The Diablo team has revealed new information on Diablo 4’s upcoming third season, the Season of the Construct.
With Diablo 4’s next season just a week away and Blizzard folks returning after their winter holidays, we’re starting to get more information about Season 3 of Diablo 4 They released a blog post covering many of the details of the upcoming season so we’re covering it here.
This blog post isn’t the only news we’ll get leading up to launch either. There is a Live Campfire Chat coming on January 18th, which will start at 9AM PST. This is said to discuss the balance changes primarily, but will likely include the Story Cinematic for the season as well as other information. This is then to be followed by the release of the full Patch Notes on January 19th.
Season of the Construct Details
Diablo 4’s Third Season, Season of the Construct, will begin January 23, 2024 at 10AM PST. This isn’t a big reveal by any means, but we at least have the exact start time now.
Seasonal Questline
The Story for the Season of the Construct has us heading into Vaults hidden beneath the sands of the Kehjistan Deserts to stop the Demon Malphas from keeping control of The Loom. The Loom itself is ancient technology, created by Zoltun Kulle of the Horadrim and Ayuzhan of Caldeum.
We’ll access these Vaults through the Gatehall, located below Kehjistan. Eventually, our efforts culminated in the showdown with Malphas for the Loom, preventing his creation of Constructs made to overtake Sanctuary.
Seneschal Companions
These new Construct companions become available during the Seasonal Questline. They are player-controlled Constructs that can be customized through the use of Governing and Tuning Stones that can be found in the Vaults.
Each Seneschal Companion can use up to 2 Governing Stones, which determines the abilities it has access to. Each of these Governing stones can be augmented though the use of up to 3 Tuning Stones for each skill. This allows Seneschal Companions to highly flexible and fit alongside any build.
These Governing and Tuning Stones can also be upgraded, by collecting or crafting duplicates and fusing them. This not only increases the power of the Governing and Tuning Stone, but can alter their effects even further.
Below is the provided list of Governing and Tuning Stones available to find.
| Name | Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Autodefense | Governing Stone | Creates an Antimaterial Field around the Companion, blocking all Non-Boss and Non-Player Projectiles. |
| Bushwhack | Governing Stone | Quickly Amushes multiple targets. May Strike the same target multiple times. |
| Firefly | Governing Stone | Deploys an explosive construct that explodes 3 times, dealing damage in an area. |
| Focus Fire | Governing Stone | Channels a ray of fire at targets, dealing damage over time. |
| Gyrate | Governing Stone | Whirls its legs around dealing damage in an area around it. |
| Impale | Governing Stone | Performs a line attack in the direction its facing. |
| Lightning Bolt | Governing Stone | Launches a Bolt of Lightning at a target. Arcs to nearby targets, dealing less damage to secondary targets. |
| Protect | Governing Stone | Grants you a Barrier for a short duration. |
| Reconstruct | Governing Stone | Channels a healing beam on you, Healing your for a portion of your Maximum Life over time. |
| Slash | Governing Stone | Strikes enemies in front of the Companion. |
| Tempest | Governing Stone | Electrically charges an enemy, dealing damage to it and surrounding enemies each second. Tempest spreads on death and increases in duration as well as damage each time it spreads |
| Flash of Adrenaline | Governing Stone | Grants you bonus damage for a short duration. |
| Voluminous Support | Tuning Stone | Increases the Area of Effect of the supported skill. |
| Swift Support | Tuning Stone | Increases Attack Speed of the supported skill. |
| Breaking Support | Tuning Stone | Damage from the supported Skill instantly destroys barriers. Has a Chance to also apply Vulnerable for 2 seconds. |
| Tactical Support | Tuning Stone | Decreases the cooldown of the supported skill. |
| Efficiency Support | Tuning Stone | You gain Critical Strike Chance when hitting enemies targeted by the supported skill. |
| Devastation Support | Tuning Stone | Increases Critical Strike Damage of the supported skill. |
| Safeguard Support | Tuning Stone | Gain Damage Reduction when the support skill is used on you. |
| Frigid Support | Tuning Stone | A portion of the supported skill’s damage is dealt as Cold Damage over Time and Chills. |
| Burning Support | Tuning Stone | A portion of the supported skill’s damage is dealt as Burning Damage over Time. The Companion deal bonus Critical Strike Damage to Burning enemies. |
| Electrocution Support | Tuning Stone | A portion of the supported skill’s damage is dealt as Lightning Damage over Time and has a chance to Stun. |
| Bleeding Support | Tuning Stone | A portion of the supported skill’s damage is dealt as Bleeding Damage over Time. Bleeding Enemies take increased damage from all sources while moving. |
| Poison Support | Tuning Stone | A portion of the supported skill’s damage is dealt as poison Damage over Time. This poison has a chance to spread to nearby enemies each second. |
