Diablo IV: What's Next Panel Recap

Legendary content creator Rhykker sat down with Senior Game Director Brent Gibson, Live Service Design Director Dan Tanguay, and Lead Encounter Designer Owen Leach at BlizzCon 2026 on September 13 at 11:00 a.m. PT. They added detail and additional philosophy behind the development of Season of Hell's Legacy, celebrating Diablo's 30th Anniversary by reliving some of the most iconic moments, places, and characters in the history of Sanctuary. The team also shared an exclusive look ahead at upcoming plans for future Seasons. To learn more about Season of Hell's Legacy, the Season Overview and Patch Notes are linked below.

In addition, Rhykker talked with Brent, Lead Game Producer Lily Gardner, and Senior Lead VFX Artist Jayne Johnston about the development, artistry, and design philosophy behind the 2027 return of the Amazon, the fan-favorite class with a long and storied history.

To watch this panel, please visit our Twitch and YouTube links at the end of this recap.

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Season of Hell's Legacy

The Amazon Enters the Battle in 2027

More About Season of Hell's Legacy

Season of Hell's Legacy

Season of Hell's Legacy marks the pinnacle of Diablo's 30th Anniversary celebration. To lead off the recap, Brent introduced the premiere of the Season of Hell's Legacy trailer:

Seasonal Questline and Theme

The Pandemonium Rifts from the Season of Death Awakening were just the beginning. The dark rituals and the Death Cult are growing stronger, and now they're bringing souls lost in time from the very depths of Sanctuary's past.

Deckard Cain's lost soul walks in Sanctuary once again - although a bit confused by the journey. The dark wanderers have returned, and Cain calls upon you to redeem their lost souls. In doing so, you'll face the Echoes of the Prime Evils Mephisto, Baal, and Diablo by revisiting their iconic thrones in Worldstone Chamber, the Durance of Hate, and the original Diablo's Tristram Cathedral.

Once you do this, assume a Splinter of Evil of one of the three Prime Evils and become a dark wanderer yourself! This allows you to pursue reputation tracks that give you additional powers to fight the very Prime Evil whose stone you bear - as well as attract his unwanted attention.

Nightmares Awaken

The team revealed information about the Waking Nightmares, dungeons reliving epic battles and iconic encounters from Diablo's illustrious past. In addition to confronting the Echoes of the Prime Evils, you'll be visiting memorable settings from Diablo I, Diablo: Hellfire, II, III, and Diablo Immortal, all recreated with gloriously updated graphics.

By defeating the most difficult Waking Nightmares, you can earn a rare resource to switch whose Splinter of Evil you bear. This allows you to change reputation tracks, earn different rewards, and try out new powers, unlocking new modifiers and upgrades through War Plans.

The largest Waking Nightmares are introduced in the questline but can be replayed as Capstones. At the highest Torment levels, you can open these as Pinnacle Capstones, where only the most brave or foolhardy wanderers tread.

Dungeon-sized Waking Nightmares are fixed features and recreate iconic locations and encounters. Single-room Waking Nightmares can also pop up in the overworld, offering adventure and loot as you fight past bosses and mobs that have never been seen before in Diablo IV.

Nearly twenty bosses such as Nihlathak and the Maggot Queen, as well as a a host of heroes such as Leah from all previous games above, also return to share renowned nightmares of the past and reveal the potential impact on Sanctuary's future.

In addition to familiar faces, nine legacy Uniques, from Leoric's Crown to the Stone of Jordan, also make their permanent debut in this season.

Rebirth

Rebirth returns to Diablo, a fan-favorite feature that allows you to carry on a character's identity and legacy from season to season.

Mythic and Crafting Updates

Mythic Uniques and Iconic Uniques also received some additional attention, as a result of PTR feedback. The team thanked the community for input that led to changes to Mythic and Iconic crafting. In Season of Hell's Legacy, you'll be able to do the following:

• Use the Horadric Cube to upgrade an item directly from Unique to Mythic with all affixes intact.
• Acquire Mythic Charms, which have a small chance to drop whenever a Unique charm drops.
• Visit the Blacksmith to purchase two different Mythic caches, one for all class-usable Mythic Uniques and one only for Iconic Mythics.

In addition, two new Horadric Cube recipes were introduced to allow alterations on gear, charms, and Seals - one targeting Affixes without altering Greater Affixes, Enchants, or Tempers; the other is focused on randomizing base affixes on Charms and Seals.

Shared War Plans

Starting in Season of Hell's Legacy, War Plans progress will be shared among characters on your account within the shared partitions of Seasonal/Eternal, Non-Hardcore/Hardcore, and Normal/Solo-Self Found. You'll be able to allocate shared points across each character's own set of War Plans, similar to how Paragon points work.

Future Seasons

The team also shared a BlizzCon-only sneak peek at a few plans for upcoming seasons.

• Season of Hell's Legacy and upcoming Seasons carry on the Season of Death's Awakening story of the dead returning to life and the dire purposes of the Cult of the Dead.
• Future seasons will see further refinements and additions to War Plans, such as playlist customization and Seasonal variety, as well as itemization and customization expansion to support new build variety.

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The Amazon Enters the Battle in 2027

The team offered our first look at the female-only Amazon class for Diablo IV. From artistic and design creations to fulfilling the class fantasy we glimpsed among the Amazons of Skovos in Lord of Hatred, they shared the history, responsibility, and joy of envisioning the Amazon for today's Sanctuary.

Three design pillars informed the creation of the Amazon: battle expertise, unrivaled athleticism, and mythical magic. She is a fiercely disciplined warrior first who also leans into her mystical connection to her sister Amazons and Askari ancestors for magical aid when needed.

Four archetypes for the Amazon are shaping all facets of this class, along with the thought processes and ideas behind all facets of the vision and creation. From appearance to animation, down to the naming of skills, the Amazon's history creates the strong foundation for a class with deep and powerful roots.

• The Champion: the sword-and-shield melee fighter using buffs to reinforce both herself and her allies
• The Skirmisher: a lithe and agile hit-and-run combatant tearing apart her foes with the Javelin
• The Ranger: a precision tactical archer who snipes and cuts down enemies from a distance
• The Commander: a general dominating the field with phalanxes of Valkyries at her call

The Amazon will join Diablo IV with a Class Pack in the first half of 2027. Class Pack details and purchase details will be available next year closer to release.

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More About Season of Hell's Legacy

To watch this panel, please see our Twitch or YouTube:

• Twitch.tv/Diablo
• YouTube.com/Diablo

To read the Season of Hell's Legacy Overview blog with in-depth season details and the 3.2.1 Patch Notes, click here.

Our deepest thanks to every fan and player: none of this is possible without you.
-The Diablo IV Team