Diablo 4 season 2 is already way more generous than the first season, and now Blizzard is going to boost XP and gold gains from November 20 to 27 by 35%, more than the first Mother's Blessing event in August.
A few months ago I would've been thrilled to see an entire week of increased XP and gold in Diablo 4, but now it almost feels unnecessary. It's already ridiculously fast to level a new character up to level 100 in season 2, and you don't even have to spend all that time in a lonely dungeon. The new Blood Harvest open world events rain so much loot and XP on me that I almost wish they were a little less bountiful so my inventory can breathe.
I know it's bad when an RPG is so smooth to play that I'm thinking of playing more than one character. That's where I'm at with Diablo 4 now that the grind from level 1 to 100 is basically gone. While there are some who say the game is too easy now, there are many more of us that appreciate spending less time staring at an XP bar and more time looking for the perfect gear for our build. Right now, I'm ballin' on a Sorceress until Blizzard changes its mind, even though it promises it won't nerf me.
Here's a quick recap of the massive changes in Diablo 4 season 2:
- It's 40% faster to hit level 100 than it was at launch (trust me, you can tell)
- Dungeon layouts are streamlined to minimize backtracking (feels like a speedrun now)
- Horse riding is significantly smoother and a little faster (it's the unofficial Season of the Horse)
- All renown rewards are permanent (still grindy, but you only have to do it once)
- Grim Favors reward loads of gold and loot (we're all millionaires now)
- Vampiric Powers are absurdly powerful (you can turn into a cloud of bats)
- You can skip the campaign without completing it (ignore the worst part of Diablo 4!)
Add even more XP and gold on top of all this (it stacks with other bonuses, too) and you have an experience that encourages you to experiment and have fun with your class, something Diablo 4 basically punished you for when it launched. Not even Sorcerers have to suffer anymore. Every class has at least one build that will plow through high-tier Nightmare Dungeons, which are still the game's hardest endgame activity until Blizzard adds the Abattoir of Zir next month.
It's simply the best time to return to Diablo 4. Blizzard has repeatedly said it has no plans to nerf anything in the game, and even doubled the drop rate of the rare boss-summoning material Living Steel in a hotfix this week. It seems to be serious about transforming the core parts of the game into something everyone can enjoy and leaving its most hardcore grindy bits to the most hardcore grindy players. Now all we need is a story that isn't going to put me to sleep. Vessel of Hatred, I'm looking at you.
