What Blizzard Announced in November 2023
Abattoir of Zir was announced at BlizzCon 2023 as a pinnacle seasonal challenge arriving December 5. It belonged to Diablo 4’s Season of Blood, and the original event has ended.
silec’s November 3 announcement report described an activity aimed at level-100 players with developed characters, including those who had already defeated Uber Duriel. It highlighted a new Unique Paragon Glyph as the progression reward.
That description established the intended audience. Blizzard’s later launch instructions supplied the actual entry conditions; the audience description was not a separate rule requiring every player to clear every other activity.
Use the Published Dates Rather than the Early Duration Summary
The November 3 report described a six-week event. Blizzard’s subsequent Campfire recap gave the specific window: December 5, 2023–January 23, 2024, in the Seasonal Realm.
The exact dates are the useful reference for the original event. The early duration summary and later published calendar should not be treated as interchangeable descriptions.
The Roadmap Separated AoZ from The Gauntlet
In this roadmap, Abattoir of Zir sits under Patch 1.2.3 on December 5. The label “Weekly Challenge Dungeon: The Gauntlet” appears in the separate future-season panel. It describes a different activity.
AoZ Difficulty Advanced Through Tiers
Blizzard’s released AoZ rules described successful completions unlocking the next Bloodforged Sigil recipe, progressing through 25 tiers. Each run allowed ten minutes to summon and defeat the final Bloodseekers. That was tier-based progression, rather than an automatic increase in difficulty each calendar week.
The first successful tier unlocked Tears of Blood. The normal recipe route required Season Journey completion and World Tier IV; the actual Journey chapter requirements explain the completion thresholds and choices.
For the rules after release and the later December difficulty changes, use the original Abattoir event reference.
