Blizzard has released patch notes for their latest and greatest update to Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls, which is set to release shortly and offer all manner of new and improved content.
Diablo 3: Reaper of Souls Review: Finally, The Diablo Game You Always Wanted
The biggest new addition is undoubtedly Seasons, which will work similar to Diablo 2's ladders. They let you start fresh characters, leveling up your level 1 characters and artisans from scratch. Participation in a Season lets you earn exclusive rewards and Legendary items, as well as the opportunity to earn Conquests. Those are Season-only achievements that can be earned for completing various challenges of varying difficulties. Two that they've described so far include killing Malthael at level 70 on Torment VI, and finishing Acts I-V in an hour or less. The latter one should be interesting...
There are only a limited number of slots for a Conquest, however, and only the first 1,000 people to complete one will earn a spot on the Season's regional leaderboard, so they will come with some heavy bragging rights.
Leaderboards? Yup, that's another new addition. They'll track progress for Season achievement points, Season Conquests, and Greater Rifts.
Greater Rifts can be accessed by completing a regular Nephalem Rift in any difficulty- by defeating the Rift Guardian you have the chance of finding a Greater Rift Key. This key can be used at the Nephalem Obilisk to open a Greater Rift, which will make you race across the level trying to fill a progress board by killing monsters. Monsters generally won't drop loop, which this lets you run through it more easily. The Guardian will, however, and if you complete these huge challenges you'll earn Legendary Gems, new items that can be socketed into Rings and Amulets.
That on top of all the usual combat and bugfixes to smoothen out an already smooth experience. Not bad for a free update. Check out Blizzard's blog for more info on this exciting new content.
