Biggest Diablo 4 Update Mercenaries, New Level Cap, Party Finder, Tempering Reset, New Game Modes and more
Diablo 4 latest | Patch Notes Vessel of Hatred
Vessel of Hatred Expansion for Diablo 4 release date is 8 October 2024.
This will be the biggest Update Diablo 4 has ever had introducing, lower Level cap, New Mercenaries and Skill Trees, 3x New Game Modes, Tempering Reset Scrolls, Party Finder, 6 New Locations, New Monster Families, Cosmetic Rewards, New Vendor and Currency dedicated to the new Endgame and much more. Read everything below.
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SPONSORED ADSDiablo 4 Vessel of Hatred Expansion Gameplay Updates
New Region: Nahantu
With Vessel of Hatred Expansion Diablo 4 will be receiving 6 New Locations —4 Jungle Themed and 2 Red Rock Canyons with their own unique identities Tenganze Plains and Skittering Earth.
The new Campaign comes with brand new custom Cosmetic Transmogs that can be found.
Not only that but with Vessel of Hatred there will be 15 new Cat Mount Armours and Cats that can be unlocked. (For Ex. Jaguars, Panthers, Lions, Tigers)
New Class: Spiritborn
Full Spiritborn Gameplay and Guide, Class Mechanic showcase, and more can be discovered in a Spiritborn dedicated Article below. Please note that this is an early look at the New Class in Diablo 4 Spiritborn. Any details and images shared within the article are still a work in progress and subject to change.
New Mercenaries and Skills System
The mercenaries in Vessel of Hatred are “a group of ordinary people with extraordinary skills” that can join you in your fights.
Mercenaries have their own Skills and Skill Tree that you can adjust to make your Builds more impactful throughout the levelling process or even in the endgame.
With this new System: Mercenaries, Diablo 4 seems to be adding yet another layer of in-depth mechanics to the game. This if they don’t turn out to be totally useless.
There are 4 Mercenaries that you can collect:
1. Raheir – a defensive type blacksmith and a shieldbearer. First merc to be unlocked. 3 more Mercenaries can be unlocked following the story.
2. Subo – a ranged type archer. Good for backlane ranged attacks and support.
3. Varyana – a melee berserker good for closed range. Gives a Massacre meter to be filler for extra stats.
4. Aldkin – a shapeshifter magic user child that can transform himself.
Enlisting and Hiring Mercenaries
Mercenaries can be used in 2 specific ways.
First one — you can hire them as a party member. This way, you will get acccess to their skills and get to build them as you wish while leveling them up.
Second one, which is the most interesting — one mercenary can be used as “reinforcement”, and this means, you can set them up to spawn and trigger their special ability in different scenarios, for example, when you are under ground control.
This can be very useful for hardcore players and not only.
If you play solo, you can use both, the only difference is that the mercenary that is doing the reinforcement won't be available to hire.
Hiring Mercenaries
You can hire any of your unlocked Mercenaries. Hired Mercenaries become your main companion, and when playing solo they will join your party to use their skills to help in combat.
Mercenary Reinforcement
Select another unlocked Mercenary within the Mercenary Den to be your combat Reinforcement.
Reinforcements will spawn during combat to perform a skills. Each Mercenary has their own abilities that you can build within the Mercenary Skill Tree.
You can set this in-game action to trigger. This new Mechanic is called: Opportunity. For example, Reinforcements can have their Opportunity set to activate when you are hit by a Control Impairing Effect.
Note that you will need to have a different Hired Mercenary than the one who is currently your Reinforcement. Once you have unlocked another Mercenary outside of Raheir, you’ll be able to equip someone in both slots.
Follow the new Questline to unlock all 4 Mercenaries.
Check out some of the Mercenary Skills and Abilities below:
Earning Rapport
Earn trust with Mercenaries knows as Rapport to upgrade each Mercenary, earning skill points to unlock more of their abilities, caches, and increasing your ability to barter.
Earn Rapport with different Mercenaries by using them as Reinforcements or Hired hands in battle. Mercenary-related events will appear through Sanctuary to earn bonus Rapport with your loyal companion. Each Mercenary has 10 Levels of Rapport to earn, and repeating the last level will earn you additional Pale Marks.
Pale Marks
Coins earned through Rapport, granting you the ability to purchase items within The Den.
Bartering
Pale Marks can be used in the Den to trade for a wide variety of items. Rank up each Mercenary to expand the potential offerings available within the Den.
