Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred isn’t all that it is hyped to be and I will not be convinced otherwise

Diablo 4’s previous expansion, Vessel of Hatred, was undoubtedly the worst excuse for a DLC I’ve had to endure, to the point where I dropped the game entirely until Blizzard shadow-dropped Paladin two seasons ago (yeah, I know it’s technically one-and-a-half). The only reason I pre-ordered Lord of Hatred was to give the Paladin a try, and to be honest, it was quite fun. 

The Holy Light Aura build felt like a modern-day rendition of Path of Exile’s Righteous Fire, and I’m all for no-button builds that auto-explode a screenful of mobs. Another reason I gave Diablo 4 another chance was the absolute S-tier implementation of the Warlock class in Diablo 2. Naturally, my expectations for the class were high, but alas, that turned out to be a damp squib. The Spiritborn, for all its faults, was actually fun to play at launch. I lasted all of two days before pivoting to my comfort class: Sorceress. 

I diligently avoided any and all Diablo 4 livestreams/reviews until I was done with the story part of Lord of Hatred, and when I was, I saw nothing but praise online. Was it praiseworthy? Yes. Is it the next best thing after sliced bread as many claim? Probably not. I promise you; this isn’t another generic ‘D4 Bad’ post. Diablo 4 is in a legitimately better state now- probably as good as it gets, even. And that’s what concerns me. 

Diablo 4 is probably the only ARPG I play for the story. Despite its ups and downs, the Diablo universe is one I care deeply about. And on that front, Lord of Hatred is measurably better than Vessel of Hatred. Yeah, it’s chock-full of predictable tropes one can see from a mile away, but that has been the case for the past 20-odd years. 

Where Lord of Hatred truly shines are in its side quests. Most players don’t bother with those, and rightfully so. They offer lacklustre rewards and take up time that could be otherwise spent in a Helltide or clearing Nightmare Dungeons. The only incentive to do them is to learn new lore, something that base Diablo 4 campaign (and even Vessel of Hatred) didn’t bother with much. 

LoH, on the other hand, made sure to tie up its loose ends with side quests, hinted at Diablo’s eventual return, and even told use which Prime Evil we’d fight next. I’d go as far as saying that LoH’s side-quests are much better than the entire plot of Diablo 4. In an ideal world, we’d get to pick between which master to serve instead of constantly walking the goody-two-shoes path. Clearly, the tech is not here yet. Perhaps with Diablo 5. 

Lore obsession aside, let’s get to the meat and potatoes of an ARPG: loot. I like how Lord of Hatred made Legendary items actually hard to get instead of dropping them by the truckload. That comes with a problem, though. Previously, you could get the base variant of an Aspect from Nightmare Dungeons. Now, we have to pray that we get an item with the aspect we need. If it has decent rolls: great. Otherwise, into the salvage bin it goes. That makes Aspect hunting entirely RNG-based, further prolonging the time it takes to get a build online.  

Speaking of items that go in bins, Diablo 4 finally have a loot filter. It took the small indie team at Blizzard only three years to come up with one that looks suspiciously like Last Epoch. Now, if only they could figure out the tech behind stash tabs. Last I heard, Blizzard couldn’t give us more that 6-7 tabs because every time a player opens their storage, the Diablo 4 client opens the stash tabs of every player in town, every Blizzard dev (current and former), and every Overwatch Rule 34 artist in a 10-mile radius. It is painfully clear that Blizzard is reusing Diablo 2-era code for inventory management. 

All jokes aside, a stash tab limitation should absolutely not be a problem in 2026. Path of Exile solved it over thirteen years ago. Last Epoch took it a step further by adding extensive customization options. At this point, I’m even willing to fork out real cash for extra stash tabs. I’ve already given Grinding Gear Games a ton of money for virtual storage space; the concept is not new to me. Besides, what’s a few dollars extra after the 400-odd-dollars I’ve spent on Diablo 4 until now? That’s an infinitely more value compared to a $60 horse MTX. 

