With the Vessel of Hatred expansion, Diablo 4’s classes can once again focus more on their ultimate abilities. This brings a new change by allowing skill ranks to be increased, providing players with more customization options for their powerful abilities.
In the first expansion of Diablo 4, Vessel of Hatred, all classes will receive a brand new ability. The Necromancer, in particular, will gain access to a new ultimate skill. Ultimates are very powerful abilities with long cooldowns, but their effectiveness has been limited because their ranks could not be increased—until now.
According to Blizzard’s developers in the PTR patch notes, players can now strengthen their ultimate abilities in the Vessel of Hatred expansion by adding additional ranks. This change gives players the opportunity to make their ultimates even more powerful than before.
Additional Ranks for Ultimate Skills Introduced for the First Time
From the patch notes for Vessel of Hatred:
- Ultimate skills can now have additional ranks. You can invest up to 5 skill points into your ultimate skill, and there are now bonus ranks available for these skills. However, the limit of one ultimate skill per class still remains. Additionally, any bonuses to all skill ranks (such as those from the Harlequin Crown) will now only apply to the ultimate skill you have learned.
Special items allow you to add bonus ranks to certain skills. The Harlequin Crest is especially powerful, as this mythic unique item grants +4 ranks to all skills of your class by default.
To prevent creating overpowered builds, items like the Harlequin Crest will only boost the ranks of your active ultimate ability.
This change opens the door for some exciting new builds. For example, the Necromancer’s popular Bone Storm ability, or the Soulrift, could become even more important with these adjustments. It’s possible that Necromancers will also have access to the new ultimate, Soulrift, which could make for even more powerful builds.