Diablo 4 Season 8: Updated Features and Build Guides for Belial’s Return

Diablo 4 Season 8 gives us our first true look at one of the franchise’s Great Evils, as Belial, Lord of Lies, descends on Sanctuary and takes his place at the top rung of the revamped Boss Ladder. Lay claim to his and other seasonal Boss Powers by traversing the world and defeating Hell’s greatest threats. Blizzard has thrown down the gauntlet with this new season, increasing difficulty across the board while tamping down top-end outliers. To combat this, IGN and Maxroll have teamed up to bring you a fresh set of guides to help you claim the immeasurable power of Diablo IV’s toughest enemies and fight back against the demonic hordes.

Diablo 4 Seasonal Theme: Boss Powers

Season 8 allows you to harness the powers of Diablo IV’s toughest foes. There are 24 Boss Powers available, and the first time you defeat each of these Bosses, you claim their power for yourself.

Boss Powers each have a Main and Modifier effect to boost your build. You can equip 1 Main Power and 3 Modifiers, and all powers can be upgraded to increase the potency of both effects. Use ‍Spectral Ash to upgrade them, dropped from Apparition Incursions and by defeating any Boss.

Apparition Incursions

The new seasonal mechanic, Apparition Incursions, is available at any difficulty level, and gives you the opportunity to unlock a subset of the available Boss Powers very early on. Various Apparition Monsters appear in these timed boss rush events throughout Sanctuary. Defeating these monsters spawns 1 of 10 possible Apparition Bosses and defeating them grants you their Boss Power.

After defeating the first Boss, continue the event for a chance to fight a second Apparition Boss, after which Belial himself joins the fray.

Reworked Diablo 4 Boss Ladder

Beginning in Torment difficulty, you can now challenge Diablo IV’s Boss Ladder without collecting any prerequisite materials. This means you can claim the remaining Boss Powers as soon as you’re strong enough. The items previously used as summoning materials have been rebranded as Lair Boss Keys, and instead unlock a chest after defeating each boss to grant the associated Uniques and Mythic Uniques. Stygian Stones make their return in Season 8 with a new functionality. Namely, they can be converted into Lair Boss Keys for Greater Lair Boss (Duriel, Andariel, and Harbinger of Hatred).

When any Initiate or Greater Boss Hoard is unlocked, there is a chance for an apparition of Belial to ambush the player. Defeating this “mini-Belial” rewards the player with a second instance of that Lair Boss’s loot, as well as Betrayer’s Husks, the Lair Boss Key for Belial. Belial’s Loot table is special in its own right: though you won’t be afforded a chance to double it, you can select rewards from any other Lair Boss’s Hoard upon his defeat.

New Diablo 4 Lair Bosses

You may have noticed some new but familiar faces in the infographic above. While Belial sits atop the Boss ladder as the sole Exalted Lair Boss, two more Bosses from Diablo IV’s Vessel of Hatred expansion slot as a new Initiate and Greater Lair Boss.

Urivar

Urivar can be found in the Fields of Judgement in Nahantu. Wielding ethereal swords and calling on his formidable Knights Penitent, this formidable commander is not to be trifled with! For more info on Urivar’s location, loot table, and abilities, check out Maxroll’s Urivar Boss Guide.

Harbinger of Hatred

This demonic doggo makes his den in the Lingering Hatred region of Nahantu, and channels Mephisto’s dark energy to lunge, bite, and spew fire in an attempt to thwart any would-be adversary. Be wary of his many ground effects and next of kin. For tips to overcome the ladder’s newest Greater Boss, see Maxroll’s Harbinger of Hatred Boss Guide.

The Best Diablo 4 Season 8 Leveling Builds

Barbarian - Upheaval

The newest skill added to the Barbarian’s arsenal, Upheaval provides screen-clearing AoE on a short delay, as do its Cooldown-based counterparts in Ground Stomp and Mighty Throw. As early game Fury generation is the Upheaval Barbarian’s nemesis, it employs Leap and Aspect of the Relentless Master along with the Walking Arsenal Key Passive to stay in the fight.

Druid - Lightning Storm

The Lightning Storm Druid is by far the easiest Druid build to get off the ground. With relatively low Spirit costs and no real dependency on Codex aspects, its screen-wide AoE is excellent at most farming activities. It employs the full suite of Companions for their strong early game damage and to leverage the Clarity passive. Given time to set up, this passive allows the build to channel at near-max Critical Strike Chance from a very low level.

Necromancer - Minion

Minion Necromancer is one of the most simple and efficient leveling builds to gear and play. With your Minions carrying the majority of the weight, you can comfortably level up with ease. During the early levels you use Sever to aid your undead forces, but later you lead an army of Skeletal Warrior Reapers and Cold Skeletal Mages to victory across Sanctuary.

