies with Death Nova five consecutive times adds a spirit that afflicts an enemy every fifth cast of Death Nova. Up to three spirits can be sent at a time.
Witch Doctor
- Enemies affected by Locust Swarm are also Haunted. When you cast Piranhas, all Haunted enemies within 60 yards are pulled into the pool. A lesser enemy stunned by Bogadile is instantly killed. Elites and Bosses stunned by Bogadile take massive damage.
- Added a visual effect to indicate the area where monsters are pulled in by Piranhas.
- Horrify becomes an aura that causes enemies to receive 100% more damage and deal 15% less damage in addition to its other effects.
- You summon two Gargantuans and three Zombie Dogs periodically. Gargantuans gain the effect of the Restless Giant rune. Zombie Dogs gain the effect of all runes. Enemies hit by Sacrifice are Immolated, causing them to take 100% more damage from your Pets.
Wizard
- Your Storm Armor charges over 30 seconds. Casting Storm Armor at full charge releases a powerful thunderbolt, instantly killing a random enemy within 30 yards. Bosses and Elites are not killed but take significant damage.
- Arcane Orb now periodically spawns up to four orbiting charges that will generate an additional orb when cast. All charges from the Arcane Orbit rune now detonate at the same time.
- Magic Missile fires 10 missiles and gains the effect of the Seeker rune.
- Reduced the number of Magic Missiles from 20 to 10.
Developer's Note: With the Lords of Hell Season, we explored what Nephalem would do if they possessed the powers of Hell. This season we invite players to witness what Nephalem can accomplish with the powers of Heaven. Our goal with the 21 unique class-powers was to introduce changes to skills that can redefine the way you play a build or set. We're excited to see how players will harness the powers of Heaven in Season 27.
General Updates
- Adventure Mode is now unlocked for all accounts by default. Players are no longer required to complete the Campaign to access Adventure mode.
- Default difficulty selection has been updated to be consistent for all players and platforms. All players now have access to Normal-Torment 6 difficulties by default, and upon reaching level 70 with a character, players gain access to Torment 7–Torment 16.
- Uber Boss Realms now automatically close 60 seconds after the Uber Bosses have been defeated. Additional portals to the same Uber Boss Realm can now be opened in a single game session.
- The Experience rewarded upon completion of an Echoing Nightmare has been reduced by 83%.
Developer's Note: With Echoing Nightmares transitioning from a Seasonal theme to a permanent feature moving forward, we felt it was necessary to dial back the Experience rewards to avoid players feeling obligated to maximize their time spent inside the activity. Our vision for Echoing Nightmares is to be a fun bonus activity, like the Vault, that serves as a good source of loot and Augment materials. We've also made several changes to Adventure mode and difficulty unlocks—these will align the Diablo III experience across all platforms for new players and should make it easier to jump into your preferred activity. Lastly, we improved the Uber Boss flow so that players and groups can kill multiple rounds of bosses without having to remake games.
Item Changes
General
- Guardian's Jeopardy (2-piece bonus): Your melee damage reduction is increased by 1% per 1000 base Vitality from equipped items. Your missile damage reduction is increased by 1% per 1000 base Strength, Dexterity, or Intelligence from equipped items depending on your class.
- Guardian's Jeopardy (3-piece bonus): You gain an additional 100% of your base Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence, and Vitality attributes from equipped items.
Developer's Note: We've heard from players that the Crafted 3-piece sets have had some of the most significant impacts on itemization, so we're introducing another to add more choice.
Crusader
- Armor of Akkhan (2-piece bonus): Judgment has no cooldown and gains the effect of every rune.
- Armor of Akkhan (4-piece bonus): Attacks from Phalanx Avatars reduce the cooldown of Akarat's Champion by 0.5 seconds, and also apply Condemn when attacking enemies that is affected by Judgment.
- Fixed a typo in the Armor of Akkhan 4-piece bonus.
- Fixed a bug that allowed any attack to proc the 4-piece bonus to reduce the cooldown of Akarat's Champion.
- Fixed a bug that caused the damage bonus of Akkhan's 6-piece to sometimes not work with Phalanx Avatars.
- Updated the visual effect of Phalanx Avatars proccing Condemn to reduce visual clutter.
- Updated the AI of Phalanx Avatars to prioritize targets around the player.
- “Increases Phalanx Damage” affixes and the Enforcer Legendary Gem can now benefit Phalanx Condemns.
- Eternal Union: Increases the duration of summoned Phalanx Bowmen and Bodyguard indefinitely.
Developer's Note: Our goal with the Armor of Akkhan rework is to narrow the focus of the set to give a distinctive identify, highlighting a fantasy where the Crusader is the Knight-Commander, passing judgment on the enemies of the Light.
