Diablo 4 Season 7: Everything You Need To Know
10.01.2025 - 02:15:16
Diablo 4 , Game Guides
Diablo 4 Season 7 is about to be released in a few days. If there’s one thing we know about it, it’s that previous PTR has introduced a lot of interesting new features to the game. Season 7 might just be that big push that the game has needed to bring back more players once again.
Before you go, make sure to drop by our Diablo store. We’ve got great deals on items, materials, gold, and more!
Season 6 End Date and Start of New Season
The current season will officially end on January 21st. Now, this doesn’t necessarily mean that the new season will start on that exact day, but based on Blizzard’s history, seasons tend to start immediately after the previous one ends.
There’s usually only a few hours of downtime between one season ending and the next one starting. So while they haven’t officially announced the start date, we can expect the new season to kick off on January 21st, based on their usual schedule.
Blizzard typically holds their campfire chats a week before the season launch, so we can expect one of those to happen in the next week or so. We’re really looking forward to it and will be covering it as well.
Do You Need the Expansion Pack for the Season?
One of the most common questions is whether you need to purchase the expansion pack in order to participate in the new season. The good news is no! You do not need to buy the expansion to play in the new season.
You can still participate in the seasonal mechanics without the expansion, and everything that’s part of the base game will be available to you.
However, if you do purchase the expansion pack, you’ll get access to new regions like Nantu, and other endgame activities such as the Unders City and the Dark Citadel.
Plus, mercenaries and runes will also be unlocked with the expansion. But as long as you have the base game, you’re all set to dive into the new season.
What to Expect in Season 7
Over on Wowhead, we’ve gotten a preview of what to expect in Season 7. One of the most exciting features for this season is the introduction of witch powers. This is the first time since Season 2 that we’ve seen new seasonal powers, and they will only be available to seasonal characters.
If you’re an Eternal player, you won’t be able to access these powers, so we highly recommend giving the seasonal realm a try. These seasonal powers add a ton of fun variety to the game.
Types of Seasonal Powers
Season 7 will introduce four different types of witch powers: Eldrich, Psyche, Growth, and Decay. On top of those, we’ll also have four lost powers, which will be the most powerful of them all.
Your goal will be to unlock and use these lost powers, which will make your character even stronger as you progress.
To unlock these powers, you’ll need to visit one of the three altars found throughout the game. These altars will let you purchase witch powers as you level up your character and gain more reputation with the Coven.
You can earn reputation through Whispers, a key mechanic in Season 7. We’ve had the chance to try out the Whispers system on the PTR, and we have to say, they did a great job of making it fun and rewarding.
Poison Frog Servant and Other Powers
One of the first powers we’ve seen is the Poison Frog Servant. Some of the powers in the game have a summon tag, which means they could work with any bonuses to minions or summons—although that’s something we’ll have to test further.
A lot of these powers will deal flat damage, and some even have additional utility. For example, certain powers can group up enemies or pull them toward you. Some powers might even block damage, so they aren’t just about adding raw numbers—they come with helpful mechanics as well.
Even if your build is focused on a specific damage type, like cold damage or a core skill, you may be able to use these powers in a creative way to further enhance your build. If these powers can crit, you might even consider building into crit-based setups.
Some of these skills already exist in the game, like Bone Spirit. The Vengeful Spirit is a reworked version of Bone Spirit with a faster animation and a slightly different way of functioning.
Another power we’ve seen is the Pan, which, if you’re familiar with Diablo and have played as a Witch Doctor, you’ll instantly recognize. It pulls enemies toward you, which should make it a fun and powerful addition to any build.
Ultimate Powers and Their Utility
Now let’s talk about the ultimate powers. I’m going to call these “Mega Powers” because they’re the biggest game-changers for your character. You can only select one ultimate power, and then you get five of the normal powers.
To unlock these ultimate powers, you’ll need to interact with specific altars—though we don’t have the exact locations for these altars just yet. Once we do, we can make a guide on where to find them.
Let’s go over some of these ultimate powers:
Doom Orb
This is an ominous orb of pure eldritch energy that clears or circles, damaging any enemy it touches with fire damage. The Doom Orb may even launch itself at distant enemies before returning to the user. At rank five, if you kill enemies or deal damage to bosses, the orb’s damage is empowered.
After reaching 100% of the empowered damage, the orb explodes, dealing a significant amount of damage to nearby enemies before reforming after three seconds. There’s also a chance that this could interact with other damage types, such as Shadow damage, making it an interesting option if you’re running builds that take advantage of those damage types.
