What you need to know
- Diablo 2: Resurrected Season 2 will end on February 16, 2023 and Season 3 will begin with a restart to the ladder.
- The third ladder will feature 8 new Rune Words to help players climb the leaderboards, changes to Sunder Charms and new Horadric Cube recipes.
- Terror Zones have also been added to offline play for the first time.
Hot on the heels of new Diablo 3 Season 28 news, we’ve also had official confirmation of the new season start and ladder reset for Diablo 2: Resurrected. It’s a great start to the year for Diablo fans!
In a blog post on the Blizzard forums last week, Diablo 2: Resurrected Community Manager PezRadar confirmed that the current season and subsequent start of Season 3 will commence on February 16, 2023. Today, following the testing of the patch in PTR, we have the details of all changes coming to Season 3 of Diablo 2: Resurrected, and the times you can expect it to start in your region.
What is the Diablo 2 ladder?
The Diablo 2: Resurrected ‘ladder’ is simply a reset of the leaderboards for ranked play. You start the ladder with a fresh character and empty inventory and try to climb the leaderboards, not unlike Diablo 3 Season resets. Each new ladder comes with new runewords and tweaks to class skills which attract players new and old to the game. Runes and rune words are specific to Diablo 2 only and the mechanic was not carried over to Diablo 3 much to the disappointment of a lot of fans of the game series.
When Ladder 2 ends, all ladder characters will be transferred to non-ladder play. All items in that character’s stash go into a withdraw-only shared tab and you have until the end of the current Ladder 3 to withdraw them, or lose those items forever.
Eight new Rune Words
Rune Words are powerful combinations of runes that drop in Diablo 2: Resurrected, that can be socketed into your items to grant abilities. In Player Test Realm (PTR) 2.6 players have been hard at work testing out eight new rune words which are now rolling out to the community in Patch 2.6 and are listed below as per the patch notes.
| Runeword | Runes required | Base Item | Effects |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bulwark | Shael + lo + Sol | Helm | +20% Faster Hit Recovery +4-6% Life stolen per hit +75-100% Enhanced Defense +10 to Vitality Increase Maximum Life 5% Replenish Life +30 Damage Reduced by 7 Physical Damage Received Reduced by 10-15% |
| Cure | Shael + lo + Tal | Helm | Level 1 Cleansing Aura when Equipped +20% Faster Hit Recovery +75-100% Enhanced Defense +10 to Vitality Increase Maximum Life 5% Poison Resist +40-60% Poison Length Reduced by 50% |
| Ground | Shael + lo + Ort | Helm | +20% Faster Hit Recovery +75-100% Enhanced Defense +10 to Vitality Increase Maximum Life 5% Lightning Resist +40-60% Lightning Absorb +10-15% |
| Hearth | Shael + lo + Thul | Helm | +20% Faster Hit Recovery +75-100% Enhanced Defense +10 to Vitality Increase Maximum Life 5% Cold Resist +40-60% Cold Absorb +10-15% Cannot be Frozen |
| Temper | Shael + lo + Ral | Helm | +20% Faster Hit Recovery +75-100% Enhanced Defense +10 to Vitality Increase Maximum Life 5% Fire Resist +40-60% Fire Absorb +10-15% |
| Hustle | Shael + Ko + Eld | Any Weapon or Armor | Armor: +65% Faster Run/Walk +40% Increased Attack Speed +20% Faster Hit Recovery +6 to Evade +10 to Dexterity 50% Slower Stamina Drain +All Resistances +10 Weapon: 5% Chance to cast level 1 Burst of Speed on striking Level 1 Fanaticism Aura +30% Increased Attack Speed +180-200% Enhanced Damage +75% Damage to Undead +50 to Attack Rating against Undead +10 to Dexterity |
| Mosaic | Mal + Gul + Thul | Claw | +50% chance for finishing moves to not consume charges When a finisher is executed this way, it now refreshes the expiration timer of the stack +2 to Martial Arts (Assassin only) +20% Increased Attack Speed +200-250% Enhanced Damage +20% Bonus to Attack Rating 7% Life Steal +8-15% to Cold Skill Damage +8-15% to Lightning Skill Damage +8-15% to Fire Skill Damage Prevent Monster Heal |
| Metamorphosis | lo + Cham + Fal | Helm | Werewolf strikes grant Mark for 180 seconds Mark of the Wolf: +30% Bonus to Attack Rating Increase Maximum Life 40% Werebear strikes grant Mark for 180 seconds Mark of the Bear: +25% Attack Speed Physical Damage Received Reduced by 20% +5 to Shape Shifting Skills (Druid only) +25% Chance of Crushing Blow (No longer attached to Mark of the Bear) +50-80% Enhanced Defense +10 to Strength +10 to Vitality All Resistances +10 Cannot be Frozen |
The rune words above will be available in Ladder and offline single-player mode. The majority of them concentrate on resistances following the addition of Sundering Charms in Patch 2.5. Hustle is a cheaper, earlier mobility rune word to build than the popular late-game Enigma, with the caveat that it does not include Teleport. Mosaic provides a buff specifically for martial arts Assassins, and Metamorphosis is a new runeword for shapeshifting Druid builds.
In addition to the above rune words, seven words that were introduced in Ladder Season 1 have now been added to non-ladder online play for the first time. These words are: Flickering Flame, Mist, Obsession, Patter, Plague, Unbending Will and Wisdom. We have a comprehensive list of existing rune words here.
Horadric Cube Recipes
Horadric Cube recipes that were previously only available in Ladder play, have now been added to non-ladder online game modes.
| Recipe | Reward |
|---|---|
| 1 Ral Rune + 1 Sol Rune + 1 Perfect Emerald + Normal Set Weapon | Exceptional Version of Set Weapon |
| 1 Ral Rune + 1 Sol Rune + 1 Perfect Emerald + Normal Set Weapon | Elite Version of Set Weapon |
| 1 Tal Rune + 1 Shael Rune + 1 Perfect Diamond + Normal Set Armor | Exceptional Version of Set Armor |
| 1 Ko Rune + 1 Lem Rune + 1 Perfect Diamond + Exceptional Set Armor | Elite Version of Set Armor |
Sundering Charms and Terror Zones
Sundering Charms, a powerful tool to break down resistances in your foes, will now be available in all non-classic game modes. In addition to this, the Terror Zones where Sundering Charms drop will now be available to all offline players for the first time.
Terror Zones are areas in game that spawn a higher number of foes, at a higher level than the player and as a result, a higher level of loot and XP and are great for farming. Patch 2.6 has added even more Terror Zones to the game. The new areas are as follows
- Act 1 – Underground Passage, Black Marsh, The Hole and Barracks
- Act 2 – Ancient Tunnels
- Act 3 – Great Marsh (Kurast Sewers has been removed as a Terror Zone)
- Act 5 – Frigid Highlands, Abbadon, Drifter Cavern and Pit of Acheron
When will Season 3 of Diablo 2: Resurrected start?
Season 3 will officially go live on February 16 at 5 p.m. PST. On February 17 it will launch at 2 a.m. CET in Europe, and 10 a.m. KST in Asia.
If you are new to Diablo 2: Resurrected we have a number of guides to get you started in your journey across the world of Sanctuary. Check out our complete guide to current runes and runewords and everything you need to know about the Horadric cube and its potential. You can play Diablo 2: Resurrected and enjoy cross-save and cross-progression on Xbox and Windows PC.
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