On the PTR of Diablo 4, the new content from Season 6 and Vessel of Hatred was available for a week. Players tested the upcoming features and provided feedback. After it ended, fans discussed what was good and what was bad. And the most important new items are not well received.
What is this feature?
- With Vessel of Hatred, Diablo 4 gets rune words, similar to those that existed back in Diablo 2.
- Unlike in Diablo 2 nearly 25 years ago, the rune words only consist of two runes: one activation rune and one for the effect.
- Depending on the rune, you need to do different things to obtain a new resource that triggers the corresponding effect. This results in some particularly strong combinations.
Diablo 4 players view the new rune words critically
This is what the players say: In a large discussion on Reddit with hundreds of comments, users talk and argue about how good the new rune words are and what could be improved about them.
The general consensus is: In their current state, the rune words are not particularly good. Some of them are fun, but there is a lack of variety and exciting gameplay. The biggest criticisms are:
- Runes that trigger certain effects or deal direct damage are too weak.
- In the end, you rely on just a handful of runes out of dozens to actually improve; variation is hardly present.
- All of this is just “another layer of multiplicative power creep.”
Similarly, the expert Raxxanterax sees it. He says in his video: The runes are quite good and fun, but there is still a lot of room for improvement. Especially in the upper tiers of builds, you will only see a few runes – those that make already strong builds even stronger, instead of introducing new mechanics.
Raxxanterax thinks: If the runes were a bit “crazier” and granted abilities that are not yet in the game, they would be much more interesting. They need the same overhaul as the unique items for Season 5.
“Rune words will be revamped and improved with Season 7”
The community doubts that the runes will change significantly before the launch of Vessel of Hatred on October 8. There is not enough time for that. Blizzard can adjust a few numbers, but not much more.
Fans expect that runes and rune words will come into the game in a perhaps acceptable but not great state, to be revised for the following Season 7.
Blizzard has considered player feedback in recent seasons and has always tried to implement changes promptly. This has earned the developers much praise, and Diablo 4 is currently regarded as a good game among players.
How much the runes will change remains open. After all, with Season 6, Vessel of Hatred, the first expansion of the game is also released, and thus even more content that may still need to be worked on. And at least on the PTR, quite crazy builds were possible: Broken build deals so much damage that even the numbers are not displayed anymore
