Cross-Server Bout of Realms Returns

The Cross-Server Bout of Realms returns, with open registration starting August 27, 2026 and thrilling competition through champions being crowned on September 13, coordinating with the end of BlizzCon 2026. We're also bringing back other favorite events for everyone, along with new cosmetics, a new Legendary Gem, class balance changes, and game updates.

As with previous content updates, there will be server maintenance starting on August 25, from 5 p.m.-7 p.m. PDT for Oceania, East Asia, Southeast Asia, and Europe servers, and on August 26, from 1 a.m.-3a.m. PDT for servers in the Americas. After the maintenance has concluded, all items mentioned below will be live-specific dates for any features going live afterward are provided below.

Codex

Cross-Server Bout of Realms Event

Seeker's United

Winds of Fortune

New Legendary Gem: Seething Polestar

Jewel of the Desert Cosmetics

Game Updates

Class Balance Changes

Cross-Server Bout of Realms

Open Registration

• August 27 - August 30, 2026

Preliminary Stage

• August 31 - September 4, 2026

Finals

• September 7 - September 11, 2026

Elimination Stage

• Third Place: September 12, 2026
• Championship: September 13, 2026

Map

• Tower Wars

The Cross Server Bout of Realms returns with updates to its tournament structure and rewards, aimed at reducing unnecessary matches, improving the overall competitive experience, and better recognizing teams for their achievements.

Preliminary Stage Improvements

We're restructuring the Preliminary Stage into two phases to reduce the overall number of matches while keeping competition meaningful for teams still in contention.

Current Competition Format

Phase	Definition	Rules	Gameplay	Gameplay Duration	Total Rounds
Phase 1	Point Based Competition	Swiss-System Pairing with Tiebreak	Tower War	4 Days	12
Phase 2	Playoff	Select point-based competition 64 players with the same score, Swiss-system pairing with tiebreak	Tower War	2 Days	6
Phase 3	Knockout Tournament	BO3/BO5 1-on-1 Elimination	Tower War	5 Days	20

During the first phase of the Preliminary Stage, teams will continue to earn points through Swiss-system matchmaking. However, teams that accumulate three losses during the first two days will be eliminated from the tournament immediately rather than continuing to play out the remainder of the preliminary stage.

New Competition Format

Phase	Definition	Rules	Gameplay	Gameplay Duration	Total Rounds
Phase 1	Stage 1 of the points race	Swiss-System Pairing with Tiebreak, players with three defeats at settlement are eliminated directly	Tower War	2 Days	6
Phase 2	Second stage of the points race	Inherit points from the first round, Swiss-system pairing with tiebreak	Tower War	3 Days	9
Phase 3	Knockout Stage	BO3/BO5 1-on-1 Elimination	Tower War	5 Days	20

At the end of the first stage of the Points Race, teams that have accumulated three losses will be eliminated. All remaining teams will continue into the second stage, carrying over the points earned during the first stage and continuing to compete through Swiss-system matchmaking.

This structure allows lower-performing teams to conclude their tournament run earlier, reducing the overall number of matches played while preserving the full competitive schedule for teams that remain in the competition.

Additional Progression Rewards

We're adding a new reward milestone for teams that advance into the second stage of the Preliminary stage.

Teams that reach this milestone will earn a Set item of the player's choice with a 3+2 quality or higher, providing an additional progression goal and meaningful rewards for teams that make a strong run even if they do not ultimately reach the Finals Stage.

Custom Champion Announcement

Finally, Cross Server Bout of Realms champions will have a new way to celebrate their victory with the entire server.

The winning team will be able to submit a custom server-wide announcement commemorating their championship. Once reviewed and approved, their message will be shared across the server to proclaim their triumph to all.

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Seeker's United

Event Dates

• August 26 - September 23, 2026, 3:00 a.m. local server time

Smash through returning events to earn progress and rewards during Seeker's United. PvP events during Seeker's United will be weekend-focused.

Event Schedule

Survivor's Bane

• August 26 - September 2, 2026 3:00 a.m.

Trial of the Hordes

• September 2 - September 9, 2026 3:00 a.m.

Fractured Plane

• September 9 - September 16, 2026 3:00 a.m.

Wild Brawl

• September 16-September 23, 2026 3:00 a.m.

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Winds of Fortune

Event Dates

• September 3 - September 10, 2026, 3:00 a.m.

