Diablo 4 receives runewords and new difficulty levels

In the last live stream about Diablo 4, Blizzard announced that with Vessel of Hatred rune words are coming to the game. The developers are also adjusting the difficulty levels. You can test this in the upcoming week on the PTR.

On August 29, the developers of Diablo 4 announced in their live stream that significant changes will come to the game with the first expansion, Vessel of Hatred. Previously, Diablo chief Rod Fergusson noted in an interview at gamescom (via YouTube): “What Season 4 did with the loot, Season 6 will do with the progress.”

A large part of the changes will be integrated into the base game, including the revision of difficulty levels in Diablo 4 and the new progress system. Other features can only be used if you purchase Vessel of Hatred. These include the new class, the Spiritborn, as well as the new runes.

Some of you will soon be able to try selected features on a PTR (Public Test Server), including the new rune words.

When does the PTR run? The PTR runs from September 4 to September 11, with the preload being available according to community manager Adam Fletcher on August 30 during the day (via X). This time, the PTR is divided into two phases:

Phase 1: You will test a few new features, but there is no boost NPC. Blizzard states: “In the first part of PTR 2.0, we want to receive information and feedback on the natural experience of players without modifiers.” In this phase, there will be no runes.
Phase 2: From September 6, you can use the Boost NPC. With that, you can set your level to 50 or 60, uncover the map completely (including waypoints and strongholds), complete all torment levels, unlock all runes, and receive guides for hardening.

Who can use the PTR? Blizzard is again making the PTR available to all players who own a Battle.net version of Diablo 4 on PC. Your characters will be copied in advance to prepare them for the PTR.

You can find the full patch notes for the PTR Patch 2.0 on the second page of the article. A small warning: They are VERY extensive and currently only available in English.

In October, the first expansion of Diablo 4, Vessel of Hatred, will start. There, you will also be able to play the new class along with the rune words:

Blizzard explains the Spiritborn, the new class in Diablo 4 and its spirits

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What can I test? On the PTR, you will test updates and features that will come to the base game with Season 6 and Vessel of Hatred. You will gain insights into various innovations, including:

Runes
the new progress system
the new difficulty system
reworked and new items
new skills and Paragon boards for all classes
adapted monster levels
the new system for leveling glyphs

Vessel of Hatred brings rune words to Diablo 4

What are rune words? Blizzard showcased rune words for Diablo 4 at BlizzCon 2019, but they did not make it into the game at that time. With Vessel of Hatred, that is changing. Rune words provide your player characters a new way to create their own skills. The runes work with “offerings” that you collect when you fulfill certain conditions.

With Vessel of Hatred, two types of runes are introduced:

Ritual runes: you collect offerings under certain conditions
Invocation runes: uses offerings to grant a powerful effect
- Example: With the Bac rune of Ritual, you collect 50 offerings per 5 meters your character moves. The Jah rune of Invocation replaces escape with teleportation, requiring 500 offerings.

There are magical, rare, and legendary runes. You place the runes into items that have two sockets. You can combine each ritual rune with any invocation rune. Rune words allow you to use skills from other classes. Runes are tradeable and stackable.

Where can I get runes? On the PTR, you will receive runes from the NPC “PTR-Boost” in Zarbinzet via the dialogue option. Otherwise, monsters drop runes of each rarity, and you can craft them yourself. Additionally, you can then create Mythic Uniques with runes and magnificent sparks.

New Level System and New Difficulty Levels

What changes are there to the level system? The Paragon points you unlock are tied to your Realm rather than to the character. Specifically, this means that all Paragon levels are shared among all your characters on a Realm. The new max level is 60, thus granting you 10 additional skill points. From level 60 onwards, you will collect Paragon levels.

What changes are there to the world tiers? The world tiers will become difficulty levels. The higher the difficulty level you play, the more gold and XP you will earn. There are four standard difficulty levels:

Normal (for those looking for a light challenge) – unlocked by default
Hard (more challenging) – unlocked by default
Expert (more challenging) – unlocked after completing the prologue of Diablo 4
Repentant (increased risks, preparation for the new torment difficulty levels) – unlocked at level 50

After that, the new torment difficulty levels await you, with which the endgame begins. Your progress is tightly linked with the pit since: You unlock higher torment difficulty levels when you complete higher levels in the pit. You unlock the pit at character level 60. Higher torment difficulty levels additionally reduce your armor and resistance values.

Monster levels will no longer be displayed; they will adapt to the difficulty level you are playing. Thus, with the difficulty levels, you determine how challenging Diablo 4 is.