Diablo 4 Season 6 and Vessel of Hatred early patch notes – Biggest changes

With Diablo 4 season six and the launch of the Vessel of Hatred right around the corner, Blizzard has dropped the early patch notes for this upcoming content and all the changes the developers have made since receiving feedback from the season six PTR.

These are all the significant changes and updates dropping in Diablo 4 on Oct. 8.

Loot quality and quantity are set to receive major buffs

Although the devs made significant changes to loot in season four, Loot Reborn, loot is being tweaked once again for season six and the Vessel of Hatred content. Lower-level monsters will drop fewer materials but more items, and you have a better chance of getting Legendary items from Hellbornes, Treasure Goblins, and the Butcher.

Due to the changes in World Tier difficulties, the loot World Bosses will scale with the higher torment tiers, and Duriel and Andariel are two times more likely to drop Mythic items compared to the other Tormented bosses. So, farming for Mythic items will likely be much easier than in season five.

Runewords get high-requested bonus changes

Runewords are an interesting feature that will exclusively be added to Diablo 4 in the Vessel of Hatred expansion. However, players from the PTR found Runewords to be a boring way to sneak in power creep and wanted more bonuses rather than just power scaling. And the developers listened.

So, instead of just damage scaling, Runewords will now have added bonuses and offer more utility. Some new bonuses include a plus three stats for all Skills (Vex Runeword) and replace Evade with the Sorcerer’s Teleport (Jah Runeword). And there’ll still be bonus crit damage or increased damage for specific skills. These changes will hopefully mean that Runewords will be more versatile and functional while allowing for more creativity.

Monsters will be harder to kill with health buffs

Although Elites (low-level, unique, super), Minions, and Bosses will have reduced health and damage, monsters, in general, will receive 25 percent more health. But max level super Elites will have 50 percent more health, max level elites will have 20 percent more health, and Elites should now have more equalized damage outputs. This means that monsters should be more challenging to defeat from Oct. 8.  

Other notable changes include:

• Masterworking gold cost for ranks 5-12 has been reduced by one-third.
• Masterworking materials now drop from more sources inside Nightmare Dungeons.
• The Pit tiers have risen from 100 to 150.
• Whisper Caches and Helltide Chests now grant more experience.
• The quality of Gem Fragments will increase as you ascend the new world tiers, and there’s a new Grand gem tier.
• Gem effects have been reworked. Some of these changes are that Rubies will give Strength and Emeralds will offer Dexterity.
• Smoldering Ashes can now only be obtained through Earned Favors.
• Glyph Experience has been moved to the Pit.
• Max Paragon level is now 300.
• You’ll now earn Masterworking materials from Nightmare Dungeons.
• You can no longer craft Infernal Compasses. You can only get them as rare drops from Torment Difficulties.
• Boss summoning materials have increased.
• All Uniques can now only be farmed from one single boss.

There are countless more bug fixes, user interface and experience adjustments, gameplay changes, and class updates you can read about via the official Diablo 4 patch notes page.

It’s safe to say that Diablo 4’s base game and Vessel of Hatred expansion will provide unique and challenging experiences when these changes go live on Oct. 8.