By opening the way for gamers to experience what’s next for Diablo 4, Blizzard and its inclusion of a Public Test Realm for Season 4 is a great way to integrate the fans and use their feedback to provide a better experience. And by better, I mean hellish. Prepare yourself for the future and check out all the new features coming to Diablo 4 Season 4 PTR.
Itemization features: Tempering, Greater Affixes, and Masterworking
One of the main additions you will get to experience during Diablo 4 Season 4 PTR are new itemization options that will see an increase in customization and build creation. From choosing specific Affixes via a new method to using end-game mechanics to level your items even further, here are all the new itemization features you will get to try in the Diablo 4 PTR servers:
- Tempering: By using a new item called a Temper Manual, you can add affixes to your items by visiting the Blacksmith. Similar to the Codex of Power mechanics, Temper Manuals can specialize in a specific effect that can be beneficial to Weapons, Offensive, Defensive, Utility, Mobility, and even Resource capabilities. Each Manual will carry several affixes and you can reroll them a limited amount of times – depending on its Temper Reroll value.
- Greater Affixes: As you might expect, Greater Affixes are an enhanced version of Affixes with a 1.5x multiplier on the maximum roll of a base Affix. These will appear on World Tier 3 and 4 and can only be found, so no Affix upgrading is available at all.
- Masterworking: By using materials from The Pit of Artificers, you will be able to upgrade your items through 12 upgrade ranks. For every 4 ranks, one of the item’s Affixes is upgraded greatly, with each rank upgrading every Affix slightly.
Helltide update: Threat and Accursed Ritual
One of the game’s events, Helltide, will receive some extra content which will up the stakes and increase the difficulty – and therefore, the rewards. Check out the two new additions to Helltides in Diablo 4 Season 4 PTR:
- Threat: Helltide Threat will generate proportionally to the difficulty of the monsters you fight and how often you are obtaining Tortured Gifts. As long as you don’t die and keep collecting Threat, you will reach three different Threat Tiers. Once you reach Tier 3, you will have to fight a plethora of enemies culminating with a class-specific fight against a Hellborne spawn.
- Accursed Ritual: The Cultists will perform a disturbing ritual that you will need to stop. Collect three Baneful Hearts and deposit them at the Accursed Ritual location and again fight multiple enemies with a final confrontation being against a Blood Maiden. Defeating her will reward you with valuable gifts.
The Pit of Artificers: Masterworking Farming
The Pit of Artificers will be the place you will get to visit during the Diablo 4 Season 4 PTR to get Masterworking materials. Once you get to World Tier 4, you will receive a quest involving completing a Tier 46 dungeon which will see you collect a specific number of Runeshard. Once you do, an Obelisk in Cerrigar will be activated, which will send you to The Pit. You will need to defeat all enemies in a 10-minute window, with each death removing valuable seconds from the timer. Depending on how you perform and kill The Pit’s boss, you will receive Masterworking materials and increasingly difficult Tiers of The Pit of Artificers.
PTR Optional Boosting
Finally, players are presented with the opportunity to instantly level their character to level 100 by interacting with an NPC called “PTR boost” in Kyovashad. This is completely optional, but boosting your character as soon as you start your testing will allow you to enjoy the end-game features that the PTR is designed to showcase. If you choose to do so, you will also earn the following benefits:
- 100 million gold.
- 1,000 Obols.
- Ancestral gear items (Power 920).
- Unlocked Paragon Glyphs.
- Potions and consumable materials.
- Doubled Legendary drop rate.
- Unlocked Class-specific mechanics.
- Fog of War completely cleared.
As you can see, there are lots of new content and features coming to Diablo 4. Be sure to install the Diablo 4 Season 4 PTR in time and get to experience the future of Diablo content without the need to level up in record time.