If the online hype is to be believed, it may look like the latter half of Diablo 4 has been completely transformed. Sadly, it is still the same. But now, thanks to War Plans, there is some incentive to partake in all endgame content. It brings some variety to break the monotony, and even makes Inf***al H***es tolerable. I know, right? The prospect of further juicing your activities is an exciting one, but, alas, that, too, gets boring halfway through.   

In my opinion, the main issue with Diablo 4’s endgame is the lack of chase items. Yes, the dopamine meter goes up to 99,999 when you get your first Mythic Unique, and that’s about as good as it gets for a while. Before long, you’ll have a tab full of worthless Mythics just sitting there because the only thing they’re good for is a Resplendent Spark. It’s not like you can trade them or anything. Why not, you ask. Nobody knows.  

Crafting specific Mythics with said sparks is nightmarish, and literally impossible for anyone who didn’t fork out $60 for a DLC because guess what, you can’t get runes without the Vessel of Hatred DLC. Even if you do somehow scrounge up the dozens of runes needed, there’s no guarantee you’ll get the Greater Affix you need, or even one at all.

In the end, Torment 10 and beyond devolve into running the same War Plan for the six hundredth time, hoping for ground loot that has a 10% better roll than what you’re wearing. “But Anil”, you’ll say, “Isn’t that the case in all ARPGs? Even the POE2 endgame boils down to minmaxing”. Yes, but in POE2, there are many ways to go about said minmaxing. I don’t have to rely on ground loot exclusively. I can spend 5000 Divine Orbs and craft a Mirror-tier weapon that will carry me through all content. Or I could buy some well-rolled, but not quite perfect, weapon off the market, and sink the remaining currency into jewels/lineage support gems that give me a similar power spike. The only way to power up your character in Diablo 4 is via loot, and with no solid crafting mechanics, progression always feel RNG-heavy.

Yeah, the Horadric cube does allow you to target-craft your gear, but it feels very rudimentary. I’m no stranger to spamming Chaos Orbs to get that one elusive T1 roll, but the risk-to-reward ratio in Diablo 4 is just not worth it. Tempering, as a concept, is a great idea, and frankly, the only enjoyable part of any craft because it is the only reliable way to get a Greater Affix. Same with Sanctification. As the adage goes: No Vaal, no…you know the rest. 

Despite Blizzard’s best efforts (this can’t be it, surely), the Diablo 4 skill tree is still a skill twig. I’d argue Lord of Hatred somehow made it worse by nuking all passive nodes not linked to specific skills. Earlier, there was some scope to experiment by shuffling around points in various nodes. All you have now is the Paragon board where we run into further limitations: a five-board limit per character. I don’t like it when a game restricts what I can do with my character. It kind of takes the whole RP aspect out of an ARPG. 

And if that wasn’t bad enough, certain skill tree nodes have been paywalled behind the Lord of Hatred DLC. Forcing players to buy Vessel of Hatred to access runes and mercenaries was bad enough, but now, one cannot access build-defining skills without ponying up. This is, what the kids call, peak Blizzard behaviour.

What worries me the most about Diablo 4 is a complete lack of vision from Blizzard. It has undergone many transformations over the past three years, to the point where it will be unrecognizable to someone who picked it up and launch and forgot about it for two years. A lot of core systems, such as crafting and loot, were poorly thought out and fixed on-the-go after community outrage. The ever-insatiable internet will continue to rage, and Blizzard will continue to buckle because metrics matter most. 

In a vacuum, constantly changing systems can be good. ARPGs often get stale, because of which they have to evolve with time. Path of Exile is a prime example. Years of seasonal content have bloated it beyond recognition, but the foundation has remained (more or less) the same. And the best part is, you’re don’t have to interact with mechanics you don’t like. For example, I cannot get myself to do Heist, Temple or Betrayal. So, I don’t. Harvest, Breach, Trialmaster, Delve and the occasional Sanctum run more than enough to sustain my character. 

