I’ve been waiting Diablo 4: Lord of Hate but with cautious skepticism, and I am pleased to report that this expansion absolutely slaps and I have never been so happy to be wrong.
Specifically, one of my biggest concerns was that at least in Season 11, the game was in a great place, and I felt that the list of changes that came with Lord of Hatred would cause review fatigue. Because my goodness, how many system overhauls have we done since the release of the base game?
Then before release I felt the marketing was borderline spoilery and reveal too much too soon about the campaign itself. Taking out the joy of discovery, so to speak.
I am very happy to say that I was wrong on both points. Revisions have finally completed the game and, despite the progress, the best surprises lurk in the story campaign, completely untouched by the marketing machine. And I’m sure there are still some surprises to come. This is Diablo 4 in its final, most flourishing form, and I’d like to think it has silenced the “D4 Bad” memes once and for all, at least for those who will stick around a while and listen.
This is how you do fan service
I can only imagine that at some point during development, someone in the room finally slammed their hands on the table and said, “For God’s sake, let’s give the people what they want.”
I can’t say much more without spoiling the integral moments, but there are certain ups and downs as the story unfolds that really felt like Blizzard had been listening to its community. That’s not to say the story is perfect, but I completed it feeling completely satisfied, unlike the ending of glass of hate. Where I didn’t even notice the end was the end.
That said, Vessel of Hatred still works wonderfully as a bridge between the base game and this DLC. If you play everything in a row without the long wait between launches, the narrative thread is much clearer and the overall experience has more weight.
What surprised me most is how confidently the story leans into themes of family and complicated relationships. You don’t expect that level of emotional nuance in a demon-destroying ARPG, however, Blizzard committed to it and it’s worth it. The campaign had much more impact than I expected.
Skovos is impressive and intriguing to explore, I don’t want to leave
❌️ The friendship with Cerrigar is over ✅️ Now Temis is my best friend pic.twitter.com/c4slcw3U0YMay 2, 2026
We have waited a long time to visit the Skovos region and the wait was worth it. A complete 180° from the fatigue of the Nahantu swamp, you can gallop on your mount from lava-scarred lands to ancient Greek-inspired coastal vistas. The towns feel alive. I wanted to eavesdrop on every NPC conversation, and there really are some of the funniest conversations that many players will just follow.
The entire region feels alive and surprisingly less oppressed than other regions, considering it is also as infested with demons as the mainland. Themis, as the new city center, is also my new “favorite” city, and I refuse to teleport anywhere else. The mercenaries have moved here; You can access both The Pit and the Undercity, and with the new War Plans and Horadric Cube, why would you visit anywhere else? Ok, now I sound like your tourist office…
Cerrigar, it was good while it lasted, but I will never visit your door again!
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Horadric cube and talisman system breathes new life into loot
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With Lord of Hatred comes a whole host of new loot-based systems to play with, the two main additions being the Horadric Cube and Talisman Set Charms.
I’m still researching all the details of the Cube and what it can do, but even on a surface level it’s already tremendously powerful. I used it to turn an absolutely rubbish piece of gear into a unique dagger that brought my build straight into Torment 4.
Basically, it allows you to collect junk and turn it into something better instead of just saving everything, while also giving you new ways to modify and add affixes outside of the existing Tempering and Masterworking systems.
Meanwhile, Talismans offer a new loot quest that’s exciting without being exhausting. Searching for a juicy set bonus is fun on its own, but the real bonus is that Cube duplicates can be turned into another piece of the same set. Keeps the hunt moving without the usual frustrations of useless falls.
Together, these systems complement each other and feel like they were designed together and not by completely different teams. All of this, along with the removal of other busy tasks like potions and incense, means that, despite the new additions, everything feels more streamlined.
The war plans are simply impressive.
It was really difficult, based solely on developer streams, to imagine how the war plans would actually work once you reached the end of the game. But now that I’m there, I love them. I especially love the great speed they bring to the circuit.
The developers clearly took “the city is lava” seriously when designing this mode. You can jump from one activity to another with a single click, earning rewards while also progressing through each activity’s mini skill tree, allowing you to tailor the experience to your play style.
While it works brilliantly when playing alone, it needs some refinement when playing in a group. Right now, your party members can help you complete your war plans and earn some rewards, but they can’t actually. see which ones you have selected. That means communication becomes essential and, frankly, I don’t always want to access voice chat. Ideally, I’d love to see the entire party gathered around the map, but I can imagine how difficult it is to achieve balance.
Still, in its current form it’s fun, fast, rewarding, and absolutely viable. I’m excited to see how Blizzard iterates on it, because the foundation is already solid, it just needs some tweaking to feel good in groups.
The skill tree seems much more intuitive now and revamps have been made to all classes, opening up the diversity of builds greatly. Two players can run a Sorcerer and run builds that make them feel like two completely different classes. My entire group plays Warlock (unsurprisingly), but we use very different play styles.
And speaking of Warlock, while you’d expect this and Paladin to lead the meta, that’s actually not the case. Sure, they’re incredibly powerful, but the current meta has a mix of new guys AND Sorcerers, Necros, and Barbarians at the top of the rankings. Maxroll Tier List right now. This is likely to change a lot, but it’s great to see that other classes haven’t been left behind in the pay-to-win dust.
So what’s next for Diablo 4?
Diablo 4 is simply the biggest and best expansion the franchise has seen since. Diablo 2: Lord of Destruction. However, no matter how good the game is, there is a subset of the player base that will never return, forever tied to the “D4 BAD” narrative. It’s unfortunate, because they’re missing out, but it’s also understandable. There are so many great games to play that many don’t want to have to return to previous territory, regardless of the new wallpaper.
So where does Blizzard go from here? Will they double down on this solid foundation with another expansion, or will they take the lessons learned here and pivot towards a much more marketable Diablo 5? Whatever the answer, I’m looking forward to seeing what they have in store for us in BlizzCon this year.
PS: Can someone PLEASE find out where the cow level is?
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