Overview —
Diablo 4 Season 7 comes to Xbox this month
- Season of Witchcraft focuses on a coven of witches aiding the Tree of Whispers in Hawezar
- New upgradable witch-like abilities will offer new gameplay elements
- Permanent changes to the Tree of Whispers, Eternal Realm, and Runes
Diablo 4: Season of Witchcraft (Season 7) kicks off on Tuesday, January 21, 2025, on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC. If you are a seasoned player of one of the best Xbox RPGs, you’ll be able to start this season’s questline by speaking with Witch Gelena in Gea Khul after creating a new character on the Seasonal Realm.
Season of Witchcraft is Diablo 4’s seventh season, focusing on the Tree of Whispers and the power of witchcraft as we aid a Coven of witches in the bogs of Hawezar to hunt down Sanctuary’s latest threat: the Headrotten. We’ll need to find out who has taken the Tree of Whispers’ missing heads while upgrading our newfound powers.
“Heed the call of the Witches of Hawezar, a Coven that is bound by the deep magic oozing from the swamps they call home,” Blizzard says. “The Coven are the protectors of the Tree of Whispers, who discovered its many captive Heads are missing. The Tree forgets no oaths and forgives no debts, and these Heads have dues to pay till the end of days. However, these missing Heads have been set loose — free to carry out their own hunt — traveling across Sanctuary to seek bodies and reclaim what was once theirs.”
All new abilities
Season 7’s gameplay modifier is Witchcraft, offering you 25 new abilities to master across three schools of magic: Eldritch, Growth & Decay, and Psyche, as well as powerful Lost Powers.
The Eldritch tree focuses on destructive magic, giving you the ability to summon swarms of Firebats, orbs of pure energy to smash anything that gets too close to you, and more. The Growth & Decay tree, on the other hand, gives you control of living magic to heal and harm, with abilities for sucking the life out of enemies and summoning your own Poison Frog pal.
As for the Psyche tree, it’s all about messing with your enemies’ minds, slowing them, blasting them with Vengeful spirits, and more. While there are only a few Lost Powers, they are mostly aimed towards enhancing your other abilities, but there is a rather awesome ability to summon a Piranhado. Now that’s cool!
As you work your way through the Season of Witchcraft questline, complete new Whisper bounties, and defeat the new hulking Headrotten enemies, you’ll earn a new currency called Restless Rot and gain favor with the Coven.
The favor earned with the Coven can be spent at new altars underneath the Tree of Whispers to unlock the new Witchcraft abilities (the Lost Powers will require Forgotten Altars located randomly in dungeons). You can then upgrade your newfound powers with Restless Rot directly from your inventory.
Here are the all-new Witchcraft abilities:
Eldritch Powers
| Ability name | Effect |
| Firebat Servants | A deadly swarm of Firebats swarm enemies every 3 2 seconds, inflicting 20% 15% total Fire damage over 1 total attack. At Higher Ranks: Enemies are Stunned for 3 seconds after being hit 5 times by your Firebat Servants. |
| Abyssal Resonance | Every 250 Resource spent, release an explosion dealing 400% 300% Shadow damage. Each explosion triggered within 10 seconds of the last increases the size and damage by 130%. Stacking up to 3 times. At Rank 10: The third explosion pulls enemies towards you before detonating. |
| Wave of Woe | Release a Wave of Woe when damaging an enemy with your skills. Wave of Woe deals an additional X Shadow damage and echoes this damage to all other nearby enemies of the same type. |
| Purging Touch | Eldritch Effects X increased damage against Headrotten. At Rank 10: This damage bonus now extends to all monsters. |
| Shaken Soul | Eldritch Effects apply Vulnerable to enemies for X seconds. At Rank 10: Damage from Psyche and Growth & Decay Effects will also apply Vulnerable at half the duration. |
