Diablo III’s twentieth season, the Season of the Forbidden Archives, is rapidly approaching! With the release date of March 13th only two weeks away, the pre-season patch is coming up quick as well.
We’ve already discussed the season’s themes in an article earlier today, which you can catch up with here. The changes coming to the classes and the multiple bug fixes are available to look through here as well, but now we’re here for the third and most interesting part of the new season – the new class sets being added!
#D3 Season 20 Preview
3️⃣ new class sets, rewards + more. 🔥
Uncover the Season of the Forbidden Archives: https://t.co/tFYjXrFyej pic.twitter.com/Y279YEJOkz
— Diablo (@Diablo) February 28, 2020
Let’s begin with the new Barbarian set, the Horde of the Ninety Savages. With the two-piece set bonus, this set doubles the effectiveness of all Shouts. Feared, Frozen, and Stunned enemies will also take double damage. The Stun part received some feedback on the PTR, stating that it might not quite fit with the set’s playstyle, but Blizzard is keeping it in hopes of opening up a variety of build options.
The four-piece bonus will cause each stack of Frenzy to reduce damage taken by 6%, as well as making Frenzy last twice as long. With six pieces of the set, Frenzy will deal an additional 1,000% damage per stack, making this set a quick way to tear down single targets.
The Witch Doctor is getting a new set as well! This set, Mundunugu’s Regalia, offers some small changes until you get the six-piece bonus. At two pieces, Big Bad Voodoo will now follow you and last twice as long. With four, you’ll gain 60% reduction for 30 seconds after entering the Spirit Realm.
At six, though, Spirit Barrage deals 20,000% increased damage, plus an additional % equal to five times your Mana Regeneration per second. Blizzard mentions that the bonus definitely overperforms at the highest end, but they want to maintain the capabilities at early gearing stages.
Our final set to discuss is the new set coming for Wizards, The Typhon’s Veil. This set is summoning based, with each bonus working to buff your hydras. The two-piece bonus doubles the duration of Hydras, as well as increasing the number of heads on multi-headed Hydras by two.
With the four-piece bonus, damage taken is reduced by 8% for each Hydra head alive. This will kill a Hydra head each time you take damage, but only once every two seconds. Finally, with six pieces, Hydras deal 1300% increased damage for each Hydra head alive.
These sets are powerful enough to provide alternative playstyles without drastically changing everything that players have grown used to over the years. While they may not immediately become the new meta, they’re sure to provide a fun playstyle for those that decide to build into them! The pre-season patch will be here soon, but until then, see you in Hell!