Watch On
Diablo 4 has changed a lot since it came out in 2023. Compared to the game it was back then, the current version practically feels like a sequel. Almost nothing has been left untouched over the course of its seasonal updates and system overhauls. But with the launch of its next expansion, I think its era of constant reworks will finally be over.
A great example of this are loot filters, which are finally coming in Lord of Hatred. I’ll admit, I used to be against the idea given how important churning through loot is in Diablo games. But with the changes to items in the current season and the new ways to craft gear into exactly what you want, I’m sold on the ability to sort your items before you even pick them up. It’s a common feature in other action RPGs to let you customize what items you see on the ground so you get that jolt of excitement when something good does drop—a feeling that becomes way too rare in Diablo compared to other games like Path of Exile 2.
Lord of Hatred is also expanding each class’ skill tree to give you the kind of build-defining options that were previously gated behind specific loot. Someone once did the math and found out that your skill tree accounts for a fraction of your character’s power compared to your gear, which rendered all the other choices you made rather moot. It was far more important to get the right items than it was to think that hard about your skill tree, and, frankly, that just never made sense in an RPG.
The reworked skill trees will hopefully pair well with another system that could transform how you play Diablo 4 once you’re fully leveled up and on the hunt for bigger and better upgrades in the endgame. Blizzard calls it “War Plans” and says it will let players “craft their own endgame progression path, selecting favored activities and layering strategic modifiers as they push toward high-value rewards.”
War Plans sound exactly like the thing that has kept people playing Path of Exile for over a decade: an endgame skill tree. Now, I don’t know if it’ll literally be a skill tree in Diablo, but it will be some way of stacking on modifiers to your favorite dungeon types that increase their difficulty and rewards. Right now, everything in the game that doesn’t have ascending difficulty levels becomes stupidly easy and rather dry when it comes to the rewards. The pitch for War Plans, if I’m reading this right, is to let you juice a specific activity—maybe one you love or one your character is built for—and modify the rewards to your liking. It has the potential to revitalize Diablo 4’s endgame loop by giving you the tools to make it your own.
On top of all that, there will also be a new mode called Echoing Hatred that is said to be “a relentless gauntlet of demonic hordes designed to challenge even the strongest builds.” And, despite nobody asking for it, fishing is coming to Diablo 4. I have no idea how it’ll work, but next year we will be exploring the islands of Skovos and casting our lines out into the sea hoping for something to bite.
Even though Diablo 4 has only gotten better in the last two years, Lord of Hatred seems like it could be the game fully coming into its own. Instead of overhauling system after system, it might finally be time to keep expanding the game into directions it hasn’t gone before.
Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred will be out on April 28, but pre-ordering it will grant you access to the paladin class immediately.
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