Diablo 4 has received significant criticism since its release: too little endgame, poor balancing, missing content. Within the first year, Blizzard has worked on improving the game and has been achieving many successes for several weeks now. Now we know the future, and it will get even better with Vessel of Hatred.
These wishes have already been fulfilled by Blizzard:
- With Season 4, Diablo 4 has been fundamentally revised. The most significant changes have primarily affected the helltide events and the item system, which now works significantly better. Here you can find the detailed changes of Season 4.
- In addition, the season has improved the endgame: The Pit is a new dungeon with high challenge, glyphs can be leveled more easily, and the upgrade system works better. Fans are thrilled and say: This is how Diablo 4 should have been since release.
- Recently, on June 9, Blizzard spontaneously released a significant patch and introduced companions that can pick up gold and materials for you. Since this was possible in Diablo 3, it has been a long-standing wish of many players in Diablo 4.
What’s coming with Vessel of Hatred: As part of the release announcement for Vessel of Hatred, the first expansion for Diablo 4, Blizzard has directly published a blog post with new information.
This post explains new endgame features, which sound like raids, and especially: Mercenaries. They apparently work similarly to companions in Diablo 3, following you and helping in combat. They can level up and learn skills.
Companions or mercenaries have been a feature of the series since Diablo 2, but were missing in Diablo 4. Accordingly, many players have called for this content, and with Vessel of Hatred, the mercenaries are finally coming. We don’t know much about them yet, but from the first image, some “classes” can be inferred:
- A tank with a heavy shield, similar to the Templar in Diablo 3
- A archer or ranger, similar to the rogue from Diablo 3
- A hybrid creature that can apparently cast spells
- A berserker or shaman with two hand axes
Furthermore, we already know that Blizzard is foregoing early access as a pre-order bonus. This marketing tactic drew significant criticism during the release of Diablo 4. Vessel of Hatred will be released for everyone at the same time.
You can find all information about the release and contents of Vessel of Hatred in our overview here. Blizzard has already released the intro cinematic:
Vessel of Hatred expands all classes
Together with the new content, existing content will also be expanded. We already know that there will be new skills, legendary glyphs, and Paragon boards for all classes.
Additionally, there will be new types of dungeons and new whispers at the tree, although we don’t have any concrete information about them yet.
With Vessel of Hatred, a new class will also be released, the Spiritborn. On July 18, the class will be fully presented, but so far, we only know a few details:
- Spiritborn are said to be “ultimate predators”
- They apparently fight with spears or polearms, possibly with a shield
- Spiritborn are closely tied to the new region Nahantu and use a type of magic related to spirits
Spiritborn will be a completely new class that has never existed in Diablo before – even though the community sees it as a mix of monk, witch doctor, and amazon. The great desire of the players since release has been for a new paladin, one of the wishes that is at least not yet fulfilled. But Diablo head Rod Fergusson explains why a completely new class is coming instead: Fans have been calling for a paladin in Diablo 4 since release – The head explains why you won’t get one now
