Diablo 4 Season 11 brings back Azmodan and gives players new angelic powers

The Lesser Evils will be on the rampage in Diablo 4 next season, Season 11, which arrives on the PTR this week. Season 11 officially launches in December 2025, and with it we’ll finally have another representative of the High Heavens to aid Sanctuary (and no, it’s probably not the one you were hoping for), but we’ll also have another Lesser Evil to face, so we probably need the assist. Yes, we’re encountering (and murdering) some old, familiar faces in the coming season — that’s just Sanctuary for you.

So let’s run down what you can expect to find in Diablo 4 Season 11, including the new seasonal bosses, seasonal powers, and the many rewards on offer for players fighting the forces of the Burning Hells, all of which will be available to test on in the Diablo 4 patch 2.5.0 PTR, available from October 21 at 10:30 am pacific to October 28, 11 am pacific.

Here’s what you need to know about Season 11.

Azmodan returns and the Lesser Evils reunite

The Lesser Evils have been patient with their plans, waiting for the right time to find Sanctuary unaware and ripe for the taking. It will take the aid of the High Heavens to beat back their sinister plots in the next Season.

In Season 11, the Lesser Evils are reunited and band together to spread mass discord. Azmodan, the Lord of Sin, returns to Sanctuary with patch 2.5.0 as a permanent addition for both seasonal and eternal realms. Each of the four Lesser Evils will be integrated into a specific game mode — World Bosses, Helltide, Kurast Undercity, and the Pit. It’s your job to kill the bosses in these modes for their Corrupted Essences, which can unlock rewards in a few ways.

Azmodan, Lord of Sin, appears as a “formidable new World Boss in multiple locations.” He can potentially spawn in place of one of the existing three World Bosses (permanently joining the World Boss line-up), but can also be summoned at will during the season (similar to summoning the Blood Maiden in Helltide). Find one of three Summoning Altars scattered about and start the summoning ritual to call forth a wave of supporting monsters and (eventually) Azmodan himself. His power set is dependent on which altar you spawn him at — each altar corresponds to one of the other three Lesser Evils, which will add to his abilities, and the monsters that spawn to support him have similarly related affixes. Kill the spawns to bring forth Azmodan; ending him results in reward chests in the summoning area that can be opened with Corrupted Essence.

Duriel, Lord of Pain, “burrows into Helltide, spreading his parasitic presence.” Pangs of Duriel (presumably the mini-Duriel mobs we’ve previously seen during his normal fight) spawn instead of Hellborne at max threat level, earning you Baneful Hearts to summon Duriel in place of the Blood Maiden. Additionally, the maggot monster family is all over the Helltide now, joining regular monster packs, spewing forth from Hellwyrms, and dropping in place of meteors. We’ll even encounter “mega-maggots” called Portents of Pain. Frankly, if anything Duriel grosses you out, this may not be your favorite season.

Andariel, Maiden of Anguish,  “burns into the Kurast Undercity” timed dungeon mode, corrupting the Spirit Beacons to make them more dangerous in exchange for granting more attunement. But watch out for the lurking Shades of Andariel — unlike the elites that increase your timer, these mobs will sap your time, but even if you dodge them, normal enemies are now imbued with Wailing Spirits that launch attacks direct to your location. On the plus side, Andariel herself can spawn as the final boss in the Undercity and grants “increased rewards” on defeat; boost your chances to encounter her with new Undercity Tributes that both improve your rewards and guarantee Andariel spawns as a final boss (at the cost of adding Dungeon affixes to your run).

Belial, Lord of Lies, brings his illusions to the Pit this season. Belial Eyes will randomly appear in the timed dungeon run; kill them and surrounding enemies are stunned, but now accompanied by a summoned pack of Belial Apparitions (which yes, count towards your progress). Kill enough of his Eyes and the final boss of the Pit run is replaced by Belial himself — a worthwhile challenge, as killing him grants additional rewards and an additional Glyph upgrade (speeding up your power gains). However, his illusions haunt you your entire run: you’ll encounter clones of your enemies, spawned just to “sow confusion in your mind” (and potentially slow your run down).

