My Sorceress isn't even halfway to the maximum level of Diablo 4, yet she's burning through monster-filled rooms with lightning bolts as if she's playing an endgame build. After the huge success of Season 4, Blizzard didn't need to reinvent the slime-covered wheel, but Diablo 4 Season 5 brought the fun forward with the most exciting loot drop I've seen in an action RPG.

Nearly every unique item in the game, even more than the usual legendary loot, is super-enhanced to turn your little demon slayer into a god. Most of the powerful effects, such as making fireballs bounce off the ground, remain the same, but their stats have been boosted to ridiculous levels. In previous seasons, no item was dared to be given to duplicate the chain lightning bolt. In Season 5, he has never taken off his special pants and stormed out at level 30.

Axial Conduit pants are one of the clever new unique items in Season 5. These pants basically turn you into a walking lightning storm, electrifying everything in your path. Not only do you have two chances to unleash a chain lightning bolt, but each chain lightning bolt ping-pongs between you and your enemy, eventually exploding and dealing massive damage. The only downside is that it consumes mana quickly, but this can be compensated for in the skill tree.

Season 5's debut system (which will stay in the game forever) is Infernal Hordes, a set of hellish arenas that function as Diablo's version of wave-based horde mode. As enemies come at you from all directions, you dart about, collecting ether and exchanging it for loot at the end. At the end of each wave, you get to choose from several modifiers, or "boons and vanes," to increase the difficulty and gain additional ether rewards. The hordes of hell I played in the Season 5 test realm version released by Blizzard last month were good, but I was only able to try the dungeon version in the live season.

These are called Hellbreach dungeons (season only) and emulate the actual Wave mode. As you move through the dungeon, you will find spires that must be destroyed by defeating nearby enemies. Once you have enough ether to move on to the next section, you get to choose how to change the next encounter. I decided to increase the strength of the last boss in the dungeon by 50%, giving him enough ether to open the biggest treasure chest at the end. My lightning pants did most of the work and I was rewarded with a room full of powerful loot and XP.The Hellbreach dungeon is simple and not as engaging as the Infernal Hordes, but as an appetizer to what is to come, it is a good way to get the normal It is a nice treat to interrupt the normal leveling process.

Hellbreach dungeon is elegantly paired with a new unic you find so you can fill your gear with a codex of legendary power to craft. I was lucky enough to find a couple of powers that spiked my damage against bosses. Chain Lightning isn't particularly good at it by default, but it allowed me to run through a dungeon where the monsters were 30 levels higher than me.

These big power spikes are something that was missing last season. While all items were more powerful, I never came across a unique item that would transform my play or define my build. Diablo 4 continues to reduce the time it takes to level up, but it was starting to get tedious to get to the good parts. It's so exciting right now that I might start a few other classes just to see what new toys I can play with.

It seems obvious now that Blizzard planned all along to reshape Diablo 4 before reaching the endgame until everyone felt powerful and could experiment with the most inventive items. All the work that has gone into smoothing out the process of finding gear, upgrading it, and using it to suit your playstyle has finally come together. And with the "Vessel of Hatred" expansion just around the corner, I expect it to be further improved by the rumored level squish and reworking of the paragon board, a system that has not been touched since its release. I didn't think that was possible given the amount of changes made last season, but Season 5 is really getting better. Diablo 4 is absolutely the best it's ever been.