Diablo IV’s second season, Season of Blood, will introduce almost two dozen vampiric powers for players to turn against the forces of evil when it kicks off on October 17, and they certainly sound powerful.
Bats, bones, and blood seem to be the name of the game. There are 22 powers in all, and they are not class-specific. A character can only have five powers active at a time. Much of Season of Blood will revolve around gathering Potent Blood, a new resource gained from defeating enemies that is used to unlock random powers or power upgrades from a new part of the character menu. Additional powers can be gained by playing through the seasonal quest line or by participating in a new seasonal event, Blood Harvest.
However, there is a catch. While acquiring the powers and their upgrades is fairly straightforward, players will need a new type of armor in order to actually activate these powers. Called Pact Armor, this new type of armor can roll with three different types of Pacts–Ferocity, Divinity, and Eternity. Powers will require a certain number of these Pacts be equipped in order to activate. One minor Vampiric Power, for example, may require 1 Eternity Pact, while another may require 1 Ferocity and 1 Divinity. If players happen to have a piece of gear with all three of those Pacts, they’re in luck, as both of those powers will become active. Chest armor, pants, gloves, boots, and helms can all drop with Pacts, so players will need to keep an eye out for pieces of armor that will suit their Vampiric Power needs.
Players, thankfully, do have some ways to make finding the right Pact Armor easier. Crafting items called Standalone Pacts and Cleansing Acids will allow players to both add specific Pacts or remove them from gear, allowing for fine-tuning to gear without having to rely solely on random loot rolls. These crafting items can be acquired from the season quest line, the season journey, the Blood Harvest event, and Opulent Coffins.
As for the powers themselves, they come in two forms: Minor Vampiric Powers and Major Vampiric Powers. As one might guess, Minor Vampiric Powers are generally less powerful but also don’t require as many Pacts in order to activate. Major Vampiric Powers are far more potent but require six Pacts to become active. Season 2 will additionally introduce a new keyword, Vampiric Curse, which will interact with certain powers. Below is the full list of powers players will be able to experiment with. Keep in mind the values listed below represent the powers upgraded to their max level of 3, so level 1 powers will be weaker, though Blizzard has not yet detailed exactly how much.
Diablo IV Season Of Blood Vampiric Powers
Minor Vampiric Powers (1–3 Pacts Required):
- Anticipation (1 Divinity): Your Ultimate Skills gain 20% Cooldown Reduction. Your Ultimate Skills gain 12% increased damage for each nearby enemy affected by your Damage Over Time effects.
- Coven’s Fangs (2 Divinity): Your Conjuration, Companion, Minion, and Bat Familiar attacks deal 52% increased damage to Crowd Controlled enemies. Lucky Hit: Your Conjuration, Companion, Minion, and Bat Familiar have up to a 30% chance to inflict Vampiric Curse when hitting enemies.
- Domination (1 Ferocity): You deal 24% increased damage to enemies who are Stunned, Immobilized, Frozen, or Feared. If they’re also Injured and not an Elite, they’re instantly killed.
- Feed the Coven (1 Eternity): Lucky Hit: Conjuration, Companion, Minion and Bat Familiar attacks have up to a 60% chance to restore 10 Primary Resource to you and increase your Damage by 10% for 4 seconds.
- Hectic (3 Divinity): For every 5 Basic Skills you cast, one of your active Cooldowns is reduced by 2 seconds.
- Hemomancy (3 Eternity): Your attacks deal 80% of your Maximum Life as Physical damage to nearby enemies. This can only occur once every 4 seconds. You heal for 1% of your Maximum Life for each enemy damaged this way.
- Infection (1 Ferocity): Hitting enemies with direct damage infects them with Pox. Inflicting Pox 8 times on an enemy expunges their infection, dealing 70% Poison damage.
- Jagged Spikes (1 Ferocity, 1 Divinity): Thorns have a 10% chance to deal 300% increased damage and Chill enemies for 8%.
- Prey on the Weak (2 Ferocity): You deal 16% increased damage to Vulnerable enemies. Enemies are Vulnerable while affected by a Vampiric Curse from your other Vampiric Powers.
- Rampart (1 Divinity, 1 Eternity): After not moving for 3 seconds, you gain a Barrier for 40% of your Maximum Life for 6 seconds. This effect can occur once every 20 seconds.
- Ravenous (3 Ferocity): Lucky Hit: Up to a 20% chance to increase your Attack Speed by 40% of your Total Movement Speed for 6 seconds.
- Resilience (2 Eternity): You gain 1% Damage Reduction for each 2% Life you are missing.
- Sanguine Brace (1 Divinity, 1 Eternity): When you kill an enemy, Fortify for 6% of your Base Life. While you have more Fortify than half of your Maximum Life, you gain 8% Critical Strike Chance.
- Terror (1 Ferocity, 1 Divinity, 1 Eternity): When struck, you have a 14% chance to Fear nearby enemies and Slow them by 80% for 2 seconds. You are guaranteed to Critically Strike enemies who are Feared.
- Undying (1 Eternity): Casting Skills heals you for 3% Life. Double this bonus while below 50% Life.
Major Vampiric Powers (6 Pacts Required):
- Accursed Touch (6 Divinity): Lucky Hit: Up to a 44% chance to inflict Vampiric Curse on enemies. Enemies with the Vampiric Curse have a 15% chance to spread it to other surrounding enemies. Accursed Souls deal 200% increased damage.
- Bathe in Blood (3 Divinity, 3 Eternity): While Channeling a Skill, you form a pool of blood beneath you. While channeling a skill in a pool, your Channeled Skills deal 40% increased damage and you gain 30% Damage Reduction. A pool can only form once every 8 seconds.
- Blood Boil (6 Eternity): When your Core Skills Overpower an enemy, you spawn 3 Volatile Blood Drops. Collecting a Volatile Blood Drop causes it to explode, dealing 60% Physical damage around you. Every 20 seconds, your next Skill is guaranteed to Overpower.
- Call Familiar (3 Ferocity, 3 Divinity): Casting a Mastery, Weapon Mastery, Macabre, Wrath, or Imbuement Skill calls a bat ally to attack nearby enemies, dealing 80% Physical damage with a 30% chance to Stun.
- Flowing Veins (2 Ferocity, 2 Divinity, 2 Eternity): You deal 60% increased Damage Over Time to enemies that are moving or affected by a Vampiric Curse.
- Metamorphosis (2 Ferocity, 2 Divinity, 2 Eternity): When you Evade you turn into a cloud of bats, becoming Unstoppable for 4 seconds. Enemies along your path take 160% Physical damage and are inflicted with Vampiric Curse.
- Moonrise (6 Ferocity): Hitting an enemy with a Basic Skill grants you 4% Attack Speed for 10 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Upon reaching maximum stacks, you enter a Vampiric Bloodrage, gaining 160% Basic Skill damage and 15% Movement Speed for 10 Seconds.
Diablo IV Season of Blood begins October 17 and will bring with it a whole host of quality-of-life changes to the endgame grind, stash tabs, inventory, and more. Season 2’s launch will also coincide with Diablo IV’s debut on Steam, where it will join Overwatch 2 as the second Blizzard game to be offered on Valve’s popular PC gaming platform.
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