Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred Developer stream — Everything new in Season of Hatred Rising: A returning enemy from Diablo 3, a new Loot Goblin, class changes, and more
Vessel of Hatred launches on October 7, and the developers sat down to discuss the new Season 6 theme Season of Hatred Rising as well as what’s changing following the testing phase for Patch 2.0.
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What you need to know
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred is days away from launch, in fact, you canpreload the game right now! Today the developers sat down for a live stream to discuss the Season 6 theme ‘Hatred Rising’, post patch 2.0 Public Test Realm (PTR) changes, runewords, and more about the new content coming with the Vessel of Hatred expansion. Here’s everything as it happened.
Season 6 will be the Season of Hatred Rising
Season 6 launches in tandem with the Vessel of Hatred, and will be named Season of Hatred Rising. The theme centers on how Mephisto’s hatred is spilling outward from the new region of Nahantu. It will be effective across the whole of Sanctuary and available to play for all players regardless of whether you have purchased the expansion or not. All players in both seasonal and eternal realms will get:
For the Season theme, we’ll see’Hatred Rising’events all over Sanctuary. These are zone events heralding the arrival of a Realmwalker. (Diablo 3 fans will recognize these from the Battlefields of Eternity).
Pocket realms of Hatred are accessed by a Realmwalker portal, containing brand new dungeon art from Vessel of Hatred. Inside you’ll find Hatred-infested monsters, including a new Goblin.
Ruptures within these portals will lead to random bonus rooms, and finish with a Realm Gate which presents a choice of rewards.
Depending on your chosen reward, you’ll receive a chest at the end of the event full of your chosen goodies. In addition to this you’ll receive aSeething Opal.
These Seething Opals are a consumable which give you a buff, and they stack with Elixirs and Incense. Any Opal you use will get you Reputation with the Zakarum Remnants (this season’s reward board).
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The Zakarum Remnants
The Zakarum Remnants are a holy order languishing in Hawezar, and you’ll find them and start your Seasonal quest in Zarbzinet. They are dedicated to the teachings of Akarat, and their order has been decimated by Mephisto’s corruption. They are few in number, spread thin, and needing your aid.The Zakarum Remnants will have a Reputation Board to complete, similar to the ‘Mother’s Gifts’ in Season 5. Fighting Realmwalkers will increase your Reputation, but all activities will also increase it if you have a Seething Opal activated.
Post Patch 2.0 PTR learnings
ThePatch 2.0 PTRran earlier in September and allowed the community to test the new leveling system, difficulties, runewords, and other changes being implemented to the game when Vessel of Hatred launches. The team went through several things changed as a result of the feedback during this period.Difficulty Changes
For Standard Difficulty Tiers, you will now be able to gostraight to Penitent difficultyif you wish to. You do need to have completed the campaign at least once to have this unlocked.Itemization Changes
Player Power changes
The developers reiterated that all the best gear can be found in Torment 1, the only benefit of pushing the difficulty is the increased drop chance of those items. The new difficulties are a move away from the old system that pushed players to World Tier 4 to unlock the ‘best gear’.Paragon Updates
Infernal HordesLoot was dominating the reward landscape for this activity, without a reliable way to target farm Unique. Players were finding the constant opening of chests frustrating and tedious. Here are some improvements to address this:
Rewards
Itemization and craftingMythic Unique crafting has been updated so that in each season everyone can craft at least ONE Mythic Unique, so 2 Resplendant Sparks will now get you a random, useable Ancestral Mythic Unique. Additionally:
More changes…
Class Updates
These are just an overview of the biggest changes, full Patch 2.0 and 2.0.1 notes are coming directly after the stream.
Runewords are being reworked
Several changes are being implemented toRunewordsbased on the performance in PTR. Legendary Runes were more powerful and only gave multiplicative damage leaving some runes with no usage and no long-term potential. Changes will be made to give players choices throughout their journey and make all of the runes competitive with a potential home in a build.Some runes have been removed completely these are Ur, Ono, Met and Kaa.
The Spiritborn will undergo some changes for launch
While the Spiritborn was not available during the PTR, it was playtested at Gamescom 2024 and during other sessions and as a result of this testing some changes are being implemented for launch, including the addition of three new passives (pictured above).Improvements have been made to the Jaguar Spirit Hall, and the ‘spirit feathers’ of the Eagle Spirit Hall.UniquesThe developers showed off the final versions of the Spiritborn Uniques.
The Uniques can be farmed by each Boss in theBoss Ladder.
The Kurast Undercity
The Kurast Undercity is a new, intense multi-floor time-attack dungeon (try saying that 5 times real fast).
