Diablo 4 announces Kulle new theme for Season 3 — Season of the Construct starts January 23 and introduces new Vaults dungeon and... robots?

What you need to know

• Season 3 of Diablo 4 was announced today and will be called 'Season of the Construct'
• The new season starts on January 23 at 10 a.m. PST at which point Season of Blood will come to a close.
• The new season head to Zoltun Kulle's domain, and brings a new dungeon type, a seasonal 'Seneschal Companion' and weekly leaderboards with The Gauntlet.
• There will be a developer chat on January 18 at 9 a.m. PST with more information.

Diablo 4 has announced the theme, start date, and new gameplay mechanics for Season 3 today. Season of the Construct will arrive on January 23 as Season of Blood ends, so if you have yet to finish your season activities now is the time! We've loads of new activities to look forward to including the addition of weekly leaderboards with The Gauntlet, and a brand-new dungeon-type — Vaults.

Here's the trailer for Season 3.

'Season of the Construct' sees a new quest line

"A new threat lurks deep beneath the sands of Kehjistan, where the Loom, an ancient technology—designed by Zoltun Kulle and Ayuzhan of Caldeum—has been usurped by the forces of evil. The Demon Malphas is responsible for twisting the Loom for his cruel whims. Zoltun’s former companion Ayuzhan leads you through the treacherous Vaults, desperate to stop the formidable Malphas and his deadly constructs from overtaking Sanctuary." This is our first introduction to Season 3, and fans of the franchise will be more than familiar with our favorite egotistical sorcerer, Zoltun Kulle.

FUN FACT: Zoltan Kulle is voiced by Steve Blum in Diablo 3, and also voices Mephisto which lead to a lot of incorrect theories about the wolf's identity in Diablo 4.

We'll travel to the 'Gatehall' a new area underneath Kehjistan that will be our base housing the Loom, an ancient construct crafted by Zoltan Kulle.  Here we will access deadly Vault dungeons and fight against new hazards and Constructs.

New 'Seneschal Companion'

Also available to acquire during the Construct questline, will be our very own Seneschal Companion. Our very own construct to help in battle either directly or on the sidelines. 

Using magical Governing and Tuning Stones from the Vault dungeons and around Sanctuary, we'll be able to augment our companion with different skills and abilities. There will be 12 Governing Stones and 27 different Tuning Stones of different rarities to seek out in the Vaults to unlock the full power of the Seneschal construct. 

Once we've acquired our Seneschal, they’ll follow us everywhere in Sanctuary until Season of the Construct ends.

Governing stones and Tuning stones

Governing stones

• Autodefense: The Seneschal Construct creates an antimaterial shield that intercepts enemy projectiles. It can not stop Boss or Player projectiles. 
• Bushwhack: Rapidly attack dealing damage to each target. Can hit the same target repeatedly.
• Firefly: Send a small construct that attaches to the target and detonates 3 times, dealing damage.
• Focus Fire: The Seneschal Construct emits a beam of fire onto targets dealing damage to each over time.
• Gyrate: The Seneschal Construct spins its legs around swiftly dealing damage to all nearby enemies. 
• Impale: Execute a line attack to all enemies in front of the Seneschal Construct dealing damage. 
• Lightning Bolt: Shoot a bolt of Lightning at the target dealing damage. Jumps to other targets dealing a fraction of the original damage.
• Protect: The Seneschal Construct forms a protective Barrier on the player for a percentage of their Maximum Life. 
• Reconstruct: The Seneschal Construct projects a reconstruction beam Healing the player for a percentage of their Maximum Life over time.
• Slash: Smash enemies in front of the Seneschal Construct dealing damage.
• Tempest: Electrically charge an enemy causing it to deal damage to themselves and extra each second over time. If the enemy dies, Tempest transfers to another enemy gaining more time and bonus damage. These bonuses also apply if Tempest is reapplied onto the same enemy. Electrically charge an enemy causing it to deal damage to themselves and extra each second over time. If the enemy dies, Tempest transfers to another enemy gaining more time and bonus damage. These bonuses also apply if Tempest is reapplied onto the same enemy.

Tuning Stone Abilities:

