During their recent Campfire Chat livestream, Blizzard unveiled that, due to a rework of Diablo 4's Item Quality system, Sacred items will no longer exist in Vessel of Hatred.
Patch 2.0 PTR Bluepost Patch 2.0 PTR Item Changes
In a bluepost about Diablo 4's Patch 2.0 PTR, the development team shared that the old item quality system didn't fit their current vision of character progression. As a result, Sacred items will be removed, while Ancestral items will become much rarer and special.
Developer’s Note: Our original vision for character progression was that you would have a grand journey, traversing through World Tiers, swapping out gear, gaining incremental strength through the Paragon system. We felt that was fun the first time, but on repeated play throughs, World Tier III and Sacred items felt artificial and added a lot of stat bloat that didn’t make the game more fun.
Since launch we’ve added endgame features, like Infernal Hordes and The Pit of the Artificer. Vessel of Hatred will expand the endgame line up even further, adding Dark Citadel and Undercity to the mix. Our hope is that these new systemic changes allow for new characters to reach the endgame faster.
Developer’s Note: We felt Sacred and Ancestral Items lost their specialness and flair due to how common they became. These changes transform Ancestral items into mighty endgame items worth the chase.
Ancestral Items
General