Diablo IV to Revamp Lair Bosses in Season 8

Diablo IV Season 8: Belial’s Return launches on April 29, 2025, and will bring revamped Lair Bosses, according to Diablo IV Developer Update. Also, players will find themselves in a race against the clock, trying to prevent Belial’s resurgence and stop his return to power in Sanctuary.

Besides boss powers players will be able to obtain, as the update comes, players will be able to unlock Boss Lairs with Lair Keys rather than using specific materials to summon bosses.

Diablo devs said during the stream they are changing the boss system to discourage players from ‘hourlong chain farming’ and instead make boss encounters more challenging but also more rewarding.

Bosses, formerly known as Endgame or Ladder Bosses, have been broken out into three tiers: Initiate, Greater, and Exalted Lairs to convey their varying difficulty and rewards. Initiate Lair Bosses are Urivar, which is available for Vessel of Hatred owners only, Beast in the Ice, Grigoire, Lord Zir and Varshan. Greater Lair Bosses are Harbringer of Hatred available for Vessel of Hatred owners only, Andariel and Duriel. Exalted Lair Boss is only one, Belial, the Lord of Lies.

Starting Season 8, the first Unique item dropped by a Lair Boss will come from their specific unique pool. Subsequent Unique drops have a 50% chance of being from the general Unique pool. On Torment Difficulty III, one additional Unique item from the item pool is guaranteed to drop. For those playing in a party, Lair Bosses have a 33% chance per additional party member to drop an extra Unique Item from their unique pool. Diablo devs promise that now more loot will drop from Lair Bosses who will now drop 7 Unique Items in Torment IV instead of 6.

Each boss will require one specific item and a specific number of Lair Boss Keys to unlock their Hoard: twelve for Initiate, three for Greater and two for Exalted.

On top of that, each class will see changes in Season 8:

• Barbarian will receive adjustments to Mighty Throw, buffs to the Whirlwind skill and its Executioner’s Aspect will be capped to prevent the Earthquake build from dominating the meta.
• Druid will get a big buff to Earthen Might, easier gain of early-game resources and Gathlen’s Birthright will now empower the class when they stay in Human form.
• Necromancer’s Blood Wave will be receiving a slight buff, while Blood Lance will be reworked so that it always spreads, which will help ramp up AoE damage. The Vampiric Curse was rebranded as just a Curse.
• Rogue’s Shadow Clone will no longer trigger as a Cuthroat Skill, and Bands of Ichorous Rose will now empower Poison Trap. Death Trap’s cooldown has been adjusted.
• Sorcerer now has a smoothed-out animation of the Familiar. Besides that, the class’s Avalanche skill will be receiving a rework, and a new Unique helm will allow Ice Shards to spread out and hit multiple targets.
• Spiritborn’s Sepzaontec has been buffed and a bug with Unyielding Hits was fixed and will now allow this ability to receive its correct multiplier. On top of that new Unique amulet, Sunbird’s Gorget, will allow Storm Feathers to benefit from multiple Skill types.

Blizzard also changes Season Journey, which now includes Ashes instead of Battle Pass. The whole pass will be of smaller steps so that players will receive individual rewards for every advance.