Diablo 4’s Season 15 PTR is well underway, and the community has been busy previewing all the new content that is set to release for the next season.
Some of the new additions include the Challenge Dungeons seasonal mechanic, various balance changes, and powerful jewelry called Soul Splinters.
Season 15 will also feature various returning Unique items from previous Diablo games, including classics like The Furnace, Leoric’s Crown, and Stone of Jordan.
One of these Legacy items is Arioc’s Needle, a Unique spear from Diablo 2 that has an unusually high chance to trigger Deadly Strike. Deadly Strike in Diablo 2 is a stat that gives melee builds the chance to deal double damage.
In Diablo 4, the Needle returns as a polearm, allowing users to benefit from Deadly Strike while introducing the mechanic to the game for the first time. While Deadly Strike in Diablo 4 still hasn’t been properly tested and the tooltip for this ability is missing on the PTR, it could be particularly powerful for Damage Over Time builds.
This is because builds focused on Damage Over Time abilities do not benefit from Critical Strikes, which puts them at a significant disadvantage in terms of damage compared to other builds. That’s why Deadly Strike has the potential to bridge this gap and allow DoT builds to scale their damage much higher.
This interaction may also be hinted at by one of the polearm’s affixes, which grants a Lucky Hit chance to deal Poisoning damage.
Currently, polearms can only be wielded by Druids, Barbarians, and the Spiritborn. If Deadly Strike proves successful, it will likely become available for other classes in the future as well.