• Voluminous Support: The supported skill's effect size is increased.
• Swift Support: The supported Skill gains an Attack Speed bonus.
• Breaking Support: Damage from the supported Skill instantly destroys enemy Barrier effects. In addition, there is a chance to make enemies Vulnerable for 2 seconds.
• Tactical Support: Decrease the cooldown of the supported Skill.
• Efficiency Support: When the supporting skill deals damage, you gain Critical Strike Chance to the same targets hit.
• Devastation Support: Supported Skill gains a Critical Strike Damage bonus.
• Safeguard Support: When used, the supported Skill grants Damage Reduction to you.
• Frigid Support: A portion of the supported Skill's damage dealt is applied as Cold damage over time and applies Chill.
• Burning Support: A portion of he supported Skill's damage is applied as Burning damage over time. Burning enemies take bonus Critical Strike Damage from the Seneschal Construct.
• Electrocution Support: A portion of the supported skill's damage dealt is applied as Lightning damage over time and has a chance to Stun enemies.
• Bleeding Support: A portion of the supported skill's damage dealt is applied as Bleeding damage over time. Enemies take bonus Bleeding damage from all sources while moving.
• Dusk Support: A portion of the supported Skill's damage dealt is applied as Shadow damage over time. Afflicted enemies who attack have a chance for their attacks to be interrupted. Does not interrupt Bosses.
• Duration Support: Supported Skills have their durations increased.
• Fortify Support: When the Seneschal Construct uses the supported Skill, you gain Fortify. Skills with slower attack speeds or skills with cooldowns will increase the amount of Fortify granted.
• Resource Support: Player gains an amount of Primary Resource when the supporting Skill first deals damage.
• Initiative Support: The supported Skill will cause the Seneschal Construct to teleport to the target if out of range. Can only occur once every so often seconds.
• Arcing Support: The supported Skill can hit additional enemies.
• Multishot Support: Supported Projectile skills launch additional projectiles.
• Piercing Support: The supported Projectile Skill will pierce multiple enemies.
• Gripping Support: Damage and effects done by the supporting Skill to Distant enemies pulls them towards the Seneschal Construct. Can only occur once every so often per enemy.
• Registered Damage Support: Any damage caused from the supported Skill is registered. The registered damage explodes at effectiveness when the target dies as Fire damage.
• Seeking Support: The supported Projectile Skill will auto-seek enemies for a limited duration.
• Slowing Support: Damage from the supported Skill Slows enemy movement speed for a limited duration. The closer the enemy is to the Seneschal Construct, the greater the Slow amount. Enemies may be slowed up to a maximum amount.
• Mockery Support: Damage done by the supporting Skill Taunts enemies hit for a limited duration of time. This can only occur once every so often per enemy. Does not work on bosses.

New dungeons to explore: Vaults

Vaults will house elemental Hazards crafted by Zoltun Kulle himself. When you enter the Vault—after using the necessary Pearls of Warding— you can receive Zoltun’s Warding, a special multi-layered blessing which allows you to access treasures within the Vaults. Zoltun’s Warding loses one layer at a time if you encounter the various Hazards that fill the Vaults.

If you defeat the Vault Boss with Zoltun’s Warding still intact, you’ll open a Wardwoven Chest, which has a better chance of giving you Legendary items. You can raise the stakes by trading Pearls of Warding for more layers of Zoltun’s Warding at the Vault entrance—if you succeed, your prize will grow as well.

At World Tier III, Nightmare Vaults become available. Vault Sigils will appear with normal Nightmare Dungeon Sigils, or you can make them with Pearls of Warding. These Vaults work like Nightmare Dungeons—but they will have lethal Constructs and Hazards everywhere, and the Wardwoven Chests,

The Gauntlet: finally we have leaderboards

Diablo 4 just hasn't felt the same without the leaderboards we enjoyed in the previous instalments, and finally as of Season 3 we will get a leaderboard of sorts with The Gauntlet. A brand new challenge to fight through. It will be a weekly rotating dungeon to complete in which the top scorers of the week will earn a permanent place in the Hall of the Ancients. We will likely hear more about this in the developer chat on Thursday, but so far it sounds like a hybrid between Diablo 3's challenge rifts and greater rifts. Challenge Rifts were a weekly dungeon, fixed in layout and mob density that you had to complete against a timer, however, everyone did this with the same build as designated by Blizzard that week. The Gauntlet will be completed by your own character and build, akin to Greater Rifts from Diablo 3, without the uncertainty of what map you will get. It's very intriguing and I can't wait to see more details. 

Quality of life updates to look forward to

As well as the new Season theme, we'll also get a patch addressing some much needed quality of life updates. These will include: 

• Helltides will always be active save for a 5 minute rest
• Enhanced WASD movement instead of only being able to use mouse on PC
• Extra stash tab for everyone
• Improvements to reallocating skills on the skill tree
• improved UI when trading 
• increased rates to earning items needed to summon the Beast in the Ice

New Battle Pass

As with the previous seasons, there will be a battle pass to complete of which there is a free tier, and a paid for premium tier. This will be broken up into chapters where we'll be able to earn new legendary aspects, Awoken Adamant Armor and 3 scrolls of amnesia for free skill tree and paragon resets. The Battle pass will be 90 Reward Tiers—28 Free Tiers and 62 Premium Tiers.

Rewards to look forward to are the Awoken Spheral Barding mount armor and the Awoken Clockwork Equid Mount at Tier 90. 

This season is really branching out

I thoroughly enjoyed Season 2, the Season of Blood, and Season 3 appears poised to introduce entirely unexpected mechanics to Diablo 4. However the theme itself may not come as a total surprise, Diablo podcast co-host and lore expert Neinball impressively predicted that we would encounter Kulle-themed content based solely on an image posted on Twitter. The guys over at Pure Diablo summarized the theory here, and it turns out they weren't far from the reality.

Do check out the full update over at Blizzard here with more info on the story behind this new quest. We can look forward to even more information about Season 3 on Thursday with the developer livestream, and I'll of course be here to follow all the action. I am hoping for more details specifically on the quality of life updates to the game, and where the team is at with Nightmare dungeons and glyph leveling specifically as personally I found this a huge bottleneck with completing the last season. With it looking like we'll have so many more new and exciting activities to take part in, Nightmare Dungeons look even less enticing. We've also been teased with promises of itemization overhauls coming for Season 4, which while some time away yet I can't wait to hear more about.

What do you think of the new season?