The Vessel of Hatred is Diablo IV’s first expansion (make sure to check out my Diablo IV review if you haven’t played the original game yet). Vessel of Hatred follows the next chapter of the story, so yes, it’d be best if you have played and finished the original Diablo IV story first. But if not and somehow you just want to play the expansion, you can always refresh yourself through YouTube summary videos.
The expansion doesn’t just add a new storyline though, it comes with an all-new Spiritborn Hero Class, Mercenaries mechanics to help you in battle, a new Region to explore (Nahantu), Pets, New Skills, new PvE Co-op End Game activity where you can go dungeoning together with friends, etc.
Pets
Let’s start with the easiest one to talk about: Pets. Tired of having to walk and click through the tons of loots lying in the ground? Well, no more. Once you select which pet you like most (well, you have to pay for the premium ones), it will accompany you all the time and faithfully collect all the gold and materials lying on the ground automatically for you. You’ll still have to hand pick the equipment though and that’s probably how you want it to behave.
I really find it useful as I can just focus on exploring and fighting, rather than dwelling on mundane tasks like collecting these gold and materials.
Mercenaries
A new mechanic introduced in Diablo IV is Mercenaries. You can think of it as an extra companion you can hire (like in the previous Diablo series) to complement your Hero Class and build. These powerful allies have names and their own short backstory, though. Not to mention that they also have their own unique skills and abilities that you can level up as they gain experience.
There are four Mercenaries in total and you have to unlock them first before you can recruit (you unlock one of them as you progress through the story but have to unlock the other three). You can only bring one Mercenary with you at all times and pick another Mercenary as a Reinforcement who joins the fray temporarily on demand every now and then.
Apart from unlocking more skills as they level up, they can also give you equipment rewards as their levels go higher.
They don’t really give a huge difference during big fights but definitely have useful abilities that you can sort of combo with your current allocated skills. For example, Raheir can have a skill that pulls the enemies together to him where you can finish off with a nice Area of Effect (AOE) attack. Another Mercenary skill can also trigger status effects on the enemies like Slowed, which you can take full advantage of.
New Hero Class: Spiritborn
During the early review access given by Blizzard, I managed to play the new Hero Class. Spiritborn is an expert class focusing on agility and mobility, utilising powerful abilities based on the four Spirit Guardians (that focus on different playstyles):
- Jaguar: focuses on Fire damage, fast attack speed, dodging, healing
- Gorilla: focuses on Physical damage, stuns, defences/protection
- Eagle: focuses on Lightning damage, crowd control (Vulnerable), mid-range attacks, critical hits
- Centipede: focuses on Poison damage, damage over time, debuff, crowd control (Slow)
I personally like and play the Jaguar skill lines where executing fast attacks yields the most rewards. This is especially good after I get more powerful gear with an attack speed increase. Its Ultimate Skill also has a high chance of zero cooldown when cast on a numerous amount of enemies, giving you the chance to cast it over and over again.
The Spiritborn uses two-handed weapons like glaive, polearm, and quarterstaff.
You can also choose a secondary bonus at Level 30 from the same Guardian or a different one – giving you freedom on how you want to play and what you are focusing on.
Runewords
Also new to Diablo IV is Runewords, which is a new way to power up your character by socketing two Runes together. There are two types of Runes: Ritual and Invocation. Runes of Ritual specify actions you must take to trigger them, and Runes of Invocation grant a powerful effect when you meet said trigger. There are 17 Runes of Ritual and 28 Runes of
Invocation available and you can mix and match based on your playstyle (assuming you find the right Runes).
Campaign
The story further continues from the end of Diablo IV and sets you on a path to search for Neyrelle who imprisons Mephisto inside the soulstone she’s carrying with her. I definitely don’t want to spoil anything in this review but suffice to say, the story is as dark as the original as you go along and there are tons of new things to explore and slay.
I’ve been playing for hours and haven’t even finished the campaign yet. So suffice to say, you’ll get your money’s worth for the DLC – not to mention the possibility of replaying Diablo IV all over again with the new Spiritborn class.
This is actually my initial plan (i.e replaying Diablo IV original first, then moving on to the DLC) but I realised I would not have enough time to properly explore the DLC for this review. Since enemies’ levels dynamically follow your hero’s level, you can jump straight into the DLC with a new Hero class of your choice. That’s really nice.
You’ll also get tons of more side quest, new items to loot, Runewords, and more.
Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred Review Conclusion
Vessel of Hatred proves to be a substantial expansion to Diablo IV, offering far more than just an extension of the main storyline. The introduction of the Spiritborn Hero Class adds a fresh and dynamic playstyle to the game, while the new Mercenaries system provides welcome tactical depth to combat encounters. The addition of pets for auto-looting is a quality-of-life improvement that many players will appreciate.
The expansion’s new region, coupled with an abundance of side quests and loot, ensures that there’s plenty of content to keep players engaged for hours on end. To check for the various editions and more information about the DLC, check out the Vessel of Hatred page.
Disclosure: Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred review licence was supplied for reviewing
