Diablo 4 Season 3 Guide: Start Date, Leaderboards, Rewards, Events & Preparations

Diablo 4 Midwinter Blight event ends January 2, Season 2: Season of Blood is going to end January 23. Blizzard has revealed significant new details about the upcoming third season for Diablo 4, slated to begin on January 23rd. Season 3 will introduce several highly-anticipated new systems and changes that are sure to shake up endgame gameplay. Read our D4 Season 3 leaks, we'll talk about the release date, leaderboards, events, rewards and preparations.

Diablo 4 Season 3 Start Date

The Diablo 4 team is on Christmas New Year break until the 4th of January so we probably going to get the the live stream or the season announcement on the 8 or the 9 of January. Since the Season of Blood is ending in January 23 and the new Season 3 is going to start on the same day because that's the way Diablo does their seasons. They always end the season and start the new season on the same day. So January 23 is the release date of D4 Season 3.

Diablo 4 Season 3 Leaderboards

Currently, there are fan-driven community leaderboards, which are not complete due to manual submission and lack of in-game connection. These leaderboards showcase community achievements and are not part of an official in-game system. The existing leaderboards are associated with Abattoir of Zir, this will end with Season 2, and there might be a future iteration. The developers plan to introduce official leaderboards in Diablo 4 Season 3 update, referred to as "The Gauntlet."The Gauntlet will have separate leaderboards for each class, as well as two-player, three-player, and four-player leaderboards. These leaderboards will be global, including players from all regions around the world.

Diablo 4 Season 3 Rewards

The Gauntlet will involve a points system, and it will be highly speed-focused. The solo barbarian leaderboards, for example, will reset weekly to maintain competitiveness. There will be rewards associated with different brackets or ranks on the leaderboards. The reward system is likened to the one seen in Diablo Immortal, where players receive rewards based on their leaderboard rankings.

The rewards will not only be for the top-ranked players but also those in various brackets, making it more inclusive. Monsters and chests will drop Proofs of Might, which will enhance your score. Diablo Immortal introduced a similar system of weekly rewards based on leaderboard rankings, which is considered a positive aspect. While there might be negativity surrounding Diablo Immortal, the concept of weekly rewards for leaderboard positions is seen as a good addition.

Diablo 4 Season 3 Events

Helltide duration is now 55 minutes, up from the previous duration. After each Helltide, there is a 5 minute downtime before the next one begins. This means Helltide will effectively be available virtually continuously, starting a new cycle every hour. Players will be able to grind Helltide for 55 minutes, then take a short 5 minute break before the next one starts. This allows players to more consistently farm Helltide for demonic souls, Fiend rolls, and other loot without long waits between cycles.

Diablo 4 Season 3 Class Changes

Many players are advocating for potential nerfs to specific builds, including Ball Lightning Sorc and HoTA Barb and there's even consideration for a potential nerf to Shred Druid since these builds might currently be overpowered or have mechanics that make them too strong. Necromancer class is struggling currently and could use buffs to weaker builds for that class.  The Twisted Ritual skill on Rogue is being broken/overpowered in certain interactions which might be a candidate for a nerf or adjustment. Most importantly, the mechanic of snapshotting gear buffs needs changing, as if unchanged people will snapshot all they can to top leaderboards

Diablo 4 Season 3 Item Level 925 Drops

Currently, the main way to acquire 925 item power gear is through Duriel. Blizzard mentioned there will be additional/new sources of 925 item level gear added in the Diablo IV Season 3 update. The new sources have not been explicitly detailed yet, but Blizzard is working on implementations. Item level 925 farming involves rewards from activities like gauntlet runs or leaderboard placements/achievements.

Diablo 4 Season 3 Trading

Currently, on consoles, D4 gold can only be added incrementally in trades (1 gold, 2 gold, 3 gold, etc) due to input limitations with a controller. This makes large trades involving billions of gold extremely tedious and time-consuming. Gold inflation is very high, with some items requiring billions of gold to purchase. Many trade site users are unwilling to trade with console players due to the poor trading experience. In Season 3 starting January 23rd, Blizzard is implementing a new gold input option for controllers in console versions. This will allow console players to more easily enter large amounts of gold in trades, rather than incrementing up one coin at a time. The new input method is not explicitly described but will address the core issue. It will greatly improve the trading experience for console players and the accessibility of the trading market.

How to Prepare for D4 Season 3?

• Stock up on crafting materials and resources. Farm Diablo 4 items like Death's Tomes, Fiend Materials, crafting components etc. to have on hand for gear upgrades.

• Save rare crafting resources like Blood Amber for rerolling high-level items. These may become more scarce or valuable next season.

• Farm gold and sell high-value loot. Use the remaining time to amass gold for trading or crafting purposes next season.

• Plan your D4 S3 class and build. Research viable options and farm any class-specific legendary items you can now for a head start.

• Push Greater Rifts and build Paragon levels. Maximize experience gains now for a Paragon level advantage next season.

• Gear alternate characters. Having backup gear sets allows faster build experimentation next season.