Panado
This power summons the Pan when an enemy is afflicted by both a hex and another effect. The Pan pulls enemies toward it, dealing damage. At rank five, the Pan moves toward nearby enemies. This power seems like it could be one of the strongest options, as it combines great crowd control with decent damage. We’ve seen it in action, and it definitely looks fun and impactful.
Cycle
When you deal damage with your skills, there’s a 15% chance to grow a flower from the ground. When enemies come near the flower, it deals poison damage over five seconds. If an ally is near the flower, they heal for 6% of their max life.
The flower withers away after it’s used, but it may grow again once every five seconds. At rank five, the damage and healing effects affect all enemies and allies near the flower. This power introduces a fun and strategic way to help your team while also dealing damage. It’s a solid option for support-oriented builds.
Vengeful Spirit
Every 19 seconds, a vengeful spirit servant appears for a duration. While active, all damage taken is absorbed by the spirit instead of the player. At rank five, when the vengeful spirit’s life is fully depleted, it rushes toward up to eight enemies, dealing 2,000 Shadow damage.
This ability could be useful for tanking damage in difficult encounters or dealing burst damage to multiple enemies at once. That said, it might not be as useful for regular content unless you’re dealing with situations that require absorbing large amounts of damage.
Best Special Power
From what we’ve seen so far, the Panado power seems to be the best of the special powers. It has a lot of utility, pulling enemies toward you and dealing solid damage. The crowd control aspect is crucial, especially in high-density combat scenarios.
We’ll likely revisit the power tier list once we have more information and can fully compare the powers. For now, though, Panado seems like a top pick.
Lesser Powers Overview
Let’s break down some of the lesser powers in Diablo 4 Season 7 that we know about so far. While there are likely over 20 in total, 24 powers have been revealed, with 20 being the purple witchcraft powers and one red one with four variations.
These lesser powers have potential to be a great addition to your build, offering different utilities and bonuses.
Abyssal Resonance
Abyssal Resonance triggers an explosion every 250 resources spent, dealing Shadow damage to enemies. Each explosion increases in size and damage, stacking up to three times. At Rank 10, the third explosion pulls enemies toward you before detonating.
This power works great for Spiritborn builds, especially when paired with the Ring of the Midnight Hunt for added resource recovery.
Aura of Lament
This power applies a slow to enemies you strike, affecting them and nearby enemies by 70%. For each enemy in the aura, you gain one primary resource per second. The aura can pass on to another enemy if the initial target dies, but it only occurs once every 30 seconds. The resource gain feels a bit too low, making this power less effective in the long run.
Aura of Misfortune
Aura of Misfortune has a chance to interrupt enemy attacks near you, though it doesn’t affect bosses. At Rank 5, it boosts your movement speed by 5% and slows enemies by 30%. It’s not the most exciting, but it provides decent crowd control and mobility.
Aura of Siphoning
This power creates an aura that deals poison damage to enemies every second. At Rank 10, it heals you for 1% of your max life each time it deals damage. This could be great for poison-focused builds, such as Rogue or certain Spiritborn builds, and offers healing as a bonus.
Aura Specialization
Increasing the size of your aura effects, this power at Rank 10 boosts your critical strike damage by 50% against enemies inside your aura. This power is a must-have for builds that rely on aura-based effects, particularly those focused on AoE (Area of Effect) attacks.
Breath of the Coven
Breath of the Coven grants bonus attack speed for 10 seconds after you apply a crowd control effect or damage with your witchcraft effects. At Rank 8, it also provides a 40% lucky hit chance when all four witchcraft effects—Eldrich, Psyche, Growth, and Decay—are active. This is a solid power for crit-based builds if you can maintain the witchcraft effects.
Decay Augment
This power applies a portion of your witchcraft effects’ damage over five seconds. At Rank 10, when your DOT effects exceed 85% of an enemy’s life, they die instantly. It’s a strong option for DOT builds, giving you an instant kill mechanic when the enemy is sufficiently damaged.
Firebat Servants
The Firebat Servants summon a swarm of firebats that deal fire damage to enemies every two seconds. At higher ranks, enemies are stunned for 3 seconds after being hit five times. It’s a decent crowd control tool, though it might not be the most efficient for all builds.
Soul Harvest
Soul Harvest is a Witch Doctor skill that feeds upon nearby enemies’ life force, increasing your primary stat by 3% per monster for a few seconds after using a skill with a cooldown.
This power doesn’t lose duration as long as enemies are nearby, making it one of the most powerful options for increasing your damage output, especially when you can stack it efficiently.
