Diablo 4 Will Get Harder Next Season, With Both A Difficulty Increase And XP Gain Decrease

Progression in Diablo 4 will slow down and become more challenging in Season 8, according to Blizzard, citing player feedback as the reason behind the change.

In a recent Campfire Chat livestream going over the changes coming to Diablo 4 next season, Blizzard revealed a number of statistics around the currently ongoing Season 7, namely how quickly players can complete it. On average, it took players only around nine hours to reach max level in Season 7, half the time it took players to reach the same point in Season 6. Additionally, Blizzard found that 50% of players are reaching the game's max difficulty of Torment 4 within 15 hours of hitting level 60, much faster than was the case in Season 6.

According to Diablo 4 design director Colin Finer, there are a few different reasons for the unintentional increased pace of Season 7. Part of it is the new Season 7 powers that give players even more ways to tear through armies of demons. The new seasonal content, Headhunts, are also quite lucrative in the amount of XP and items they reward, as is the seasonal journey.

"We've heard a ton of feedback that it feels just like a weekend game right now," Finer said on stream. "You can blast through all the torment tiers, there's nothing really satisfying about it, there's nothing to work towards because you are just getting so much power so frequently and really just crushing this content."

That will change when Season 8 arrives in April. Blizzard said players will earn less XP from levels 1-25 as part of Season 8, slowing down the progression curve. Legendary items will also drop less frequently at lower levels to prevent player power levels from ramping up too quickly, though Magic and Rare items will see some improvements to compensate.

Last but not least, Diablo 4's endgame Torment difficulties are becoming more of a challenge, with Torment 1 now starting at the equivalent of The Pit Tier 10, and the difficulty and scaling of each Pit tier increasing by a stacking 20 percent. Torment 4 in Season 8, currently the game's hardest difficulty, will be equivalent to The Pit Tier 76 in Season 7.

"The journey is going to be a lot more satisfying," Finer said. "There's a lot more peaks to climb. It also means Pit Tier 150 is going to be very difficult, so difficult I don't believe any of you will reach it."

Blizzard additionally revealed as part of the livestream that the recently delayed Season 8 will revolve around channeling the powers of Diablo 4's endgame bosses alongside a revamping of the systems surrounding the act of summoning them. A public test realm for Season 8 will go live March 11.