Every major revision makes it clear Blizzard has no idea what it wants to do with Diablo 4. Four seasons in, it added in Tempering and Masterworking. Didn’t get the affix you wanted with your Temper. Too bad. Go farm that base again. Didn’t hit three-back-to-back Masterworks on your preferred affix? Too Bad. Start over. Bring Neathiron. Lots of it. Where does one Neathiron? In The Pit. Or Inf***al H***es. Fun times. And with Season 11, you now get near-infinite Tamper rerolls and only need to hit the Masterwork once (with infinite resets, of course, as long as you have the resources). 

And then the whole concept of ‘Toughness’ came as another shock. Tracking and managing individual resistances are a defining feature of any ARPG. Each tier of difficulty came with a resistance penalty, which one had to offset with better gear/socketables. Then came other defensive layers like Armour, Dodge and Barrier. Each one had to be managed individually. It took effort and gear manipulation. Clumping everything together under the ‘Toughness’ umbrella trivializes systems that make an ARPG an ARPG. 

None of the seasons feel like they matter. More often than not: they boil down to the same formula. Investigate this random place on the map. Oh no, something bad is happening, I must stop it. Forgettable NPC#11235: “You are hero. Hero bring me token. Me give hero reward for token. More token. More reward”. And then you run around the world, hunting the same old mobs for the same old boxes with the same old rewards. 

“But Anil,” you say again, “If you hate Diablo 4 so much, why do you keep talking about it? You’ve made it abundantly clear you’re a POE Andy. Go back to your spreadsheet simulator and leave D4 to us casuals”. To answer that, we have to rewind the clock. Back in 1999, I stumbled upon a shareware version of Diablo with just two levels and the Warrior class unlocked. For months on end, I played the two levels over and over again. Sometimes with a traditional martial weapon/shield. Other times with a bow/staff. The best part: both builds were equally effective, at least in the minuscule area I got to play.  

Digital distribution was not a thing back then, and to my horror, an original copy of Diablo cost a third of my family’s monthly income. I wasn’t getting that as a birthday gift anytime soon. Piracy was out of the question because I didn’t have an internet connection at home. Four years later, I found out about Diablo 2. And this time, it was the real deal. No shareware shenanigans. The biggest catch, however, was that I couldn’t play it at home. That, combined with the fact that only one ramshackle internet cafe had it, resulted me in spending way more time than I’m willing to admit hunched over a geriatric PC that threw a hissy fit every time more than 30 enemies entered a scene. 

The point is, Diablo is what got me into gaming. My love for that franchise ran (and to a certain extent still runs) deep. I initially missed out on the Diablo 3 hype train due to its always-online requirement, but I got into it later. To my surprise, the campaign and DLC plotlines were painful, to the point where I didn’t bother engaging with the endgame. I still kept up with Diablo 2 because it was the next best option that could be played offline. It pains me to see Diablo devolve into…this. And that’s one of the reasons why POE2 resonated with me so much. It filled a Diablo-shaped hole in my heart that no ARPG could. While I had more than my share of reservations with POE2 in first few weeks, GGG actually addressed them all, and now, the game is in a better state than ever, with further improvements slated to arrive in a few days. 

I struggle to see how Blizzard can make Diablo 4 better. It probably won’t need to because the game is clearly making a ton of money, and most people seem to enjoy it. Why change a winning formula? But somewhere along the way, it has lost the adulation of sweaty tryhards like myself, who I’d argue were the main reason behind Diablo’s initial success as a franchise. Perhaps Blizzard will find its mojo and make Diablo 5 the greatest Diablo game ever. Even if it doesn’t, I’m still going to pre-order it on day one and write a similar rant when it disappoints me. Call it the cycle of life. Or rabid fanboyism. Or poor impulse control. Doesn't matter, really.