DiabloJul 25, 2019 5:40 pm CT

Diablo 3 Season 18 adds the Legacy of Dreams Legendary gem, which lets you keep playing like it’s Season 17

By Matthew Rossi

With the release of the patch 2.6.6 PTR for Diablo 3, we didn’t just find out about the upcoming Season 18 theme, although we certainly did that too and it’s pretty cool. But the Season of the Triune will also come with a bunch of powerful new gear: there are a variety of new Legendary powers, new items, and a new gem that lets you keep playing like it’s Season 17.

The Legacy of Dreams Legendary gem is one of the more interesting additions. It buffs your damage and survivability for every non-set Legendary piece you have and doubles the benefit when you’re at Rank 25 on the gem. A lot of players apparently really liked Season 17, and while you could theoretically equip the Legacy of Nightmares two-piece set to get it back, putting the power on a gem like this means that players who want to keep experimenting don’t lose a whole two slots to the LoN set to do so.

I also really have to highlight Mortick’s Brace, a pair of bracers we’ve seen on the PTR before. They give the Barbarian ability Wrath of the Berserker the benefit of every rune, which is a pretty powerful buff. These bracers were tested back in patch 2.2.0 but left out of that patch for being too powerful. The game as it exists now seems like it can handle the power of an all-runes Wrath of the Berserker, and so Mortick is getting tested out again — which shows just how serious the game’s power creep is.

But that isn’t all. For a full rundown of everything new in patch 2.6.6, read the patch notes.

Originally Posted by Nevalistis (Official Post)

Items

Developer Note: There are additional specific notes below, but broadly for 2.6.6, we wanted to introduce a handful of new item powers targeted at two audiences: (1) certain classes with long-standing requests for balance/quality of life adjustments and (2) the broader player base for experimenting with Kanai’s Cube. This means fewer class-specific new additions, but more additions that everyone has an opportunity to play with. We also experimented with making some of the craftable sets from Haedrig more appealing for fresh level 70’s or players looking to maximize their farming runs. We hope to see some interesting new theorycrafting and tactics out of 2.6.6 and can’t wait to see what the community does with this new loot!

Flavor of Time
- New Legendary Power: Pylon effects last twice as long.
The Executioner
- New Legendary Power: Attacks will slay enemies with less than (5-10%) health.
Stone Gauntlets
- New Legendary Power: Getting attacked will slowly turn you to stone… (You gain 50% more armor, but your movement speed is reduced by 15% and attack speed is reduced by 20%. This effect stacks up to 5 times)

Echoing Fury
- New Legendary Power: Slaying enemies engulfs the wielder into a Frenzy. (Killing enemies increases your attack speed by 15% and movement speed by 5%. This effect stacks up to 5 times)
Squirt’s Necklace
- New Legendary Power: While not taking damage, your damage is increased by up to 100% and damage taken is increased by up to 50%.
Messerschmidt’s Reaver
- New Legendary Power: Reduce the remaining cooldown of one of your skills by 1 second when you slay an enemy.

Mortick’s Brace
- New Legendary Item: Wrath of the Berserker gains the effect of every rune.
- Developer’s Note: If you played during the Patch 2.2.0 PTR, you’ll recognize this as an item that was later removed from the game before it went to live servers. At the time, Mortick’s Brace gave too much power for a single item slot. However, the power curve of Diablo III has changedsignificantlysince then and we’re comfortable with bringing it back.

Spite
- Note: This item can be crafted from the Blacksmith and is not a normal loot drop
- New Legendary Power: Non-cleaving Gargantuans gain the cleave and chilling effects of the Humongoid rune.

Legacy of Dreams
- New Legendary Gem:
  - While you have no set bonuses equipped, every Legendary item you have equipped increases your damage dealt by 3.75% and reduces your damage taken by 2%. (Max level 99)
  - Rank 25: This bonus is doubled for Ancient items.
- Developer’s Note: The end game opened up significantly with Season 17’s Legacy of Nightmare’s buff (and the community was clear about how much these new options were appreciated), but wanted to make this addition a more permanent fixture in a more streamlined way than simply making it baseline. This Legendary Gem should open that path up even further and at more opportunities than just late game Greater Rift pushing.
Crafted Sets
- Note: The following sets have been significantly revised from their existing level 70 counterparts. Items crafted prior to 2.6.6 will continue to exist in their old forms but will not be updated after the patch. In addition, after the patch, the old recipes will no longer be available to craft and all players will need to re-acquire these recipes by finding the plans again through Horadric Caches or by killing Odious Collectors.
- Sage’s Journey
  - A Belt has been added to this set.
  - Haedrig the Blacksmith now automatically learns how to forge this set at Rank 12.
- Captain Crimson’s Trimmings
  - (2) Set Bonus
    - Regenerates 6000 Life per Second
    - Reduces cooldown of all skills by~~10%~~20%.
    - Now also reduces Resource Costs by 20%
  - (3) Set Bonus
    - Set bonuses have been replaced
      - Damage dealt is increased by your total percentage of Cooldown Reduction
      - Damage taken is reduced by your total percentage of Resource Cost Reduction
- Aughild’s Authority
  - (2) Set Bonus
    - Set bonuses have been replaced
      - Reduces damage taken by 15%
      - Increases damage dealt by 30%
  - (3) Set Bonus
    - Reduces damage from elites by~~15%~~30%
    - Increases damage against elites by1530%
- Cain’s Destiny
  - (2) Set Bonus
    - Attack Speed increased by 8%
    - +50% Experience. (5.0% at level 70) (Moved from (3) Set Bonus)
  - (3) Set Bonus
    - When a Greater Rift Keystone drops, there is a 25% chance for an extra one to drop.