Glyphs Reworked for Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred and Season 6 – Everything You Need to Know

All the updates coming to Vessel of Hatred and Season 6, like Runes and Runewords and the new level cap and progression system are big news — and rightly so! But don’t sleep on the changes coming to Glyphs — they’re just as important, if not more so, to the progression of player power.

Glyphs Explained

The current system of Glyphs and Glyph experience has players spending a considerable portion of their leveling experience slogging through Nightmare Dungeon after Nightmare Dungeon, leveling their specific Glyphs up to Level 21 for the expanded radius they provide.

It’s a simple but tiring affair, especially if you change your Paragon Board setup halfway through the season; thankfully, however, that experience is being optimized.

So, to recap:

Glyphs Are Becoming More Powerful

First and foremost, the maximum level of Glyphs has been increased from level 21 to 100. Glyph radius now increases twice at both rank 15 and 46, and at Level 46, a Rare Glyph can be upgraded into Legendary status using Gem Fragments. This means the size of their radius increases from 4 to 5 and they gain a multiplicative stat bonus.

While the balance around Gem Fragments becoming a currency remains to be seen, the stat bonus that was featured in the Campfire Chat was a 21% increase to Critical Strike Damage – so it will certainly be worth it to upgrade the rarity of Glyphs!

Blizzard provided images during the livestream that demonstrate the difference in Glyph Radius between the three different tiers. For example, Glyphs starting out as Rare at rank 1 will have a radius of 3, while Glyphs at ranks 15 and 46 will have radii of 4 and 5, respectively.

Note: Blizzard mentioned during the video showcase that the image for the Level 21 Glyph is incorrect, i.e., it should be Level 15.

How to Level Glyphs in Vessel of Hatred and Season 6

With Glyphs now being leveled (to rank 100) exclusively through Pit runs, the leveling process is set to become more demanding than before. Before we get into the trenches on discussing this new process, it’s worth mentioning that what follows is not set in stone.

The Season 6 PTR starts in less than a week and all of these changes can be tested and given feedback on. If anything’s true for Diablo 4 development at this point, it’s that the team is looking for your concerns – and has acted on many points of feedback to change mechanics and processes within the game.

Diablo 4 Patch 2.0 PTR Starts September 4 – Here’s What You Need to Know

Let’s start with the good news first. Glyphs will no longer have experience. Instead, the upgrade process involves increasing their rank. Completing Pit Tiers gives players attempts to increase their Glyph’s rank. However, it’s a little unclear how exactly those attempts are being calculated or influenced.

We do know:

At first glance, this system seems more complicated to explain than it is to carry out in-game. Any criticism of its initial design would have to consider that it’s largely going to be more forgiving than the Tempering and Masterworking systems, which have previously been criticized for their rigid unforgiving nature, to which Blizzard made adjustments.

In either case, Blizzard has provided an example of what this process looks like.

What do you think — will this system be a hit? Let us know in the comments below!