| Hex of Flames | Lucky Hit: You have up to an X chance to apply Hex of Flames. Hex of Flames deals 40% 10% additional Fire damage each time you deal damage to the target. At Rank 7: Hex of Flames explodes dealing damage to all nearby enemies when you land a Critical Strike. |
| Doom Orb | An ominous orb of pure Eldritch energy circles you, damaging any enemy it touches for 400% 300% Fire damage. Doom Orb may launch itself at distant enemies before returning. At Rank 5: Kills or damage to Bosses empower the orb’s damage by 5%. After 100%, the orb explodes dealing 5,200 damage to nearby enemies before reforming 3 seconds later. |
Psyche Powers
| Ability name | Effect |
| Life Link | Automatically link your life force with up to 3 nearby enemies. X of the damage you take is shared with the linked targets as physical damage. Cannot Life Link to enemy Players. At Rank 15: For 10 seconds after using a Defensive, Macabre of Subterfuge Skill, any linked damage will be a guaranteed Critical Strike. |
| Hex of Shattering | Damage done by your Witchcraft Effects afflicts enemies with Hex of Shattering causing them to deal X reduced damage for 5 seconds. At Rank 8: When any Hex Effect is applied to Headrotten, all damage will be guaranteed Critical Strikes for 5 seconds. |
| Aura of Misfortune | Enemies near you have X chance for their attacks to be interrupted. Does not work on bosses. At Rank 5: Aura of Misfortune increases your Movement Speed by 5% and Slows enemies by 30%. |
| Aura of Lament | When you first strike an enemy, it is afflicted with an Aura of Lament that Slows it and other nearby enemies by 70%. For each enemy inside Aura of Lament, you gain 3 1 Primary Resource each second. If the initial enemy dies, Aura of Lament is passed onto another nearby enemy retaining the duration. Lasts X seconds. Only 1 enemy may be afflicted at a time. May only occur every 30 seconds. |
| Vengeful Spirit | Every 19 Seconds, a Vengeful Spirit Servant appears for X seconds. While active, all damage taken is instead taken by the spirit. Vengeful Spirit Servant deals 750% 500% damage. At Rank 5: When the Vengeful Spirit’s Life is fully depleted, it rushes towards up to 8 enemies dealing 2,000 Shadow damage. |
| Twilight Warding | Every X seconds, gain a Barrier for 5 seconds absorbing 100 damage. At Rank 12: Twilight Warding reflects enemy projectiles while active. |
Growth & Decay Powers
| Ability name | Effect |
| Poison Frog Servant | Summon a Poison Frog Servant that attacks and Poisons enemies for 150% to 400% damage over 3 seconds. On death, the frog explodes violently dealing X Poison instantly damage to nearby enemies. This explosion will always Critically Strike. At Rank 5: Poison Frog attacks will pull enemies towards itself and Taunt enemies for 1 second. |
| Soul Harvest | Feed upon the life force of nearby enemies whenever you use a skill with a cooldown, increasing your primary stat by 3% per monster for X seconds. At Rank 9: Soul Harvest does not lose duration so long as enemies are nearby. |
| Hex of Whispers | Dealing damage to an enemy afflicts them with Hex of Whispers that deals X Shadow damage the next time damage is dealt. Afterwards, Hex of Whispers will jump to another enemy up to a maximum of 6 times. Hex of Whispers may only be applied once every 5 seconds. At Rank 7: After bouncing onto 6 enemies, the hex bounces back to you granting 15% 60% Fortify and removing all crowd control and negative status effects. |
| Decay Augmentation | Your Witchcraft Effects deal X of the damage dealt over 5 seconds. The damage type is based on your class. At Rank 10: When your damage-over-time effects exceed 85% of the target’s total Life, they immediately die. |
| Grow | After casting an Ultimate Skill, your Servants, Minions, and Companions are empowered with dark magics. Growing larger in size and dealing X bonus damage. Lasts 15 seconds. At Rank 11: Your Servants, Minions and Companions gain 100% Critical Strike Chance while enlarged. |
