Massive Changes, Runewords Coming to Diablo 4 in Patch 2.0, PTR Goes Live Next Week

mmorpg.com:

Diablo 4 underwent a massive transformation just a couple of months ago with its Season 4 update, drawing players back to the game as the update that “fixed” Diablo 4 in many ways. But Blizzard’s not done yet.

The Diablo 4 team hosted its latest Campfire Chat livestream this week, previewing what’s to come in patch 2.0, the update that drops alongside the game’s first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, when it launches this October. The short of it is what’s old has become new again.

With patch 2.0, Blizzard will bring the level cap down to 60, squish stats, and rework the game’s difficulty systems to offer four standard difficulties and four Torment difficulties gated by progression within The Pit (which has also been squished from 200 to 100 levels).

There will also be massive changes to items, with some of the best items dropping at level 51+ and the discontinuation of Sacred items. Ancestral items will now only drop in Torment 1 or higher and at the new max item level of 800 and guarantee at least one Greater Affix. Greater Affixes will now only appear on Ancestral tier items.

Blizzard is also bringing Runewords back in Diablo 4 with patch 2.0, allowing players to combine and slot runes into their items to grant the player powerful new abilities, including those found on other classes. For example, the Jah Rune of Invocation will allow players to use the Sorcerer’s Teleport on their next evade every 2 seconds.

Existing classes will receive one new ability and passive tree and Blizzard is finally introducing a party finder to the game.

There’s tons more to dig into. For more, check out the full PTR 2.0 patch notes. The 2.0 PTR will be available from September 4-11 on PC.