Vessel Of Hatred’ Info Revealed, Spiritborn Class, Mercenaries, More

It was a busy Xbox showcase yesterday, so Blizzard only got a relatively short spot to show off a Diablo 4: Vessel of Haterd cinematic trailer featuring Neyrelle getting corrupted by Mephisto. It was sick, but it also wasn’t the most detailed of reveals. However, Blizzard has now taken to a blog, and a future showcase, to reveal a lot more information about Vessel of Hatred. Here’s what we know:

• A pre-purchase bundle gets you a leopard mount, five sets of class armor, wings back bling, three pet skins, a town portal skin and 3,000 platinum. Probably worth it since that’s like $30 of platinum by itself.

• The new class is the “Spiritborn,” which seems to be a blend of the Amazon, Witch Doctor and Druid in a few ways, through they are a brand new class as a whole. We see our first shot of a male Spiritborn wielding a glaive, which would be a new weapon type. My guess is that it will be able to stab, but also be thrown. They will debut more information about the Spiritborn on July 18, a month from now.
• The new region is Nahantu, a jungle region which has throwbacks to Diablo 2, and it’s where the Spiritborn are from. There are zones within it like the overgrown Kurast or barren desert Teganze, so it’s not just jungle.
• There will be new towns, new “takes” on dungeons, Strongholds and warring tribes.
• The story follows Neyrelle taking Mephisto in the imprisoned Soulstone to Nahantu, and we’re meant to try to save her soul, though we don’t know exactly what her plan is supposed to be, and judging by that trailer, things do not seem to be going well.

• Vessel of Hatred will add mercenary companions which level with you and have access to unique abilities. I assume you can gear them up to a certain extent as well. Four different options are shown including what looks like a demon goat child and maybe some sort of Paladin variant.
• There’s a new endgame co-op activity that is the “first of its kind” that requires players to team up for a dungeon. They don’t call it a raid, but it sounds like it could be something close to that.
• New skills are being added to existing classes, along with new paragon boards and legendary glyphs. There will be new dungeon types, activities and Tree of Whispers rewards/activities.
• Pets are live in the game now, and you can claim the “basic” dog for free in-game. It runs around and grabs gold and materials for you. The pet can be changed through cosmetic skins which will no doubt be sold all the time in the store now.

It’s a lot! But there’s more to come a month from now when the Spiritborn are featured. Looking forward to it.

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Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.