During Winds of Fortune, the 4-player party Normal Gems bonus drop will be doubled and unaffected by the daily cap, and only the first twelve Common Gems of the day will be tradable.

While Winds of Fortune is live, activate your 24-hour buff to receive this boost. Once activated, the buff duration is in real time and will end 24 hours after it's been initiated. If you have not activated the buff within 24 hours of the event's end, it will be enabled automatically. Any rewards not claimed before the end of the event will be auto-claimed on the next login.

Any of these items will drop in duplicate quantities:

• Gold
• Experience
• Battle Pass Points
• Normal Gems
• Legendary Items

Items from these activities will also drop in duplicate quantities:

• Horadric Bestiary
• Challenge Rifts
• Bounties
• Fishing
• Dungeons
• Purge the Depths
• Accursed Towers
• Hidden Lairs
• Farming in the wilderness
• Codex Activities

During this limited-time event, Battle Pass rewards will not be doubled, and the weekly limit on Battle Pass Points and Normal Gems will not change. Any bonus Experience gained will be affected by your current modifier.

Additionally, there are limits to each item that can be earned in duplicate quantities. You'll earn double the amount until you reach the limit. Check out the event in-game for more details.

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New Legendary Gem: Seething Polestar

Acquire this new S-rank Legendary Gem with the Empowered Battle Pass reward track as a choice selection, starting with BattlePass Season 56.

Seething Polestar

Rank 10 Description:

Hitting an enemy calls down beams of Seething Light to strike at your target's location, dealing damage to nearby enemies. Enemies hit by Seething Light have a chance to chain the beams to them, causing another beam of Seething Light to strike. Each enemy hit by Seething Light increases its chance to chain by 30%, but each additional blast has its radius and damage reduced by 30%. Seething Light also increases the damage you deal to enemies and reduces their Movement Speed for 2 seconds. Beams of Seething Light cannot be called more often than once every 6 seconds and can chain a maximum of 3 times.

Resonance Gems

Havoc Bearer, Specter Glass, Rampant Torch

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Jewel of the Desert Cosmetics

Event Times

• August 27, 2026 3:00 a.m. - September 24, 2026, 2:59 a.m.

BattlePass Season 56 introduces exclusive new cosmetics! Inspired by the fabled city of Lut Gholein, the armor and weapons echo motifs of the Sun, the glorious golden spires, and the fantastic beauty of the city's High Ward.

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Game Updates

Empowered Battle Passes

• After purchasing the Empowered Battle Pass or the Collector's Empowered Battle Pass, the War Herald will be replaced with the new legendary gem Seething Polestar in the rewards for selectable items.
• Upon reaching level 35, the Normal Gem in the rewards unlocked by purchasing the Empowered Battle Pass will be replaced with one of three new choices, expanding your milestone rewards.

Dungeon and Rift Updates

• Once a challenge dungeon is cleared, all dead players will be able to resurrect immediately.
• The three runes obtained during the first challenge of the Elder Rift in the main quest line have been adjusted to nine Telluric Fragments.

Change to Monster Essence Turn-In Portal

Previously, when players used their Monster Essence turn-in from the notification, it sends the player to the nearest safe zone but doesn't create a portal for the player to return to their previous location. While quick and useful, when players need to farm more monster essences, it's annoying because you can't return quickly to your previous spot.

Now, the Monster Essence turn-in will open a portal to the nearest safe zone from their current location. This portal does not conflict with the normal Town Portal cooldown and the player is not interrupted when taking damage like a normal Town Portal. It will also apply the equipped portal cosmetic.

Helliquary Enrage Mechanics Update

To create a more equal playing field across all classes, we have adjusted how the Helliquary's Enrage mechanic works.

Some classes have builds that can live forever through the current Enrage mechanic, and this is not the desired gameplay we want to have. We think having cool moments of killing a boss during Enrage is interesting, but completely ignoring the mechanic is not.

Instead of nerfing those builds, we are changing the Enrage mechanic so that the passive damage dealt scales over time and can't be mitigated by any outside factors. This damage will be a percentage of the player's maximum Life and will scale up over time until the player takes 100% of their max Life after 45 seconds. Shields, damage reduction, immunities and cheat death effects cannot save you from this damage.

This change should have no impact on the average player or raid group but prevents extreme abuses such as soloing Helliquary Gauntlet bosses.