| Aura of Siphoning | Conjure an aura of decay that deals 80% 50% Poison damage to enemies every second. At Rank 10: Each time Aura of Siphoning deals damage, you are healed for 1% of Maximum Life. |
| The Cycle | Dealing any damage with your skills has a 15% chance to grow a flower from the ground. When an enemy is near, the flower deals X Poison damage to that enemy over 5 seconds. If an ally is near, the flower Heals for 6% Maximum Life. The flower withers away after use. A flower may grow once every 2 5 seconds per enemy. At Rank 5: The damage and healing affects all enemies or allies near the flower. |
Lost Powers
| Ability name | Effect |
| Breath of the Coven | Dealing damage or applying a Crowd Control effect with any of your Witchcraft Effects increases your Attack Speed by X for 10 Seconds, stacking once per unique Witchcraft Effect. Witchcraft Effects are Eldritch, Psyche, and Growth & Decay. At Rank 8: Gain 40% Lucky Hit chance while bonuses from Eldritch, Psyche, Growth & Decay are active at once. |
| Hex Specialization | Increase the potency of your Hex Effects by X. At Rank 10: Increase the Critical Strike Chance by 10% against enemies afflicted by your Hex Effects. |
| Aura Specialization | The size of your Aura Effects are increased by X. At Rank 10: Increase the Critical Strike Damage by 50% against enemies inside your Aura Effects. |
| Piranhado | When an enemy is afflicted by both a Hex and an Aura Effect, a Piranhado is summoned pulling enemies towards it and dealing X Physical damage over 12 seconds. May occur once every 20 seconds. At Rank 5: Piranhado moves itself towards nearby enemies. |
New Tree of Whisper bounties and Headhunt overland events
With a focus on the Tree of Whispers, you can expect a host of new bounties based on the Headrotten to appear. You’ll be sent out to hunt down the missing heads and destroy the ghastly creatures they’ve created as they desperately attach themselves to new bodies in an attempt to become human again.
Not only will the Tree of Whispers get a “new and improved” layout during the Season of Witchcraft, which will remain as a permanent upgrade when the season ends, but bounties will have a chance to reward you with an Ancestral Collection, guaranteeing at least one Ancestral item when you open it.
As for Headhunts, we can expect to see multiple Headhunt zones appear across Sanctuary similar to Helltides, but instead of being filled with demonic forces, we’ll be taking down hordes of Headrotten. Much like Helltides, Headhunts will feature Tree of Whispers bounties when they appear, but you’ll have far more reasons to complete them during Season of Witchcraft.
During Headhunts, you’ll be able to access the Raven of the Tree, a friendly raven who will happily accept your earned Whispers from completed bounties. Completing Headhunt bounties won’t only earn you favor with the Coven, but you’ll also have a chance to “reveal Exposed Roots and gives a rare chance to spawn an Uprooted Cocoon,” which in turn spawn a Headrotten Boss.
These bosses most commonly spawn as Headless Husks, but there is a chance to find one with a Fugitive Head still attached, which the Coven will reward you greatly for when you return the head to the Tree of Whispers.
As for other reasons to risk life and limb in Headhunts, there are new seasonal dungeons called Rootholds to find, filled with bonus challenges and lucrative rewards. To enter, you’ll need to collect Whisper Wood sigils from Whisper Caches and Silent Chests.
New Occult Gems, Legendary Aspects, and Unique Items
It wouldn’t be a new Diablo season without a plethora of new ways to alter your builds in new, exciting ways, and the Season of Witchcraft is no different. Alongside some new Uniques and Legendary Aspects, we’re also getting a bunch of Occult Gems to help take our witchy whimsy to new heights. For owners of the Vessel of Hatred DLC, you’ll get some new and updated Runes to enhance your builds even further.
