d3 Season 26 Begins April 15 + Official Preview

[Staff 1,488]

Season 26 in Diablo 3 starts on April 15, at 5 PM (PDT/CEST/KST). Here's Blizzard's official preview of the new Season and Patch 2.7.3.

Rewards for the Season 26 Journey include a new Rakkis' Rememberance portrait and a Toothsome Trooper pet.

The official patch notes have been updated multiple times throughout testing. You can read the most recent iteration below.

(Source)

Season 26 will begin on April 15, at 5 PM (PDT/CEST/KST) shortly after our next Diablo III update. Read on to learn more about the season theme and balance changes coming in Patch 2.7.3. We are expecting this update to be released on April 12.

---

Table of Contents

• Season Theme
• Season Cosmetic Rewards
• Season Journey Rewards
• Season Conquests
• Haedrig's Gifts
• Patch Notes
  • Seasons
  • Greater Rift Updates
  • Items
  • Bug Fixes

---

New Season Theme

The souls of heroes defeated in the eternal struggle against evil call for aid! Astute Nephalem will listen to the petrified screams of the dead, and find themselves attuned to the last agonizing moments of the departed. Will these Nephalem heed the whispers of atonement of fallen heroes and survive their echoing nightmare? Or will they be forever trapped, becoming just another fallen Nephalem? Only time will tell...

In Season 26, we introduce the Echoing Nightmare. This is our first Seasonal Theme that introduces a new activity to the game. In the Echoing Nightmare, players will experience an intense, densely packed, increasingly challenging event that stretches their ability to stay in the fight as long as possible. We found inspiration in Orek's warning, "Many Nephalem have stood where you are now, but few succeeded in overcoming the trials." The Echoing Nightmare explores what happened to those Nephalem who did not succeed.

Return to Top

---

Seasonal Cosmetic Rewards

Beginning with Season 17, we began reintroducing previous rewards to make them available to players who may have missed them the first time around. For Season 26, this means awards originally available from Season 14 are returning. In addition to the Boots and Pants slots of the exclusive Conqueror Set, a series of portrait frames themed around the enigmatic Tal Rasha will be available. For the nephalem hero who wants to embody the spirit of Justice, a pennant dedicated to everyone’s favorite archangel will also be available. Just remember—you cannot judge Justice itself!

However, we know it’s nice to have something new to aim for if you’ve participated in previous Seasons. We’re continuing to provide new End of Journey rewards as introduced in Season 17, with two new cosmetic ones for those who complete the entirety of the Season journey. Endure The Fall of the Nephalem and complete the Season 26 Guardian Journey to earn the Rakkis’ Remembrance portrait and the Toothsome Trooper pet.

Return to Top

---

Season Journey Rewards

If you’ve been playing the past few Seasons diligently and reached Conqueror in the Season Journey each time, you’ve accrued a few extra stash tabs. Players who have not yet earned a total of five stash tabs via the Season Journey can still unlock an additional one by completing the following tasks at the Conqueror tier:

• Complete a level 70 Torment XIII Rift in under 5 minutes
• Complete Greater Rift 60 solo
• Kill Greed on Torment XIII
• Kill the Butcher at level 70 in Torment XIII in under 30 seconds
• Reforge a Legendary or Set item
• Augment an Ancient item with a Level 50 or greater Legendary Gem
• Level three Legendary Gems to 55
• Complete two Conquests

Return to Top

---

Seasonal Conquests

Speaking of Conquests, we’re rotating those, too! Returning for the Season of Greed is Avarice and Avarita, where every gold piece you find will count! Speed Demon and Need for Speed will ask you to kick it into full gear in your Nephalem Rift runs. On a Good Day and I Can’t Stop will congratulate high ranking Legendary Gems. Finally, for the solo crowd, Divinity and Lionhearted will ask you to climb Greater Rift heights by your lonesome, while Years of War and Dynasty challenge your game mastery of at least six classes.

Return to Top

---

Haedrig’s Gift

Finally, just as before, you’ll get a shiny new Class Set courtesy of Haedrig’s Gift for completing certain chapters in the Season Journey. We’ve listed the available Sets below. For those new to Seasons, here’s how it works:

Completing Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of the Season Journey will reward you with three Haedrig’s Gifts. Each Gift contains a few pieces from one of your Class Sets. Players can only unlock one Class Set in this manner per Season across Hardcore and Non-Hardcore, so choose wisely!

