Best Changes And Features In Diablo 4 Season 7

Summary

• New Seasonal Powers: Unlock Witchcraft abilities using restless rot and find Lost Powers in dungeons.
• Class Changes: Buffs for underutilized abilities, new abilities for Druids, Necromancers, and Sorcerers.
• Paragon Board Changes: Paragon experience carries over, increase in Paragon Points cap, new node values.

Diablo 4‘s Season 7, the Season of Witchcraft, is about to get underway and the developers have already shared some key insights on what changes and additions are coming. Players have mostly praised the changes that came with the Vessel of Hatred expansion, as well as the subsequent season of hatred rising, leaving fans only wanting more content, items, and abilities to play with.

That’s exactly what Season 7 aims to deliver. The major changes include new seasonal powers that pay homage to Diablo 3‘s Witch Doctor class, new occult gems to boost those powers, and a new variety of enemies and activity with the Headrotten and their associated Headhunts. For players who want a bit more detail, this topic will cover all the biggest and best changes coming to Diablo 4 in Season 7.

1

New Seasonal Powers

The Season Of Witchcraft

Key Changes:

• Earn Restless Rot to gain favor with the Coven and unlock Witchcraft powers
• Stronger Lost Powers can be found at forgotten altars in dungeons
• Powers include Firebats, Poison Frogs, Hexes, and Vengeful Spirits

One of the main additions coming with Season 7 is the new Witchcraft powers. These abilities are unique passive activation skills with a variety of effects. The powers are unlocked by visiting one of the new altars at the Tree of Whispers, each corresponding to a different Witchcraft ability tree. The currency for unlocking these powers will be a new seasonal currency called restless rot, which is earned by completing new whisper bounties and culling the new headrotten enemies.

The most powerful Witchcraft abilities, known as Lost Powers, have to be unlocked by finding forgotten altars, which will be randomly placed in dungeons. The new season revolves around these abilities, so the new seasonal questline will guide players toward increasing their reputation with the Coven and unlocking the Witchcraft abilities.

2

Class And Balance Changes

Under-Utilized Abilities Get Some Love

Key Changes:

• The Necromancer’s Blood Wave gets significant changes
• Big Changes to re-casting Ball Lightning for the Sorcerer
• The Druid’s Shred skill buffed and synergies increased

While all the base game classes are receiving buffs to underutilized abilities, fans of the Spiritborn class from the Vessel of Hatred DLC will be pleased to hear that it’s not getting many significant nerfs, apart from previously announced changes to the somewhat broken interaction between the Rod of Kepeleke and the Viscous Shield Paragon node.

Druids are seeing big changes to Shred, buffing the skill’s poison damage, while adding other poison synergies elsewhere to make poison damage a more viable build option. Necromancers are getting changes to Blood Mist and Blood Wave, with the latter now having a new unique associated with it too.

Sorcerer was seen as an underperforming build in testing for the new season, so it’s receiving some significant passive buffs as well as changes to the functionality of some re-casting moves. The Rogue gets new functionality for Death Traps and Caltrops, and the Barbarian gets buffs to Hammer of the Ancients, Whirlwind, and Iron Maelstrom.

3

Paragon Board Changes

A New Take On End Game Character Progression

Key Changes:

• All Paragon Experience now carries over to the Eternal Realm when a season ends
• Legendary nodes and other nodes have had values adjusted
• Save different Paragon Point distributions and switch them easily with loadouts

The Paragon system is changing. In addition to the change already made that allowed players to share Paragon experience among all characters, Paragon experience will now carry over to the Eternal Realm. The cap for Paragon Points is increasing from 200 to 300, and many nodes are being reworked or buffed.

This should give players plenty of new build options to play with at the end game. To complement this, Blizzard is adding the ability to swap between different Paragon Point configurations at no cost with the Armory, which will allow players to save different loadouts including skills, gear, and paragon nodes.

4

Tree Of Whispers Upgrade

New Layout And Better Rewards

Key Changes:

• New layout for the Tree of Whispers location
• New bounties and ways to earn Grim Favors
• Greater chance of receiving an Ancestral Collection

The Tree of Whispers plays a new role in Season 7. Not only will players now be returning there to receive caches in exchange for favors, but the new seasonal NPCs in the Coven are based at the Tree. It’s there where players will be unlocking their new Witchcraft powers. The new Headrotten enemies are pursued via bounties issued here, so the Tree of Whispers will be the hub for this season.

