[Interview] Released D-1 Lord of Hatred, “It is correct to think of it as 8 new jobs.”

On April 27, 2026, a launch conference for 'Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred' was held at the 'Devil's Door' Brewery in Seocho-gu, Seoul. This event, which was held the day before the game's release, continued with an interview with the Lord of Hatred and an influencer event, 'Kitchen Diablo'.

The event started by saying, "This event was designed to celebrate the Diablo series, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, and to provide an opportunity to learn more about the 'Lord of Hatred'." Hong Chang-eui, head of publishing at Blizzard Entertainment, briefly introduced the path Diablo 4 has taken so far and added that this event, 'Kitchen Diablo', is being planned in three stages so that it can be enjoyed by fans not only in Seoul but also across the country.

Afterwards, a Q&A followed, with a full-blown conversation about the ‘Lord of Hate’. Blizzard's Associate Game Director Zaven Haroutunian, who participated as an interviewee, said, "Lords of Hatred was created based on our team's core philosophy," and added that the goal was to give players a more advanced sense of play than before as they refined their builds and explored Sanctuary.

Director Javen Harotunian then added that after the 'death of Nayrel', which was already revealed through Lord of Hatred, you will be able to experience the story of a wanderer who follows the legacy left behind by Nayrel against the backdrop of the Skovos Islands, which are slowly being brainwashed by Mephisto, a paladin who fights with moderation and faith, and a demonic magician who wields forbidden power.

In addition, Director Javen said that the biggest change through this expansion pack was the reorganization of the ‘Skill Tree’. Previously, it was criticized as a 'skill branch' rather than a 'skill tree', but now a skill tree has been created that can achieve really clear results, and it will also be possible to show more meaningful build customization and job identity.

In addition, 'War Plan', which binds end content, 'Horadrim's Chest', a symbolic system of the Diablo series, and 'Relics and Amulet', which fills in the empty space of set items, were added. Director Zaben said that through these systems, Diablo 4 has realized a much deeper and wider gameplay than before, and that he will continue to listen to gamers' opinions and refine the game into a better game.

Next, an on-site interview was conducted. The questions were composed based on preliminary questions from participating reporters and questions collected from the community.

Compared to the last expansion pack, the narrative and directing have improved a lot. Was there anything you paid more attention to during the planning process?

“This work was very conscious of the core themes: the contrast between heaven and hell; As it is the 4th Diablo game and its 2nd expansion pack, the relationship between Lilith and Mephisto, etc., so we put a lot of effort into highlighting the Sanctuary stage in more detail.

Will the operation of the season after the expansion pack be different from the existing operation method? I’m curious what differences we can expect in the season’s content composition.

“Starting from the first season, season 13 will be a season of adaptation to this new system as a lot of content will be added along with the application of the Lord of Hatred, and separate season content will have a relatively small portion. The small content of this season is temporary, and starting from season 14, we plan to prepare key content as before.

As of now, we predict that war planning will be a core end game, including both season and standard, and we plan to improve this war plan further as the season progresses.

Compared to his appearance in other series, the demon wizard shows the most powerful appearance as he is the most recent. How did you create the difference between the demon masters of the previous series and the demon masters of this work?

“When looking at paladins, both Diablo 2 and 4 have paladins; Because of the time difference, the only thing that needed to be done was to show further improvements in the Demon Master, so we chose to keep only the core concept and show it in a completely different direction.
With the advent of the Skovos system, many people predicted the emergence of the Amazon. Is there a chance Amazon will appear as a playable character?

“There is nothing to say at the moment. However, we are also aware of gamers' opinions that if Amazon does not appear even though Skovos appears, Amazon will never appear. I will tell you as soon as I have more to say as I look at the situation in the future.

Due to the skill tree reorganization, the dungeon reward status has disappeared. Some Aspects have been merged, and most only apply when you acquire an item. Is there a reason for this change? Also, can you tell us the criteria for judging why the phases integrated into the skill tree were integrated?

“Legendary status has two meanings: It strengthens your build, and The purpose of assigning this as a dungeon reward, as before, can be said to be an aspect of build accessibility. If you want to build, start the build by going through the dungeon.

And, the phases included in the skill tree reorganization are those that correspond to this ‘accessibility’. Now, you can secure build accessibility just by taking the skill tree, and if you want to strengthen it further, you have to acquire the phase to strengthen the build as an item.

