Diablo 3 Season 25 PTR is Starting Soon

Season 24 has ended and Diablo 3 is getting ready for the new anniversary season. Season 25 Public Test Realm so-called PTR is starting soon and we decided to share with you the most important facts. You will also learn how to participate in D3 PTR and what to expect from the upcoming Diablo 3 Season 25.

Season 25 will bring new mechanics to Diablo 3 that will be tested during the Public Test Realm that starts on the 4th of November 2021. The upcoming D3 patch 2.7.2 will bring the Soul Shard system and item balance changes that we will briefly mention below.

How to take part in Diablo 3 PTR?

Anyone who has at least the Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls expansion can take part in public testing. But first, you need to download PTR files on your device. To do that open your Battle.net launcher, log in and pick Diablo 3 among other games.

In the left bottom corner above the play button, you will see the arrow. Click on it to open the list where you can change your Diablo III live version to Public Test Realm which is in development.

When you tick PTR the play button will change to the download or update button (if you don’t have the necessary files).

Under the play button, you can see the current version of PTR. The upcoming patch is 2.7.2 and it will open on 4th November.

Basically, that’s it. You will only need to click on play and you are done. But remember that seasonal PTR always lasts for a limited period of time. D3 Season 25 PTR ends on 18th November.

If you cannot download the public test realm you might be eligible to play it. But there are really few cases that can lead to that. We recommend contacting support if you have any problems.

PTR Character Copy

You can copy your existing Diablo III characters from your live account to the PTR. That can be done from the PTR client. However, only one region per account can be copied at a time. So, if you choose to copy characters from your account in a different region, any previously copied PTR characters will be lost. So how to make a copy of a character for Diablo PTR:

• Log into the live game and then log out.
• Log into PTR client and create a level 1 character. After you’re done, return to the main character screen.
• Click on the “PTR Copy” button located in the upper right-hand corner. (The PTR Copy button will not appear in-game until you have created a new level 1 character.)
• Select your region.
• Click “Copy.” This will copy all characters on your account from the selected region.
• You will be disconnected from the PTR client.
• Log back in. Your copied characters will be available for play.

Please note that you can only copy characters from one gameplay region at a time. If you choose to copy characters from a different region, any previously copied PTR characters will be lost. In addition, you can only copy characters over to your PTR account once every 24 hours. Attempting to copy characters before this cooldown is up will result in an error.

Season 25 PTR Mechanics

Even though the purpose of public testing is to check the mechanics of the upcoming season it is very different. You will see powerful buffs that are active only during the public testing. Those buffs are:

• increased Legendary drop rate
• increased experience gains
• double Blood Shard drops

These buffs are unique to PTR and will be active during the live Diablo III version. Also, during PTR you can buy new gear for testing from the special PTR vendor, Djank Mi’em, who will exchange Blood Shards for class-specific bags full of Legendary items that Blizzard are willing to test.

Season 25 set changes and theme

It is the other part of PTR mechanics. You can play as you like but developers are asking to play with classes that they change to test them. This time the most significant class and class set changes will occur to:

• Witch Doctor
• Barbarian
• Necromancer
• Wizard
• Demon Hunter

In addition to class set changes, PTR will contain new Diablo III Season 25 mechanics featuring Soul Shards. You can leave your feedback in the PTR Feedback forum while bug reports should be provided in the PTR Bug Report forum.

D3 PTR Season 25 patch 2.7.2 notes preview

Below you can see what is going to be seen in D3 Season 25 but before that in PTR. We copy those things from the official Diablo 3 blog.

Seasons

New Season Theme: Season 25 introduces a new type of socketable item called Soul Shards. Nephalem can find 7 unique Soul Shards, based on the Lords of Hell, which give players demonic new powers. One of 3 Prime Evil Soul Shards can be equipped into Helms and one of 4 Lesser Evil Soul Shards can be equipped into Weapons. Each Soul Shard can be upgraded three times using a new seasonal-exclusive consumable, the Hellforge Ember.

Soul Shards and Hellforge Embers can drop from anywhere in Sanctuary, but Soul Shards have a higher chance to drop from Bosses. Soul Shards cannot be traded, but can be salvaged or utilized in Caldesann’s Despair. You may only equip one Prime Evil Soul Shard and one Lesser Evil Soul Shard at a time. Lastly, Soul Shards and Hellforge Embers only drop in Seasonal play, and will not transfer to your non-seasonal character when the season ends.

Items

Item Changes

• Remorseless: While both Wrath of the Berserker and Call of the Ancients are active, Hammer of the Ancients deals 600-800% (previous 200 – 250%) increased damage.
• Shukrani’s Triumph: Spirit Walk lasts until you attack 3 times or until an elite enemy is within 20 yards of you. Attacks while in the spirit realm deal 75-100% increased damage. (Previous: Spirit Walk lasts until you attack or until an enemy is within 30 yards of you)
• Lakumba’s Ornament: Reduce all damage taken by 60% if your Soul Harvest stack is at least (1-3), and an additional 2% for each stack of Soul Harvest. (Previous: Reduce all damage taken by 6% for each stack of Soul Harvest you have)
• Spider Queen’s Grasp​: Corpse Spiders deals an additional 600-800% damage and releases a web on impact that Slows enemies by 80%. (Previous: Corpse Spiders releases a web on impact that Slows enemies by 60-80%)
• Brood of Araneae​: Corpse Spiders deals an additional 75-100% damage, and each spider bite causes the target to take an additional 1% damage from Corpse Spiders for 5 seconds.
• Spirit of Arachyr (2-piece bonus): Corpse Spiders now spawns with health and attacks twice as fast.
• Spirit of Arachyr (4-piece bonus): Summon a permanent Spider Queen who leaves behind webs that lasts for 15 seconds and Slows enemies. You take 75% reduced damage while in the web. The Spider Queen is commanded to move to where you cast your Corpse Spiders.
• Marauder’s Encasement (4-piece bonus): Sentries deal 400% increased damage and cast Elemental Arrow, Chakram, Impale, Multishot, and Cluster Arrow when you do, as well as automatically cast your equipped Hatred spenders.
• Marauder’s Encasement (6-piece bonus): Your primary skills, Elemental Arrow, Chakram, Impale, Multishot, Cluster Arrow, Companions, Vengeance, and Sentries deal 12000% increased damage for every active Sentry.
• The Shadow’s Mantle (6-piece bonus): Impale deals an additional 75000% weapon damage to the first enemy hit, and 25000% to subsequent enemies.
• Bones of Rathma (6-piece bonus): Each permanent active minion increases the damage of Army of the Dead by 1750% (previous 500%), up to 31,500% (previous 9000%).
• Firebird’s Finery (2-piece bonus): Disintegrate Ignites enemies, causing them to take 1500% (previous 3000%) weapon damage per second until they die. When you die, a meteor falls from the sky and revives you. This effect has a 60-second cooldown.
• Firebird’s Finery (6-piece bonus): You gain 2500% (previous 5000%) increased damage while Ignite is applied to a target. Hitting an Ignited enemy with a non-channeling fire spell deals Ignite damage multiplied by Combustion stacks.

As you can see there are many things to test and come through before the new Diablo 3 season begins. Don’t forget to participate, start this Thursday on 4th November.