With Diablo 4 Season 10's PTR period now in the rear-view mirror, all that remains is the anticipation for the new season's official patch notes to see how the results of the PTR feedback shake out. Even with some Diablo 4 classes likely to see some adjustments when Season 10 launches, one upcoming feature has already made a splash and shows a promising direction for this new season. Despite being a limited-time mechanic, Diablo 4 Season 10's Chaos Armor is a groundbreaking feature, and confining it to one season doesn't feel like enough time to explore its game-changing potential fully.
Chaos is the name of the game in Diablo 4 Season 10, with the season's headlining new mechanics bringing a much-needed twist to some stale features. Chaos Perks follow the recent Diablo 4 seasonal trend of introducing temporary powers to augment players' builds and skills, but with the twist of having some Chaos Perks be exclusive to specific classes. Even more exciting is the addition of Chaos Armor, which flips the script on Diablo 4's traditional loadout system to give players more build options than ever before.
Diablo 4 Season 10's Chaos Armor Deserves to Be a Permanent Feature
Chaos Armor is the Game-Changing Feature Diablo 4 Fans Have Been Waiting For
Despite introducing a new set of Uniques each season, Diablo 4 builds have largely followed the same formula between seasons. Barring some type of massive rework, players can expect a given build to feature a similar gear setup each season. However, the introduction of Chaos Armor completely breaks the mold when it comes to the possible gear combinations for each Diablo 4 class.
Chaos Armor allows Unique affixes to appear on gear types other than their original ones, opening up the possibility for Unique combinations that weren't possible in previous seasons. For example, a Barbarian build for Diablo 4 Season 10 could include a pairing of Uniques like:
- Rakanoth's Wake (Unique Boots): When you cast a Skill with a Cooldown, you explode, dealing [150–450] Fire damage.
- Flickerstep (Unique Boots): Each enemy you Evade through reduces your active Ultimate Cooldown by [2.0–4.0] seconds, up to 10 seconds.
These Uniques are great options for Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian builds since Flickerstep can reduce the cooldown for Call of the Ancients, and Rakanoth's Wake deals explosive Fire Damage whenever players use Shouts. However, players would usually have to choose one or the other since they both occupy the Boots gear slot. With Chaos Armor, players could potentially use Rakanoth's Wake in their standard Unique Boots form, with Flickerstep in the Gloves or Pants slot, allowing them to get the best of both worlds and drastically improve their build.
Diablo 4 Season 10 won't let players equip the standard Unique and Chaos versions of the same item simultaneously, so players won't be able to use two instances of Flickerstep at the same time to double-up on its effect.
One Season is Not Enough for Chaos Armor to Shine
It's clear that Chaos Armor introduces a whole new world of buildcrafting options that will likely take players all season to fully uncover, which only makes the fact that Chaos Armor will go away after the season ends all the more disappointing. This mechanic is arguably the most game-changing feature Diablo 4 has added since Season 6 overhauled several core systems with the Vessel of Hatred update. There is so much more room for Chaos Armor to shape the dynamics of future Diablo 4 seasons that limiting it to Season 10 feels like a disservice to the game.
As it stands, not every Unique in Diablo 4 will get a Chaos Armor variant in Season 10, opening the door for the missing Uniques to rotate into the pool in future seasons. The combination of new Uniques and new Chaos Armor each season would be a one-two punch to the meta that could keep Diablo 4 interesting for the foreseeable future. Perhaps if Chaos Armor becomes a popular enough mechanic in Season 10, it could return in a future season or even be made a permanent part of Diablo 4's Eternal Realm.
Diablo 4
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 88 /100 Critics Rec: 93%
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Proprietary Engine
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG, Hack and Slash
