Diablo 4’s War Plans Getting a Major Upgrade in Season 16

Diablo 4’s War Plans system is receiving a major upgrade in Season 16, granting players even greater control over their endgame activities and rewards.

Blizzard introduced War Plans earlier this year as part of the game’s second (and final) expansion, Lord of Hatred. It is an endgame system that lets players essentially build a playlist of endgame activities, ranking those activities up along the way through a skill tree to make them more rewarding.

It was a welcome addition, but unfortunately offered players only minimal control over which activities would appear as part of their plans. Players could also reroll their War Plans only a limited number of times, meaning that if they disliked a particular activity, they were often stuck having to complete it.

All of that looks set to change in Season 16 with the addition of a new meta-progression system called War Plans Tactics. By completing War Plan activities, players will be able to invest points into the tactics tree to make certain activities more likely to appear and specific types of rewards more likely to drop. How players reroll their War Plans is also changing, with a new currency called Marks of Wisdom that will cap at 20 and should let players reroll their plans more often.

“Earn points from completing War Plans activities, then invest these points into nodes to increase the chance of preferred activities or rewards appearing,” Blizzard said. “This allows you to tailor your War Plans more closely with both your goals and playstyle.”

A look at Diablo 4 Season 16’s War Plans Tactics skill tree.

Putting at least one point into Helltides or Nightmare dungeons also grants the choice of increased chances for Greater Helltides and Escalation Nightmare dungeons, respectively. On the reward side, players will be able to make it so they are more likely to earn armor, weapons, jewelry, Obducite, salvage, gems, gold, activity keys, Horadric Cube materials, or Talisman items from activities.

The new tactics system isn’t the only change coming to War Plans. A new seasonal War Plans tree, Tyrael’s Boons, will also be coming with Season 16. There will be four Tyrael’s Boons’ paths to invest points into, with Blizzard stating players will be able to choose up to four of the six nodes within each path. Those four paths are:

• Curious Addition: Upgrades the Purveyor of Curiosities to increase the chances for more and higher quality items.
• Merchant of Mystery: Adds a new merchant in Torment difficulties that sell item caches in exchange for Forgotten Souls.
• Scent of Gold: Increases the amount of gold, experience, and materials you earn.
• Trash for Treasure: Reduces transmuting costs, increases chances to earn Obducite and salvage, and can even grant a new Horadric Cube recipe that allows players to upgrade a Tempered Affix on an item into a Greater Affix.

The changes to War Plans look to be the biggest features coming as part of Season 16, but there will additionally be a new type of gear to acquire, Horadric legendaries. These special legendaries will synergize with specific Talisman charms, with Horadric legendary jewelry items even counting for Talisman set bonuses. That should open the door to all kinds of new set and charm combinations that are sure to result in some wild new endgame builds.

Diablo 4 Season 16 will be playable on the PTR until November 3, with the full season set to launch December 1. Though Diablo 4 won’t be getting additional expansions, it will get a new class, the Amazon, in the first half of next year.

As for what’s next for the franchise, Diablo 5 is slated to arrive in 2029. Blizzard has already revealed three of the game’s playable classes and promised it will have more classes at launch than any previous Diablo game.