Fans of Diablo 3 have quite a bit to look forward to March 13 with the start of Season 20 and the release of Patch 2.6.8. A new Season Buff arrives along with a handful of item reworks, and most exciting of all, three completely new class sets for the Barbarian, Witch Doctor, and Wizard. These sets will provide exciting new ways for players to climb through their seasonal ladder rank in the most difficult of Greater Rifts.
Season Of The Forbidden Archives
Season 20 brings a creative, new twist with its seasonal buff regarding how players utilize the ancient nephalem artifact, Kanai’s Cube. While the cube normally allows players to equip up to three additional Legendary powers, these were restricted to one of each from the categories of weapon, armor, and ring. The seasonal buff will remove that category restriction, allowing players to use any 3 legendary powers. This means that, if a player so desires, they can equip three legendary ring powers, or armor, or weapon, or any mix in between.
Like the seasonal buff that provided a permanent Legacy of Nightmares buff, this new season will encourage experimentation in class sets and legendary bonuses. These kinds of buffs have been extremely popular among the player base so far thanks to the incentive to experiment and discover new and interesting builds to push the highest levels of Greater Rifts.
Seasonal Cosmetic Rewards And A Bat, Man
As always, players will have the opportunity to snag some of the previous rewards they might have missed before. In this case, the rewards from Season 8 are being recycled into this season. However, there is also something new to veterans looking forward to their End of Journey rewards. In Season 20, these are the Teganze Warrior Portrait Frame and Bat pet, both of which look great. Players can also complete the Conqueror category of quests to earn an additional tab for their stash, up to a maximum of five.
New Class Sets
The addition of new class sets for the Barbarian, Witch Doctor, and Wizard class have long been requested and finally set to arrive. As the Crusader and Monk classes received their new sets at the start of Season 19, fellow Demon Hunters and Necromancers need to remain patient as the last two classes set to receive a new class set, presumably with the start of Season 21 later this year.
Barbarians will be receiving the Horde of the Ninety Savages set, which increases the effectiveness of Shouts and encourages crowd control by offering double damage to affected creatures. Frenzy will receive a massive damage buff with the six-piece set, as well as chain and hit all enemies within 15 yards when also combined with the Bastion’s Revered item. Compared to most of the other Barbarian sets, this one looks to slow down the movement speed of a character, compared to Earthquake or Charge Builds.
The Witch Doctor will receive Mundunugu's Regalia, which changes how Big Bad Voodoo works and provides a massive damage buff to Spirit Barrage with the full six-piece set. The Barber has been re-categorized as a Ceremonial Knife, and along with the use of Gazing Demise and the Ring of Emptiness, will provide the ability to do major damage to large groups of opponents within 15 yards of a selected target when casting Spirit Barrage.
Finally, the Wizard will receive The Typhon’s Veil set. This will double the duration of Hydras and increase their number of heads by two on multi-headed Hydras. Hydras will also deal more damage for each that is alive on the battlefield, and similar to Marauder Demon Hunters, players will find the most success by kiting enemies and keeping as many Hydras up at all times to maximize their damage. Serpent’s Sparker will help by providing one extra Hydra and buff their damage, while The Magistrate will allow all Hydras to cast Frost Nova, helping to kite and keep opponents away.
Haedrig’s Gift
Each class has had their obtainable set from Haedrig’s Gift rotated once again. Players should be careful in redeeming each of the three containers as they can only be unlocked once per season across both Hardcore and Non-Hardcore characters, and they are much more valuable when kept intact on a single character. Each Gift is rewarded upon completion of Chapters 2, 3, and 4 of the Season Journey.
The class sets for Season 20 are as follows:
- Barbarian – Immortal King’s Call
- Crusader – Seeker of the Light
- Demon Hunter – Natalya’s Vengeance
- Monk – Uliana’s Stratagem
- Necromancer – Trag’Oul’s Avatar
- Witch Doctor – Spirit of Arachyr
- Wizard – Vyr’s Amazing Arcana
Bringing Crusader’s Back In Line
Season 19 was a great time to play the Crusader class thanks to being slightly overpowered, relative to everyone else that is. Season 20 will see certain changes made to bring their power level down to all the other classes, but the developers have made it clear that there is more to come if necessary. For now, the animation for the Fires of Heaven rune can no longer be canceled early.
Get Ready To Slay Demons
Although Season 19 was rather tame with the Pandemonium effect, Season 20 looks to be wildly creative with the temporary removal of the Kanai’s Cube restriction. There are so many combinations to choose from, and similar to the Season of Grandeur, this opens up possibilities that until now have been impossible.
Season 20 will begin on Friday, March 13 for all platforms, though there will be a time difference for PC users depending on what region they are playing from. Best of luck to everyone in the Seasonal Journey!
Source: diablo3.com