New season of D2R starts around the end of September, that's what most players have been waiting for. With the new season, we're hoping that there will be some updates that everybody could agree on and really make the community happy and really improve the player experience. In this guide, we are going to look at some Season 5 changes to Diablo 2 Resurrected 2.8 patch.

Diablo 2 Resurrected Ladder Season 5 Start Date - When Does Season 5 Start?

Diablo 2 Resurrected Ladder Season 5 is expected to start in the end of September of 2023. The exact date has not been announced yet. According to Blizzard, the previous ladder season lasted for 4 months, and the Diablo team has stated that their goal was to roll out a new season every four months. Therefore, it is possible that Ladder Season 5 will start in late September, which would be four months after the start of Ladder Season.

Diablo 2 Resurrected Season 5 Changes for Patch 2.8

As for changes to D2R Ladder Season 5 patch 2.8, there has been no official announcement yet. However, players can expect some changes to the game mechanics and balance with the start of a new ladder season. Here are 3 different things that may be implemented into Diablo 2 Resurrected.

D2R Season 5 Change 1: Loot Filter

The very first one is that we need a loot filter in Diablo 2 Resurrected. We don't know how there could ever be a downside to having this loot filter in Diablo 2 Resurrected. Now the number of times that we've been out there either slaughtering cows, popping lower kurast chests, maybe using the find item Barb down in the pits and you just can't see the items laying on the ground because there's a limited number of items that can't be displayed on the screen at one time. So when you reach that limit or exceed that limit, also no other items don't get shown. So we've had definitely times where we've been out there slaughtering like players 8 cows and maybe we might if we’re lucky see a quick orange flash, the flash of a rune dropping. And then all of a sudden wait a second, we better double check and see what that rune was. So we'll run around, then you zoom in and run around and then finally you see like the job room laying there. Imagine the number of times you don't see that orange rune flash and you just take off in the upper left-hand direction. But if you went down to the lower right, you would have seen the high rune. This is such an easy win for Diablo 2 resurrected. Nobody would be disappointed in getting a loot filter in any way. It doesn't really put out some advantage that other people don't have because everybody would have access to it, and maybe people wouldn't be able to necessarily have it set correctly and they might miss things. But it wouldn't be that hard to get it set one time and forget it you could have it set to where you would have it off when you're doing the play through. And then once you get to end game, you can go ahead and have it checked back on. So that while you're out there farming, the players in 7, 8 and things along those lines, you aren't going to have too much clutter on the ground, because who really needs to have their level 97 Paladin finding all of these arrows and bolts and antidote potions and oil potions that you're supposed to throw at monsters and things along those lines. Those can all be filtered out and it would make the gameplay such a better experience.

D2R Season 5 Change 2: Having a Currency Page

Number two is having some form of a currency page or gem and a rune stacking, something along those lines to alleviate clutter and things like that in your shared stash, and also the necessity to create more mules. You could really free up several character slots online just being able to have some currency page. So originally, they did mention that they didn't want to do rune stacking because if you had a stack of 50 runes, then you could just dupe that stack of 50 and it makes duping way faster and way easier. We don't really see how you could have any negative to having something like a currency page because you could only put them in and withdraw them one by one and you can't really dupe a page. So we would lean towards the currency tab or the currency page, but anything along these lines that would give you a benefit. We would be perfectly fine with whatever they determined to be the best option, but the benefits to this are really more ranging than you would even think. So first of all, people want more characters, but you don't really necessarily need more characters if you just don't need those mules to hold those items. On top of that, maybe people want more stash tabs you don't need more shared stash tabs if you aren't holding so many items on those shared stash tabs and also you're going to save yourself a ton of time transferring things in transferring out, over transferring stuff over to meals and you can actually get to the part of the game you want to do and that you enjoy. And that's getting out there and slaughtering monsters and finding more gear. So you would alleviate several problems in the game if you just add something along the lines of a currency tab.

D2R S5 Change 3: Add a New Way for People to Trade With

For the third one, it actually is incredibly difficult to find people to trade with. For the average person, almost everybody, you have to go use an outside third party site. The two most popular that we've ever heard of is d2jsp, popular with a lot of players, and then traderie is another one. Nowadays, that's incredibly popular, there are probably many other ones, but those are two most popular ones. But neither one of these third-party sites are really all that advanced, they're not all that complicated, essentially all they come down to is being in Old School like 1997 Message Board is all they are. It wouldn't be hard at all to make something along the same lines as these websites integrated into Diablo 2 Resurrected. You could go ahead and put a new tab that take you over in game though part of integrated into Diablo 2 Resurrected to a tab, that was essentially a message board where you could post up and get a hold of people and send them messages about game names and stuff like that, so that you could then go ahead and trade with these people. Literally, some of these sites have been around like since the 90s, so they cannot be that difficult to make and adding in another tab. If anyone doesn't know how these websites work, they're pretty much just message boards, you just post click declare type in a way what you want to trade or you can even put in what you want to trade it for, and then people just comment down below. You've got a super simple message board and messaging type tab in Diablo 2 Resurrected and it's really that easy. Once somebody wants it agree to trade, send them the game name and password, and you're into the game within seconds literally seconds and you can go ahead and make your trades.

What’s Your Plan for D2R Ladder Season 5?

After experiencing previous seasons and learning from them, some players in the community developed plans for the upcoming season. Here's the collected plan list for D2R Ladder Season 5.

Class Selection

The cornerstone of any Diablo 2 strategy is the class selection. This season, I plan to roll with the Sorceress. The main reason for this choice is her versatility. With her elemental skills, the Sorceress can adapt to various situations, making her a reliable choice for both solo and group play. Plus, her teleport skill is a significant advantage when it comes to farming efficiently and navigating through the game quickly.

Early Game Strategy

In the early game, the primary goal is to level up quickly. Prioritize quests that reward with skill and stat points, like the Den of Evil, and those that offer strategic advantages, like the Horadric Cube from the Horadric Staff quest.

Farming areas like the Tristram (for levels 1-15), the Tombs in Act 2 (for levels 15-24), and the Chaos Sanctuary (for levels 24-30) should provide a steady progression. The idea is to reach Hell difficulty as fast as possible to start farming high-value loot and runes.

Mid Game Strategy

During the mid-game, farm areas like the Nightmare Mephisto, which are known to drop good loot. The key is to find a balance between progressing in the game and farming in order to gear up.

Creating the right Rune Words will also be a critical part of my mid-game strategy. "Spirit" and "Insight" are two Rune Words I'll aim to create early on, as they offer excellent stats and abilities for a Sorceress.

Late Game Stratgy

In the late game, the focus will shift to running Hell Mephisto, Baal, and Pindleskin for high-end loot. These bosses can drop some of the best items in the game and will be essential for maximizing my Sorceress's power.

In addition, aim to participate in as many Hell Chaos Sanctuary runs as possible. Not only is this an excellent place for experience, but Diablo can also drop some top-tier items.

PvP and Trading

PvP combat is a key part of Diablo 2's endgame, and some players plan to engage with it in Season 5. For trading, the focus will be on acquiring key items for my Sorceress build and potentially trading surplus items for other gear or runes.

Blizzard may also introduce new items and features to the game. We will have to wait for an official announcement from Blizzard for more information.