Diablo 3 Patch 2.4.0 brings with it a ton of features and addtions

The Grayhollow Island patch has been a long time coming now, first being teased a couple of months back and since then stuck in perpetual open beta testing.

However, it has now finally arrived for both consoles and PC bringing with it a massive new area in the form of Grayhollow Island, new zones, set dungeons, empowered rifts, action combat for the PC, balance changes and so much more.

Here's a brief summary of all the big changes and additions coming with Grayhollow Island patch 2.4.0:

The biggest addition of all is the new Grayhollow Island which is constantly shrouded in darkness and battered by endless storms. You job will be to brave its accursed forests and find the origins of whatever madness has befallen it. Along the way you will meet plenty of new enemies and bosses to fight as well as lore to discover and quests to complete making this single zone the biggest addition Diablo 3 ever received in a patch.

Two old school zones have also been expanded with new areas, bosses and bounties. The Eternal Woods now have an extra path branching off towards the hunting grounds of a fierce yeti and as you know, when something has fierce in their name it means it drops extra loot.

The second newly opened area is in the ruins of Leoric's Manor. The damnable rock piles that once blocked your way have finally been cleared up allowing you to explore, and pillage, the Royal Quarters of the mad king.

The royal quarters of Leoric the mad king

Leoric might be mad but at least he has style

Next up are the set dungeons, challenging pieces of content specifically designed with each of the twenty four sets in mind. Each dungeon will feature a static "obstacle" course tailor made for your specific class & set and while they will be difficult to complete you can expect exclusive cosmetic rewards once you manage to do so.

On the topic of difficulty you can now empower Greater Rifts by spending a whole boatload of money on them thus grating yourself the opportunity to upgrade a Legendary Gem. The gold cost will depend on the tier of the Rift itself with the higher ones offering better rewards though bear in mind, you actually have to complete the Rift in order to reap any benefit.

The Season Rebirth feature is a simple but welcome one. All it does is it allows you to retain your character with its name and hours played between each season. Your characters will still lose all of their gear and levels in the new season but at least you'll be able to continue on with your favorite character, as I said a small but welcome change.

Another small feature is the revised Buff Bar which will make it easier to tell on a moment's glance how long enemy debuffs and positive effects will last. You will be able to control how the Buff Bar condenses and expands with a hotkey allowing you to keep a clean interface while still having an eye on things.

Finally, and most importantly, the console action combat mode has made its way to the PC! Whether this means we will be able to plug in controllers and play in local co-op I can't confirm given that I don't have Diablo 3 installed but either way the action combat mode was really fun on consoles and I can see it being a ton of fun on the PC as well.

That's it as far as actual features and additions go, the rest is an extremely long list of patch notes so if you're interested in all of the details I'd suggest you head over here.