Diablo 3 Season 27 will allow Nephalem to tap into the power of Heaven with the Angelic Crucible
Diablo 3 Season 25 allowed us to steal the power of the seven Evils who rule the Demonic Host of the Burning Hells, and soon Season 27 will allow us to harness the power of Heaven with the Angelic Crucible. The new season will be rolling out on the patch 2.7.4 PTR, which will begin on July 12 and last 16 days, barring any unforeseen complications — which, of course, why we have test realms in the first place, to find those before they hit live servers. But if things go well, it may not be too long before we see these new angelic powers in play.
So what’s in the patch? And what’s this about the power of Angels? Let’s take a look at what’s in Diablo 3 patch 2.7.4 and Season 27.
Smite your foes with the wrath of the Heavens
Angelic Crucibles will allow us to Sanctify legendary items, which will lead to a host of changes to those items. A Sanctified item has the perfect stats of an Ancient Legendary item, and preserves that item’s Legendary powers while also adding a new Sanctified power. There are three possible powers per class, making are a total of 21 new powers coming in the Season:
Class-Specific Sanctified Powers
Barbarian
- Whirlwind pulls in and holds all enemies within 25 yards.
- Hammer of the Ancients hits in all directions around the Barbarian. Every seventh cast of Hammer of the Ancients unleashes a powerful shockwave.
- Hitting enemies generates stacks of Tempest Rhythm. Activating Wrath of the Berserker consumes 50 stacks of Tempest Rhythm and startles enemies within 16 yards, causing them to take 0.5% increased damage per stack for 10 seconds. Max 100 stacks.
Crusader
- Blessed Hammer now crackles with energy damaging enemies within 15 yards of its path. All runes but Dominion now throw the hammer in a direct path in front of the Crusader.
- Every two seconds, call down Fist of the Heavens on a random nearby enemy.
- After casting Falling Sword, you descend from the sky with two Archangels that wield immense holy skills and benefit from your holy damage skill modifiers.
Demon Hunter
- Strafe now casts the last non-channeled Hatred spending ability casted.
- Casting Vengeance unleashes a barrage of rockets that deal damage equal to a percentage of an enemy’s current hit points. The percentage per rocket is reduced if the enemy is an Elite or Boss. This effect cannot occur more than once every 60 seconds.
- Firing Cluster Arrow concentrates its explosive force into a piercing ray of light.
Monk
- Casting Wave of Light now summons a bell at the target location that deals damage when the caster attacks the bell. Up to seven bells can be active at one time.
- All Way of the Hundred Fists combo punches use the second stage combo punch.
- The target of your Seven-Sided Strike is barraged with spiritual punches for 15 seconds. This can only affect one enemy at a time.
Necromancer
- Your Golem now picks up corpses within 20 yards. Each corpse it stores allows you to cast any corpse spending ability with the max number of corpses consumed per cast. Up to 30 corpses can be stored.
- Enemies within 50 yards are constantly assaulted by the Army of the Dead – Unconventional Warfare while this item is equipped.
- Hitting enemies with Death Nova five consecutive times adds a spirit that afflicts an enemy every fifth cast of Death Nova. Up to three spirits can be sent at a time.
Witch Doctor
- Five seconds after casting Haunt, all Haunted enemies within 50 yards are pulled to the Witch Doctor.
- Horrify becomes an aura that causes enemies to receive 15% more damage and deal 15% less damage in addition to its other effects.
- Your Gargantuan spreads Locusts Swarm to any enemy within 16 yards and summons Zombie Dogs periodically. Zombie Dogs now gain every rune when summoned.
Wizard
- Casting Storm Armor sends a power thunderbolt from the skies that instantly kills a random enemy within 30 yards. Bosses are not killed but take significant damage. This effect cannot occur more than once every 60 seconds.
- Arcane Orb now periodically spawns up to four orbiting charges that will generate an additional orb when cast. All charges from the Arcane Orbit rune now detonate at the same time.
- Magic Missile fires 20 missiles and gains the effect of the Seeker rune.
Because it will be hilarious to kill a treasure goblin with a fiery sword from Heaven, y’all
Now, with powerful items like this, there are some fine print details to be aware of.
- You can have as many Sanctified items as you would like but you can only equip one per character — so if you’re wearing a Sanctified belt, forget putting on a pair of boots you just Sanctified.
- Angelic Crucibles and Sanctified items do not transfer along with your money and items at the end of a Season. They are Season 27 items only.
- Crafted level 70 Legendaries cannot be Sanctified, only dropped items and other equipped items. Sorry, your Unending War isn’t going to be a Sanctified item.
- Followers are out of luck, they can’t use Sanctified items. You can’t double dip with Sanctified items like you can the Cord of the Sherma.
- You can, however, Sanctify an item again with another Angelic Crucible, presumably to get a different Sanctified power.
There are other changes coming in the patch, too, which will roll out shortly before Season 27 goes live. Adventure Mode will be unlocked by default, so that nobody has to do the Campaign mode to unlock it, which makes sense because I’m pretty sure Adventure Mode is the preferred way to level nowadays — at least it’s how I do it on my Season characters. Likewise, all characters get access to every difficulty up to Torment 6, and every level 70 character unlocks Torment 7 to Torment 16. Uber Boss realms autoclose after 60 seconds, and the level of XP an Echoing Nightmare awards has been nerfed by 83%.
There are also some class specific changes, item set reworks, and the like, so get yourself onto the PTR on July 12 and experience it for yourself, plus help the devs find the bugs and imbalances that only we players can.
Please consider supporting our Patreon!
Join the Discussion
Blizzard Watch is a safe space for all readers. By leaving comments on this site you agree to follow our commenting and community guidelines.