This comes with a makeover for the Tree of Whispers area, including adding the new altars and NPCs. The previous rewards system for the Tree has also seen a minor buff, with the chance of receiving an Ancestral Collection from the Tree having been raised. Additionally, a new NPC known as the friendly raven will let players return favors to the tree from afar.

5

Headhunts And Headrotten

New Enemies, Bosses, And A New Way To Earn Favors

Key Changes:

• New Enemy types with associated Tree of Whispers bounties
• Return fugitive heads from Headrotten bosses to the Tree for big rewards
• ​​​​​​​New seasonal dungeons known as Rootholds

In the Season of Witchcraft, new enemies are appearing all over Sanctuary. Heads have gone missing from the Tree of Whispers, and these fugitive heads are seeking new hosts. This leads to the emergence of the new Headrotten enemies. Players will journey to Headhunt zones, which function similarly to previous seasons’ zones and appear periodically around the map.

Completing the new Tree of Whispers bounties in these areas will net players progress toward the new Seasonal rewards, and also reveal exposed roots. These roots lead to uprooted cocoons, which contain the new Headrotten bosses. Bosses can spawn with fugitive heads attached, and these come with even greater rewards from the Coven and the Tree. Finally, Rootholds are new seasonal dungeons that players access by earning Whisperwood Sigils from Whisper Caches and Silent Chests.

6

Occult Gems

Essential Stats And Witchcraft Support

Key Changes:

• Occult gems will match or beat the stat boosts of top-tier gems
• Occult gems will also feature unique abilities that boost Witchcraft powers
• ​​​​​​​Gems can boost hexes, auras, skill potency, and more

Occult gems are another new addition to the game that give players more options for new build synergies. A new NPC at the Tree of Whispers called Gelena will assist players in crafting these gems, in exchange for seasonal currency like restless rot and fugitive heads, as well as gem fragments.

Players don’t have to worry about sacrificing their current gem stats to socket occult gems, as the gems come with 160 armor and 8% all resistance as a base. That makes the gems quite tempting, as they also come with additional benefits that synergize with the new Witchcraft powers. These include things like buffing the damage of Witchcraft effects, increasing effectiveness against hexed enemies, and stat buffs based on the power of slotted Witchcraft skills.

7

Legendary Aspects And Uniques

New Aspects, New Unique Items

Key Changes:

• Changes and additions to Legendary Aspects for every class
• Unique item reworks and new uniques
• ​​​​​​​New legendary runes and runeword changes

Many changes are coming in Season 7 to legendary aspects. The changes are mostly aimed in the same direction as the class skill changes, boosting the effectiveness of underutilized skills and build aspects for the base game classes. For example, the Druid’s Aspect of the Blurred Beast has been changed to align with changes to the Shred ability that it affects.

Unique items have been reworked for some classes, and new uniques have been added for others. The new Necromancer uniques are aimed at increasing the potency of Blood Wave, and the synergy between Blood skills and Bone skills. As well as these changes, new legendary runes have been added and rune words are being reworked for better clarity of the system and increased performance.

8

Seasonal Cosmetics And A New Pet

The First Flying Pet

Key Changes:

• A new battle pass with both free and premium rewards
• New cosmetics for each class can be unlocked
• ​​​​​​​Completing the seasonal journey rewards the new Raven pet

As with previous seasons, there will be a whole new set of cosmetic rewards on Season 7’s battle pass. The free pass normally includes the core set of cosmetics associated with the season for each class, so players can expect that to be the same here.

The real draw of the new seasonal journey, though, is the reward for completing every step. The new pet, Dorian the Raven, is the game’s first flying pet, and Diablo 4 fans will likely want to see this season’s journey through just to obtain them.

9

Eternal Realm QoL

Save Loadouts And More

Key Changes:

• The armory adds switchable loadouts
• Changes to the Tree of Whispers carry over to the Eternal Realm
• ​​​​​​​The “Welcome Back Pack” level 50 booster is now a permanent addition

The new season comes with some permanent changes to the base game and the Eternal Realm. As mentioned before, the new layout for the Tree of Whispers area is transferring over to the Eternal Realm, and Paragon experience will now carry over to the Eternal Realm. The welcome back booster that takes players to level 50 with a set gear loadout, for returning players who skip the campaign, is also here to stay.

That’s not all. The main permanent change that will please long-time players is the addition of the Armory. The Armory is a new tab that will allow players to save up to five loadouts per character, including skill point allocation, equipped gear, and Paragon board point distribution. Players can give each loadout a custom name, and switch between them freely, without spending gold to respec. This is a huge quality of life improvement for build experimentation.