1. The Big Picture: No More Passive Skills on the Skill Tree
In Season 13, passive skills are being removed from the skill tree entirely. This changes everything about how you build your character.
What this means:
Shroud of False Death (currently the best chest armor for almost every build) loses its value. Its +1 to all passives previously gave ~80–100% multiplicative damage plus defensive and utility bonuses. Without passives on the tree, this armor becomes ordinary. Expect build diversity to increase — a good thing overall. If you want to stay competitive without grinding for hours, you can buy Diablo 4 Gold to gear up alternative builds more quickly.
2. Amulets: The End of +3 to Passives?
Currently, top amulets give +3 or even +5 to several passives, providing ~50% multiplicative damage or more. But they are incredibly hard to farm (Kurast Undercity + sigils + 50M gold per run).
What might replace passive bonuses on amulets?
· % main stat (like pre-Season 11)
· % life
· Increased aspect power (from 100% → 150%)
· Entirely new stats
If passives disappear from amulets too, that’s not necessarily bad — farming won’t feel hopeless anymore.
3. A Clever Theory: Passives Move to the Paragon Board
Since changing damage formulas is expensive, the devs might simply move passive nodes to Paragon with new names and visuals.
How it could work:
· Add a new node type: Exalted Nodes (in addition to Magic, Yellow, Legendary)
· Transfer all old passive bonuses there
· Amulets and chests then interact with these “new” nodes under the hood
This is cheap for developers, looks like a global rework to marketing, and keeps old balance logic intact. Many players will notice, but it’s a plausible path.
4. New 900 Power Items: What Changed?
Examples from Warlock items:
| Stat | Old (800 power) | New (900 power) |
| Cooldown Reduction | Moderate | Higher |
| Critical Strike Chance | Moderate | Higher (but 100% cap remains) |
| Maximum Life | 790 | 1000 |
| Main Stat | 121 | 121 (unchanged) |
| Skill Bonus | +3 | +3 (but max rank increased from 8 → 15) |
One-Handed Mace (Warlock):
· Old DPS: 297
· New DPS: 815
· That’s 2.83x base damage
Because base weapon damage multiplies with all other bonuses, final damage could increase by tens or hundreds of times. That could mean pushing the Pit ~10 levels higher.
5. The Illusion of Growth: Monster Scaling
If only player damage grows but monster health, armor, and resistances also grow → nothing changes except bigger numbers.
If monster stats don’t grow → we get a Diablo 3 clown show:
· Sets and aspects buffed by 10–20x per season
· Numbers become meaningless
· Players speed-farm max difficulty (Pit 150) in 1–2 minutes
Currently, Pit cap is not 150 (players have done 160+), which suggests Blizzard is being smarter this time. They’re scaling monster health with damage. That’s healthy.
6. Class Balance: Warlock, Paladin, and the Rest
Season 13 expectations:
· Warlock — strongest, fastest, most convenient
· Paladin — slightly below Warlock (artificially strong to boost DLC sales)
· Other classes — more or less equal (unprecedented in Diablo 4 history)
Historical note:
· Spiritborn in his first season: 73 Pit levels above the weakest class (Druid)
· Next season: already in line with everyone else
· Expect 1–2 seasons of Warlock dominance, then normalization.
7. Build Diversity: The Harsh Truth
No matter how many builds exist on paper, only three real builds matter per class:
1. Efficient farming
2. Strongest for pushing / ubers
3. Party damage dealer or support
4. The other 10–20 builds are for fun and often can’t even farm max difficulty efficiently.
Example of bad balance:
· Rogue death trap → forced weapon swap → laggy, unplayable
· Sorceress teleport → manually added minimum cooldown
· Blizzard often destroys convenient setups instead of buffing weak ones.
8. Final Verdict: Marketer-Realist Edition
The 900 power items will feel like insane power growth. Behind the scenes, monster scaling will keep the challenge intact. A loot filter is coming — that’s a sign Blizzard is doing some things right. If you want to keep up without endless farming, you can buy cheap Diablo 4 Items from MMOEXP to quickly gear up multiple builds. Don’t believe the hype. Marketing is just lies with better lighting. Play what you enjoy. Expect Warlock meta for 1–2 seasons. And always keep a backup build.