I thought Diablo 4 had already evolved into a great action RPG, but its latest season just made it even better

My sorceress isn't even halfway to Diablo 4's max level and she's frying rooms full of monsters with lightning like I was playing an endgame build. After a hugely successful season 4, Blizzard didn't need to reinvent the mucus-slick wheel, but Diablo 4 season 5 frontloads the fun with the most exciting loot drops I've seen in the action RPG, period.

Almost every single unique item in the game has been supercharged to turn your little demon slayer into a god, way more than normal legendary loot ever could. Their powerful effects, like causing your fireballs to bounce off the ground, are largely untouched, but their stats have been boosted to ludicrous levels. Previous seasons wouldn't dare give you an item that duplicates your chain lightning—that would be something to look forward to at level 100. In season 5, I put on a special pair of pants at level 30, became Storm, and haven't taken them off since.

The Axial Conduit pants are one of the clever new unique items in season 5. They basically turn you into a walking lightning storm that electrifies everything in your path. Not only do they give you a chance to cast your chain lightning twice, each one will ping pong between you and your enemies and eventually explode for loads of damage. The only drawback is that it eats up your mana quickly, but that can be remedied within your skill tree.

Season 5's debut system is Infernal Hordes, a set of hellish arenas that serve as Diablo's version of a wave-based horde mode. Enemies flood in from all directions as you dart around collecting aether to cash in for loot at the end. Each wave ends with a choice between a few modifiers, or 'boons & banes', that ramp up the difficulty for extra aether rewards. I liked what I played of the infernal hordes in Blizzard's public test realm version of season 5 last month, but I've only been able to try the dungeon versions of them in the live season.

They're called Hellbreach dungeons (a permanent addition to the game) and they emulate