Diablo IV’s latest expansion, Lord of Hatred, is a treasure trove of goodies. From new story content, two new classes, a new skill tree system, changes to crafting, and a massive end-game overhaul. Lord of Hatred is going to keep me busy for a long time.
So, as the great poet John Lennon once said, “All you need is Hatred” and your Vessel shall overfloweth with the Lord of Hatred.
More Hatred! No Spoilers
Lord of Hatred expansion throws us straight into chaos. The demons of hell overflow into Sanctuary once again, and it’s up to us to stop it. Without giving anything away, the campaign portion of Lord of Hatred is an epic tale worthy of the name Diablo. It’s a whirlwind tour around every part of the previously explored Sanctuary, bringing up old memories of the first time you traversed it, and just when you think it’s over, there is more.
I don’t have an exact time frame, but I believe it took me roughly 17 hours. That’s with zero side quests and a handful of dungeons. The quests are engaging, and the pacing of the story makes you not want to sidetrack too much to figure out what’s going on.
On a side note. The music and audio were phenomenal. The screaming of demons being ripped from hell, coupled with the thundering score, made Lord of Hatred shine.
Land of Hatred
A lot of Lord of Hatred takes place in the new region of Sanctuary – Skovos. Skovos is an ancient island to the South-West of the Mainland. With its gorgeous beaches, forests, and volcanoes, it’s filled to the brim with new enemies, dungeons, and secrets, what is there not to love? Oh, did I mention it’s ruled by the Amazons?
Double the Hatred
Unlike Vessel of Hatred, which brought with it only one new class, Lord of Hatred has two. Wield the Holy Light as a Paladin or Command Hell itself as the Warlock.
The Paladin has been available to some players for a little while now, being granted early to anyone who pre-ordered Lord of Hatred.
An order devoted to defending Sanctuary, wield divine justice, restore hope, and strike down evil with immense power through faith. Players can choose a discipline that will mold your playstyle. The Zealot for all-in momentum. The Juggernaut with its Indomitable Defense. The Judicator wields Holy Destruction, or the Arbiter who uses channels the purest form of light to ascend into Angelic form, and with every strike serves divine judgment.
Time to be honest here, with The Paladin already having loads of guides and reviews out, I didn’t touch it. Also, I hate paladins, but shhhh, don’t tell anyone.
The Warlock has been described as the most “Metal” class, and if you know anything about me, there’s one thing in this world I love more than Celine Dion, it’s heavy metal (don’t tell my wife or my cat). So my hands were tied.
The Warlock commands the powers of hell itself through control, possession, and summoning.
Saying it’s a mix of Necromancer and Sorcerer doesn’t do the Warlock justice. You can summon demons and then sacrifice them to increase your power while simultaneously unleashing the flames of hell. Or blend into the shadows and have your enemies fight amongst themselves. I found endless combinations but settled on having the most demons I could summon, and what a treat to behold!
The Skill Trees are Alive with the Sound of Hatred
Not only have Blizzard given us these new classes, but every class has had a skill tree rework.
I’m always skeptical when massive changes are made to core mechanics, especially when it comes to completely changing old builds having to respec.
However, the skill tree update in Lord of Hatred has been a pleasant surprise. It feels more casual friendly.
It’s still laid out with basic, core, defensive, and class-specific abilities; however, each skill is tied up in a nice little packet.
Take the Warlocks’ basic skill Command Fallen. Once you unlock that skill, everything that can enhance or modify that skill is unlocked. You get to choose one modifier and two upgrades per skill. No longer do you need to waste points on skills you’re not going to use to get to that one node you want.
The modifiers and upgrades only require one point, so all your extra points can be spent on making the Abilities stronger.
Respecs are also free and can be done anywhere. So you can change your build on the go when you find that new piece of gear that has a cool new imprint assigned to it.
End Game of Hatred
Another massive update is the overhaul of the endgame. Like all previous installments, the endgame is unlocked once you complete the story.
Now called War Table, the endgame is a customizable experience allowing you to complete different activities to earn rewards to get stronger and take on that next torment level.
Not only does this give you a reason to play all the endgame activities that you might have been avoiding for any reason. The more you play an activity, the more XP you gain to spend on an upgrade tree for that specific activity, increasing rewards even more.
Once you level up enough, you can add more steps to your war table, increasing loot even more!
Performance of Hatred
Even though I was playing an early private build of Lord of Hatred, I didn’t come across any crazy performance issues. Sure, the odd numbers were wrong or there were some bits of missing text, but everything was patched out almost immediately. I did have a weird glitch with transmorg equipping the whole armor set instead of a piece, and there were a couple of instances where interacting with something didn’t register, but these were such small things that didn’t seem to happen again.
Verdict… of Hatred
Lord of Hatred brings with it so much content and changes its going to keep me busy for a very long time. Exploring the mechanics of new classes while slaying hell itself will never get old.
With endless loot and endgame loops, Lord of Hatred will be loved by any fan of Diablo.
The Gamer Social Club was given an early copy of Lord of Hatred for the purpose of this review.
Diablo IV: Lord of Hatred was reviewed on Xbox Series X
Lord of Hatred expansion will be released on April 28th, 2026 and will be available on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox
