d3 Diablo 3 Season 30 Overview and January 12th Launch Date Revealed

[Staff 1,488]

A new Diablo 3 season starts in just a week! Season 30, The Lords of Hell, arrives on January 12th and brings the new seasonal rotation system. We're getting reprised rewards from Season 25, featuring the Soul Shards gems, as well as the now permanent Rites of Sanctuary and Visions of Enmity systems.

Let's take a look at everything that's coming below! 

Season 30 (Source)

Sanctuary needs you to answer its call for aid in Season 30: The Lords of Hell. Starting on January 12 at 5 p.m. PST/CET/KST, Nephalem can harness the power of The Lords of Hell Season Theme, which first debuted with Season 25. For an in-depth look at the now-permanent Rites of Sanctuary and Visions of Enmity themes, Class Balance, and more, take a gander below.

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Seasonal Journey

Season 30: The Lords of Hell

Season Cosmetic Rewards

Season Journey Rewards

Seasonal Conquest

Haedrig’s Gift

Patch Notes

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Season 30: The Lords of Hell

Though the Black Soulstone has been destroyed, lingering fragments of The Lords of Hell once contained therein still persist in Sanctuary. These Soul Shards hold immense power—power that once belonged to the Prime and Lesser Evils. Cunning Nephalem who find and wield these Soul Stones must exercise caution. Power can be alluring, and the road to the Burning Hells is paved with good intentions...

Season 30 is the first to utilize our new Season theme rotation system, reintroducing The Lords of Hell theme first seen in Season 25. Players can embrace evil by infusing themselves with the essences of Hell’s Lords using Soul Shards. Players will embark on their Season Journey to discover and upgrade demonic Soul Shards based on the seven Lords of Hell. By embodying a Prime and Lesser Evil, players will inflict new forms of pain and suffering on the demons of Sanctuary. We can't wait for players to get their hands on Soul Shards to start unlocking their true power.

Nephalem can find 7 unique Soul Shards(based on the seven Lords of Hell), which give players demonic new powers. One of 3 Prime Evil Soul Shards can be equipped into Helms and one of 4 Lesser Evil Soul Shards can be equipped into Weapons. Each Soul Shard can be upgraded three times using a new seasonal-exclusive consumable, the Hellforge Ember.

Soul Shards and Hellforge Embers can drop from anywhere in Sanctuary, but Soul Shards have a higher chance to drop from Bosses. Soul Shards cannot be traded, but can be salvaged or utilized in Caldesann’s Despair. You may only equip one Prime Evil Soul Shard and one Lesser Evil Soul Shard at a time. Lastly, Soul Shards and Hellforge Embers only drop in Seasonal play, and will not transfer to your non-seasonal character when the season ends. For a look into the capabilities for each of the Soul Shard powers look below.

Prime Evil Soul Shards

Sliver of Terror

• Base Power: Your cooldowns are increased by 25%. For every skill on cooldown, you take 12.5% reduced damage and deal 12.5% increased damage.
• Additional Powers:
  • Your attack speed and critical hit chance are increased by 5% for each skill on cooldown.
  • You cast a devastating Ring of Fire after killing 100 enemies.
  • If three or more skills are on cooldown, your lightning and fire skill damage are increased by 50%.

Shard of Hatred

• Base Power: You deal 15% reduced damage while you have 3 or fewer enemies within 25 yards. If more than 3 enemies are within the same distance, you deal 5% increased damage per enemy (to a maximum of 50%).
• Additional Powers:
  • Killing an elite enemy pulls all enemies within 40 yards to where the elite died.
  • Your Movement speed is increased by 50%. Each enemy within 25 yards reduces your movement speed by 10% up to 70%.
  • You now deal 15% 10% increased damage for every enemy instead of 5% (to a maximum of 100%).

Fragment of Destruction

• Base Power: You move unhindered through enemies. Each enemy you pass through receives Mark of Destruction for 7 seconds. Each marked enemy that dies removes 1 second from one of your skills on cooldown. If the Mark of Destruction expires before the enemies die you lose 2% of your maximum health as damage. Marks are not applied if you are below 35% health.
• Additional Powers:
  • You have a 25% Chance to restore 5% health when an enemy dies with Mark of Destruction active.
  • When you apply Mark of Destruction to an enemy, you increase your movement speed by 5% for 7 seconds. Max 10 Stacks.
  • You now leave a trail of fire in your wake that slays enemies with the Mark of Destruction and are below 10% health.