Power up with new Divine Gifts, Sanctified gear

Your deeds in protecting the downtrodden have not gone unnoticed, wanderer. A fraction of power from The High Heavens has become available for your plight in the upcoming Season.

Our seasonal power system comes courtesy of the Angel Hadriel, the supposed follower of Tyrael who aided the player’s adventurers through the Burning Hells in Act 4 of Diablo 2. Hadriel “provides a fraction of the power the High Heavens” in the form of Divine Gifts, which are unlocked by killing a Lesser Evil for the first time. Take the Corrupted Essence they drop to Hadriel to unlock that Lesser Evil’s two Divine Gifts, which each have three components: Reward, Corrupted Gift, and Purified Gift. These Gifts are leveled up by re-killing the Lesser Evil or any of their minions, and what they change is based on placement in the inner or outer ring of your Divine Gifts:

• Slotting the Gift activates its Reward for a particular activity, no matter if it’s slotted in the inner or outer circle.
• The gift activity is based on the source: Duriel’s Pain and Squalor gift powers impacts Helltides, Belial’s Lies and Shadows powers impact the Pit, Azmodan’s Sin and Hellfire powers impact the overworld, and Andariel’s Anguish and Screams powers impact the Undercity.
• Slotting a gift in the outer ring activates the Corrupted power, increasing the difficulty of the gift’s associated activity. You don’t have to equip these, but then you’ll miss out on that Gift’s Reward.
• Slotting a gift in the inner ring activates the Purified power, granting you a buff while removing the negative Corrupted effect and doubling the Gift’s Reward.
• You cannot equip the Purified powers until you’ve unlocked the inner ring’s slots. The slots are unlocked at specific “Divine Favor” (presumably the new rep) ranks: Rank 2 opens Duriel’s slot, Rank 4 opens Andariel’s, Rank 6 opens Azmodan’s, and Rank 8 opens Belial’s. So even if you’ve taken down a boss and earned its Divine Gifts, you may not be able to equip them yet — or at least not their purified versions.

While our seasonal powers will drop from the Lesser Evils, we’re also imbuing our gear with the “ascendant power of the Angels” via Sanctification. Hadriel oversees the Heavenly Anvil that allows us to sanctify our gear — and if this sounds familiar, we’ve had unrelated sanctified items in Diablo 3 seasons. Unlike its D3 counterpart, sanctifying in D4 has a chance to do one of five things:

• Apply a bonus Legendary power
• Improve an Affix into a Greater Affix
• Add a bonus Affix from a pool of special Sanctification affixes
• Replace an existing Affix with a random Sanctification affix
• Make your item indestructible, preventing it from losing durability

Sanctification comes at a cost — your item becomes unmodifiable, “ending that item’s journey,” so you cannot apply a temper or improve the item’s quality via Masterworking. In short — Sanctifying an item should be the last change you make to it.

Now, in pre-Torment difficulties, accessing the Anvil is rare; you have a chance to reach the Heavenly Anvil to sanctify your gear after defeating a Lesser Evil in its takeover game mode. If you do not use the Anvil “at that time of invitation” (presumably through a special portal that opens), you will not have the option to Sanctify again until you “receive another divine invitation.” Players can earn Heavenly Sigils in Torment difficulties which transport you to the Heavenly Forge to sanctify items of Ancestral quality and are potentially the currency for Torment-level Sanctification according to the season’s Sanctuary Sitdown interview. Blizzard included nothing about materials required for Sanctification, but screenshots do show something in the material window — perhaps lair boss keys or a Stygian Stone?

And that’s it! This theme reads like a more complex one on the outside; however, it also sounds like it could rapidly become a grindfest for folks to level up Divine Gifts in their respective content, only to then farm Heavenly Sigils in Torment 4 to sanctify their very best gear after maxing it out. We’ll know more when the patch 2.5.0 PTR kicks off October 21.