Legendary Gem Updates

We've upgraded the back-end information for Legendary Gems, allowing us to display attribute values more directly. This will more clearly define stats on Legendary Gems and show more individual entries in the Legendary Gem Upgrade UI.

For example, Hellbound Desire has the text "increasing the damage they take from you by an amount equal to 40% of the passive damage bonus". This stat cannot be entered as its own individual value because the backend setup only has one value that can be displayed in the Upgrade UI.

For new gems, we now have the ability to change this, so it would be something like "increasing the damage they take from you by X%." This displays the direct value of the damage increase instead of forcing you to do math.

As Legendary Gems get more complex, this backend and UI update will allow us to provide more clarity in how gem values work.

Monthly Card Optimization

We are iterating Boon of Plenty to increase its value without changing the price by taking the following steps:

• Replace normal gems and crests with Telluric Pearls (as players highly value Telluric Pearls)
• Increase the # of SR Gems, while also adding War Herald into the selection pool of SR gems.

UI and UX Updates

Activity Tab Redesign

• Added a sub-tab feature to the Event Tabs to categorize and organize the current events more clearly.

Phantom Gallery Improvements

• Updated the Gem icon used in Phantom Market to match the latest visual direction.
• Updated the related Gem VFX to improve visual clarity and make the reward feel more impactful.

Westmarch Art Optimization

• Added more texture fidelity for environments and terrain, improved atmospheric lighting and enhanced some FX like water, smoke and vegetation.
• Adjusted existing props and structures.

UI Optimization

• The issue of the NPC dialogue obscuring the skill bar UI in dungeons has been optimized, as well as the issue of NPC dialogue obscuring other interface operations in dungeons.
• The issue where other skill buttons are no longer obscured by a black overlay when channeling has been optimized. This allows players to clearly see the cooldown status of other skills.
• Optimized the interface when Seeker Rating reaches its maximum value.

Miscellaneous Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the Tide Pool from the Tempest Legendary Essence Rearing Fathoms would not trigger Electrocution.
• Fixed an issue where the Warlock skill Burning Ascent could not remove Slow effects with its affix.
• Fixed an issue where the damage reduction from Warlock Legendary Essence Measured Halves' Sacrificial Power enhanced Spiteful Sacrifice was abnormal when hitting the same target.
• Foxed an issue where Druid human form abilities could not increase the number of Claw attacks from the Legendary Essence Wulftear.

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Class Balance Changes

On 8/26/2026, we plan to release a series of balance adjustments prior to the start of the latest Bout of Realms. To provide additional time selecting your teammates and appropriate team compositions, we are announcing these changes early. You can also view the balance changes here.

Stat/balances changes are NOT final and are subject to change on 8/26/2026.

Crusader

Anointed in Blood (Helm):

• Consecration now conjures a holy circle of retribution that periodically bursts, dealing more damage depending on the damage you take between bursts.

Developer's Note: Base damage reduced from 80% to 60%, while maximum top end damage increased from 240% to 300% when taking repeated damage.

Forced Abjuration (Legs):

• Previous: Shield Charge now swipes with your shield, damaging enemies in front of you, knocking them back and Slowing them, with each hit increasing this skill's damage for a short duration. Successfully blocking reduces this skill's cooldown.
• Now: Shield Charge now causes you to Dash forward, damaging, knocking back, and Slowing enemies you hit. Additionally, you gain an absorb shield upon hitting an enemy and successfully blocking reduces this skill's cooldown.

Developer's Note: Successive damage hit scaling removed, and damage increased from 160% to 200%. Now grants a shield equal to 120% of your base damage, triggering at most once per second.

Druid

Promise the Obscure (Shoulders):

• Mangle (Werebear) now unleashes a sequence of four attacks as you move in a direction, knocking back enemies. You are immune to knockback and loss of control during these attacks.

Developer's Note: Cooldown reduced from 9 seconds to 8 seconds and damage now only scales based on maximum Life (80% base damage removed), but Life scaling has increased from 8% to 13%.

Budding Union (Chest):

• Circle of Life now conjures a swirling area of vitality that continuously heals allies and damages enemies within. Both healing and damage increase with the number of allies within the area.

Developer's Note: Base healing with only one ally in the area has been reduced from 60% to 40%, but the max healing remains at 120% and the damage increases remains unchanged at 60-120%.