Rogue - Dance of Knives

Do you want to easily Spin2Win to Torment 1 and beyond? Then this is the build for you. This ‍Dance of Knives build does not need to manage Energy, nor does it rely on any aspects. You utilize the power of snapshotting ‍Concealment and ‍Shadow Imbuement to scale your ‍Dance of Knives. Dark Shroud handles your defenses while leveling, and provides a nice Movement Speed bonus.

Sorcerer - Firewall

Lure enemies into your Firewalls to burn them to death. Combine this with powerful Conjuration skills like Familiar and Hydra for supporting fire, and Spark to restore mana and you have a well-rounded offensive package. Defensively, you use Ice Armor while Teleporting across the battlefield to avoid damage. Keep moving and watch enemies burn to death in your wake.

Spiritborn - Quill Volley

Quill Volley Spiritborn is a ranged powerhouse. You fire several feathers that fan out while being able to shotgun enemies at close range, creating a superb mix of AoE and single target damage. Add in the Rebounding Aspect to hit enemies up to 16 times in a single attack! Between Soar, Rushing Claw and the Seeker this build has mobility for days, ensuring you’ll be in endgame in no time.

The Best Diablo 4 Season 8 Endgame Builds

Barbarian - Earthquake

Play HotA Quake with Mantle of the Mountain’s Fury to smash your enemies so hard the world itself shatters around you! Leap onto foes, unleash devastating ground stomps and even use Call of the Ancients to summon your ancestors to aid you in battle. If you are looking for a build that prefers to be in a target-rich environment, then Earthquake Barbarian is the build for you in Season 8.

Druid - Cataclysm

Even after a myriad of nerfs, the Cataclysm Druid returns as the top option for Druids in Season 8. As it can no longer maintain snapshotted buffs through successive casts, the build instead relies on the Provocation passive to guarantee overpowers on a per-cast basis. It recovers the Critical Strike Chance lost from the Xan rune through gear tempers, runes, and Boss Powers. Despite the setbacks, it’s still capable of clearing most endgame content before you even notice the mobs are there.

Necromancer - Blood Wave / Bone Spear

With two of the top builds across all classes, Necromancer is an incredibly strong choice for Season 8. Blood Wave or “Shadow Surfer” fills the screen with Blood and Darkness using AoE moves that cover the entire screen in devastation. Alternatively, as a Bone Spear Necromancer you impale your foes with massive spears of blood thanks to Indra’s Memory. Place your enemies in a Bone Prison to guarantee an Overpower from the Bone Duster’s Aspect for even more damage. So, whether you prefer Shadow Surfer or Bone Spear, you can’t go wrong with Necromancer in the Season of Belial’s Return!

Rogue - Death Trap

Stack Cooldown Reduction to spam the Rogue’s powerful Death Trap Ultimate Skill and deal huge damage to anything caught in the blast. Then watch as your Death Trap re-arms itself to fire again thanks to the Eyes in the Dark Unique Pants. This build has been a rogue staple since the release of Diablo 4 and it’s still going strong.

Sorcerer - Lightning Spear

Summon Spears of living Lightning, use the Aspect of Splintering energy to ride the lightning and deal massive damage. Then activate Unstable Currents to spawn even more Lightning Spears. This build scales well into the late game, benefiting from Mythic Uniques like Heir of Perdition and Ring of Starless Skies.

Spiritborn - Quill Volley

The endgame Quill Volley Spiritborn build rapidly fires shotgunning feathers to deal with both groups of foes and dangerous bosses. Harmony of Ebewaka enables a massive damage bonus by combining the Gorilla and Jaguar Spirit Halls. With Rod of Kepeleke and Ring of the Midnight Sun you create an infinite resource loop, immediately spending and restoring all of your Vigor with each attack.

Season 8 Tier Lists

Bossing

As the theme of Season 8 centers around Bossing, we’ll bet you’re wondering about which archetypes are the best to take down these worthy adversaries and claim their Powers. Well, the folks at Maxroll have highlighted the most effective Bossers in their Bossing Builds Tier List.

Leveling

Perhaps you have a particular class fantasy in mind but don’t love the top picks for leveling above. No worries, for a complete list of all of Maxroll’s leveling builds and how they’re ranked, see their Leveling Builds Tier List here.

Endgame

By endgame, most issues a build will typically run into can be solved by advanced gear, runes, and paragon. This opens up a wide array of build possibilities across all classes, but their ability to push Diablo IV’s endgame system, the Pit, to its limit varies. To see how the builds stack up, check out Maxroll’s Endgame Builds Tier List.

Speedfarming

Any ARPG enthusiast knows that speed is the great differentiator in terms of character progression and gearing. When you’re not pushing your build to its limits in the Pit, activities such as Nightmare Dungeons, Helltides, and Tree of Whispers bounties play a key role in boosting your character. To see which builds tackle this task the best, click on Maxroll’s Speedfarming Builds Tier List.

Written By IGN Staff, with help from the Maxroll Diablo 4 Team.