Necromancer
- Trag'Oul's Avatar (2-piece bonus): Blood Rush and Siphon Blood gains the effect of every rune. Your Life-spending abilities no longer cost Essence.
- Fixed a bug that caused the Siphon Blood - Power Shift rune damage bonus to be multiplicative.
- Trag'Oul's Avatar (4-piece bonus): While at full Life, your healing from skills is added to your maximum Life for 45 seconds, up to 300% more.
- Trag'Oul's Avatar (6-piece bonus): Your Life-spending abilities deal 10,000% increased damage and your healing from skills is increased by 100%.
- Iron Rose: Attacking with Siphon Blood has a 100% chance to cast a free Blood Nova. After cumulatively losing 10% of your maximum Life, your Death Nova deals 40% increased damage for 60 seconds. This effect stacks up to 10 times.
- Bloodtide Blade: Death Nova deals 300-400% increased damage for every enemy within 25 yards, up to 25 enemies.
- Funerary Pick: Siphon Blood drains blood from 2 additional targets. Each target takes 250-300% increased damage from you unless there is only 1 target, then it gains double the increased damage. The bonus from Siphon Blood - Power shift is now 20% per stack and benefits all skills.
Developer's Note: We wanted to recapture the Blood Necromancer fantasy of Trag'Oul's Avatar and increase its effectiveness against single targets.
Wizard
- Delsere's Magnum Opus (2-piece bonus): Casting Arcane Orb, Energy Twister, Magic Missile, Shock Pulse, Spectral Blade, Electrocute, or Arcane Torrent also casts Slow Time at them. This effect will not trigger if the target is already inside a Slow Time bubble. The cooldown of Teleport will reset while you're inside bubbles generated from this set or cast by you.
- Delsere's Magnum Opus (4-piece bonus): You take 75% reduced damage while you have a Slow Time active. Allies inside your Slow Time gain half benefit.
- Delsere's Magnum Opus (6-piece bonus): Enemies affected by your Slow Time and for 5 seconds after exiting take 12,500% increased damage from your Arcane Orb, Energy Twister, Magic Missile, Shock Pulse, Spectral Blade, Electrocute, and Arcane Torrent abilities.
- Crown of the Primus: Slow Time gains the effect of every rune except Point of No Return and permanently follows you.
- Tal Rasha's Elements (2-piece bonus): Damaging enemies with Arcane, Cold, Fire or Lightning will grant immunity to that element and cause a Meteor of the same damage type to fall from the sky. The same meteor cannot happen twice in a row.
- Tal Rasha's Elements (4-piece bonus): Arcane, Cold, Fire, and Lightning attacks each increase all of your resistances by 50% for 8 seconds.
- The Smoldering Core: Lesser enemies are now lured to your Meteor impact areas. Meteors deals 40-50% increased damage on consecutive hits to the same target. This stacks up to 10 times.
- Fixed a typo in The Smoldering Core's tooltip.
- Mirror Ball: Magic Missile fires 2 extra missiles and deals 400-500% increased damage.
- Mempo of Twilight: Meteor Shower rune is now applied to all casted Meteors and deals 300–400% increased damage.
Developer's Note: Delsere's Magnum Opus has been feeling weak, clunky and isn't meeting the desired gameplay flow, so we've streamlined the playstyle to make it more engaging, allowing Wizards to feel like masters of time. The core of Tal Rasha's Elements has changed over time, so we're revisiting it to reintroduce a playstyle that utilizes Meteor.
Monk
- Inna's Mantra (6-piece bonus): Gain the passive abilities of the five runed Mystic Allies at all times. Attacking enemies creates your chosen Mystic Ally that lasts 15 seconds, up to 10 Mystic Allys. The damage of your Mystic Allies is increased by 900% for each Mystic Ally you have out.
- Bindings of the Lesser Gods: Enemies hit by your Cyclone Strike take 150-200% increased damage from your Mystic Ally for 5 seconds. Split Fire Allies gain 3 times this bonus.
Developer's Note: Inna's Mantra Monks have been riding high on the waves of success for several seasons, so it's time to bring in the nerf shark.
Demon Hunter
- Strafe: Updated base skill to allow any equipped weapon, rather than requiring a Bow.
Bug Fixes
- Fixed a bug that prevented the Legendary Spear Empyrean Messenger from dropping.
- Captain Crimson's Trimmings: Fixed a bug that caused the 3-piece set bonus to occasionally drop off.
- Updated Bone Spike and Siphon Blood tooltips to reflect the appropriate damage values.
- Fixed a bug that caused Sanctified items to not always roll with Ancient-level stats.
- Fixed a bug where Slow Time and Archon Slow Time stacked.
We’ll see you in Sanctuary, Nephalem!
-The Diablo III Team