Diablo 4 season 5's return to hell supercharges its most overlooked loot to game-breaking levels

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Diablo IV | Inside the Game | Season of the Infernal Hordes - YouTubeWatch On

Diablo IV | Inside the Game | Season of the Infernal Hordes - YouTube

Although Blizzard’ssweeping changes to lootin Diablo 4’s last season successfully revitalized the action RPG, there was one problem: An entire tier of loot was rendered more or less obsolete. The unique items with the most creative effects, like a wand that teleports sorcerers to random locations, couldn’t compete with the renewed power of normal legendary items.

In season 5, which starts next week, Blizzard has taken every singleunique in Diablo 4and boosted their power. The goal, it says, is for unique items to rival Diablo 4’s ultra-rare ‘uber’ uniques, for the specific build they enable. When these items drop in season 5, you’re going to be tempted to wrap your entire build around them.

A look at season 5’s reworked Harlequin Crest.(Image credit: Blizzard)

Diablo 4 item tooltip for the Harlequin Crest helmet

The new stats on uniques mirror some of the ones you can now add onto your legendary gear with Diablo 4’s new tempering system. Uniques aren’t customizable, however, which lets Blizzard curate what kind of powerful stats it wants to give you. And with masterworking upgrades, you can raise these bonuses way higher than their base values, incentivizing you to find a way to work them into your build.

Blizzard is also introducing a new wave-based roguelite dungeon calledInfernal Hordesin season 5, which will be a permanent addition to Diablo 4’s buffet of endgame activities. Infernal Hordes are sort of like playing Hades if it took place in one hellish room: You fight waves of demons with the option to make them harder to improve your rewards at the end. Die too many times and the run is over. Infernal Hordes are the centerpiece of season 5 and will be the main source of over 50 new legendary and unique items Blizzard is adding to the game.

The Season of the Infernal Hordes starts next week on August 6 and will run right up until the release of theVessel of Hatred expansionon October 8, making it one month shorter than the previous seasons.

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