The Diablo 4 Lunar Awakening event is almost upon us, and Blizzard gives us a look at what we can expect from the limited-time mode coming to its longstanding RPG series. With Diablo 4 Season 3 off to a slow start and ARPG rivals Path of Exile and Last Epoch very much looking to pick up the slack, the new Diablo 4 event is a chance for Blizzard to keep players coming back – and the good news is that there’s at least one very welcome upgrade.
The Diablo 4 Lunar Awakening event starts in just a few days, bringing with it a new seasonal rewards chain, special Nightmare Dungeons awarding bonus glyph experience, and buffed-up versions of Diablo 4 shrines. Despite being one of 2023’s best RPGs, it’s fair to say that D4’s third season has been rather underwhelming, but there are lots of reasons to come back for Lunar Awakening.
Shrines are typically a nice short-lived power bonus when you find them, but as you get further into the endgame some of them can start to become actively detrimental, or at least not worth the time it takes to walk over and collect them. The Conduit shrine is perhaps the biggest offender; transforming into a teleporting ball of deadly energy sounds good, but once you’ve got the best Diablo 4 builds up and running they’ll typically far outpace the damage you can deal in Conduit form.
The good news is that every single shrine has had a huge buff for the D4 Lunar Awakening Event. When you activate these new-look totems, you’ll net yourself a huge 50% experience bonus from kills (which multiplies with other bonuses such as those from elixirs and your Diablo 4 world tier). You’ll also move 30% faster, earn bonus event reputation, and gain additional effects that are unique to each of the various shrine types. In addition to this, monsters will spawn around shrines when activated, giving you a chance to immediately take advantage of their effects.
The changes are so nice that I’d love to at least see some of the bonus effects integrated into the base game after this event, and players responding to the announcement agree: one such comment asks, “Is it too much to ask for these shrines to be standard after the event?” There’s only one real negative; the Lethal Shrine now has a chance for monsters to become feared and run away from you, an effect that is typically detrimental to efficiently smashing your way through the hordes.
In addition to these effects, another welcome addition is the new Ancestor’s Favor dungeon affix, which can appear on your Nightmare Dungeon sigils. This will guarantee additional Lunar Shrines spawning within the dungeon, and also awards 10% bonus glyph experience, a very welcome boon for those of us leveling up our endgame Paragon boards. Any sigils that drop with the affix will keep it after the event ends, so be sure to stockpile as many as you can.
Diablo 4 Lunar Shrine effects
Here are the new effects awarded by the Diablo 4 Lunar Shrines you’ll find during the Lunar Awakening event, which runs Tuesday, February 6 to Tuesday, February 20, 2024. All shrines will award 50% XP gain (multiplicative), a 30% movement speed bonus, event reputation from monster kills, and the following unique bonuses per shrine:
- Artillery: Casts have a chance to summon a holy bomb.
- Blast Wave: Each explosion summons a cluster bombardment.
- Channeling: Increased attack speed and chance to reset cooldowns.
- Conduit: Summon frequent, powerful, shocking strikes.
- Greed: Chance to summon a treasure goblin. While active, 25 kills summons one, and 50 kills summons a second.
- Lethal: Chance to instantly execute a struck monster, causing fear on surrounding monsters. Excludes bosses and other players.
- Protection: You reflect all incoming damage. Damage reflected scales with your level and world tier.
As someone who wasn’t particularly entranced by Season 3, this event is making me want to jump back into Sanctuary and finish off my Double Swing Diablo 4 Barbarian build. With the promised itemization changes in Season 4 still some way off, Lunar Awakening should help make Season 3 feel a little more enticing.
We’ve got all the latest details on the Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred release date and what to expect from the upcoming DLC. Or, if you’re not in the mood for more Duriel farming this season, we’ve picked out the very best games like Diablo in 2024 to keep your pockets full of that sweet, sweet loot.
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