After taking some time to get feedback and polish some features, including the newly-added Terror Zones, Blizzard has released Diablo II: Resurrected patch 2.5. With the patch going live, we now also know that Ladder Season 2 will begin next week.
Terror Zones are a major part of this update. They were conceived as a way for players to get to level 99 without having to continuously just farm bosses like Diablo or Baal, as well as to offer some variety. The team wanted to keep things challenging but interesting so Terror zones mean that every hour some different zones will become terrorized. The monsters in those zones that are will be at least two levels higher than your current level or above their original level. When you kill terrorized monsters, you'll get experience and loot based on the higher level as well as extra XP.
Once you unlock Terror Zones as a feature (by defeating Baal per character, per difficulty using an expansion character of your choice), you can keep them active or turn them off on your server. When they are enabled and you join a server, you'll get a message in chat telling you where the current terrorized areas are and when the time comes for the zones to switch, you'll get an additional notice.
Other features in today's update include assorted quality of life changes like confirmation warnings and making sure that item names are clear, fixing some visual bugs and character display name issues and additional housekeeping. There are several fixes that are PC specific and console-specific as well.
Now that 2.5 is out, Ladder Season 2 can begin next week when there will also be six new Sundering Charms going live. Terror Zones will be part of the new season as well, so getting in some time with them now may be wise. The new season will launch in North America at 5 p.m. Pacific time on October 6th or October 7th at 2 a.m. CEST.
Read the full list update notes over at Diablo II:Resurrected.
