I thought Diablo 4 had already evolved into a great action RPG, but its latest season just made it even better (2024)

My sorceress isn't even halfway to Diablo 4's max level and she's frying rooms full of monsters with lightning like I was playing an endgame build. After a hugely successful season 4, Blizzard didn't need to reinvent the mucus-slick wheel, but Diablo 4 season 5 frontloads the fun with the most exciting loot drops I've seen in the action RPG, period.

Almost every single unique item in the game has been supercharged to turn your little demon slayer into a god, way more than normal legendary loot ever could. Their powerful effects, like causing your fireballs to bounce off the ground, are largely untouched, but their stats have been boosted to ludicrous levels. Previous seasons wouldn't dare give you an item that duplicates your chain lightning—that would be something to look forward to at level 100. In season 5, I put on a special pair of pants at level 30, became Storm, and haven't taken them off since.

The Axial Conduit pants are one of the clever new unique items in season 5. They basically turn you into a walking lightning storm that electrifies everything in your path. Not only do they give you a chance to cast your chain lightning twice, each one will ping pong between you and your enemies and eventually explode for loads of damage. The only drawback is that it eats up your mana quickly, but that can be remedied within your skill tree.

Season 5's debut system (which will stay in the game permanently) is Infernal Hordes, a set of hellish arenas that serve as Diablo's version of a wave-based horde mode. Enemies flood in from all directions as you dart around collecting aether to cash in for loot at the end. Each wave ends with a choice between a few modifiers, or 'boons & banes', that ramp up the difficulty for extra aether rewards. I liked what I played of the infernal hordes in Blizzard's public test realm version of season 5 last month, but I've only been able to try the dungeon versions of them in the live season.

They're called Hellbreach dungeons (which are seasonal only) and they emulate the real wave-based mode by scattering the same randomized events inside that reward aether for some chests at the end. As you charge through them, you'll find spires that need to be destroyed by killing nearby enemies. Once you have enough aether to move to the next section, you're given a choice for how you want to modify the next encounter. I chose to give the dungeon's final boss 50% extra health for just enough aether to open the biggest chest at the end. My lightning pants did most of the work for me and I was rewarded with a room full of powerful loot and loads of XP. Hellbreach dungeons are simple and definitely not quite as engaging as Infernal Hordes, but as an appetizer for what's to come they're a nice treat to break up the normal leveling process.

Hellbreach dungeons pair elegantly with the new uniques you find so you can fill out your codex of legendary powers to craft onto your gear. I was lucky enough to find a few powers that skyrocketed my damage against bosses—something chain lightning isn't particularly good at by default—which let me cruise through a dungeon where the monsters were 30 levels higher than me.

These big power spikes are what last season was missing. Even though all the items were more powerful, you didn't stumble into some build-defining unique that would transform how you played. Diablo 4 keeps shortening the time it takes to level up, but it was starting to become a chore to get to the good part. Now it's so exciting, I might start up a few other classes just to see what new toys I can play with.

It seems obvious now that Blizzard planned all along to reshape Diablo 4 until everyone gets to feel powerful and experiment with its most creative items before reaching the endgame. All the work it's done to smooth the process of finding gear, upgrading it, and using it in ways that twist your playstyle have finally come together. And with the Vessel of Hatred expansion on the horizon, I expect it to improve even more with the rumored level squish and rework to paragon boards, the one system that hasn't been touched since its release. I didn't think it was possible given how much changed last season, but season 5 really is better. Diablo 4 is absolutely in the best state it's ever been in.

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