The first expansion for Diablo 4, Vessel of Hatred, will start in a few days. MeinMMO editor and Diablo expert Benedict Grothaus was able to play in advance and had more difficulties than he would like to admit – despite a lot of experience. Is Vessel of Hatred that hard?
Diablo 4 has been one of my main games since its release in 2023, to which I return for at least a few weeks every season. Battle.net doesn’t show me an exact playing time, but based on my cumulative character levels I should be somewhere just over 300 hours.
There are also dozens of hours in Diablo 2 and Diablo Immortal and more time in Diablo 3 than would be healthy. I’ve now been able to play the new Diablo 4 expansion for a few hours.
A few months ago, Blizzard invited me to test the Spiritborn at their home in Los Angeles. Now I’ve had access to the full game for a week and I can say that I really like Vessel of Hatred.
Unfortunately, my test was a little shorter than I had hoped and I only barely made it to the new maximum level of 60, but I did finish the entire campaign and see some endgame content. What I noticed: I had real problems, sometimes even on the lowest difficulty.
Diablo IV shows the Vessel of Hatred expansion in the new gameplay trailer
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Campaign instead of season is more strenuous than expected
Anyone who owns Vessel of Hatred can decide when creating a new character to either play the Vessel of Hatred campaign, finish the entire campaign or – if the campaign has already ended – start directly with Season 6, which is released at the same time.
Since Season 6 has already been tested extensively and the feedback has definitely been received by Blizzard, I took a look at the campaign. My impressions summarized:
As in the campaign of the basic game, the quests primarily introduce the new area. What is missing, however: loot. Every now and then there’s a boss fight, but there’s hardly any loot worth mentioning except from the regular enemies you encounter. The only exception are the reworked Loot Goblins, who always have something good with them.
In my arrogance, I chose “Hard” for the newly revised difficulty levels, as I would otherwise start at world level 2. The first mini-boss of the story kicked me out of my life so hard that I just played the rest on “Normal”.
A fresh account has a really hard time
It should be said that we did not have access to the achievements of our main accounts for testing, which means that my collected Lilith statues and all reputation in other areas were not available.
So I had to deal with fewer skill points, lower stats and, above all, fewer potion slots than usual. So it’s like I’m a brand new player just starting out with Vessel of Hatred.
I now know the community quite well and know how people like to boast about how they can complete the hardest content as quickly as possible or how difficult it is to reach level 1. World Tier 1 is absolutely frowned upon.
This might intimidate new players, but as an expert I say: ignore what people are saying. “Normal” is perfectly fine to start with. Once you have some gear and know how your class and build work, you can level up.
Nice touch: Blizzard gives tips directly in the game about when and which level of difficulty is advisable. You can roughly orientate yourself on this.
This is what it looks like once you have some equipment together:
Diablo 4: This is what a Spiritborn Jaguar Eagle build looks like in Vessel of Hatred
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In Vessel of Hatred you all have to think differently
However, even veterans have to learn a lot in the game. With Vessel of Hatred there are no longer huge numbers, at least if the values from our test are correct. I noticed that in LA. At that time it was said: This was due to the test build.
But if I look at the new uniques from Spiritborn and especially at the values, then the “number squish” is definitely real. With up to almost 500 bonus lives at the highest item level you wouldn’t get very far in Season 5.
The situation is the same with armor or damage. A bonus of 100 damage is a decent boost up to level 60. Anyone who has been playing Diablo 4 since its release will first have to get used to not being able to do several trillion damage – or even more:
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Diablo 4: Broken Build causes so much damage that the numbers aren’t even displayed anymore
by Benedict Grothaus
When I played it, I had a similar impression of Vessel of Hatred as I did when I tested Diablo 4 itself: It’s significantly harder than what I’m used to in Diablo. But back then I also played a druid who was far too weak at the time.
It could be similar now too. The Spiritborn feels a bit shaky on its feet, especially at early levels, but with a good build it becomes really strong towards the end. Even with mediocre gear I was able to venture into higher difficulties.
Nevertheless, I think that Vessel of Hatred will offer more of a challenge than Diablo 4 currently does, at least in the first few weeks. It remains to be seen how quickly people will find completely crazy meta builds. The first builders are already hard at work: All classes in Diablo 4 are getting new skills in Season 6 – an expert has already built an absurd build with them