Diablo 4's Vessel of Hatred launches in only a few short days, and soon players will be deep in the jungles of Nahantu, following in Neyrelle's footsteps in a race against time to stop the corrupting influence of Mephisto. Wowhead was recently lucky enough to be invited to an early playtest of Vessel of Hatred, and as a result participated in a Q&A session with several Diablo 4 developers!
Joined by other playtesters as well as Game Director Brent Gibson, Lead Designer Rex Dickson, Lead Live Designer Colin Finer, and Producer Kyle Martin, this Q&A covered everything from design philosophies, new features, the Spiritborn, Runewords, and more — dive in with us for some of your most burning questions, answered.
Vessel of Hatred Playtest Review
Stay a while and listen, Wanderer — story spoilers for Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred can be found ahead. Continue on at your own risk!
Question: The new class Spiritborn is characterized by its agility. In this regard, does it share any similarities with the Monk from Diablo III? Which playstyle has made the most significant impression on the development team so far?
Brent Gibson: Agility was very much one of the things we were focusing on. We wanted to have a class where martial arts was a big part of the playstyle, so it just made sense. As for the Monk, we have a pretty solid grasp of the types of mechanics that work well in the game, and there are inspirations from several classes that you can see in the Spiritborn. However, the mixture is very unique to the class itself and plays very differently from the classes before.
Question: Are there plans to further develop the mercenary system in future seasons (i.e., new companions, expanded skill trees, new additions to the den)?
Rex Dickson: As with all new features, we first want to gauge the community reaction before we determine what our next steps are. If there is demand for investments in the mercenaries feature from our fans, we will keep adding them to
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