Out of all the bosses added in Diablo 4 season 2, The Beast in the Ice was the most annoying one to kill. Not only did he have a lot of attacks you had to dodge out of before you could get a hit on him, he was also a pain to reach in the first place. If you wanted a chance at some of the most powerful items in the game, you had to collect nine frustratingly rare items every time you wanted to summon him.
In season 3, which starts tomorrow, The Beast in the Ice will get five new Unique items added to his loot table. Each of them are powerful enough to build your character around, like a new pair of gloves that increases the damage of your most basic skills by 200%. Instead of having to cross your fingers and wait for them to randomly drop, you can seek out The Beast in The Ice and hope you get them after a handful of runs.
It’ll still require the same amount of Distilled Fear to fight The Beast in the Ice, but Blizzard has increased the drop rate of Distilled Fear in Nightmare Dungeons, one of Diablo 4’s primary endgame activities. Completing a tier 30 Nightmare Dungeon—which is easily doable at around level 80—will guarantee you one Distilled Fear. Every 10 tiers above that, you’ll have a chance at a second one, and tier 90 or higher Nightmare Dungeons will always give you three.
The Distilled Fear boost pairs nicely with the new change that guarantees you’ll get the highest level items from tier 90 or higher Nightmare Dungeons. Once your character is strong enough to blast through them, you’ll have a good loop for acquiring the highest level items in the game and materials for a boss who drops even more powerful items.
The five new Uniques look incredibly powerful, and some of them are expected to define entirely new builds for certain classes. Sorcerers, for example, can find a helmet that makes one of their most powerful spells, Meteor, drop three molten rocks at once for no mana cost. You get to blanket dungeons with fiery explosions for free.
After a season of playing a Ball Lightning sorceress, I could use something a little less orb-based. But Meteor sure looks fun. Knowing how indecisive I am, I probably won’t make a decision until season 3 is staring me in the face when it launches tomorrow at 10 am PT.