What is Season Rank in Diablo 4?

Starting in Diablo 4‘s Season 11, both the Seasonal (or Season’s) Journey and Renown rewards will be replaced by a new, season-only system. Gone are the days of 12 immediate skill points when starting a new seasonal character. It feels weird to part ways with the seasonal journey after so many adventures with it in Diablo 3 especially with yet another new, “more challenging” system. So what is Season Rank and how will we use it to progress through seasons moving forward in Diablo 4? Here’s what we know about the new Season Rank system going into the patch 2.5.0 PTR running from October 21, 10:30 a.m. PDT to October 28, 11 a.m. PDT.

Season Rank is a more difficult version of the Season Journey, “stocked with even greater rewards,” presumably to balance the difficulty. Instead of progressing to the next chapter of the journey by completing objectives, each new rank is reached by completing its Capstone Dungeon. It will still contain the aforementioned objectives (as optional items to complete) although there is a bit of confusion as the blog post says these will earn you “skill points, smouldering ashes, and cosmetics” (more below). The Capstone Dungeons each present a challenge at a specific difficulty tier with a suggested level to complete them:

• Torrid Menagerie is the Normal difficulty Capstone suggested for level 30 characters to complete Rank 1.
• Hellish Descent, is the Expert difficulty Capstone suggested for level 50 characters to complete Rank 2.
• Unseen Awakening is the Torment 1 difficulty Capstone suggested for level 60 characters to complete Rank 3.
• Tempest Oasis is the Torment 2 difficulty Capstone suggested for level 60 characters to complete Rank 4.
• Sins of the Many is the Torment 3 difficulty Capstone suggested for level 60 characters to complete Rank 5.

Now, Season Rank’s role as Renown’s replacement is a little less earth-shattering. Instead, you’ll earn your Skill and Paragon points from progressing through renown ranks, gaining Skill points at Ranks 1, 2, and 3, and Paragon points from Ranks 3, 4, 5, and 6. Yes, 3 is granting both Skill and Paragon points — that is not a typo. You can still hit Altars of Lilith and Tenets of Akarat for “some experience and minor rewards” but they’ll no longer beef up your future seasonal characters with permanent stats and power.

But you may see why there’s confusion — if the Season Ranks are granting Skill points, do we also need to complete the optional objectives to do so? Or are those little milestones along the way, which are automatically “checked off” when you complete a Capstone to advance to the next rank? Was the Seasonal Journey just too darn easy? I disagree, and I have yet to finish Renown 5 for Nahantu, thank you very much. Finally, do we still have to 1) pick up (almost) every travel point and 2) unlock Strongholds?

Ok, I actually have a lot more questions beyond that, but we’ll know more once we get our hands on the PTR. For now, just know that starting with D4 Season 11, the Seasonal servers will no longer have region Renown tracks, nor will there be a Seasonal Journey — both are replaced by the new Season Rank system. Season Rank has six levels and you progress to the next level by completing a Capstone Dungeon. We’ll know more (and report back) once the PTR is live, starting October 21. See you in Sanctuary!