Occult Gems are this season’s socketables, and can be crafted via Witch Gelena at the Tree of Whispers using the materials you earn from Whisper Caches and by returning Fugitive Heads. Blizzard teasingly says, “It is rumored Occult Gems had once even been used to cheat death, if you believe the legend.” Here are the gems you’ll be able to craft:
Season 7 — All Occult Gems
| Occult Gem | Effect description |
| Cornucopia | While you have three or more Growth % Decay Witch Powers slotted, you generate 30% more Barrier, gain 30% more Fortify and have 30% more Thorns. |
| Dust Stone | For each of your Auras and Hexes an enemy is afflicted by, they take 2.5% increased damage from you. |
| Elder Sigil | Your Agility, Corpse, Potency, Mastery, Weapon Master, and Wrath Skills deal 25% increased direct damage to Hexed enemies. This Skill now has a Potency skill tag instead of Potency. |
| Friend of the Bog | While you have three or more Growth & Decay Witch Powers slotted, you gain 10% primary stat, 10% Maximum Life and you are always Unhindered. |
| Heart of Anima | Your Non-Unique Psyche Witch Powers gain 25% Potency. |
| Hungering Void | While you have an Aura active, pull Nearby enemies toward you every 8 seconds. |
| Killing Wind | While you have three or more Eldritch Witch Powers slotted, gain 25% Movement Speed and 15% Critical Strike Chance. |
| Mind Wreath | While you have three or more Psyche Witch Powers slotted, your Defensive, Macabre, Trap Skills gain 20% Cooldown Reduction. |
| Moonlight Ward | For each rank in your slotted Unique Witchcraft Power, you gain 3% Damage Reduction and 0.5% Maximum Resistance to All Elements. |
| Phantom String | You deal 15% more Overpower damage to Hexed enemies. |
| Pointed Finger | Your Summons deals 15% more direct damage to Hexed Elites. |
| Raging Enigma | Your Unique Witchcraft Powers deal 40% more damage. |
| Spiral Coin | While you have three or more Psyche Witch Powers slotted, gain 30% Control Duration and 20% Lucky Hit Chance. |
| Toadling’s Wish | Your Non-Unique Growth & Decay witch Powers gain 35% Potency. |
| Vile Phylactery | While you have a Witch Power with the Summon tag slotted, if you would take fatal damage, instead prevent that damage. Then gain a Barrier equal to 100% of your Maximum Life and disable your Witchcraft Powers with the Summon tag for 6 seconds. This can only occur once every 75 seconds. |
| Voice of the Stars | While you have an Aura active, your Ultimate Skills gain each Grimoire tag and deal 10% more damage. |
| Vulture Talon | While you have an Aura active, you deal Damage Over Time 50% faster. |
| Wicked Pact | Your Non-Unique Eldritch Witch Powers gain 25% Potency. |
| Witching Hour | While you have three or more Eldritch Witch Powers slotted, every 1 second, the next Core Skill you cast gains the Eldritch tag. |
Runes were added with the Vessel of Hatred DLC, and give owners of the expansion additional socketables to use alongside gems. Two pieces of equipment can be enhanced with two Runes, one for generating Offering and one for using that Offering to unleash a powerful ability. Here’s what’s on the way during Season of Witchcraft:
Nagu Legendary Rune
- 100 Offering generated.
- Maintain at least 1 active Summon for 5 seconds, gaining Offering for each up to 6 Summons.
Igni Legendary Rune
- 25 Offering generated.
- Stores offering every 0.3 seconds. Cast a non-Basic Skill to gain the stored offering. (Up to 500 Offering).
- New Runes of Invocation
Chac Rare Rune
- Costs 20 Offering
- 220% weapon damage
- Invoke Druid Lightning Bolts, striking a nearby enemy
- Overflow: Spawn more Lightning Bolts
Here’s the new Uniques and Legendary Aspects for Season 7 for each class:
Barbarian
Mantle of the Mountain’s Fury Unique Chest Armor
- Inherent: 100% Hammer of the Ancients damage for 5 seconds after an Earthquake explodes
- 251-444 Armor
- 3-6 Skill Ranks to Hammer of the Ancients
- 2-4 Skill Ranks of Defensive Stance
- 16-22.5% Chance for Earthquake to Deal Double Damage
- Hammer of the Ancients also forms a seismic line that deals its damage and Slows enemies hit by 100% for 4 seconds. Earthquakes it passes through explode for their total damage and are consumed.
Of Incendiary Fissures Legendary Aspect
- Your Earthquakes deal 40-60% increased damage and their damage is converted into Fire.
