Until Season 6 in Diablo 4 begins, it will take over a month. However, during gamescom 2024, some details about the new season and Vessel of Hatred have already been revealed. An expert has summarized them.
Season 6 starts on October 8, which is a day later than “Vessel of Hatred,” the first expansion for Diablo 4. Both dates can be seen in a small window at the top right when you start the game. The new season brings new content and some changes to the game.
Particularly, the progress of player characters is expected to be a focus here. Diablo head Rod Fergusson notes in an interview at gamescom (via YouTube): “What Season 4 did with loot, Season 6 will do with progress.” The item system was fundamentally revised with Season 4.
The Diablo expert “Rob2628” has uncovered some changes that are supposed to come to the game in Season 6. Using screenshots and videos, he has broken them down, and we summarize them for you.
With Vessel of Hatred, more features are coming to Diablo 4:
What changes are being shown? The changes that you might have overlooked so far involve various aspects in Diablo 4 that have caught the expert’s attention through screenshots. They revolve around character progression, but also other features in Diablo 4.
Difficulty level of the endgame activity
In a YouTube video, Rob points out that there is a new difficulty level in group searches – the screenshot shows “Torment 1”. According to Rob, this refers to the new endgame activity “The Dark Citadel” – a co-op dungeon for 2 to 4 players. The “Torment levels” are supposed to make the difficulty of the activity scalable.
The “Dark Citadel” is a new endgame activity where you can solve puzzles with two to four players and fight against bosses as well as other dungeon enemies. Here, you can earn weekly rewards like cosmetics and loot. Additionally, the “Dark Citadel” will be the main source for a new crafting feature that saves your “destroyed” items.
Expert suspects armory
Rob suspects that Season 6 will introduce some kind of armory in Diablo 4. In a screenshot shown in his YouTube video, there is a wardrobe icon in the character overview under the player title.
The Diablo expert explains that the armory is a highly requested feature, especially because it is currently so difficult to switch builds effortlessly. When mentioning that this could simply be an option to change the appearance of gear on the go, Rob states:
Why should there be an icon just to change your transmog? People want the armory to change their build with one click, especially when adding the “Dark Citadel” and new endgame activities that require specific equipment and force you to switch your build and so on.
In a post on X, which refers to the armory, Diablo head Rod Fergusson writes: “We are working on it!”
Revision of the level system and stats
In the YouTube video, the Diablo expert notes that the shown player character has lower stats than what is currently known. His hit points are 1,608, while especially the Barbarians usually have extremely high values here. A player recently wanted to boast with his Barbarian at nearly 500,000 life, which immediately drew criticism towards the class.
Generally, the attack strength and armor value are also much lower, while the core stat of the class, strength, is over 1,400. In the screenshots that Rob shows, the level of the player character has been painted over. In others, level 59 is visible in yellow, with a smaller blue 1 beneath it. He suspects that a major “stats squish” is impending, meaning a general reduction of values.
New inventory tab
In both videos, Rob shows screenshots on which a fourth inventory tab is recognizable. The new tab features a key symbol and suggests that Nightmare Dungeon and Hell Hordes seals will be collected there. Currently, the seals are in a tab with boss mats, potions, Stygian stones, and scrolls.
When will the changes come? Whether, when, and in what form the changes that the expert suspects will come to Diablo 4 will become clear at the latest in October. Additionally, on August 29 at 8 PM, there will be a “Campfire Chat” livestream where the developers will talk live on Twitch and YouTube about Season 6 and the new content.
Moreover, there will be a PTR for Season 6 in Diablo 4 again, where you can test the new features. According to Community Manager “Lyricana,” there will be no content related to Vessel of Hatred. However, Blizzard has already confirmed that the changes to level progression and player progress in the world will be permanently introduced into the game. Thus, these could be contents you can test in advance.
