Diablo 4 Season 9 Introduces Spellcrafting, Escalating Dungeons, and Astaroth Rematch

Blizzard has unveiled Diablo 4 Season 9, titled Sins of the Horadrim, during its latest Campfire livestream ahead of the PTR launch on May 27. The new season brings a suite of updates including customizable Horadric spells, revamped Nightmare Dungeons, and the return of a major campaign boss — all set to go live on July 1.

At the center of the update is Horadric Spellcrafting, a new system that lets players create custom spells by combining Catalysts, Infusions, and up to three Arcana. Each component affects the spell’s mechanics, damage type, and passive effects. These spells can be bound to core abilities and further empowered with Horadric Jewels socketed into gear.

Nightmare Dungeons are also being overhauled. The addition of Horadric Strongrooms — hidden, timed micro-dungeons — will reward players with high-tier loot and crafting resources if completed before the clock runs out. These Strongrooms also drop Escalation Sigils, which unlock Escalating Nightmares: a new endgame activity chaining together three Nightmare Dungeons with stacking affixes, culminating in a boss fight against a reworked Astaroth. This version of the boss rides his multi-headed hellhound and introduces multi-phase mechanics not seen in the base campaign.

Season 9 includes broad class balance changes. Overpower, a damage mechanic that has defined some of the game’s most powerful builds for several seasons, is being nerfed by roughly 80%. The adjustment is aimed at reducing the dominance of Overpower-based burst setups, particularly among Barbarians, Druids, and Necromancers, and opening up the meta to a wider range of playstyles. Alongside this, Basic Skills are receiving 2–3x damage buffs, and Key Passives across all classes are getting a 75% boost to overall damage output. The Maximum Resistance cap is also being raised to 75%.

Class-specific changes include:

• Barbarian: Earthquake redesigned; a new Unique adds Cleave to Bash.
• Druid: Cataclysm scaled back; Grizzly Rage and Poison aspects updated.
• Necromancer: Soul Rift loses its barrier effect; new Unique summons Arch-Mages.
• Rogue: Eaglehorn bow buffed; new Unique lets Health act as a secondary resource.
• Sorcerer: Lightning Spear rebalanced; a new Unique summons a multi-headed Hydra.
• Spiritborn: Thorns can now be converted into Poison via new gear; Hunter Ultimate reworked.

Despite these improvements, core issues around build diversity remain unresolved. All classes aside from Spiritborn currently see some endgame viability, but most are funneled into a narrow range of dominant builds. Sorcerers have been effectively locked into Lightning Spear for four straight seasons, top Druid players remain almost entirely dependent on soon to be nerfed Cataclysm, and Spiritborn — introduced back in Season 7 and once the most powerful class ever seen in Diablo IV — have yet to find footing despite repeated patch attempts. The class continues to struggle with scaling, survivability, and overall relevance in high-end content.

Additional system-wide updates include:

• Teleporting between Nightmare Dungeons without returning to town
• New positive-only Sigil affixes
• Seasonal Reputation now earned from all activities, not just seasonal events
• Better loot in lower World Tiers, increased Rune drop rates, and improved Whisper Cache rewards
• Mouse and keyboard support on consoles
  

Blizzard also acknowledged feedback surrounding the Reliquary system, which replaced the Battle Pass in Season 8. The system has been widely criticized for offering less value, and while developers didn’t confirm timing, they promised that “more content” will be added in the future.

PTR testing for Sins of the Horadrim runs on PC May 27–June 3. The full Season 9 release is scheduled for July 1 on all platforms. Full patch notes are available here.