Blizzard has leaked all the secrets for Diablo 4’s next big patch, version 2.0. The major update arrives alongside the release of the Containers of Hate expansion in October, but PC players can experience it next week as part of the Public Test Realm (PTR).
Patch 2.0 brings huge fundamental changes to the structure of Diablo 4, and the vast majority of the changes will be available to all players, regardless of whether they own Hateship or not.
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The big news that came out of last night’s campfire chat was that, as players correctly guessed, the level cap will be dropped from level 100 to level 60. Blizzard says this is definitely not to make the upgrade process slower, but to make it more meaningful. It’s also about the new Paragon and character class divisions.
First, Paragon Points earned will be tied to realm (seasonal/eternal) and no longer tied to character level. In other words, they will be shared between all roles in the same realm. The new level cap is 60, and players will gain 10 additional skill points through the upgrade journey.
Then, at level 60 and above, players will begin to earn Paragon levels, which are used to unlock Paragon nodes. You may notice that this is very similar to how it worked in Diablo 3, and Blizzard has said it’s not opposed to taking ideas from the old game if they make sense in Diablo 4 bring these ideas back.
As for what happens with your current character, any character above level 50 will have all XP-based Paragon Points converted to a new Paragon Level. Blizzard made this change in part because the numbers were getting too large to be done quickly, making them impossible to parse. As part of this change, the developers will also adjust health, armor, and other core stats.
Another thing that compares to Diablo 3 is the new (old) difficulty system. Diablo 4 now has two difficulty levels: Standard and Torment. Standard is divided into four levels: Normal, Hard, Expert, and Penitent. Torment, on the other hand, starts with 1 and goes all the way to Torment 4.
As a result, the world level system was replaced. Standard difficulty is designed for players who have reached the new cap of level 60. Penitent is designed to prepare players for Torment difficulty and is unlocked at level 50.
In Torment, things are slightly different, and your progress will be tied to the “pit” activity at the end of the game. The better you do, the higher the pit levels you can access and the more torture difficulties you can unlock. Along the way, your chances of earning Legendary and Ancestor drops increase.
It’s also worth noting that Torment difficulty comes with a curse, which reduces your armor and resistance values from -250 and 25% in Torment 1 to -1,000 and 100% in Torment 4.
As part of Patch 2.0, all classes will also receive one new active skill and five new passive skills.
The only major addition available only to Hate Vessel owners is Runeword, a feature in Diablo 2. skills.
Runewords will be available for testing in the PTR, but when Patch 2.0 reaches live play, you will need to purchase Hate Containers to access them. You can read more on the official blog. As for the PTR itself – which also includes the recently announced Party Finder feature – it will only be available through Battle.net from September 4th to September 11th.