You can currently test Season 6 and Vessel of Hatred on the official Diablo 4 PTR. Two experts have looked at the new features and given their feedback. The game is supposed to be harder, but the experts think it is still too easy.
You can test this right now:
Previously, the world levels in Diablo 4 were often criticized. World level 4 no longer offers players at high levels any challenge, unless they specifically seek out harder content. However, the open world is uninteresting for many.
What are the harder levels all about? With the new difficulty levels, Blizzard wanted to give players control over their challenges and rewards. They noticed that many players enjoy increasing the levels of enemies with the “tortured” versions of the bosses and the “Desecrated Mind Cage” (via Blizzard).
After the initial difficulty levels come the Torment levels, which ultimately determine the difficulty in the endgame. Monsters have the level of the difficulty level and the higher the Torment level, the more your armor and resistance values are reduced. The highest level is Torment 4 – but experts say that anyone with a strong build can “crush” it.
“You’re just going to crush the game”
This is what the experts criticize: In a YouTube video, Diablo expert Raxxanterax says that the goal for the “Blasters” in Diablo 4 is to advance from Torment 2 to Torment 4. However, the grind is much easier than Blizzard announced, says the expert.
He says he basically made it to Torment Level 4 with bad gear and missing aspects and glyphs.
On Torment 4, Raxxanterax then went to the “tormented” version of the Beast in the Ice and also to Lilith, the hardest boss in the game. Although he was able to defeat the Beast in the Ice, the fight took a long time and he died a few times, reports the Diablo expert. He had no chance against Lilith. Even before that, even OP builds failed against the hard boss.
In his opinion, unlocking the Torment levels is not representative of what the Torment level world is like. But that’s exactly right, says Raxxanterax. He says: “You get the key to the castle and you can go in, but that doesn’t mean you’re ready to clear it out – at least you can try.”
With Vessel of Hatred, rune words and mercenaries come into play to give you additional support in battle. Raxx notes that he was obviously still missing this when testing, as well as good gear. He says:
But because I didn’t have so many things – low item level, little armor, no extra five ranks of aspects, no runewords, no mercenary, no completion, no proper tempers – the list is endless. But once you have all of that, I’m 100% sure that the game’s blasters will just absolutely dominate Torment 4. You’ll just crush it.
Raxxanterax thinks the journey to the Torment levels, and especially the endgame, should be harder. Torment 2 to Torment 4 are intended as a great incentive, but anyone who invests a whole day and plays a strong build can reach Torment 4 on the first day – or at least farm quickly in Torment 2 or 3, says the Diablo expert. That wouldn’t be much different from the current world levels.
At this point, however, it is not known how difficult the new content, such as the co-op dungeon, will be. The expert says: “Maybe they are so difficult that everything else is fine.”
Diablo expert wudijo also explains in his YouTube video that the progression to the higher levels of torment is too easy. He says it seems as if the difficulty adjustments aren’t really difficult enough. wudijo hopes that there will be another level of torment, or that the gaps between the levels will be larger. This would provide a longer-lasting progression, which he thinks is missing here.
Experts praise the item system and the support points
Is there also praise for the changes? Both experts praise the new content, but also changes to existing content, and list some aspects that they like:
In his video, Raxxanterax criticizes the fact that there is still no cow level – “people want to kill cows.” With Vessel of Hatred, there are apparently new breadcrumbs on the long road to the goal. Because: Data miners have found a few items in the game data that could fit.
Raxxanterax also notes that he likes the new character selection, but he would like to see the campfire there too. It means something to him because he has been playing Diablo since he was a child. He wants to see the classes sitting next to each other around the campfire. The change is also being discussed in the Diablo 4 community: Diablo 4 removes a small detail that became legendary through Diablo 2, disappointing fans: “Over 20 years of nostalgia”