Vessel of Hatred brings runes and you can test them soon – PTR patch notes

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In the last Diablo 4 livestream, Blizzard announced that Vessel of Hatred will introduce runewords come into play. You can test them on the PTR next week.

On August 29, the developers of Diablo 4 announced in their livestream that a lot of things in the game would change with the first expansion, Vessel of Hatred. Before that, Diablo boss Rod Fergusson noted in an interview at gamescom (via YouTube): “What Season 4 did with loot, Season 6 will do with progression.”

Most of the changes will be made to the base game, such as the revision of the difficulty levels in Diablo 4 and the new progression system. Other features can only be used if you purchase Vessel of Hatred. These include the new class, the Spiritborn, and the new runes.

Some of you will soon be able to try out selected features on a PTR (public test server), including the new rune words.

When does the PTR run? The PTR runs from September 4th to 11th and is this time divided into two phases:

  • Phase 1: You’re testing a few new features, but there’s no boost NPC. Blizzard writes specifically: “In the first part of PTR 2.0, we want to get information and feedback on the natural experience of players without modifiers.” There are no runes in this phase.
  • Phase 2: From September 6th you can use the boost NPC. With it you can, among other things, set your level to 50 or 60, uncover the entire map (including waypoints and bases), complete all levels of torment, unlock all runes, and receive instructions for hardening.

    • Who can use the PTR? Blizzard is once 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.

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

    The first expansion to Diablo 4, Vessel of Hatred, will be released in October. There you can play the new class as well as 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 can test updates and features that will be added to the base game with Season 6 and Vessel of Hatred. There you will get an insight into various new features, including:

  • Runes
  • the new progression system
  • the new difficulty system
  • revised and new items
  • new skills and paragon boards for all classes
  • adjusted monster levels
  • the new system for leveling glyphs

    • Vessel of Hatred brings runewords to Diablo 4

    What are rune words? Blizzard showed runewords for Diablo 4 at BlizzCon 2019, but they didn’t end up in the game. Vessel of Hatred changes that. Runewords give your player characters a new way to create their own skills. The runes work with “offerings” that you collect when you meet certain conditions.

    With Vessel of Hatred, two types of runes come into play:

  • Runes of the Ritual: you collect offerings with certain conditions
  • Runes of Invocation: consumes offerings to grant a powerful effect
  • Example: With the Bac rune of ritual you collect 50 offerings for every 5 meters your character moves. The Jah rune of invocation replaces evasion with teleportation and requires 500 offerings.

    • There are magical, rare and legendary runes. You place the runes in items that have two sockets. You can combine any rune of the ritual with any rune of the invocation. Rune words allow you to use skills from other classes. Runes can be traded and stacked.

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

    New level system and new difficulty levels

    What changes to the level system? The Paragon points you unlock are tied to your realm rather than to your character. This means that all Paragon levels are shared with all your characters on a realm. The new max level is level 60, which gives you 10 additional skill points. From level 60 onwards you collect Paragon levels.

    What changes to the world levels? World Tiers become difficulty levels. The higher the difficulty level you play, the more gold and XP you will receive. There are four default difficulty levels:

  • Normal (for those looking for a light challenge) – unlocked by default
  • Hard and Expert (more difficult challenge) – unlocked after completing the Diablo 4 prologue
  • Remorseful (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 here is closely linked to the pit, because: 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 also reduce your armor and resistance values.

    Monster levels are no longer displayed, they now adapt to the difficulty level you are playing. The difficulty levels therefore determine how challenging Diablo 4 is.

    What else can I test on the PTR? Starting in Season 6, you will no longer level up glyphs in Nightmare Dungeons, but in the Pit. The maximum level of glyphs will be increased to 100 and you can upgrade glyphs to a legendary glyph at level 46.

    You can also test out the new group finder that comes with Season 6 in Diablo 4. The group finder allows you to find a group for various activities in Sanctuary – or to list one yourself. You can find out more about it here: With Vessel of Hatred, Diablo 4 finally brings the feature that everyone is demanding for the endgame content

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