The set you will receive depends on the Class of the character you’re playing when you open each Haedrig’s Gift. To collect a full Class Set, you’ll need to open all three on the same character.

Here are the sets granted by Haedrig’s Gift in Season 26:

• Barbarian – The Legacy of Raekor
• Crusader – Armor of Akkhan
• Demon Hunter – Embodiment of the Marauder
• Monk – Inna’s Reach
• Necromancer – Pestilence Master’s Shroud
• Witch Doctor – Zunimassa’s Haunt
• Wizard – Delsere’s Magnum Opus

Return to Top

---

Patch Notes

Below you will find the patch notes for the upcoming update for Diablo III, Patch 2.7.3

Table of Contents:

• Seasons
• Greater Rift Updates
• Items
• Bug Fixes and Misc Updates

Note: All changes apply to all versions of Diablo III, including PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC unless otherwise indicated.

---

Seasons

Season 26 introduces the Echoing Nightmare, an optional and rewarding end-game challenge where players fight within the memories of Nephalem who fell in a Greater Rift. Today’s Nephalem must stand their ground until they are inevitably Overwhelmed or defeated. Players must collect a Petrified Scream from defeated Greater Rift Guardians to gain entry to the Echoing Nightmare. Transmuting a Petrified Scream in Kanai's Cube summons a portal that players can enter to face the horrors of the Nephalem's past.

Season Theme Details:

• Petrified Screams and the Echoing Nightmare can only be accessed with seasonal characters.
• Only one player is required to transmute a Petrified Scream to open an Echoing Nightmare in a multiplayer game.
• Similar to a boss encounter, all players in a multiplayer game must accept a prompt to enter.
• While within an Echoing Nightmare, the difficulty scales as players progress in the encounter. Players can progress faster by defeating monsters quickly.
• Players receive the following rewards upon completing an Echoing Nightmare: EXP, Legendary Items, Blood Shards, Gems, and a new Legendary Gem, Whisper of Atonement.
• The Whisper of Atonement is a Legendary Gem used exclusively for Augmenting Ancient Legendary items. It drops pre-ranked based upon the player's performance in the Echoing Nightmare.
• Rare monsters now spawn within an Echoing Nightmare.
• Meteors now fall from the sky.
• Hellish Machinations now appear, which spawn streams of Exploding Lunatics.
• Rift Guardians now spawn.
• Increased the frequency of which monsters spawn.
• Updated the Shadow Clone explosion to better reflect the area of effect.
• The exit timer has been increased to 60 seconds.
• Increased the possible rank a Whisper of Atonement can drop to 125 based on the Tier completed.
• Monsters in Echoing Nightmares can no longer be Frozen, Stunned, Rooted or Knocked Back.
• Fixed a bug that caused Conduit Shrines to deal less damage than intended.

New Updates (Post-PTR)

• Monsters from the Echoing Nightmares no longer drop gold, items or health globes.
• Adjusted the damage done by Exploding Lunatics and Meteors to be more deadly.
• Adjust Meteor and Fallen Lunatic Molten damage to be Physical.
• Adjusted the difficulty of Tiers 100+.
• Replaced the Shield Pylon with a Speed Pylon.
• Adjusted the EXP rewarded by Echoing Nightmares to be aligned with Greater Rift turn-in rewards.
• Reduced the Echoing Nightmare closing timer to 30 seconds.
• Prevented Echoing Nightmares from being opened in games lower than level 70.
• Adjusted Exploding Lunatic and Meteor damage to Physical.
• Adjusted the drop rate of Petrified Screams from Greater Rift Guardians.

Return to Patch Notes Table of Contents

Return to Top

---

Greater Rift Updates

We wanted to improve the Greater Rift experience through quality of life updates, balance changes and addressing community feedback. We reviewed all of the maps and monsters that appear in Greater Rifts and reworked the probabilities overall to make sure players spend more time with the content they enjoy. Less spaghetti and more chickens!

Orek's Dream: Greater Rifts have a small chance to roll as Orek's Dream. These dreamlike rifts have a curated list of maps and monster compositions.

