When does Season 15 start? (Official times)
Blizzard's official announcement confirms the full schedule. Season 14 ends on Tuesday, August 18 at 2:00 AM Taiwan time, the Season 15 patch begins rolling out that same Tuesday, and the new ladder goes live on Saturday, August 22. Blizzard also notes this is the new normal: future seasons will follow a similar patch-Tuesday, ladder-weekend cadence.
| Region | Season 15 start |
|---|---|
| North America | August 21, 5:00 PM PDT |
| Europe | August 22, 1:00 AM BST / 2:00 AM CEST |
| Asia | August 22, 8:00 AM CST / 9:00 AM KST |
The split timing matters if you play across regions or plan a launch-weekend race: North America gets the ladder on Friday evening local time, while Asia and Europe start early on Saturday morning.
Ladder modes in Season 15
Season 15 keeps the same four ladder modes as previous seasons:
- Classic Ladder — standard mode, original four acts only.
- Classic Hardcore Ladder — one life, original four acts only.
- Ladder — standard mode, all five acts including Lord of Destruction content.
- Hardcore Ladder — one life, all five acts including Lord of Destruction content.
As before, the race to level 99 happens on the expansion ladders, where the full item pool — including the runewords below — is in play.
What happens when Season 14 ends?
The reset rules follow the established pattern, confirmed again in the official post:
- Ladder characters convert to non-ladder. When Season 14 ends, all ladder characters move to their non-ladder groups with their gear intact. Nothing is deleted.
- Shared stash becomes withdraw-only. Items in ladder shared stash tabs move into new shared stash tabs marked as "past items". You can take items out but cannot put items in.
- Season 13 "past items" are deleted. When the new season begins, the oldest withdraw-only tabs (Season 13's) disappear for good — withdraw anything you want to keep.
- You have all of Season 15 to withdraw Season 14 items. If those tabs are not emptied by the end of Season 15, their contents get overwritten by the next rotation.
Everyone re-enters at level 1 with an empty economy, which is what makes launch weekend valuable: low runes, starter uniques and socketed bases for staples like Spirit and Insight briefly become real currency. If you enjoy the fresh market, play the first two weeks hard; if not, prices always settle.
What's new in Patch 3.3
Season 15 ships with Patch 3.3. The headline changes from the official notes:
- Ladder-only runewords rotate. Previous ladder-only items become available on non-ladder. The adjusted runewords that remain ladder-exclusive (Reign of the Warlock content only) are: Mania, Hysteria, Metamorphosis, Ground, Temper, Hearth, Cure and Bulwark.
- Underused items buffed. Bloodletter gains +20% faster run/walk; Bane Ash trades its attack speed and enhanced damage for +20% faster cast rate; Pluckeye gains +25% attack speed; Gravenspine gains +10% faster cast rate; the Angelic Raiment set now grants +1 to all skills as its full-set bonus, plus several more unique tweaks — full list in our Season 15 patch notes summary.
- Terror Zone and Herald tuning. Heralds of tier 3 and above have a higher chance to drop rare-or-better items; the minimum drop level for Latent sunder charms rises from 69 to 75; magic find now reduces Latent sunder charm drop rates (Herald drops are unaffected), and MF-driven Latent sunders only drop in Hell difficulty; Worldstone shards drop one extra item but less often.
- Bug fixes. Miasma Chain's ranged attack no longer collides with neutral and friendly units, Sigil: Death no longer consumes mana on a failed cast and now correctly benefits from +fire skill bonuses, plus various stability and Chronicle display fixes.
For sunder charm farming under the new rules, see our sunder charms guide; the five RotW runewords are covered in the Infernal Edition runewords page.
How to prepare before Season 15 starts
With the date locked, prep is about the economy, routes and builds — the things you can control:
- Pick your starter build now. Choose something that levels fast on no gear and farms early Hell. Our Warlock leveling build is one option; the classic seven classes have proven starters as well.
- Learn your leveling route. Know which early runewords you will make and when — runewords by level maps staples like Stealth and Spirit to the levels where they come online.
- Plan your first farming targets. Once you hit Hell, aim at zones your build clears efficiently — our best farming spots guide ranks the current options.
- Block out launch weekend. The ladder opens Saturday morning in Asia (Friday evening in NA) — the first days are when early drops are worth the most.
- Know where you will trade. A new season resets the market, so prices move fast. Our overview of D2R trading sites covers where players actually exchange items once the economy matures.
- Clean out your stash tabs. Withdraw any Season 13 "past items" you still want before August 18 — they are deleted when the season turns over.
It is also worth rehearsing the route itself. A single practice run on non-ladder — Normal and Nightmare for the essential quest rewards and rune bases, then the push into Hell — will save you hours of fumbling on launch day, and it double-checks that your chosen starter actually suits how you play.