Diablo 4 Season 9 transforms Nightmare Dungeons and expands elemental builds

Blizzard's Diablo 4 Season 9, Sins of the Horadrim, will give its most common endgame activity some much-needed love. The new update for the long-standing ARPG has been in testing via the PTR as Blizzard looks to win back attention from the likes of Path of Exile 2 and Last Epoch. The core mechanics include custom-crafted spells and jewels, but the more impactful, long-term changes are those to Nightmare Dungeons, which will outlast the new season and become a permanent part of the game moving forward.

Diablo 4 is in a strange spot; the Season 9 update's Horadric Spells are quite an enticing prospect, allowing you to forge a base catalyst with elemental modifiers and additional arcana boosts. But there's certainly a lingering feeling that it's just yet another spin on the once-beloved Season 2 Vampiric Powers, and that what was rightly one of our best RPGs at launch is in somewhat of a holding pattern as we shamble towards its next DLC.

The good news is that there are some tangible reasons to return to Season 9 if you've been wanting more change. Horadric Strongrooms are new zones that appear within Diablo 4 Nightmare Dungeons, where you must invoke various statues to ramp up the challenge within. Blizzard has also introduced a variety of buffs that are earned upon their completion, including boosts to experience, reputation, Obducite, and gold, helping one of the most central parts of the endgame to feel a little more proactive.

These strongrooms will be sticking around forever, even after the conclusion of Season 9, and so will another endgame challenge called Escalating Nightmares. This is a chain of three Nightmare Dungeons where each set of affixes stacks up as you progress. At the end of the run, you'll face Exalted Astaroth, a more deadly version of the Act 2 boss that fights alongside his pet Amalgam, rather than atop it, and who will be amplified in power by the modifiers you've collected. New affixes have been introduced, too, with a particular focus on amplifying various Nightmare Dungeon rewards.

Following the PTR, Blizzard has made some changes to the craftable Horadric Jewels that can be socketed into your gear. There's a new option called Willbreaker that gives you a 40% multiplicative bonus to physical damage, which has been introduced as a boon to complement the various elemental-boosting options in Season 9. The Liminal Echo, a jewel that prevents fatal damage and acts as a safety net, can no longer appear for hardcore characters as Blizzard looks to "maintain the integrity and spirit" of the single-life mode.

I'm certainly a little more tempted to dig in and try out the Escalating Nightmares, although I'm hopeful that whatever expansion comes next brings some new, more substantial endgame activities. If you do need another reason to jump in, however, completing chapter six of the Diablo 4 Season 9 journey earns you Dante the Dog to add to your pet roster, and I can't really argue with that.

Diablo 4 Season 9 begins Tuesday July 1. You can check through all the additions and changes made from the PTR version courtesy of Blizzard.

If you're trying to decide what to play, take a look through our best Diablo 4 builds for plenty of inspiration. Alternatively, if you're not convinced by the Sins of the Horadrim update yet, we've picked out the best games like Diablo to give you plenty of options.

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