With PTR for Diablo 4’s 2.0 update eventually comes to a conclusion, it is believed that those players who fortunately have joined in will keep a good understanding of what to expect when Vessel of Hatred expansion launches. Although it refuses players to test the performance of new Spiritborn class, there was still a lot to be waited for being discovered.

According to a recent update, a surprising feature will be returning to Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred DLC: Runewords. It serves as an upgrade system that lets you imprint your equipment with particular attributes by making a combination between specific runes to form words with potent effects.

Runewords only appeared in Diablo 2, so many players may not know much about it. This article will mainly introduce the basic principles and functions of Runewords so that players can prepare for the upcoming Vessel of Hatred DLC, which will be officially released on October 8, accompanied by the launch of Season 6.

The Function Of Runewords

Based on the new hint provided by secret cow level, Vessel of Hatred together with Season 6 will reveal the existence of those powerful builds and the key to craft some of these builds requires players to keep a round mastery of Diablo 4’s new Runewords.

The introduction of Runewords will provide a fresh new way for players to enhance the strength of their heroes of Sanctuary.

The Rationale Of Runewords

There are two factors that contribute Runewords, Rune of Ritual and a Rune of Invocation, respectively. These two factors need to work in tandem to play their effectiveness.

Rune of Ritual gives a detailed description of the condition that needs to be satisfied to trigger a specific effect governed by Rune of Invocation.

Typically, Runes of Invocation allows you to employ Skill used by one of Diablo 4’s five classes. For an instance, with the support of the right Runeword, your Barbarian is available to trigger Druid’s Petrify Ultimate.

Kaleidoscopic of combination of Runewords added in the game will offer you a fabulous opportunity to craft the most suitable build for you after numerous trying. Moreover, Rune of Invocation that has a Skill corresponding to Class you have chosen will cast that Skill with all of its augments applied.

The Way To Equip Runewords

Runewords replace Gems and are equipped in sockets of gear. Therefore, players need to make a choice, depending on their needs, whether to retain the constant buff supported by Gems or the situational Skills that runes provide.

Inserting Runewords is the same as inserting Gems, but there are a few things to note.

• The equipment of Runeword requires two sockets, so it can only be equipped to Helms, Chests, Pants, and 2-Handed Weapons.
• The number of times you can equip Runewords is not infinite, and players can only equip Runewords with two pieces of gear.
• A Runeword cannot be equipped twice.

The Method To Acquire Runewords

After completing a variety of troublesome quests in Vessel of Hatred expansion, Runewords will be automatically unlocked and serves as a reward for players to award the completion of different endgame activities. In order to embrace those beneficial Runewords quickly, you can embrace some Diablo 4 Items to promote the efficiency of fighting.

Runes are broken into three rarities that are corresponded to the rarity of gear, which are Magic, Rare, and Legendary.

There are two other ways to obtain Runes. One is by trading with other players. Another way is to craft it directly.

The Way To Craft Runes

Players can provide three identical Runes to Jeweler to craft a new Rune, which differs from the three ones that have sacrificed.

This means that players can effectively utilize those duplicate, less useful Runes. And other advantage comes to you have the opportunity to craft a Legendary Rune when using Rare or Magic Runes to exchange.

Runewords Offering And Overflow

After completing the demands denoted by a Rune of Ritual, it will spawn a resource named Offering. Of course, you need a certain number of Runes of Ritual to trigger their effect.

The developers have given examples of the interaction with Rune of Ritual Bac and Rune of Invocation Jah. Bac will spawn 50 Offering when your character moves five meters and on the other hand, Jah will consume 500 Offering to transform your next elusion into Sorcerer’s Teleport.

With Bac and Jah being equipped simultaneously, every time you move 50 meters, your next elusion will automatically become a teleport. This is just one example of a combination. There are multiple combinations of Runewords in the game, each with different effects.

After finishing the equipment of two Runewords, you are able to screen the quantity of Offering you’ve generated through an icon that demonstrates over your buff bar. When the icon is full, the effect of Rune of Invocation will be disclosed.

Certain Runewords in Diablo 4 are designed to own an Overflow effect. If you are determined to delay the activation of your Rune of Invocation and generate more Offering than required to cast its related Skill, you will gain more benefits based on Overflow of Offering.

All Runewords And Their Effect In Diablo 4

Here lies the details of Runes of Ritual:

Here lies the details of Runes of Invocation:

That’s it for you. Here’s a detailed guide to New Runewords in Vessel of Hatred expansion to help you get ready for the upcoming season. Thanks for reading.

With the successful launch of Diablo 4 Season 5, many players are looking forward to the upcoming Vessel of Hatred DLC on October 8, 2024. Here, we will talk about the new PvE Dungeon added to Diablo 4 DLC, Dark Citadel, which we already know so far.

From what we know, this will be a multiplayer mode, which they call Co-Op Dungeon, where you can defeat a series of bosses with other players while completing different tactics, such as throwing balls at the boss to make it vulnerable.

