To Diablo 4 players, Blizzard has just issued an important notification: The 2.4.0 Public Test Realm will close soon. I sure hope you’ve already completed the tasks on the PTR, because otherwise it’s closing on August 26. The Diablo Twitter account even added fuel to the fire with the call to action, ‘Time is waning, Wanderer ⌛.’ And the reply, oh my goodness, the replies! It’s pure chaos out there.
What is the PTR about? For those of you who haven’t experienced it, the Public Test Realm is where Blizzard publishes a patch in advance to gather feedback on future updates. It acts as a preview of the upcoming season, which, according to the gathered information, should be Season 11. From what I am hearing, Season 11 should come with a lot of goodies, especially “Chaos Armor” everyone seems to be talking about. Honestly, one player, itzchaserr, echoed my thoughts: “I’m so excited for this new season Chaos armor is gonna be sick!”
Naturally, not everyone is ecstatic. This is the Diablo community we are talking about. The reply to this tweet is all over the place. Some people are enjoying the current season — cheers to Sonic Ecstasy who called Season 9 “the best of all” and told the devs to “keep it on buddies!! 🤘😍🤘”. But then you’ve got the other end of the spectrum such as dallas4psn who is just over it. “Last time I waste money with Blizzard…the season was horrible again…I’m done onto path of exiles 2”. Oof, that’s rough.
And speaking of Path of Exile 2, that game seems to be drawing the most attention, indeed. Mention of it is all over, with people stating that they will switch to POE2 once the version 0.3 update comes out. ZlyDzik remarked, “I mean I would try S10, seems a bit different than previous ones, buuuuut… 0.3 of POE2 will be out on Friday.” It seems strange overlaps mark this moment in the ARPG world. For KaiserAcedia, who apparently is the timeliner’s answer guy, Diablo 4 Season 10 starts on September 23rd, and after the POE2 update, there’ll be “about 4 weeks.” So if you despise rest, you can play both, apparently.
The demands from the players are just as scattered. WorldChangerg3 is asking for Berserk skins to come back, gmlightbulb and AvittoVincent have asked for D2R expansions, and then there’s the “fix the chat on PS5 please!!!” from _Danny__S, which no doubt is the fruit of no little frustration. The small stuff, always.
The split on the seasonal model is the most interesting. A few players like pyti0 are asking for completely new things: “season of pvp? season of citadel raids? season of undercity?”—whereas other people want nothing more than the vampire powers returned from older seasons. Alenxx11 said “Can we get season of vampire powers back, that was the last time i had true fun in a new season.” I understand that sentiment.
Moved over from the easier seasons and now people are complaining about difficulty. kaa had a lengthy explanation regarding how the season is incredibly difficult and doesn’t end “Paragon level doesn’t progress after reaching 145. I could never finish the season.” Is this a genuine concern — should seasonal content be this difficult, or should there also be options for casual players to lose?
Even with the feedback, KaiserAcedia (this person is everywhere in the replies) said “S9 is almost done and it has still more than 100k daily players.” So yes, people are still playing. The game is not dead, no matter what the doomsayers claim.
What is odd is the way the conversation has shifted from a simple PTR reminder to this large discussion about the state of Diablo 4 and how it stands against other games. The picture is split with people saying “This game blows compared to poe2 and last epoch” from GerminoAnthony and others genuinely looking forward to the content.
Season 11 details will probably come out sometime after the PTR closes on August 26, maybe at Gamescom? You never know. But testing the features before their releases? That’s limited now. The clock is ticking, wanderers. Better check out Whatever Chaos Armor is before it’s gone. And maybe Season 11 will pull those POE2 defectors, or maybe not. The ARPG wars continue, and we are merely watching.
