Ship of Hate is the latest reason to start playing Diablo IV again

Ten years ago, the Reaper of Souls the expansion has been completely rethought and renewed Diablo III. It changed a lot of the game, it strengthened its foundation enough that D3 it remained a fun time as it was well past what should have been its expiration date.

Diablo IV moved at a different speed. It managed to launch without the technical hiccups that plagued its predecessor, but it was still a game that came up short when it arrived. We felt that, and I felt it in my playing. When I finished the campaign and started the grind loop, I quickly got bored and left my character.

But before its first major expansion, The Ship of Hate, Diablo IV it’s not like the beginning. I spent time with new content The Ship of Hate and while I will summarize what the Nahantu region brings to the table, I also take this opportunity to take a closer look at the situation Diablo IV.

Hate Ship adds friendship and customization

The Ship of Hate introduces a new region, Nahantu, and a new class, Spiritborn. Nahantu is a forest biome with lush vegetation in some areas and complete devastation in others. Basically, it’s your level Diablo IV place. It also has several points of interest to the lore nerds out there.

The Spiritborn is a completely new class to the Diablo universe and is a great addition. This is a melee hero with skills inspired by the four Guardians of the Spirit: The gorilla’s skills center on defense and powerful hits, the jaguar attacks with tempo-driven fire, the eagle deals lightning damage with feathers, and the centipede is all about poisonous energy. Yes, a centipede. It doesn’t sound like a scary creature, but trust me, those poison attacks are rad. The greatest joy comes from the higher abilities, where the Spirit Guardian appears to fight for you. Having a good-looking gorilla smashing and mauling enemies is deeply satisfying in a way I didn’t know I needed.

In my running D4I put a lot of hours into playing Necromancer and Sorcerer. Both are a ton of fun, but they feel a lot stronger when they’re completely focused on one element or type of damage. I’m not happy about needing to completely redo my talent tree and paragon boards every time I encounter something different, so I appreciate that the Spiritborn can really pick and choose abilities from all four Guardians. That’s something Blizzard is starting to go live with in regards to class design, and I’m happy to report that the class-specific Spirit Hall makes it easy to get the benefits from legendary and unique item powers without having to overhaul your entire rotation. That’s not to say that the perfect build won’t emerge over time, but flexibility is a real win in the Spiritborn kit.

One of my favorite additions to it The Ship of Hate the Den, a quartet of soldiers who can join you in your quests. For single players, they act as friends Diablo III – you can choose one to follow you and join your battles. Each has a small skill tree that you can customize to better suit your play style. The second mechanic, Reinforcement, allows you to access fan abilities even if you don’t have or can’t have one equipped. Reinforcement allows you to choose one skill on one merc and set when you want to use it. Their abilities can be mapped directly to when you use your powers, or to combat-specific situations such as your character’s damage or crowd control. My favorite combo started with me hitting a bunch of eagle enemies, then my archer friend coming up and firing a heat bomb to burn them all down. But the combinations are endless and easy to change to your liking.

The Den is not a deep game system and heavy load players won’t last much longer than all four friends. However, it does give you another chance to customize your gameplay, and this is where I think the Diablo game shines. Even though I used the default Spiritborn model, which I named Test and never bothered with transmog gear, it didn’t take long for me to start feeling attached to the character. This was mine Born of spirit, mine a trip to save the world with it mine a set of partners.

The Sanctuary is a dark place. Even if I’m kidding D4 with some people, the overwhelming anger of settings and circumstances creates a sense of “us against the world.” Maybe a few NPCs will be helpful from time to time, but most of them will betray us or lie to us or die. But for once, even when faced with the most invincible foes, The Ship of Hate he made me feel connected. It is in the basic setting of the expansion, where Neyrelle has chosen to carry a heavy burden and will try hard to survive and succeed. It is in front of the Den, where one always turns his back in battle. It’s in the words of your guide, Eru: Help is needed, so help is given. It’s in the new Dark Citadel endgame dungeon, which you can’t finish without at least one other person. Even if you’re joking The Ship of Hate you are alone, you never feel alone.

There are some notable features that come with it The Ship of Hateyou’ll also notice a drop in stats and a new difficulty system if you’ve been keeping up with the game over the past year. Runewords go back to Diablo IIand there is very powerful hunting gear. But I see those updates as the culmination of a whole year of repairs and updates to the Sanctuary.

Review of Diablo IVthe first year

For better or for worse, Blizzard is a game studio that responds to the demands of its audience. “We heard your feedback” is probably the most uttered phrase at all company events. I think there’s a balance to be made in giving the community such a big say in the game’s environment, but just in case Diablo IV, it usually turns out well. If more people fill the forums and say the system is not fun, chances are good it will be reformed. And of course there were some unpleasant moments in between Diablo IV.

The item system received a complete and meaningful overhaul in season 4. Missions like Helltide and Nightmare dungeons are no longer included in the highest difficulty levels. Even simple tweaks have done a lot to improve the quality of life: At one point, the locations of the merchants changed so that the Blacksmith, Jeweler and Occultist are now closer to each other, meaning you don’t have to climb to the other side of town. just changing one gear. Almost every update feels aimed at giving players more agency and more power.

The seasonal model also helps here, introducing new gameplay ideas every few months that devs can learn from and perhaps evolve into permanent updates. For example, The Ship of Hate introduces the start of a new season that adds Realmwalker monsters to run the Sanctuary. Not every season changes the core gameplay – sometimes it’s just a sideshow with a short storyline to solve – but these themed endgame additions can be reason enough to keep playing.

So, is it worth going back to Sanctuary?

For those who just want to hear the story, The Ship of Hate it’s a rewarding and natural cliffhanger continuation from the base game. For über fans, I think you live on the PTR and already have your ideas about what’s coming (and you’ll play for hours no matter what).

I’m talking mostly to the middle class, who have played occasionally or never entered after the big Lilith battle. For these players, now is a good time to return to them Diablo IV. Explore a new story, try the Spiritborn; you will probably find plenty to enjoy.

A live game usually needs some time to find its place, or to show that it has the power to last more than fifteen minutes of fame. The Ship of Hate is the latest example of Blizzard’s dedication to innovation, development and innovation Diablo IV hell of a good time.