With Diablo 4‘s second expansion, Lord of Hatred, nearing its April 28th release date, game director Zavan Haroutunian and lead system designer Colin Finer have referred to it as being Diablo 4 in its best possible form. Speaking to WCCFTech, Haroutunian and Colin were asked about Blizzard having experimented with many systems in Diablo 4, and how that led to the upcoming expansion signifying the action RPG at its peak.
“We think Lord of Hatred is the best Diablo 4 has ever been — we think of it as the ultimate expression of the game,” said Haroutunian. Finer spoke about how the expansion was a labor of love for the development team, and how many of its features are essentially love letters to fans of the franchise.
“One hundred percent,” said Finer when asked about Lord of Hatred being Diablo 4 at its best. “So many of the features are a love letter to Diablo and its players. It’s been a huge labor of love from the team. We’ve been playing the game constantly internally; it’s been so easy to lose yourself in the flow state of grinding War Plans, using the map overlay to efficiently navigate every level, and using the loot filter to make ultra-endgame items pop.”
While Lord of Hatred is bringing quite a bit of content with it, like the returning Horadric Cube, the expansion will also introduce refinements to pre-existing systems, like Diablo 4‘s runes. On the subject, Finer spoke about how there were some runes that were just too powerful for the game. This has led to the removal of some of the stronger ones from the game.
“In general, we found that there were extreme outliers (both too weak and way too powerful) that were dominating the system and shrinking the build diversity too much,” explained Finer. “Additionally, with the Cube, we’ve made it easier than ever to hunt for the runes you’re looking for. So we’re attacking this problem from both sides: editing down the list with build variety in mind, and giving you more options to obtain the runes you want. Long-term, runes are a place we want to continue to evolve, especially with the Cube now in the mix.”
As for the Cube itself, he also noted that it can be used with recipes as many times as the player might want, as long as they have the required materials. In general, the Horadric Cube was meant to introduce more depth to Diablo 4‘s crafting system. This also means that there are a few high-risk recipes in the game.
“However, there are a few higher-risk recipes — like Transfiguration — which have incredible outcomes, but also terrible ones,” he said. “Have a mediocre item with great potential? Transfigure it. You might even find that you’re able to transfigure it multiple times. Have a near-perfect item? Slot an Entropic Tuning Prism into the Transfigure recipe to minimize the risk — but also the reward.”
Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred will expand on the story of Mephisto when it finally comes out on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. For more, take a look at the gameplay showcase, which features combat, boss fight, and the region of Skovos. Also, check out our thoughts on how the expansion signifies a new approach to leveling.