Season 26 Compendium for Diablo 3 (2024)

Last updated on Apr 14, 2022 at 01:00by Deadset

Season 26 introduces a new endgame mode called Echoing Nightmare, alongwith a slew of set and legendary item changes, as well as new rewards to beearned by completing the Season Journey.

Patch 2.7.3 will arrive on Non-Seasonal servers on April 12th, andSeason 26 will start on April 15th, 2022 at 5PM (PDT/CEST/KST).

Season 26 ended on August 21, 2022 at 5PM (PDT/CEST/KST). To see what thefollowing season, Season 27, contains, visit its seasonal hub below.

Season 26 introduces a brand new game mode to Diablo 3 called EchoingNightmare, where players face an intense, densely packed, increasinglychallenging event that stretches their ability to stay in the fight as long aspossible. Beyond the quick overview in this article, we also have a dedicatedEchoing Nightmare Mechanics article, where we goin-depth over the effects of this seasonal addition. If you are interested inthe particulars of this new game mode and how it can affect your playstyle,delve right in!

In short, the Echoing Nightmare is a wave-based endgame activity with severalfixed, single-room layouts. They include a guaranteed Conduit, Power, Channelingand Speed Pylons, whose strategic use will determine your overall success inyour journey to Echoing Nightmare (henceforth shortened to EN) tier 150. WhileEN tiers will continue beyond that number, rewards cap out at tier 150, makingit highly desirable to end a run then and there.

Echoing Nightmares reward massive amounts of Experience, making themespecially suitable for Paragon farming. They also reward with theWhisper of Atonement legendary gem, which is used exclusively for gearaugmentation. Last but not least, it will also reward you with standard gems,Blood Shards, and legendary items.

Monsters inside Echoing Nightmares are immune to hard crowd control and willnot drop gold, disabling cheesing tactics.

While certainly less game-changing — especially when compared toEthereals from S24 and Soul Shards from S25 — Echoing Nightmares present aunique new direction for the Diablo 3 endgame. In a way, they inherit one of thebetter-received traits of the Soul Shard mechanic; the ability to consume themfor augmentations, cutting out some of the blander Seasonal grind. However, thelack of flashy, gameplay- and build-altering additions in Season 26 makes theintroduction of ENs as a core theme somewhat duller than previous seasons.Moreover, their lethal outcome for a Hardcore character's failure, coupled withthe inability to escape from the EN via conventional means, make them aconflicting proposition to Hardcore players — one whose ramifications arehard to judge at the moment. Regardless, if Echoing Nightmares persist in futureSeasons, they can definitely be iterated upon with an added incentive to strivebeyond tier 150, suitably scaling rewards and having a leaderboard of theirown.

Changes have been made to theLegacy of Raekor set that refocus itinto a ranged Barbarian playstyle, with huge emphasis on Weapon Throw and Ancient Spear.

The 4-piece bonus of the Legacy ofRaekor set now grants all the runes of Furious Charge and increasesthe damage of Ancient Spear by 2% for every 1% Life missing. The 6-piecebonus of the Legacy of Raekor setnow increases the damage of your next Ancient Spear against enemies hitby Furious Charge or Weapon Throw (stacking effect; thrown Spearsconsume up to 5 stacks). Targets struck release multiple Spears.

Arreat's Law increases the damage of Weapon Throw and Ancient Spear by up to 200%. Weapon Throw generates up to 50additional Fury based on the distance of the enemy hit, up to a cap of 200 Fury. Ancient Spear refunds up to 50 Fury based on the distance of the enemyhit and resets Fury cap to its base maximum.

The Three Hundredth Spear increases the damage of Weapon Throw and Ancient Spear by up to 200%, and the attack speed of Weapon Throwis increased by 200%.

Skular's Salvation increases the damage of Ancient Spear by upto 200%, with an additional 100% when hitting 5 or fewer enemies.

• Personal Thoughts: This is a fairly interesting twist on the elderlyRaekor set, which was stuck into its Furious Charge ways for the betterpart of its existence. While charging around is still central to the playstyle,you now have a very viable Ancient Spear-centric ranged build. The setstill lacks innate damage reduction, and with the 4-piece bonus leaning intothat aspect, it seems to be intentional — but I find it to be misguidedand counter-intuitive to how the game is played.

Changes have been made to theThorns of the Invoker set thatadd AoE damage to this previously single-target focused setup.

The 6-piece bonus of the Thornsof the Invoker set now inflicts 67,500% of your Thorns damage against enemiesattacked by Punish and Slash, instead of just the first enemy hitas they used to.

• Personal Thoughts: This is meant to compensate for the nerf to...(See below.)

Norvald's Fervor set now inflicts200% increased damage while using Steed Charge and for 5 seconds after itends, down from 400%.

• Personal Thoughts: Personally, I never liked the way Norvald has beenshoe-horned into every Crusader build under the sun, and its originalspeedfarming intention had been long lost. Still, this is a uniform nerf acrossmany Crusader builds, without anything to compensate except for Invoker players.Not particularly exciting for Crusader play.

Changes have been made to the Mystic Ally skill that fix some of itspreviously unwieldy mechanics.

• Mystic Ally spawned by Inna'sMantra set 6-piece bonus now refresh their duration with each attack.
• Fire Ally now has Passability (it ignores collision with enemyunits).
• Earth Ally has its boulder speed increased, and their leashing to theplayer location has been improved. They are also no longer affected by theMissile Dampening affix.

• Personal Thoughts: These are some very nice quality-of-life changes fora skill that had more than enough quirky mechanics and clunky AI behavior towrangle.

Bindings of the Lesser Gods have been reverted to "only" improve thedamage of your Mystic Ally summons, and no longer quintuple this bonusfor Fire Ally.

• Personal Thoughts: This nerf is meant to take down the overperformingFire Ally setup with Inna, establishing Earth Ally as the de-facto best rune forthe skill. Inna Monks remain a force to be reckoned with, and one of (if not the)best builds in the game for practically any conceivable purpose.

This section mixes freshness, fun and performance to highlight the mostinteresting builds to play in Season 26.

This is a range-oriented build build that incorporates the reworkedRaekor set rework with itsnewfound focus on Weapon Throw and Ancient Spear. Click on thelink below to see the full guide!

While it has undoubtedly been nerfed, theInna's Mantra set-based Mystic Ally Monk remains a supremely strong and versatile build. It isstill considered to be the best build for solo farming, progression, and isa great inclusion to group progression comps. It also does great at the newendgame activity, Echoing Nightmares, making it the game's best all-rounder.

Based on the pet-reliant playstyle of the Embodiment of the Marauder set,this Multishot-oriented build is a great all-rounder for the Demon Hunterclass, and is by far the strongest build to take into Echoing Nightmares. Becauseit is able to set up its turret nest for an efficient spread across the enclosedareas of Echoing Nightmares, this build will grind out the new content withunparalleled speed and efficiency.