In fact, when we first heard about this feature, our first impression was that Diablo 4 didn’t need this. Then, when we heard more details, our opinion changed to Diablo 4 definitely didn’t need this. Although we are currently waiting for its PTR test, I believe my opinion will not change. Here, we will talk about why we have such a poor opinion about this new Dark Citadel mechanism.

Poor Open World

First of all, you have to admit that Diablo 4 is a single-player game in every sense of the word. Although the developers have tried the concept of an open world before, they have basically failed. Because open world related activities such as World Bosses are still in a terrible state, especially when your character’s damage is compressed and you can only deal a fraction of the normal damage.

Although there are currently solutions to this problem, I believe that the poor experience caused by this absolutely overshadows the fun they brought to players when they first appeared.

Unchallenging World Bosses

In addition to this, there is a bigger joke that every World Boss will be killed in one hit as soon as it appears. The unchallenging content made Diablo 4 lose a lot of players.

Objectively speaking, the open world related content is not completely useless, but they only work in towns, where you can feel the presence of people around you, which makes the world more vivid. However, when it comes to combat, the open world completely fails because the power difference between two random players is huge. Pay to win also makes players who continue to spend time leveling feel meaningless.

Blood Maiden is also a joke in Helltides, not only because Leeching players’ thirst for Exquisite Blood makes challenging bosses just a tedious process of farming Diablo 4 Items, but more importantly, the difficulty setting is meaningless. Usually, Blood Maiden is either killed in one hit by some well-equipped players, or is too difficult for leveled players and takes a long time to kill.

You could say that the content they planned is not outdoor, not open world group play, but raids, so that you can choose your team to overcome these obstacles. The fact that you can choose your team for challenging Torment Bosses is also a joke. Because then people will only farm them for Uniques and Mythic Uniques that drop from those bosses, not because they like 5 seconds of soulless boss fights.

Low Visibility Of Boss Abilities

Let’s give the developers a chance and let’s assume that they can handle the balance of difficulty and boss health well in the new Diablo 4 DLC. But I am almost sure that there will be problems with the visibility of boss abilities.

If you’ve played Lightning Spear Sorcerer in the higher levels of Infernal Hordes, you’ll understand how difficult it is to see the boss’ abilities because the effects are everywhere.

Imagine how bad it would be if other players’ spells were 3-4 times more effective, and you had no idea. While the game could suppress other players’ abilities to make them less obvious, I honestly don’t have much faith in the developers’ ability to do this well in raids.

Dark Citadel May Become A Key Consumable Farming Location

Speaking of this, there will definitely be some Diablo fans who will say that if you don’t like Co-Op Dungeons, you can just not play them. However, if they didn’t make Dark Citadel an almost essential node for character development, this would actually be a valid argument.

According to the developers, a new consumable, Scroll of Re-Tempering, was added in Vessel of Hatred DLC, and the primary place to farm them is Dark Citadel Dungeon.

Of course, they will also say that you can get this item from other sources, but I believe that any player who has tried to farm Mythic Unique items will find this to be nonsense. The developers have always said that technically players can also get Mythic Uniques from any monster. But how does this actually work? Aside from Torment Bosses, you have almost no chance of seeing Unique drops.

Looking For Group Feature

Besides this, there is another new update that has received a lot of attention, which is Looking for Group feature. Many people call it some kind of savior of random groups, but I am not sure about this. I think it is very likely to become a tool in the future where the group leader only invites the best equipped players, and many times, these people have obtained their equipment through real money transactions. This may only gradually lead the game to the abyss of pay-to-win.

Final Thoughts

All in all, I think World of WarCraft is a better choice for most players if we want to experience raiding, rather than Diablo 4. Therefore, unless the development team can provide a major improvement compared to the current multiplayer and Co-Op modes, it seems to me that Dark Citadel is likely to fail like Gauntlet.

Anyway, are you confident about the upcoming Dark Citadel feature? Do you think my point makes sense? Let’s wait and see!

Diablo 4's first major expansion, Vessel of Hatred, will be officially released on October 8. In the new DLC, we will continue the main story and explore the jungles of the new Nahantu region with Spiritborn.

Now, it's time to get to know 4 Guardian Spirits, who will perfectly complement the new Spiritborn class in the game. The four Guardian Spirits will unleash all the energy that the developers have invested in this DLC. Here, let's meet these four very powerful beasts. I must remind you that if you want to fully realize their potential in Vessel of Hatred, don't forget to prepare enough Diablo 4 Gold!

Spirit Realm

A brand new fantasy world has appeared in the land of Nahantu. We will experience, summon, and interact with new creatures here. They are called Spirit Guardians. But before we explore in depth, let’s talk about what Spirit Realm is.

At the birth of Sanctuary, when Inarius and Lilith changed Worldstone, the magic between these two great powers released a cloud of this magical energy. So, between High Heavens and Burning Hells, there exists Spirit Realm, a layer of raw magical energy that surrounds us, where magic can take shape.