Lesser Evil Soul Shards

Stain of Sin

• Base Power: You deal 25% less damage. When you kill 50 enemies, you spawn a pool of blood that increases the damage done to elite enemies by 150% and lasts 15 seconds.
• Additional Powers:
  • The pool of blood now negates Elite affixes within its area.
  • You gain an additional Rift Progress Orb when you kill and elite pack.
  • The pool of blood now collects Rift Progress Orbs.

Dregs of Lies

• Base Power: You deal 25% less damage. Your pets deal 25% increased damage.
• Additional Powers:
  • Killing an elite enemy reduces all your active cooldowns by 5 seconds.
  • On receiving fatal damage, spawn a shadow that prevents your death, restores your health to 35%, and grants +225 All Resist to all party members while it is active. The shadow only lasts 15 seconds.
  • Each time your pet hits an enemy, your damage is increased by 0.5% for 5 seconds. This stacks up to 100 times. When you reach 100 stacks, the stacks quickly reset to 0.

Remnant of Pain

• Base Power: Your Critical Hit Chance is reduced by 15%. Attacks against Incapacitated enemies are automatically critical hits.
• Additional Powers:
  • Hitting enemies with cold damage has a 50% chance to freeze them. Cold skill damage is increased to frozen targets by 20%.
  • Gain passability while your movement speed bonus is over 50%. When you move through enemies you knock them back and stun them for 2 seconds.
  • When you critically hit an enemy you increase the attack speed all players by 5% for 5 seconds. Max 10 stacks.

Essence of Anguish

• Base Power: Every time you deal poison damage to an enemy you increase your cooldown reduction and movement speed by 2.5% while your damage received is increased by 5% for 10 seconds. Max 10 stacks.
• Additional Powers:
  • Your movement speed and cooldown reduction can be increased up to 15 times by dealing poison damage to an enemy.
  • When you deal poison damage to an enemy they receive 50% increased poison damage from all sources for 10 seconds.
  • Killing an enemy deals the damage done by the death blow to all enemies within 25 yards.

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Season 30 Cosmetic Rewards

In addition to the Chest and Gloves slots of the exclusive Conqueror Set, players will be able to earn a series of portrait frames bedecked with the mysterious beauty of Blood Shards. A ghastly All Hallow’s pennant will also be available, allowing you to proudly proclaim your love for all things grim and creepy.

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Season Journey Rewards

If you’ve been diligently slaying demons for the past few Seasons and reached Conqueror in the Season Journey each time, you’ve surely accrued a few extra Stash tabs. You’ll earn one additional tab each Season by finishing the Conqueror tier, up to a maximum of five Stash tabs:

• Guardian of Sanctuary: Finish a level 70 Nephalem Rift on Torment XIII within five minutes.
• Gem of My Life: Level three Legendary Gems to level 55.
• All I Do IS Win: Complete two Conquests this Season.
• Disarm You: Kill Rakanoth at level 70 in under 15 seconds on Torment XIII difficulty.
• Money Ain’t A Thang: Slay Greed on Torment XIII difficulty.
• Take U There: Reach Greater Rift level 60 Solo.
• Power Amplification: Use Kanai’s Cube to augment an Ancient Legendary item with a level 50+ gem.
• Cubic Reconfiguration: Use Kanai’s Cube to reforge a Legendary item.

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Seasonal Conquest

Want to prepare your Conquest plan for Season 30? Here are the challenges you’ll face!

Push your way to Greater Rift level 75 to complete Divinity/Lionhearted. On a Good Day/I Can’t Stop guides you to get your Legendary Gem grind on; level three Legendary Gems to 65 to complete this challenge! For the speedy, Speed Demon/Need for Speed requires the fastest Nephalem to complete a Nephalem Rift at level 70 on Torment X or higher in under two minutes. For Curses!/Stars Align, pick any Cursed Chest event that requires killing monsters and defeat over 350 or more at level 70 on Torment X or higher. For the fiercest demon slayers, Boss Mode/World’s Apart is a speed challenge where you’ll need to eliminate the following bosses at level 70 and Torment X in under twenty minutes:

• The Skeleton King
• The Butcher
• Zoltun Kulle
• Ghom
• Cydaea
• Rakanoth
• Diablo
• Adria
• Queen Araneae
• Maghda
• Belial
• Siegebreaker Assault Beast
• Azmodan
• Izual
• Urzael
• Malthael

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Haedrig’s Gift

Finally, the Class Sets rewarded for completing certain chapters in the Season Journey courtesy of Haedrig’s Gift have rotated once more. 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 of 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 30

• 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

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Patch Notes

Below you’ll find patch notes for the upcoming update to Diablo III: Patch 2.7.7. It goes live on January 9.

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.