Druid
Malefic Crescent Unique Amulet
- Inherent: 25% Resistance to All Elements
- 8-11% Willpower
- 155-200% Werewolf Critical Strike Damage
- 8-15% Movement Speed while Shapeshifting into a Werewolf
- 1-2 Ranks of Feral Aptitude
- The value of your Lupine Ferocity’s consecutive Critical Strike Damage is increased to 150-200% against enemies when consecutively Critical Striking.
Of Wolf’s Rain Legendary Aspect
- Casting Hurricane also spawns a smaller hurricane on your Wolves for 8 seconds. These hurricanes deal 5-15% of Hurricane’s damage for each active Wolf.
Of Electrified Claws Legendary Aspect
- Shapeshifting into a new animal form causes a Lightning Bolt to strike a Nearby enemy dealing Lightning damage. Your Lightning Bolts deal 20-40% increased damage and Stun for 2 seconds.
Necromancer
Indira’s Memory Unique Pants
- Inherent: Casting Bone Spear Reduces Blood Wave’s Cooldown by 2 Seconds
- 16-25% Maximum Life
- 82.5-115% Overpower Damage
- 18.5-30% Damage Reduction While Injured
- 2-3 Ranks of Tides of Blood
- Blood Wave is also a Bone Skill that spawns a Bone Prison at its end point and increases your Blood Skill damage by 40-80% for 8 seconds when cast.
- Bone Spear is also a Blood Skill and will drain 10% Maximum Life each cast after hitting an enemy to consume a surrounding Corpse and launch one new Bone Spear from it.
Kessime’s Legacy Unique Pants
- Inherent: Casting Blood Wave Fortifies You For 70% of Your Maximum Life
- 187-300% Ultimate Damage
- 9.5-2% Damage Reduction While Fortified
- 16-25% Blood Wave Cooldown Reduction
- 16-25% Chance for Blood Wave to Deal Double Damage
- Blood Wave now forms a wave on each side of you. Both waves converge at your feet, Pulling In surrounding enemies and exploding for x damage.
- Each time an enemy is hit by a wave, they take 5-10% increased damage from your Blood Waves, up to 150-300% in total.
Of Distilled Anima Legendary Aspect
- While Soulrift is active, you are Unhindered and gain 1% increased Movement Speed per absorbed soul, up to 30-60%. This lasts for 5 seconds after Soulrift ends.
Bone Duster’s Legendary Aspect
- Bone Spear is guaranteed to Overpower enemies within Bone Prison and deals 30-50% increased damage to them.
Rogue
Assassin’s Stride Unique Boots
- Inherent: Casting a Mobility Skill grants +100% Movement Speed for 2 seconds
- 35-50% Shadow Resistance
- 10-2% Mobility Cooldown Reduction
- 2-4 Skill Ranks to Mobility Skills
- 3-4 Skill Ranks to Shadow Imbuement
- Mobility Skills are always Shadow Imbued with 40-80% increased potency. Lucky Hit: Damaging an Elite or Boss with a Mobility Skill has up to a 40-80% chance to instantly trigger a free Shadow Imbuement explosion.
Slice and Dice Legendary Aspect
- Twisting Blades’ initial hit cleaves. Twisting Blades return 25-45% faster.
Bitter Infection Legendary Aspect
- Enemies infected by Shadow Imbuement take 30-70% of its damage every second. Shadow Imbuement deals 30-70%[x] increased damage.
Sorcerer
Strike of Stormhorn Unique Focus
- Inherent: Chance for Ball Lightning Projectiles to Cast Twice is Now Chance to Cast a Super Ball Lightning
- 67.5-108.5% Critical Strike Damage
- 155-250% Ball Lightning Projectile Speed
- 1-3 Skill Ranks of Ball Lightning
- 13-17.5% Chance for Ball Lightning Projectiles to Cast Twice
- Ball lightning splashes on contact for 60-100%[x] increased damage and Stunning enemies for 1 second if it reaches its Maximum Range.
- Super Ball Lightnings are larger, deal 125% more damage, have a higher Lucky Hit Chance, and its Stun duration is increased to 3 seconds.
