Diablo 3 hasn’t had a major content release in two years, since Blizzard released the Necromancer pack. But the Diablo 3 seasons continue. Starting May 17 at 8 p.m. EST, Diablo 3 Season 17 goes live. It’s Blizzard’s second themed season, granting players a three month long buff. This season also adds new difficulties and some quality of life updates.

Here’s everything you need to know about Diablo 3 Season 17. For a complete list of patch notes, scroll down.

Legacy of Nightmares theme

Throughout the entire season, players have the Legacy of Nightmares buff active.

The effect grants extra damage done and less damage taken for each Ancient weapon equipped. Any other set bonus deactivates Legacy of Nightmares. Ancient items are very rare, extremely powerful rolls on Legendary weapons and armor.

This new seasonal theme rewards players who don’t wear armor pieces, and lets them experiment with the Legacy of Nightmares builds without have to sacrifice two ring slots for the set bonus.

New Torment level

Season 17 adds three new Torment levels to Diablo 3. Torment tiers are the game’s highest difficulty settings, and bumping it up further increases rewards and enemy difficulty. Torments 14, 15, and 16 are new this time around. Blizzard says they offer the same level of rewards and difficulties as Greater Rifts 65, 70, and 75.

A new quality of life

In a game as old as Diablo 3, quality of life changes are always welcome. This new patch adds a search functionality to in-game chests for PC players — making stashed items easier to find. Arrows pointing players toward their mission objectives in bounties also appear immediately now, instead of blundering around for a bit first. Finally, the rare crafting material Death’s Breath drops in the Horadric Caches (which players earn from completing a group of bounties).

Set and ability balancing

Like with most Diablo 3 seasons, Season 17 also comes with some balance changes for set bonuses and Legendary items. Blizzard also added a new Legendary potion: On top of healing the player, the new Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered makes the player immune to control-impairing effects for 5 to 7 seconds.

Most of Blizzard’s other balance changes focus on Legendary items to help players make the most out of the Legacy of Nightmares buff.

Diablo 3 Patch 2.6.5 - Full Patch Notes

Note: All changes apply to all versions of Diablo III, including PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC unless otherwise indicated.

General

Torment 14, 15, and 16 have been added to the game

Reward and difficulty levels of all new Torments closely match Greater Rift 65, 70, and 75 respectively

Portals left behind by Treasure Goblins may occasionally lead somewhere udderly ridiculous

Using an Ancient or Primal Puzzle Ring in Kanai’s Cube will produce a new result

Party portraits now display if a player’s Cheat Death buff has been recently used (PC Only)

When a boss is killed in a Nephalem Rift, a permanent ping will mark the location of the boss’ death until the Rift is closed

The Boss Notification screen has received a rework (PC Only)

The Greater Rift Notification screen has received a rework (PC Only)

The Greater Rift Completion screen has received a rework (PC Only)

Matchmaking no longer prevents players from joining a game while a Greater Rift is already in progress

Players who join the game will still be unable to join a Greater Rift in progress

The progress bar for a Greater Rift is now visible to all players in the game, regardless of whether they are participating in the Rift or not

Challenge Rifts

The amount of Death’s Breath rewarded by completing a Challenge Rift has been increased

Quality of Life

Seasons

The cap for earning additional stash tabs through the Season Journey has been raised from 4 to 5 (PC Only)

Search functionality has been added to Stash (PC Only)

All Crafters now have an Expand/Collapse All button for recipes (PC Only)

Most Bounty indicators are now displayed immediately after entering the Bounty area

Death’s Breath now drop in Horadric Caches

Developer Comment: With 2.6.5, we’re aiming to address some of the longest standing and most desired quality of life features the community has brought to us. We’ve hit a little bit of everything, from adding additional Torment levels, making Ancient/Primal Puzzle Rings feel rewarding, and adding some Stash space improvements. Other changes were made to help smooth out overall gameplay, such as making Bounties feel like less of a chore and more rewarding and reworking a few of our notification screens.

In addition, we encountered a lot of technical issues with increasing overall stash space for players. Unfortunately, as these issues caused significant degredation of the overall gameplay experience, we ultimately had to take a step back on this quality of life improvement and table it for now.

Seasons

The Season Journey Journal now displays all chapters, regardless of current progression

There is a new reward for completing the entirety of the Season Journey (Guardian)

For Season 17, the Galactic Wings are available

Added the buff for Season 17

Player’s damage dealt is increased by 750% and damage taken is reduced by 4% for every Ancient Item they have equipped while having no Set Bonuses Active

Developer’s Comment: The Season of Grandeur was by far our most popular Themed Season yet. In the wake of having a free Ring of Royal Grandeur active, we saw a lot of requests to try the same thing with the Legacy of Nightmares set power. We had been toying with the same idea internally, and the community request really nudged us over the edge of giving it a go!

Items

(NEW) Bottomless Potion of the Unfettered

Become immune to control-impairing effects for 5-7 seconds after drinking this potion

Akkhan’s Leniency

Each enemy hit by your Blessed Shield increases damage of your Blessed Shield by 15-20% 35-40% for 3 seconds

35-40% for 3 seconds Bloodtide Blade

Death Nova deals 80-100% 300-400% increased damage for every enemy within 25 yards

300-400% increased damage for every enemy within 25 yards Carnevil

​The 5 10 Fetishes closest to you will shoot a powerful Poison Dart every time you do

10 Fetishes closest to you will shoot a powerful Poison Dart every time you do Chantodo’s Will

Every second while in Archon form you expel a Wave of Destruction, dealing 1000% 4000% weapon damage to enemies within 30 yards. Every time you hit with an attack while not in Archon form, 1000% 4000% weapon damage is added to the Wave of Destruction, stacking up to 20 times

4000% weapon damage to enemies within 30 yards. Every time you hit with an attack while not in Archon form, 4000% weapon damage is added to the Wave of Destruction, stacking up to 20 times Wave of Destruction damage now scale with attack speed

The Dagger of Darts

Your Poison Darts and your Fetishes’ Poison Darts now pierce and deal an additional [400-500%] damage.

Grace of Inarius

6-Piece Bonus

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 by 3750% 10000%

10000% Iron Rose

Attacking with Siphon Blood has a 40-50% 100% chance to cast a free Blood Nova

100% chance to cast a free Blood Nova Jekangbord

Blessed Shield ricochets to 6 additional enemies and has its damage increased by 225-300% 300-400%

300-400% Sage’s Set

Now doubles the amount of Death’s Breaths that drop

Previous: Increases Death’s Breath drops by 1

Sin Seekers

Now also adds 250-300% damage to Rapid Fire

Wojahnni Assaulter

Rapid Fire deals 60-75% 75-100% increased damage for every half second that you channel. Stacks up to 4 30 times.

75-100% increased damage for every half second that you channel. Stacks up to 30 times. The stacks gained from Wojahnni Assaulter now also stack much more quickly

Developer’s Comment: With Patch 2.6.4, we focused on making a lot of changes to different class sets to open up build diversity and level out the comparable power between classes. With 2.6.5, we’re continuing that trend through adjustments to (mostly) Legendary powers we feel have a very strong, fun fantasy, but needed some damage bumps.

Bug Fixes