This is an untouched realm that has never been corrupted, and it still is. The magic of this Spirit Realm is that it is a byproduct of humanity, and the angels and demons are not aware of this power connected to Sanctuary. This makes Spiritborn class unique, as some of this energy is crystallized into sentient spirits.

Spiritual Bond Between Spiritborn And Spirit Guardians

Prophet Akarat and one of his devotees, Ysevete, paved a path for today’s Spiritborn, which is to learn how to summon spirits and live in harmony with Spirit Guardians.

Over time, Spiritborn would incorporate these practices into tradition. Spiritborn can tap into this magic, but can only truly use it after completing a rite of passage called Trial of Mists, which is filled with many hard trials.

Spiritborn has this innate ability to summon. They begin preparing for this trial from a very young age. It is said that there is a strong spiritual bond between Spiritborn and these Spirit Guardians we are talking about.

As these spirits have been growing and changing over the millennia as Spirit Realm evolves. And Spiritborn are able to summon the most powerful Spirit Guardians as an extension of their martial abilities to help them fight against Vessel of Hatred.

Spirit Guardians

In Vessel of Hatred, Spiritborn class can summon four Spirit Guardians:

Rezoka, the Hunter: This Spirit appears in Jaguar form, fueled by fire, and contains the spirit of the jungle. Jump into battle and fight your way through the enemies. You will recognize Jaguar by the burning embers.

Kwatli, the Seeker: This majestic Eagle descends by channeling lightning. It is an intelligent and mobile animal, so it flies during battle and teleports you from one place to another.

Wumba, the Guardian: This Gorilla is a beacon of protection and strength, and can easily literally crush enemies in combat. You’ll often see him leaping into battle with this extreme power. I personally think his ultimate is pretty cool.

Balazan, the Devourer: This is a giant Centipede that reflects the cycle of life. Whenever we talk about this Spirit Guardian, we really wanted it to represent what happens after death, which is decay and harmony with Sanctuary. Where there is life, there is death, and you can see Centipede’s breath dealing massive amounts of damage to enemies in combat.

Spirit Guardian Skills

Spirit Guardians are creatures that Spiritborn can summon in combat, and each beast has a unique set of special abilities and powers.

Rezoka, The Hunter

• Slash: Swing out your claws and slash at the enemy in front of you, dealing [20%] damage. They then explode, dealing [40%] additional damage.
• Ravage: Increases minimum Ferocity by 2. Send out a Wild Roar that causes all your attacks to strike an extra time, dealing [60%] more damage over 6 seconds.
• Swift Claw: Dash through enemies with a short-range slash, hitting all enemies in your path twice for [50%] total damage.
• The Hunter: Stride across the battlefield in the spirit of Jaguar, dealing [50%] damage when you land, then slash at enemies in the area for [200%] total damage over 7 attacks.

Kwatli, The Seeker

• Ascend: Lift into the air and create a cloud that makes enemies at a chosen location vulnerable for 5 seconds, then lands on them for [50%] more damage.
• Feather Barrage: Throw 5 feathers that pierce enemies, dealing [14%] damage each.
• Sharp Wings: Fire a whirlwind of sharp feathers that then return to you for [50%] damage in both directions.
• The Seeker: The spirit of Eagle descends, dealing [20%] damage. After a brief delay, it takes off, dealing [300%] damage.

Wumba, The Guardian

• Rock Breaker: Dash to a target and strike enemies in front of you for [15%] damage. Your third attack hits enemies around you for [28%] damage.
• Shocking Stomp: Stomp in front of you, creating a shockwave that deals [15%] damage and knocks enemies down for 3 seconds.
• Recompense: Strikes enemies in front of you for [100%] damage. Once attacked, you have a 35% chance to reduce the active cooldown of this skill by 1 second.
• The Protector: The spirit of Gorilla protects an area for 6 seconds, continuously striking nearby enemies for [80%] damage, and grants you a barrier equal to 15% of your maximum life every 1.5 seconds.

Balazan, The Devourer

• Withering Fist: Deals [5%] more smiting damage to enemies and [30%] more poison damage over 6 seconds.
• Scourge: Sends out a wave of insect stings that scare and slow enemies for 3 seconds and deal [100%] more poison damage over 6 seconds.
• Sting: Stings a small area, dealing [70%] more damage to enemies in it and all nearby poisoned enemies.
• The Devourer: The spirit of Centipede appears, dealing [140%] more damage to enemies in a line and spitting at other enemies for [40%] more damage for 15 seconds.

It’s really exciting, because the jungles of Nahantu can be dangerous, but you’ll still find a range of dark and fruitful adventures. Not only can we explore the depths of the jungle, but we can also explore Spirit Realm. With a new understanding of Spirit Guardian, let’s work together to cleanse this land of hatred once again!