New Permanent Features: Rites of Sanctuary and Visions of Enmity

Back by popular demand, the Rites of Sanctuary and Visions of Enmity Season themes have become a permanent fixture of Diablo III. While we are extremely excited to make these features always available, to ensure your time slaying demons remains balanced, we had to make some adjustments to the bonuses provided by the Altar of Rites. When existent alongside Visions of Enmity, continual Season themes, and adjustments to Class balance, we felt the game’s balance would benefit from adjustments to Rites of Sanctuary. Here’s what has changed:

• Force
  • Decreased damage to +100 from +200.
• Shadow
  • Decreased Missile Damage Reduction to 5% from 25%.
• Exodus
  • Decreased Movement Speed (Uncapped) to +10% from +25%.
• Command
  • Increased damage against Elites reduced to 5% from 15%.
• Tenacity
  • Increased damage reduced to 5% from 20%.
• Reverence
  • Reduces damage taken from Elites by 5%, previously 25%.
• Numb
  • 25% Decreased Melee Damage Reduction to 5% from 25%.
• Nature
  • Highest elemental skill damage bonus increased by 5%, previously 10%.
• Prowess
  • Increased damage against Elites reduced to 5% from 20%.
• Roar
  • Damage done to Bosses increased to 5% from 50%.
• Elegance
  • Chance to Dodge increased by 5%, previously 15%.
• Malice
  • Decreased to +5% Damage from +30% Damage.
• Father
  • Power pylon has been removed from random Shrine effect.
• Mother
  • Triune of Love Circle now increases damage by 50%, previously 100%.

Developer’s Note: In pursuit for all of Diablo III’s systems to feel both fun and challenging, the Altar of Rites adjustments were made to maintain a sense of progression throughout playing while not coming into conflict with other features.

• Empowered shrine has been removed from the random Shrine effect of the Father Seal from Altar of Rites.

Feature Changes

• Chilltara now has a 20% drop rate of Gibbering Gemstone.
• Whisper of Atonements can now be salvaged for 1–3 Forgotten Souls.
• Orek's Dream encounter rate buffed from 1 to 4%.
• Gelatinous Sire goblins no longer spawn from the Goblin Shrine inside Echoing Nightmares.

Class Balance Changes

Striking a middle ground between fun and balanced is our top priority when it comes to Classes. As we mentioned in our Season 29 article, going forward, a series of iconic themes from Seasons past will be reintroduced roughly every 3 months. The below Class balances changes were made to ensure each Class remains both fun and balanced as powerful Season themes return to Diablo III.

Developer’s Note: Over time, we have seen some builds gain a massive amount of power, leaving other builds behind and in need of updates. The Wizard's Meteor has dominated the battlegrounds of Sanctuary for far too long, as well as some other Sets. We believe to have found a good avenue for each build to perform in and have improved Sets across each class to work towards this goal.

Any changes made to the below between the PTR and now, and any new additions, have been marked in red.

Barbarian

• Might of the Earth
  • Increased the damage of Earthquake, Avalanche, Leap, Ground Stomp, Ancient Spear and Seismic Slam to 37,500% from 20,000%.
• The Legacy of Raekor
  • Hitting enemies with Furious Charge or Weapon Throw increases the damage of your next Ancient Spear by 2,500% from 5,500% and causes it to release multiple spears from its target. This effect stacks and each spear throw consumes a maximum of 5 stacks.

Crusader

• Roland's Legacy
  • Increased the damage of Shield Bash and Sweep Attack to 40,000% from 17,500%.
• Aegis of Valor
  • Increased the damage of Fist of the Heavens and Heaven's Fury to 15,000% from 20,000%.
• Akkhan's Manacles
  • Blessed Shield damage is increased by 400-500% for the first enemy it hits. Additionally, this bonus continues and is reduced by 50% for each subsequent non- Shattering Throw target.
• Blade of Prophecy
  • Condemned enemies also trigger Condemn's explosion and the damage of Condemn is increased by 600-800%.
• Faithful Memory
  • Each enemy hit by Falling Sword increases the damage of Blessed Hammer by 60-80% for 10 seconds. Max 10 stacks. Each stack of this buff can now stack between uses instead of resetting.
• Denial
  • Each enemy hit by your Sweep Attack increases the damage of your next Sweep Attack by 100–125%, stacking up to 5 times between uses. Each stack lasts up to 5 seconds.

Demon Hunter

• The Shadow's Mantle
  • Impale’s additional damage increased to 120,000% weapon damage from 75,000% to the first enemy hit, and to 40,000% from 25,000% to subsequent enemies.
• Embodiment of the Marauder
  • Your primary skills, Elemental Arrow, Chakram, Impale, Multishot, Cluster Arrow, Companions, Vengeance, and Sentries now deal 9,500% increased damage, previously 12,000%, for every active Sentry.