New Monster Families
The many subregions of Nahantu each have their own corrupted monsters that plague the land. There’s the Lacuni, apex predators of the Tenganze Plains, and the venom-infested burrows of the Skittering Earth. The Hollows own the Lingering Hatred treetops, while the hallucinogen-riddled Dregs proliferate throughout the dense canopies of the land.
New Game Modes
The Dark Citadel
Say no more to bricked items. Everyone will play the Dark Citadel for this specific reward — The scroll of Retempering — this will allow you to reset your tempering charges on your best items. Other rewards such as skins and buffs are highlighted below.
The Dark Citadel is a new Endgame feature that is coming in Vessel of Hatred. This Dungeon is divided in Areas called wings, Each wing having different bosses, puzzles and rewards.
There are 3 Wings that you can go through in The Dark Citadel and after clearing any of them you can save your progress.
Blizzard said that it should take at least a couple hourse to unlock the full extent of The Dark Citadel.
Blizzard said that this will be and entirely co-op game mode with all the mechanics based around working together with your party members to complete puzzles, open doors and reflect bosses attacks. This should create more ways for us to play together similar to Raids in other games. And at the same time, I'm pretty sure that for those who are used on playing alone, not having access to this feature might be bothersome.
From the looks of it, this game mode can’t be played solo, and we won’t be able to nuke the bosses down. Hopefully this will make it more interesting and difficult.
Earn Weekly Rewards and Cosmetics within the Dark Citadel
Every week you can earn a Weekly Rewards cache the first time the Dark Citadel is completed. These caches could grant you resplendent and exclusive items only offered from Dark Citadel.
Throughout the Dark Citadel, you’ll earn Citadel Coins, which are key to unlocking cosmetics exclusive to Dark Citadel that evoke the regal mania of its demonic owners.
How to Unlock the Dark Citadel
The Dark Citadel Unlocks in Torment 1 difficulty.
Torment 1 difficulty is unlocked after clearing The Pit 15.
Once you have unlocked Torment 1 you’ll receive an introductory Quest to start having access to The Dark Citadel. Which means that this new Dungeon is part of the endgame.
*The Dark Citadel Quest only needs to be completed once on your Account.
Player Requirements for the Dark Citadel
The Dark Citadel requires a minimum of two players, but it’s recommended (by Blizzard) to play with a party of four.
Let’s wait and see how great or boring the new Puzzles and Mechanic within this gamemode will be. But for me personally I’m looking forward at least for the FREE SKINS :)
The Kurast Undercity
The Kurast Undercity is a new multistage, timed dungeon perfect for levelling towards endgame content and targeting powerful items to help you progress.
The Undercity unlocks at level 15.
Gameplay
Greatly increase the quality of your rewards by earning Attunement—gained through killing monsters and completing events—slay powerful Afflicted demons to extend your time in the Undercity to reach the final boss.
Rewards
Throughout Sanctuary and within the Undercity, you’ll earn keys called Tributes which can be used to augment future runs to target specific rewards. Completing activities while in the Undercity collects Attunement, which increases the quality of the loot rewarded after slaying one of the Undercity’s all-new bosses. Higher quality Tributes yield the greatest spoils, but they also raise the challenge of your next Undercity run considerably.
New Progression Updates
With the new Expansion Vessel of Hatred there will be permanent changes to the progression and levelling system similar to Itemization Changes in the past.
The Level Cap will be lowered to Level 60 and the Paragon Tree will receive a couple of tweaks too.
"A lot of changes" are coming to Paragon. The update will be adding depth and choice without making it overly complex, as they know Paragon is "pretty daunting" for some players and they don't want to go crazy with it. The goal is to have it be an approachable system with a lot of cool stuff you can do with it.
Blizzard will be revealing more on 29 August 2024.
Party Finder System
They finally listened to the community. Party Finder is here and was one of the most anticipated feature we needed in Diablo 4.
This new feature will be available across all Diablo 4 servers when Vessel of Hatred releases, allowing you to play with friends or strangers in pretty much any gamemode.
Create a Party with Party Finder
Party Finder gives you the search for the type of party you’re looking for, set what game type or activity you’d like to run, where you’d like to play, and add preferences for both casual and hardcore players.
You can use Party Finder to create or find a party for multiple activities within the game: Nightmare Dungeons, selecting Wings to complete in the Dark Citadel, finding other players to share Materials to summon Endgame Bosses, to completing your Codex of Power.
You can access Party Finder with quick access via the Map, in-game Menu, or through a pre-set action on your emote wheel.
Want to learn more about Diablo 4? Check out:
🟧 Diablo 4 Home Page (opens in new tab)
🟧 Diablo 4 Tier Lists (opens in new tab)
