Diablo 4 Season of Blood changes are so good they’re making it hard to play now

Now that we've learned pretty much everything we need to about Season of Blood, the second season of Diablo 4, it's time to shift our focus to the many, many quality of life changes the upcoming season is introducing to the game.

You might even say that the sheer volume of highly-requested additions, basic features missing since launch, and a host of fixes to some of the most annoying problems are all a bigger deal than the new vampire-themed content in Season of Blood.

Everything we're going to cover here will arrive in Diablo 4 with patch 1.2.0, which releases October 17 and kicks off Season of Blood. The list is so big, we'll split it up into different subjects, just to make it easier to digest.

General

• All earned Renown rewards will now persist between seasons, and character (not including Gold or XP).
• Earned Skill Points, Potion Capacity, Max Obols and Paragon Points earned from Renown will persist between each character (but XP and Gold will need to be earned).
• Hardcore characters that earn Renown rewards in S1, will find them in S2, regardless of whether or not they died.
• You can now mark items as Favorite, preventing them from being sold or destroyed.
• Everyone gets two additional character slots.
• Players can now jump into Seasonal content if any character on their account has completed the Prologue - meaning you no longer need to complete the entire campaign.
• Minions and companion will no longer target invulnerable enemies.
• Smoldering Ashes in the battle pass now have lower level requirements, and will apply by default if you reach the required level.

Mounts

• Mounts no longer get stuck on random geometry, or slow down unexpectedly.
• Spur duration now breaks barricades, and its speed boost duration has been increased by 50%.
• Base mount speed increased by 15%, but top speed remains the same.
• You no longer need to drag your cursor all the way to the edge of the window to gain the max mount speed.
• Dismount skill cooldowns reduced across the board. Manual dismount down to five seconds from ten. Forced mount (damage) down to four from ten. Combat dismount becomes available after three seconds now, compared to ten.

XP, levelling and monsters

• The journey to level 100 will be 40% faster compared to Season 1. XP gained from killing monsters at level 50+ significantly increased, and will rise with every level.
• Monsters in World Tier 3&4 will match current player level after level 55, and 75. They will no longer trail the player level.
• XP bonuses (Elixirs, Season Blessings) are now multiplicative with the World Tier bonus, making them much more impactful.
• Incenses will now persist through death, and grant XP bonuses when active.

Towns

• Stashes have been added near important vendors across all capital cities.
• Stashes have also been added to all small towns with Waypoints.
• There's now an Occultist near the Tree of Whispers Waypoint.
• Purveyors of Curiosities have been moved closer to the main Waypoint in capital cities.
• All characters that skip the campaign will now start with ten Waypoints unlocked by default at strategic locations (two per region).

UI and UX

• You can now search through your Stash, and filter by item type.
• Extracted Aspects with the same Legendary powers will now be grouped together when sorting in Stash and Inventory.
• Item affix tooltips will be more consistent.
• You can auto-run now, and your character will continue moving in the direction faced until either a skill or movement ability has been triggered.
• The minimap has been zoomed out.
• You can now hide all combat text (Vulnerable, Fortified etc.), but not the numbers.
• Uniques will now be easier to see and identify.
• Improved cursor contrast colours and options for versatility and customisation.
• The screen reader is now enabled by default.
• Streamer Mode is now an option, and it hides character names and Battle.net usernames.

Endgame activities

• Legion Events now happen every 25 minutes, instead of 30. Warning timers increased to ten minutes, from five.
• World Boss spawn timers reduced to three hours thirty minutes from six. World Boss warning timers increased to 60 minutes from 30. Server-wide message when World Boss is 15 minutes away from spawning.
• Helltide Chests, cashing in Grim Favors, completing individual Whispers all grant more Gold and XP.
• Helltide Chests now have descriptive icons to indicate the type of reward they offer.
• Whisper Caches will now only drop the item slot they say they contain.
• Nightmare Sigils from Whisper Caches will now always be within five levels of the highest-level Nightmare Dungeon you completed.

Nightmare Dungeons

• Nightmare Sigils now teleport you directly into the Nightmare Dungeon, not to the entrance.
• Nightmare Sigils are rewarded when the Nightmare Dungeon is complete, regardless of whether or not it has a boss.
• Some Nightmare Dungeon no longer have objectives, only a boss to defeat.
• All dungeon objectives will now appear on the critical path inside the dungeon.
• Many dungeon layouts have been redesigned.
• Traps are easier to read, including environmental traps. They also have reduced crowd control power.
• Endcaps have been added to ensure Dungeon layouts don’t feel too linear.
• Paragon Glyph XP earned in NM Dungeons has been increased.

Nightmare Dungeon Affliction updates

• Backstabbers: Close Monster attacks from behind cause you to become Vulnerable. Vulnerable damage taken is increased by X%.
• Monster Critical Resist: Monster attacks reduce the damage of your Critical Strikes by three seconds by X%, stacking up to Y%.
• Death Pulse: Prevent death pulses on monsters that have explosions on death, and prevents them from spawning repeatedly on top of each other.
• Lightning Storm: Being ‘shocked’ while in the protection dome grants 35% bonus Movement Speed for five seconds. The Storm only occurs when players are in combat, and only when the player has a direct route to the dome.
• Drifting Shade: duration reduced from five seconds to three, and the respawn time has been increased by two seconds.

Events

• NPCs who request your aid will no longer die in one hit on World Tier 3&4.
• Dungeon Events now spawn more monsters to make them worth your time.

Items and inventory

• Gems now sit in your crafting material list. Instead of earning Gems, you earn shards that can be taken to a Jeweler to craft them
• Disconnecting in Hardcore mode now consumes a Scroll of Escape, instead of killing your character outright.
• Overall enchanting costs reduced on Legendary items.
• In World Tier 3, Normal, Magic, and non-Sacred Rares will now drop as crafting resources.
• In World Tier 4, Normal, Magic, and non-Ancestral Rares will now drop as crafting resources.
• Gold drop rates increased in World Tier 3&4.
• Defeating higher-level monsters in World Tier 3&4 now drops Sacred and Ancestral items at higher item power.
• Normal Whisper Caches will always reward items at +10 power. Upgraded Caches at +20.
• Helltide Caches now reward +20 power items, but won't go above Ancestral cap.