**Diablo 4 Season 7: All You Need to Know About the Season of Witchcraft**
The eagerly awaited Season 7 of *Diablo 4* is scheduled to debut on **January 21, 2025**, introducing a plethora of thrilling new features, foes, and quality-of-life enhancements to the cherished action role-playing game. Known as the **Season of Witchcraft**, this update is set to invigorate gameplay with innovative mechanics, formidable abilities, and refined systems. Below is a detailed guide to help you gear up for the upcoming season.
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### **Release Date and Time**
Save the date! **Diablo 4 Season 7** officially kicks off on:
– **Date:** January 21, 2025
– **Time:** 1:00 a.m. (server time)
This season marks the second launch under the *Vessel of Hatred* expansion, with its Public Test Realm (PTR) having operated from December 3 to December 10, 2024, confirming that the new content has undergone comprehensive testing and adjustments.
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### **Season Theme: The Season of Witchcraft**
The primary theme of Season 7 centers on **witchcraft powers**, introducing a fresh gameplay mechanic that incorporates magical abilities to elevate your builds. These powers are categorized into four unique types:
1. **Abomination:** Channel destructive forces and transformations to unleash chaos on your adversaries.
2. **Psyche:** Harness the mind’s protective abilities to conjure illusions, enhance your attacks, and plunge your enemies into insanity.
3. **Growth and Decay:** Cast spells that restore health to allies, afflict harm on enemies, and manipulate the essence of life. These powers can induce debilitating ailments.
4. **Lost Powers:** Unearth rare and ancient magical skills previously considered lost.
To activate these abilities, players need to collect a new resource called **Restless Rot**, which can be acquired by completing whisper tasks or vanquishing a new enemy type known as **Headrot**. Restless Rot can be exchanged at **Coven Altars** for witchcraft abilities and upgrades, adding an extra layer of strategy to your development.
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### **Armory: A Revolutionary Feature for Builds**
One of the standout additions in Season 7 is the **Armory**, a highly anticipated feature that simplifies the management of builds. With the Armory, players can:
– Save, customize, and name up to **five builds per character**.
– Effortlessly switch between builds, including gear, Paragon boards, glyphs, skill choices, and class mechanics.
– Eliminate the need to manually adjust characters for varying playstyles.
The best part? **Switching builds incurs no gold cost**, making experimentation more convenient than ever. The Armory can be located in major cities throughout Sanctuary and in endgame locations like the **Citadel**, the **Whispering Tree**, and the **Kyovashad training grounds**.
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### **Additional Content and Features**
Season 7 brings a treasure trove of new content and quality-of-life enhancements to keep players engaged. Here’s what’s new:
#### **1. Head Hunts**
The new seasonal activity, **Head Hunts**, challenges players to pursue **Headrot** enemies and their bosses. These encounters commence at the **Whispering Tree** and reward players with:
– **Occult Gems:** Potent socketable items that provide additional affixes and synergies with witchcraft powers. Each gem also grants **160 armor** and **8% resistance to all damage**.
– **Restless Rot:** Crucial for unlocking witchcraft powers.
#### **2. Occult Gems**
Occult Gems are a brand-new type of socketable item introduced in Season 7. To create them, players need to trade **100 Fledgling Headtoughers**, **Restless Rot**, and **Gem Fragments** at the Whispering Tree. These gems provide unique advantages that can greatly enhance your build.
#### **3. New Uniques and Runes**
– **Eight new unique items** are being introduced, providing fresh avenues for build enhancement.
– Players of the *Vessel of Hatred* expansion will gain access to **three new runes**, further extending the customization options for characters.
#### **4. Account-Wide Unlocks**
Players can now unlock class-specific quests permanently for their entire account, streamlining the leveling process for alternate characters.
#### **5. Whispering Tree Improvements**
The **Whispering Tree** layout has been redesigned for improved navigation and usability, facilitating easier engagement with its activities.
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### **How to Get Ready for Season 7**
To ensure you are prepared for the Season of Witchcraft, consider the following tips:
1. **Collect Lilith’s Altars:** If you haven’t done so yet, now is the ideal time to gather all of Lilith’s altars for permanent account-wide bonuses.