Belial’s Return is getting its first big patch next week. In addition to class tuning, there’s also some improvements to the actual season mechanics, so let’s see how things are improving.
More Reputation Sources
One of the bigger additions is a second use to the seasonal currency. Players will be able to purchase “Oath Scrolls” for Spectral Ash from Sayeena, the main seasonal NPC. The scrolls will grant the seasonal faction reputation, Unveiler’s Oath. We don’t have the exact numbers for the rep gains or costs, but it should speed things up quite a bit. The caches players can get after finishing the reputation track are also already pretty lucrative, with players getting Ancestrals and even Mythic Uniques out of them.
No More Squinting
One of the issues with the season we’ve covered is players having trouble actually finding the events on the World Map. They’re not exactly hidden, but it does take some looking around to spot where the Apparition Incursions are, especially once they already started. Blizzard will be adjusting the icon to be more visible, so that issue should be gone entirely.
The clickable Betraying Eyes that spawn more enemies will also be placed closer to the bosses.
Boss Power Tuning
We’re also getting changes to two boss powers, as Sinerat’s Flames is receiving a buff to its main boss power damage, going from 50% to 75%. Hatred’s Embrace’s Haste modifier power also no longer falls off when switching weapons.
Miscellaneous Fixes and Improvements
There are also many fixes to the seasonal content:
Season Journey and Seasonal Questline
- Fixed an issue where Belial could escape the trap set during the Masked Truths quest.
- Fixed an issue where the rubble pile in the Buried Hope quest didn’t display an interact tooltip.
- Fixed an issue where Buried Hope quest descriptions would stop updating properly in the middle of the quest.
- Fixed an issue where the Belial’s Unveiling quest (previously Belial’s Apparition Incursion) could display as finished when it was not yet finished.
- Fixed an issue where progression for the Chasing Lies quest could be blocked if Belial was defeated too quickly.
- Fixed an issue where the Season Journey objectives for defeating various Belial variants didn’t specify which Belial variant was required to complete the objective.
- Fixed an issue where the Season Journey Objective for killing Elite enemies was also gaining progress when defeating any enemy.
- Fixed an issue with the Spanish dialogue audio quality in the Belial’s Return seasonal questline.
Apparition Incursions and Belial Encounters
- Fixed an issue where Wargs summoned by the Apparition of Beastmaster appeared before the boss spawned.
- Fixed an issue where the Apparition of Beastmaster didn’t drop potions as expected.
- Fixed an issue where the Apparition of Blackmailer didn’t drop bombs in the intended way.
- Fixed an issue where the Apparition of Allek’s feathers could delay progression of an Incursion.
- Fixed an issue where Apparition of Kirma could teleport out of the boss arena.
- Fixed an issue where Apparition of Kirma could get stuck on ladders.
- Fixed an issue where a Betraying Eye would remain present but couldn’t be interacted with.
- Fixed an issue where Belial could appear prematurely when being summoned in an Apparition Incursion.
- Fixed an issue where players could escape during the Rage Phase circle of a Belial Ambush encounter.
- Fixed an issue where dying to Belial during an encounter after defeating another boss could cause Belial to not properly reset.
Boss Powers
- Fixed an issue where some of the Barrier granted by Blackmailer’s Sabotage persisted for an indefinite amount of time, instead of the intended 6 seconds.
- Fixed an issue where Varshan’s Life Steal Main Boss Power didn’t spawn its stream correctly.
- Fixed an issue where Belial’s Eye Beams Modifier Boss Power didn’t consistently apply Overpower. The bonus now lasts for 2 seconds after entering stealth.
- Fixed an issue where Beastmaster’s Training Main Boss Power only caused summoned entities to stun if another one was already active.
- Fixed an issue where Andariel’s Flaming Skull Main Boss Power inconsistently damaged enemies.
- Fixed an issue where Harbinger of Hatred’s Volley Modifier Boss Power would trigger off automatically cast Basic skills.
- Fixed an issue where Barbarian’s Iron Maelstrom didn’t consistently trigger Beast in the Ice’s Sleet Main Boss Power.
- Fixed an issue where Aspect of Unyielding Hits would not properly increase the damage of Varshan’s Life Steal, Belial’s Crystal Decoy, and Ashava’s Poison Modifier Boss Powers.
- Fixed an issue where the Haste Modifier Boss Power from Hatred’s Embrace expired when switching weapons.
- Fixed an issue where the following Boss Powers could be activated while mounted.
- Skerg’s Toxins
- Avarice’s Explosive Ore
- Lord Zir’s Blood Pool
- Varshan’s Life Steal