Diablo 4’s Season of Slaughter brought new, bloody challenges to Blizzard’s ARPG, among them one so difficult that many players couldn’t “reasonably” complete it.
As detailed in Diablo 4’s most recent patch notes, an update going live on March 24 will make it so the season’s Bloodsoaked Sigils are “significantly” less difficult. Blizzard explained its logic in a developer’s note.
“We’ve received feedback that many players cannot reasonably complete Bloodsoaked Sigils after unlocking them,” Blizzard writes. “By lowering the difficulty significantly, we hope to guarantee that all players who have earned access to Bloodsoaked content have a better chance of success.”
Season 12 of Diablo 4 introduced new Bloodstained (and Bloodsoaked) Sigils that make the game’s Nightmare dungeons more challenging, as the Butcher relentlessly hunts down players during them. While most players who have reached Diablo 4 Season 12’s endgame on a seasonal character can tackle Bloodstained Sigils, the even more difficult Bloodsoaked Sigils can only be accessed after that seasonal character is able to complete Tier 100 of the Pit.
That in and of itself is no small feat, so the fact that many players strong enough to tackle Pit 100 were unable to complete Bloodsoaked Sigils should tell you something about how difficult these modified Nightmare dungeons truly are. Now that they are becoming more manageable, players are poised to more easily reap the significant rewards completing Bloodsoaked Sigils offer.
While the tweak to Bloodsoaked Sigils is the most significant change in the patch notes, there are others worth noting as well. Versions of the Butcher encountered in the Fields of Hatred will have more health. Additionally, a stash and blacksmith have been added to Kael Rills’ Butcher shop so players don’t have to travel back and forth to salvage or store items in Gea Kul.
The patch notes also include a number of bug fixes, among them solution to an issue that caused Bloodied Nightmare dungeons to not have the same chance for dropping Obducite as normal Nightmare dungeons. As Obducite is how players upgrade their gear, this is a pretty big fix that will make Bloodied Nightmare dungeons worth running again.
Diablo 4 Season 12 will be shorter than usual, lasting a little under two months and ending on April 28, the day the game’s Lord of Hatred expansion launches. Season of Slaughter focuses on a new Killstreak mechanic inspired by Diablo 3, one where players look to rack up as many kills in succession as possible to take advantage of new Legendary powers, and even lets players transform into the Butcher.
As for Lord of Hatred, the expansion will bring signicant changes to Diablo 4 as a whole, including reworked skill trees that remove passive skills entirely, a 12-tier difficulty system, and two new classes. It will be just the latest overhaul to come to the ARPG since it’s launch in 2023, a fact that isn’t lost on Blizzard, which recently said it knows Diablo 4’s constant changes make it difficult to keep up with.