These lesser powers offer unique utility and damage benefits. Some, like Soul Harvest, are strong contenders for top-tier builds, while others, like Aura of Lament, need further consideration before committing to them. As we see more of how they perform in-game, expect to refine your choices based on your preferred playstyle.
Whispers and Seasonal Progression
As you progress through the season, you’ll collect Whispers, which will lead you to the altars to purchase new powers. These Whispers are going to be a major part of the seasonal experience, and there will be plenty of variety when it comes to completing them.
Additionally, you’ll also encounter the Doom Orb, which is one of the forgotten powers that’s particularly exciting. As you collect more powers, you’ll have the chance to level them up.
Each power will have 20 ranks, so there’s a lot of progression to look forward to as you play through the season.
Head Hunts and Occult Gems
Another exciting addition to Season 7 is the introduction of Head Hunts and Occult Gems. These are going to add some serious intensity to the game, with new zones that feature high-density monster packs.
These zones are packed with new monsters and will serve as a primary source for leveling up your character. You’ll be able to collect loot, including legendaries, at a much faster pace than usual.
Whispers will also be present in these zones, allowing you to continue completing them as you level up. What’s even better is that you won’t have to interrupt your leveling process to turn in your Whispers.
Instead, you’ll be able to find a raven NPC in the zone, who will allow you to turn in your Whispers without stopping your leveling grind. It’s a smooth and convenient system that keeps the action going.
Occult Gems and Witch Powers
Occult Gems are another key feature of Season 7. These gems come in three different rarities and each one has a unique property. One of the most exciting aspects of these gems is their interaction with the witch powers.
Each gem is designed to work with specific auras and hexes that you can apply to enemies. These hexes and auras are part of the witch powers, and they synergize perfectly with the occult gems to create powerful effects.
As you level up and gain more witch powers, you’ll be able to pair them with these gems for some really fun and powerful combinations. It’s going to be a great opportunity for players to theorycraft and create some unique builds.
Coven Reputation and Rewards
As you complete Whispers, you’ll also earn reputation with the Coven. This reputation unlocks seasonal rewards, and they’ve significantly boosted the rewards this season compared to past ones.
If you take a look at the reputation tree, you’ll see a long list of rewards that you can earn by completing Whispers. This gives you even more incentive to participate in the seasonal grind.
The Armory System: A Long-Awaited Feature
Lastly, one of the most anticipated features, the Armory system, will be introduced in Season 7. This feature allows you to save your builds, including your skills and Paragon points.
With just a click of a button, you can switch between different builds—whether you’re going with Fire, Ice, or Lightning. It’s a simple and convenient way to optimize your character’s loadout without having to manually respec.
Reminders Before Season Change
Seasonal vs. Eternal Realms
When you create a brand-new character in Diablo 4, at the very end of the selection screen, you are prompted to choose which realm you want to play on: Seasonal or Eternal.
If you select the seasonal option, you get all of the extra features that come with playing a seasonal character, but only until the season ends. If you uncheck the seasonal box, you’ll be creating a character for the Eternal realm.
So why would you want to play a seasonal character? Well, each season is an exciting new start. Everyone begins at the same level, with no one having special gear or grinded for hours. Everyone is on an even playing field, which makes exploring new seasonal content together a really fun experience.
Sure, you might have to start over each season, and that can be a little exhausting after building up a character and getting great gear, but it’s also one of the most enjoyable aspects of the game. It’s a chance to experience a fresh start and see new content with a clean slate.
We highly recommend at least trying a seasonal character for one season—it’s a lot of fun.
Now, if starting over every season doesn’t sound appealing, that’s where the Eternal characters come in. Eternal characters do not have seasonal powers. If you were to log into one of your Eternal characters right now, you would notice that there are no seasonal powers available, and anything from previous seasons will be stored in your stash.
You’ll need to make sure there’s enough space in your stash, as when your seasonal character transitions to the Eternal realm, all of your items from previous seasons will be added there. If you don’t remove them, they will be deleted at the end of the current season.
Eternal Realm Gameplay
When you switch to the Eternal realm, the gameplay experience changes a bit. The map will look a little different, and there will be no seasonal mechanics like the Realm Walkers or other features.
However, you’ll still have access to all of the itemization changes from the base game, but seasonal mechanics will not be available. That means while you can still benefit from base game changes, the seasonal content is reserved for those playing seasonal characters.
Diablo 4’s Next Season Awaits
Diablo 4 Season 7 is going to be an exciting one. There’s lots of new features and more content to dig into and hopefully, it goes smoothly when it launches later this month. For now, you might want to start farming gold to make your characters stronger this season.