| Dusk Support | Tuning Stone | A portion of the supported skill’s damage is dealt as Shadow Damage over Time. Non-Boss Enemies afflicted with this DoT have a chance to have their attacks interrupted. |
| Duration Support | Tuning Stone | Increased the duration of the Supported Skill. |
| Fortify Support | Tuning Stone | You gain Fortify when the supported Skill is used. Slower Abilities grant more Fortify. |
| Resource Support | Tuning Stone | You recover Primary Resource when the support Skill first deals damage. |
| Initiative Support | Tuning Stone | The Companion will teleport to its target if out of attack range. This effect has a cooldown. |
| Arcing Support | Tuning Stone | Supported Skills can hit additional enemies. |
| Multishot Support | Tuning Stone | Supported Projectile Skill have additional Projectiles. |
| Piercing Support | Tuning Stone | Supported Projectile Skill will pierce multiple enemies. |
| Gripping Support | Tuning Stone | Damage and effect applied to distance enemies will pull; them to the construct. This effect has a cooldown per enemy |
| Registered Damage Support | Tuning Stone | All damage dealt by the supported Skill is stored and released a Fire Damage when the target dies. |
| Seeking Support | Tuning Stone | Supported Projectile Skills will home in on targets for a short duration. |
| Slowing Support | Tuning Stone | Damage from the support skill will Slow enemies for a short duration. The Slow is stronger the closer the construct is to the target. |
| Mockery Support | Tuning Stone | Damage done by th support Skill Taunts enemies for a short duration. This effect has a cooldown per enemy. |
| Evernight | Fabled Tuning Stone | Damage done by the support Skill Taunts enemies for a short duration. This effect has a cooldown per enemy. |
| Genesis | Fabled Tuning Stone | ??? |
Vaults
Vaults are a new type of dungeon added for this season. To access them we’ll need to convert Pearls of Warding to gain Zoltun’s Blessing and enter the Vault. This Blessing diminishes as we are hit by the traps within the vault. If the Blessing remains after defeating the Vault Boss, we are able to claim a Wardwoven Chest.
This chest has a high chance of dropping Legendary Items, as well as the Governing and Tuning Stone for the Seneschal Construct. Additional Pearls of Warding can be offered to increase this reward, while also increasing the risk.
We’ll be able to collect Pearls of Warding by defeating Elite Constructs near Arcane Temors. These will crop up across Sanctuary give us access to the Vaults and the ability to increase their rewards.
Starting in World Tier 3, Nightmare Vaults are also available. Vault Sigils will drop alongside normal Nightmare Dungeon Sigils, or can be crafted using Pearls of Warding. These deadly vaults function like Nightmare Dungeons, but will be littered with Constructs and Hazards in addition to Wardwoven Chests to claim.
Quality of Life Changes
Helltides will now be up constantly, only having 5 minutes of downtime every hour. The Spawn rate will also be improved, making Helltide farming that much easier. Faster Duriel farming anyone?
PC players will also have access to WASD movement, instead of requiring mouse movement. This is a great alternative for those who don’t care for mouse movement, but I don’t see many hardcore players making the swap.
Glory to the Stash Tabs! We’re getting access to another Stash Tab, which means we finally have enough to have one per class if we so choose! Would be nice to have more still, but progress is still progress.
The Skill Tree is getting a Respec Mode, allowing us to respect much quicker without having to individually refund each point we want to respec. This is a very welcomed change for sure.
Our Thoughts
It’s tough to say how powerful the Seneschal Companions will be starting on day 1, but it feels like there’s a lot of potential for the Seneschal Constructs. They’re flexible enough to offer both damage and support or can be made to lean more heavily into one or the other. Regardless of the way you’d want to use them, every build should be able to benefit in some way.
A lot of it will likely come down to how quickly and easily we can upgrade the Governing and Tuning Stones. That process seems like it might be a bit of a pain overall. If the crafting is fair and allows you to break down Governing and Tuning Stones and craft your desired options, it’ll likely be fine. Just hoping they don’t use the same RNG crafting they did for Malignant Hearts in Season 1, otherwise, good luck getting your preferred Tuning Stones.
The Vaults themselves sound like they’re taking some inspiration from Path of Exile’s Sanctum mechanic, or Rogue-likes in general perhaps. I don’t see this as a bad thing and seems like a fun idea when applied to Nightmare Dungeons. It’s just missing the rouge-like progression system that allows you to choose the rewards you want to go after. We’ll have to see how this ends up playing out.
We’ll be looking forward to what new builds become available as a result of the Seneschal Companions, as well as any new Uniques released with this patch. We’ll likely talk a bit more about possible meta shifts once the patch notes are released on January 19th and we have an idea of how different builds might be impacted.
