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Over the last few days, many in the games media and the Diablo 4 content creator scene have had the chance to go hands-on with the Spiritborn, the new class coming to the game with the Vessel of Hatred expansion in October.
Blizzard’s official gameplay reveal was well-produced and straight to the point, so it didn’t touch on any of the game-wide systemic changes we can expect with the expansion. For that, however, the community has had to turn to interviews, gameplay shared by content creators and more to find some answers.
Outside of the Spiritborn’s own gameplay nuances, the biggest reveal coming out of the event has to do with the level cap in Diablo 4. As it currently stands, the maximum level players can reach is 100. The item power distribution, damage scaling, loot curve, monster difficulty and pretty much everything else to do with the numbers side of the moment-to-moment gameplay are all tied to that.
By changing the level cap, these values could be entirely transformed, which would obviously have a major impact on gameplay. While Blizzard didn’t share specifics, the developer hinted at some change coming to the game’s level cap with Vessel of Hatred. All previous Diablo expansions, as well as those of World of Warcraft’s, have all arrived alongside a major change to the level cap; be that an increase or decrease.
It’s not yet clear which path Blizzard has chosen for Diablo 4’s first expansion, but most indicators suggest we’re heading towards a numbers squish, i.e., lowering the level cap and making each level matter more. The new cap might be 60, according to a few bits of evidence gathered from various interviews and gameplay footage, as seen on Reddit and Wowhead.
The clues are fairly plentiful. For instance, the experience bar shows a character beyond level 50, but crucially, it does not show the Paragon Point nodes (which unlock at level 50 in the current version). Instead, we see a new level indicator, represented as a number that sits under the character level.
Players suspect this is the new Paragon system, which looks to be a simplified version that’s more akin to Diablo 3’s, whereby you can continue to earn levels beyond the base level cap. The Paragon Board will likely remain, but progressing through it may change based on this information.
There are other factors that point to level 60 being the new cap, too. In-game tooltips are written in such a way to suggest that 60 is the max level, rather than 100. This can be seen on both armour values, as well as the stats on a Unique weapon Blizzard showed off during the reveal – which otherwise has stats identical to what you’d get in the current version of Diablo 4.
Indeed, the level requirements for each stage of Health Potion upgrades at the Alchemists have also been changed, altering their distribution entirely. Once again, level 60 appears to have replaced level 100 as the new cap.
Lowering the level cap also means all stats in the game will have to be squished. That effectively means damage numbers and armour values will be lower, making them easier to read in the heat of combat. This is actually something some players have been asking for, but it doesn’t necessarily mean players will be dealing less damage – just that the value of each damage stage will be more in line with the numbers on screen.
Vessel of Hatred is due out October 8 with Season 6. Seeing as the Spiritborn class has already been revealed, it’s safe to assume more details about the expansion itself – including any updates to the underlying systems – will arrive in due course.