In this way, I thought that by moving the phase rewards, the pressure of having to go through a certain dungeon to create a build was somewhat relieved. Previously, there was a strange dilemma of having to add a dungeon to add a phase, but this burden has been alleviated by revamping the system.

As the skill tree structure changes, there is a feeling that the dependence on equipment has decreased somewhat. Is there a reason to add item farming power?

“I think the dependence on equipment has changed rather than decreased. Spiritual items and talismans are definitely elements that encourage farming, and Horadrim's Chest is a way to strengthen characters as it is a new system. 'Build accessibility' should be reduced as much as possible, but 'build strength' is the driving force behind farming, so I don't think the farming drive will disappear.

I felt that the set effects of the spirit and talisman were very powerful. What was the intention behind designing the set amulet effects for each class?

“Set effects are designed to be as general-purpose as possible, rather than specific. We designed it so that gamers would not be drawn to a specific build because of the set talisman, and that the talisman would be useful no matter what build they choose.

The set talisman attempted to create visual changes as well as numerical ones. Things like Druids being able to choose companions that weren't available before, or changes in skill mechanics.

I think feedback that it is too strong can only be known by monitoring actual play. However, in this expansion pack, the difficulty level has been significantly subdivided and increased, so I don't think it will be difficult to find the right difficulty level. In addition, unique talismans are just as powerful as set talismans, and new build customization is also possible through unique talismans. By dragging the effects of unique weapons into unique amulets through the Horadric Chest, the build expandability is increased.

Unique items can now be quenched. Why did we introduce this feature that was not supported before?

“The most important thing was player feedback. We periodically look back and review what was good and what was a mistake, and we decided that we could sufficiently introduce unique items through this process. I still think this judgment is correct.

With the war plan, the end content was organized. In the future, new content will be created in seasons and the next expansion pack, but will war plans continue to be the center of content in the future?

“First of all, I believe that the war plan will serve as the basis for end content, so the season There are no plans to weaken this even if it is repeated.

Can you give more specific explanations about the high-end content ‘Echoing Hatred’?

“Echoing Hatred is very, very, very rare content that can be challenged. The admission ticket itself is a very rare drop, and it is a content that involves great risk and equally powerful rewards. Tickets cannot be traded or exchanged, but multiplayer is possible.

Basically, it is content where you have to fight endlessly without stopping. When you enter, you can start the battle by clicking on the object in the center of the stage. If you do not kill the monsters in time, they will pile up to the point where you will be overwhelmed. There are four shrines, but these shrines do not refill, so you have to strategically choose when to use them. The content ends when the player dies or is overwhelmed by too many monsters. For hardcore gamers, it is safe to pile up monsters like this and end the game in order to avoid dying.

A lot of content has been added, but 'fishing' feels like it has a somewhat small role. What is the significance of fishing?

“First of all, I wanted the fishing itself to be fun, and in the free time in between, I spent time with friends. Fishing was added while thinking about what to do while waiting or waiting for the world boss to pop up.

'Consecration' has been added to Horadrim Chest as 'Transformation'. There was a lot of content from other seasons, but was there any particular reason for Castle Castle to be added as official content?

“First of all, the biggest reason for reapplying consecration was player feedback. The reason for changing consecration to transmutation is just a small change that allowed players to enjoy it without discomfort even over multiple seasons. The reason for introducing castles in the first place was to provide satisfaction to gamers while maintaining the power level limit.

In fact, we tried to introduce not only consecration but also other content, and the chaos system in season 10 was also introduced to some extent through spiritual objects and talismans. You can also take a look at some of the previous season's content through the war plan. Even the vampire in season 2 and the butcher in season 12.

It is almost certain that the Demon Sorcerer will be very powerful, so there are questions about its balance with other classes. To what extent is the balance maintained?

“I think it's a concern caused by cases of spiritists. The reason demon magicians are powerful is That's true, but it would be more accurate to think of this expansion pack as 8 completely different new classes, rather than adding 2 jobs to the existing 6 jobs, so I think not only the Demon Sorcerer but all classes have the potential to become OP.

There is no cow level? (real question)

“What?

There are many legends about the Skovos Islands. I think the t-shirt the development team was wearing might be the monster from one of them.