The intention of The Kurast Undercity is to provide opportunistic content that allows for efficient progress towards specific goals. You’ll be able to offer ‘Tributes’ at the start of the run to define your reward upgrades, at the cost of increasing the challenge of the run. Here are an example of some of the ‘Tributes’.
Offer a Tribute at the start of the Kurast Undercity activity
Offering a Tribute gives the opportunity to choose a Bargain
Applying a Tribute unlocks the option to select a Bargain. These further customize the rewards at a varying Material cost.
The Kurast Undercity also contains a brand new goblin, the Portal Prankster, who will reward a Bonus Chest containing loot, runes and tributes.
The Dark Citadel
The Dark Citadel is a challenging 2-4-player activity, and you can find other players using the new Party Finder. This challenge will become available in Torment 1.The Khazra have taken over the site of the Mage Clan Civil War, and the Dark Citadel will introduce a new monster family, The First Khazra.
More on Mercenaries…
Mercenaries are followers that aid you in solo and multiplayer whether directly or as a ‘reinforcement’. These will be unlocked by an in-game story quest. Each Mercenary has their own Skill tree which will unlock as you build Rapport with your Mercenaries.Raheir The Shield Bearer
Subo The Bounty Hunter
Varyana The Berserker Crone
Aldkin The Forsaken Child
You can choose a Mercenary to Hire, and a Mercenary as a Reinforcement. The latter will be the only option available in multiplayer.Reinforcements come to your aid at key moments in combat, you select the skill you want and the Opportunity that triggers it. Building Rapport with your Mercenary will also unlock rewards similar to the Reputation UI you will be familiar with from the Season quests.
There will also be a vendor at the Mercenary camp that you can barter with, using a currency calledPale Marks.
Community Questions and Answers
Q: How will crossplay work with players using the expansion and those not?A:You can still play with friends who only have the base game. If you own the expansion on one platform and then jump to another platform that does not, you can still use the Runewords and equipment in the non-expansion game however you cannot access Nahantu.Q: Will we get the Diablo 4 Campfire screen back?A:We updated the character screen so it would be easier to add other classes, but we hear the fans on this and are talking about this.Q: Will there be more Renown and Statues of Lilith?A:There will be ‘Tenents of Akarat’ you can unlock towards Renown in Nahantu.The developers also mentioned that The Gauntlet will be sunsetted when Season 6 starts but may be replaced later with a different activity.Q: Are the new consumables going to take up inventory space?A: They will be stackable, like Gems and Runes.Q: How does the progression of Mercenaries carry over, within accounts and seasons?A: If you unlock a Merc on a Season character that will progress across the Realm and on alts. These will reset each Season though.Q: From a tuning and balance perspective is Pit 100 supposed to be unattainable?A: We will be surprised if people hit Tier 100 in the Pit. We look forward to seeing who pushes this far.Q: If you complete the campaign in the Eternal Realm, can you skip it in Seasonal.A: There are options to skip both campaigns in both Eternal and Seasonal. If you want to join straight in with friends, you can, and there is a recap cutscene to watch to catch up with the story.Q: What happens in Dark Citadel if a member of the group leaves?A: It is balanced for 4 people, but if this drops you can still complete it. It will be difficult though!
Full patch notes for everything discussed in the stream today and MORE can be foundon Blizzard’s site here.
Release times around the world
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred |was$39.99now $35.49 at CD Keys (XBOX)Pricing for the new expansion starts from $39.99 MSRP, with the Deluxe and Ultimate coming with some extra cosmetics.If you don’t care about cosmetics, grab the cheapest edition for all the new content and you’ll still get a new Snow Leopard pet.The Deluxe Edition gets you a War-Cat mount, Premium Battle Pass token and Spiritborn Armor Set, as well as another Wolf pet. The Ultimate Edition comes with all of the above plus 3000 Platinum to spend in the Diablo store, Angel and Demon Wings, a THIRD cat pet, armor sets for all classes, and the Nahantu Town Portal.Deluxe Edition|was$59.99now $53.29Ultimate Edition|was$89.99now $79.09
Jen is a News Writer for Windows Central, focused on all things gaming and Microsoft. Anything slaying monsters with magical weapons will get a thumbs up such as Dark Souls, Dragon Age, Diablo, and Monster Hunter. When not playing games, she’ll be watching a horror or trash reality TV show, she hasn’t decided which of those categories the Kardashians fit into. You can follow Jen on Twitter@Jenbox360for more Diablo fangirling and general moaning about British weather.