• 3 maps have been added and 2 maps have been removed from the Greater Rift pool.
  • Added: Fields of Misery, Desolate Sands and Briarthorn Cemetery
  • Removed: Sewers of Caldeum, and Hidden Aqueducts
• The probability of Greater Rift maps has been adjusted.
• The probability of monster groups has been adjusted.
• The following monsters have been adjusted to grant more progression and EXP within Greater Rifts.
  • Blazing Guardians
  • Smoldering Guardians
  • Frost Guardian
  • Noxious Guardian
  • Shock Guardian
  • Blood Clan Spearman
  • Dark Moon Clan Impaler
  • Moon Clan Impaler
  • Blood Clan Impaler
  • Ice Clan Impaler
  • Hell Witch
  • Vile Temptress
• Players can speak to Orek to close an active Greater Rift. This option is only available when in a single player game.
• Further increased the progression granted by some monsters in Greater Rifts.
• Additionally, increased the progression granted by Fallen Shaman, Fallen Conjurer, Fallen Prophet and Fallen Firemage.
• Updated visual effects upon entering an Orek's Dream.
• Updated the Orek's Dream vignette to be more pronounced.

Return to Patch Notes Table of Contents

Return to Top

---

Items

Barbarian

• Legacy of Raekor (4-piece Bonus): Furious Charge gains the effect of every rune and deals 1000% increased damage. For every 1% Life you are missing, the damage of your Ancient Spear is increased by 2%.
• Legacy of Raekor (6-piece Bonus): Hitting enemies with Furious Charge or Weapon Throw increases the damage of your next Ancient Spear by 5500% and causes it to release multiple spears from its target. This effect stacks and each spear throw consumes a maximum of 5 stacks.
• Arreat's Law: Weapon Throw and Ancient Spear deal 150-200% increased damage.
  • Weapon Throw generates up to 25 50 additional Fury based on the distance of the enemy hit. The generated Fury can go above the maximum cap by 200 Fury.
  • Ancient Spear refunds up to 25 50 Fury based on the distance of the enemy hit and resets your Fury cap to its base maximum.
• The Three Hundredth Spear: Increase the damage of Weapon Throw and Ancient Spear by 150-200%. The attack speed of Weapon Throw is increased by 200%.
• Skular's Salvation: Increase the damage of Ancient Spear by 150-200%. If your Ancient Spear - Boulder Toss hits 5 or fewer enemies, the damage is increased by 100%.

Developer's Note: We've added additional Weapon Throw buffs to give players more build options when playing the reworked Legacy of Raekor set. We've also updated Arreat's Law to allow players to reach new levels of Fury.

Developer's Note: We reworked Raekor’s Legacy to give the set its own identity. It felt natural to the team to infuse the charging fantasy of Raekor’s Legacy with the Barbarian’s ranged skills.

Crusader

• Thorns of the Invoker: The attack speed of Punish and Slash are increased by 100% and deal 67,500% of your Thorns damage.
• Norvald's Fervor: Gain 200% increased damage while using Steed Charge and for 5 seconds after it ends.

Developer's Note: Norvald's Fervor is overperforming across multiple sets. We want to bring its power down, but we are Increasing the utility of Thorns of the Invoker to compensate.

Monk

• All Mystic Allies spawned by Inna's Mantra 6-piece bonus now have their duration refreshed with each attack.
• Mystic Ally - Fire Ally: Mini allies now have Passability.
• Mystic Ally - Earth Ally:
  • Earth Ally boulders speed has been increased. Boulders always leash to the player regardless of how many monsters are on screen.
  • Prevented Earth Ally boulders from being slowed by missile dampening.

Developer's Note: We've made improvements to Mystic Ally that should make the skill feel more fluid and less clunky at times.

• Bindings of the Lesser Gods: Enemies hit by your Cyclone Strike take 150%-200% more damage from your Mystic Ally for 5 seconds.

Developer's Note: We're happy with the gameplay of Inna's Mantra Monks, but the Fire build is overperforming, so we removed the Fire Ally bonus from the Bindings of the Lesser Gods.

Return to Patch Notes Table of Contents

Return to Top

---

Bug Fixes | 2.7.3

• Prevented players from changing difficulty while an Echoing Nightmare is active.
• Fixed a bug where Boon of the Hoarder allowed gold to drop in Echoing Nightmares.
• Fixed a bug where Orek's Dream vignette sometimes goes away on Shrouded Moors and Festering Woods when entering anything other than level 1.
• Fixed a bug that caused Orek's Dream opening VFX to display inconsistently.

Return to Patch Notes Table of Contents

Return to Top

[Trest 61]

All 5 conquests are easy-mode this time—with the possible exception of Dynasty/Years of War (GRift 55 with 6 different sets), depending on your view of leveling more than one character in the season (I’ve always done it when it’s come up in previous seasons).