Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred is starting to look a lot like a budding MMO—or something closer to Destiny 2 at least—with the Dark Citadel, an endgame four-player co-op dungeon with weekly rewards.
Announced during an Xbox stream at Gamescom, the Dark Citadel is a multi-part dungeon with obstacles that require at least two players to clear. In the developer insights video, we saw characters opening doors for each other and taking turns reflecting attacks back at a boss. And just like in World of Warcraft, you’ll be able to mark enemies with symbols to coordinate with your team.
In classic MMO style, you’ll be rewarded with a cache of loot for completing the Dark Citadel every week. Each of its bosses will drop class-specific items and a unique currency you can use to buy cosmetics and consumables to buff your allies. All of this sounds like Diablo 4’s version of WoW’s raid tier sets and craftable potions, if you ask me.
If that wasn’t enough, Blizzard is also adding a whole party finder system to the game so you won’t be stuck looking for teammates in random Discord servers. It doesn’t look like it will automatically match you with players, but you’ll be able to search for groups looking to do specific activities, like dungeons or bosses, or make a listing of your own. All the Diablo 4 players who’ve begged for something like this to reap the huge benefits of playing in a group will finally get what they’ve wanted.
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I’m a little surprised it took a whole expansion for Diablo 4 to start approaching the line between pure action RPG and MMO, but I’m absolutely here for it. The advantages of playing in a group are huge for certain endgame challenges and it’ll be so much easier to use a party finder tool than trying to wrangle people together outside the game. Solo players could find themselves at a much larger disadvantage than they already are though, so I’m wondering if Blizzard will announce a solo-only mode for the game in the future.
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred will also introduce mercenary companions to the game as well as a new timed dungeon with heaps of rewards. Blizzard plans to talk about a big rework to the leveling process (today’s video suggests level 60 will be the new cap) in a stream next Thursday.
Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred will launch on October 8.