Diablo III’s 19th season, the Season of Eternal Conflict, hasn’t had that clean of a launch so far.
For those unfamiliar with how Diablo rolls out their seasons, each season lasts roughly three months. There’s a small amount of downtime between seasons while the Diablo team implements a pre-season patch, and the next season begins shortly after. The Diablo team purposely doesn’t give set dates to these events until a short time before they occur.
Confusion appeared from the expectation that the Season of Eternal Conflict would begin today, Friday, November 15th. To counter this, Community Manager Nevalistis took to the forums to explain why the delay, as well as explain how the seasons and pre-season patches would be implemented in the future.
Now, Nevalistis has come out with a set-in-stone release date, and the confusion is completely cleared away. The Season of Eternal Conflict will begin in exactly a week next Friday, November 22nd.
The Season of Eternal Conflict is bringing quite a bit with it, too. A killstreak-based Seasonal passive buff called Pandemonium will keep things interesting and changing as a myriad of events spontaneously occur on the battlefield, which you can read more about here.
Other than the buff, there’s plenty of change coming in the Seasonal Journey. Expect to find these sets in Haedrig’s Gift this season as you complete your objectives:
- 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
These sets will be given for free as you finish up the chapters of your journey. Of course, that doesn’t mean you have to stick with the set you’re given; it’s merely something to get you pushing rifts as soon as possible. Make sure you read up on the patch notes for 2.6.7, though, because quite a few items and gear sets are being heavily altered!
There are a few quality of life changes coming as well. For example, Greater Rift Keystones now will be picked up automatically by vacuum in the same way that gold is, to ensure you don’t leave them behind on accident. There also will be new seasonal conquests added that give unique rewards in exchange for completing challenges that are significantly harder than most others.
This is by no means an exhaustive list of all changes, so read up on the patch notes ASAP to plan your season thoroughly. Now that we have a set release date, there’s only a matter of time before we’re all pushing for the highest Greater Rift again.