Okun’s Catalyst Unique Focus
- Inherent: Ball Lightning Can Be Cast While Moving
- 24-35% Attack Speed for 5 seconds After Casting a Defensive Skill
- 0.5-1.5% Damage Reduction for Each Active Ball Lightning
- 1-3 Skill Ranks of Ball Lightning
- 13-17.5% Chance for Ball Lightning Projectiles to Cast Twice
- Ball Lightning orbits you, creating a static field that damages all enemies within for 140-180% of Ball Lightning’s damage per active ball, and granting Unhindered while the field is active.
Of Mind’s Awakening Legendary Aspect
- Casting a Pyromancy Skill Immobilizes enemies hit for 0.5-1 seconds. Casting a Shock Skill grants a burst of 15-30% Movement speed for 1 second. Casting a Frost Skill grants a Barrier for 3-6% Maximum Life. While Enlightened, each Skill grants all benefits.
Spiritborn
Sustained War-Crozier Unique Quarterstaff
- Inherent: 45% Block Chance
- 132-188 Dexterity
- 610-1142 Maximum Life
- 21-35% Chance for Potency Skills to Deal Double Damage
- 2-4 Skill Ranks to Focus Skills
- Your Focus Skills benefit from all their Upgrades, and they increase the damage of your Potency Skills by 10-20% for 8 seconds, up to 100-200%.
Endless Talons Legendary Aspect
- Razor Wings hitting an enemy increases your Eagle Skill damage by 1%[x] for 4 seconds, up to 30-50%[x]. Razor Wing Critical Strikes grant 3 stacks.
New Battle Pass and Season Journey rewards
Season 7 arrives with another 90-tier Battle Pass featuring 28 free tiers and 62 Premium tiers. While players who pick up the Premium Battle Pass will get a host of new cosmetics like the Grand High Witch Armor set, Platinum to use in the store, the Nightwinder Mount, Nightwinder Mount Armor, and more, any gameplay benefits are available to all players.
Each season, all players can earn Smoldering Ashes from the free Battle Pass tiers, which you can then spend on gameplay bonuses via Season Blessings. For Season of Witchcraft, there are three new Blessings to unlock:
- Urn of Whispers — Boost the chance to receive a Greater Collection from Whisper rewards.
- Urn of Masterworking — Boosts the chance for existing sources to drop additional Obducite.
- Urn of Rot — Boost the amount of Restless Rot dropped by slain Headrotten.
As for the Season Journey, which gives you a selection of challenges to complete across multiple chapters and rewards you with favor for the Battle Pass, there are some exciting goodies on offer. Not only can you earn yourself an extremely valuable Resplendant Spark for crafting Unique items, but completing the journey will also reward you with Diablo 4’s first avian pet: Dorian the Raven.
New permanent Diablo 4 updates to the Eternal Realm and more
Alongside the seasonal fun, Witchcraft also brings a few updates for other areas of the game, including the Eternal Realm. We’ve already mentioned that The Tree of Whispers will get a fresh layout, but Blizzard says other changes are on the way as well.
Over on the Eternal Realm, Blizzard says the Welcome Back Booster will now be a permanent feature, allowing you to instantly increase a character’s level to 50 and unlock a bundle of Legendary items and pre-set class skills. Additionally, completing the questlines for unlocking the unique class mechanics now only needs to be done once, as any future characters you make with that class will automatically unlock the class mechanic when they reach the required level.
Greater affixes are also getting some love this season, with Blizzard saying, “When a unique item has more Greater Affixes, the minimum roll of the unique power will be increased per Greater Affix. This better aligns with the overall power of the item, which makes items with 3-4 Greater Affixes feel really impactful.”
Both the Seasonal and Eternal Realms will be getting an armory system, which will remain permanently. The armory gives you a way to save, load, and name five builds and then equip them for free when in town. All major cities, end-game hubs, the Tree of Whispers, and Training Grounds will have an armory to use. Each build saves your equipment, allocated skills, Paragon points, glyphs, and class mechanics.
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