headline image courtesy of Blizzard Entertainment
Diablo IV’s first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, is right around the corner – and it brings a plethora of changes to the game.
After a rather shaky and underwhelming launch, Blizzard’s latest addition to their action role-playing, dungeon crawler game franchise, Diablo IV, is about to head into its first expansion – a little over a year from its release. While recent times have seen the game gain in popularity, with big changes from the developers giving the game a new life, Vessel of Hatred looks to take the game to the next level. There is a lot coming our way on October 7th, and we will try to unpack a few of the most important changes.
Removing the World Tiers
At the base of Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred, many things are being removed or changed, and the first of those is the “World Tier” system. Originally, getting through to World Tier IV was a slight challenge, but as players became used to the game, it became far easier – with Seasons making it even easier. The challenge of pushing higher ended at that point, with only Uber bosses and grinding (the usual ARPG set of things to do). Now, with the World Tiers eradicated, the game moves back to something more centred around Diablo III – with greater rewards as you progress through each.
But this all comes with a rather big caveat. The higher difficulties are no longer just a recommendation, not as far as we have seen so far, at least. With the level squish and changes, the higher difficulties are quite brutal, although this could definitely be something that changes as people get farther into the VoH expansion.
Level squish
The next aspect of D4’s DLC is the level squish. While players slogged their way through demons to reach level 100 – a feat that was once a huge undertaking in Diablo II, now we will have level 60 as a maximum cap. With that said, all max-level characters before the release of VoH will be brought down to level 50, with the 10 new levels being part of the DLC. The new levels will, of course, open up new skill points, meaning that builds will (hopefully) become more fleshed out.
The Pit and Glyphs
Another major change is the leveling up of Glyphs, which was previously tied to Nightmare Dungeons. With VoH, The Pit will be our way of leveling these up, with more emphasis on the timer – and more similar to D3’s systems once again. Alongside this, Glyph leveling will now be tied to completing runs smoothly, with bonus levels added for not dying. Additionally, lower-level glyphs will be easier to level up too, with bonus levels added depending on the completed Pit tier and Glyph rank.
Glyphs now can be upgraded all the way to level 100, leaving behind the old level of 21 which was previously in the game. This adds huge power spikes, with certain level breakpoints which adds larger radiuses and more affixes.
Paragon(e)
Paragon boards will see a rather interesting change, as now players will be capped at a total of five, including the starter board. With a new paragon board for each class, as well as some classes being known to use seven boards, this change seems odd – but works to streamline builds, and not have as much bulk as before. While this change is interesting, Paragon Levels will also increase to a massive 300, and 328 points to spend with all Lilith Statues and Renown unlocked.
It is almost impossible to put down everything coming in Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred, but Blizzard took the time to sit down and make a quick video explaining everything simply. The expansion releases on October 8th, and we cannot wait to get stuck in with Spiritborn and see what else is on the horizon for the game – especially with Path of Exile 2 ready to pounce at any blunders or shortcomings in D4.