Monk

• Raiment of a Thousand Storms
  • Your Spirit Generators increase the weapon damage of Dashing Strike to 60,000% for 6 seconds and Dashing Strike increases the damage of your Spirit Generators by 14,000%, instead of 6,000%, for 6 seconds.
• Uliana's Stratagem
  • Increased the damage of your Exploding Palm from 9,000% to 12,500% and your Seven-Sided Strike detonates your Exploding Palm.
• Kyoshiro's Blade
  • When the initial impact of your Wave of Light hits 5 or fewer enemies, previously 3, the damage is increased by 200-250%.

Necromancer

• Pestilence
  • Each corpse you consume grants you an Empowered Bone Spear charge that increases the damage of your next Bone Spear by 6,000% from 3,300%. In addition, Corpse Lance and Corpse Explosion damage is increased by 6,000% from 3,300%.
  • Each enemy you hit with Bone Spear, Corpse Lance, and Corpse Explosion reduces your damage taken by 3%, up to a maximum of 75%. Lasts 15 seconds.
• Inarius
  • Bone Armor also activates a swirling tornado of bone, damaging nearby enemies for 1000% weapon damage and increasing the damage they take from the Necromancer to 19,000% from 10,000%.
• Trag'Oul's Avatar
  • Your Life-spending abilities deal 6,250% increased damage, previously 10,000%, and your healing from skills is increased by 100%.
• Masquerade of the Burning Carnival
  • Bone Spear cast by you and your Simulacrums deals 5,500% increased damage, previously 9,000%. Simulacrums gain triple this bonus.
• Bloodtide Blade
  • Death Nova deals 300-400% increased damage for every enemy within 25 yards, up to 10 enemies, previously 25 enemies.
• Grasps of Essence
  • When an exploded corpse damages at least one enemy, your Corpse Explosion deals 150-200% increased damage for 6 seconds, stacking up to 4 times, previously 5 stacks.
• Corpsewhisper Pauldrons
  • Corpse Lance damage is increased to 50-75% from 20-30% for 3 seconds when you consume a corpse. Max 20 stacks.

Witch Doctor

• Raiment of the Jade Harvester
  • Soul Harvest reduces damage taken by 50% for 12 seconds and consumes your damage over time effects on enemies, instantly dealing 26,000 seconds worth of remaining damage, previously 10,000.
• Helltooth Harness
  • After casting Wall of Death, gain 37,500% increased damage, previously 17,500%, for 15 seconds to your primary skills, Acid Cloud, Firebats, Zombie Charger, Zombie Dogs, Gargantuan, Grasp of the Dead, Piranhas, and Wall of Death./li>
• Mundunugu's Regalia
  • Spirit Barrage deals 17,500% increased damage, previously 20,000% plus an additional % equal to 5 times your Mana Regeneration/Second.
• Spirit of Arachyr
  • The damage of your creature skills is increased by 11,500%, previously 25,000%. Creature skills are Corpse Spiders, Plague of Toads, Firebats, Locust Swarm, Hex, and Piranhas.
• Zunimassa's Haunt
  • Enemies hit by your Mana spenders take 13,000% increased damage, previously 15,000%, from your pets for 8 seconds.

Wizard

• Delsere's Magnum Opus
  • Enemies affected by your Slow Time and for 5 seconds after exiting take 20,000% increased damage, previously 12,500%, from your Arcane Orb, Energy Twister, Magic Missile, Shock Pulse, Spectral Blade, Electrocute, and Arcane Torrent abilities.
• Tal Rasha's Elements
  • Attacks increase your damage by 1,000%, previously 2,000%, for 8 seconds. Arcane, Cold, Fire, and Lightning attacks each add one stack. At 4 stacks, each different elemental attack extends the duration by 2 seconds, up to a maximum of 8 seconds.
• The Smoldering Core
  • Lesser enemies are now lured to your Meteor impact areas. Meteors deal 40-50% increased damage on consecutive hits to the same target. This stacks up to 3 times, previously 10.
• The Twisted Sword
  • Energy Twister damage is increased by 125-150% for each Energy Twister you have out up to a maximum of 3, previously 5. The Raging Storm rune is automatically applied to Energy Twister and allows the tornado to merge with 3 additional Energy Twisters.

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[DracoInferno 8]

And yet, they never announced the end date for the current Season 29...

[KomodoDragoon 3]

Really? Season 30 and 10.2.5 are happening within half a week of each other? Great, now I gotta choose. 😭

EDIT: Nevermind, I guess I'm doing 10.2.5 since the Altar and Visions are seasonal only.

Edited January 11 by KomodoDragoon