Monk

Fate and Fortune (Main Hand):

• Mystic Allies now summons three elemental spirit allies. You can use the skill again to target one of the spirits and grant yourself beneficial effects according to their element.

Developer's Note: Mystic Allies Life increased from 100% to 200% of your Life. Spirits continue to receive 75% reduced damage in PvP.

Nest of Vipers (Chest):

• Previous: Flying Dragon now grants you Dragon's Strike, causing each Primary Attack to release a damaging wave of energy.
• Now: Flying Dragon now grants you and nearby summons Dragon's Strike, causing each Primary Attack to release a damaging wave of energy.

Developer's Note: Additional effects triggered when hitting Crowd Controlled enemies have been removed, but the baseline damage has been increased from 45.8% to 68% to include damage triggered from this effect. Summons deal 60% reduced damage for their Dragon's Strike attacks.

Tempest

Dream and Drown (Helm):

• Previous: Cascade now empowers you and your Zephyrs' attacks to release waves at enemies you hit, dealing damage to them and nearby enemies.
• Now: Cascade now empowers you and your Zephyrs' attacks to release waves at enemies you hit, dealing damage to them and nearby enemies while also granting you an absorb shield when you hit an enemy with the wave.

Developer's Note: A maximum range has been added for triggering the wave, preventing it from releasing waves around enemies too far away. The shield granted absorbs 120% of base damage.

Cyclone's Call (Off-Hand):

• Previous: Crosswinds is now Channeled and can be cast while moving, causing you and your Zephyrs to spin, launching wind blades that damage nearby enemies.
• Now: Crosswinds is now Channeled and can be cast while moving, causing you and your Zephyrs to spin, launching wind blades at nearby enemies that deal damage. Additionally, you are immune to knockbacks while channeling, and if an enemy is struck by multiple wind blades in quick succession, they will be hit by an additional.

Developer's Note: Wind blade damage increased from 57.2% to 84%. Energy cost while channeling is reduced from 25 to 12 Energy per second, while post-channel Energy regeneration increased from 10 to 20 Energy per second. Striking an enemy 5 times now deals an additional 170% damage.

Warlock

Measured Halves (Pants):

• Spiteful Sacrifice is now Channeled and can be cast while moving, causing you to conjure swords of dark energy that you hurl forward, damaging enemies in their path.

Developer's Note: Attack interval increased to 1.2 seconds, but damage has also been increased from 190% to 220%, resulting in less frequent volleys of attacks that hit harder. Movement Speed reduced by 40% while channeling. Range reduced from 9 yards to 8 yards. Sacrificial Power effect no longer locks onto players and now fires the extra projectiles at the targets current location allowing them to be avoided with quick movement.

Supply and Demand (Pants):

• Previous: Tyrant's Grasp now conjures a pair of demonic hands behind you that attack when you use your Primary Attack, dealing damage in an area in front of you.
• Now: Tyrant's Grasp now grants you an absorb shield and takes your Soulgorger as an offering of power in order to conjure a pair of demonic hands behind you that attack when you use your Primary Attack, dealing damage in an area in front of you.

Developer's Note: Soulgorger can no longer be active while this skill is active. Cooldown reduced from 12 seconds to 10 seconds allowing you to more frequently gain benefits from the new shield. Knockback removed from the 3rd attack. Baseline damage increased from 63% to 80%, but removed the 91% damage to enemies at max range. The skill now grants a shield equal to 30% of maximum Life.

Brutal Lessons (Shoulders):

• Lash of Pain now empowers you, causing your Primary Attacks to swing molten chains that damage nearby enemies, knocks them back and Burns them. Hitting the same enemy grants you Life Drain and control immunity.

Developer's Note: Cooldown reduced from 12 seconds to 10 seconds so it still lines up with Supply and Demand's Cooldown. Primary Attack step distance has also been reduced.

Wizard

Lissana's Sorrow (Chest):

• Frostfield now grants you Creeping Chill, causing your attacks to Chill enemies. Critical Hits Freeze enemies within the area.

Developer's Note: Chill value increased from 20% to 35%.

Searing Judgement (Shoulders):

• Disintegrate now channels Fire, applying a Burn that stacks up to 5 time. At 5 stacks the Burn is consumed dealing additional damage. While channeling, you are immune to knockback effects.

Developer's Note: Beam distance reduced from 10 yards to 8 yards. The max stacks are being increased from 5 to 8 and the explosion damage is increased from 240% to 280%.

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