With only 3 days left until release, all content for Diablo 4 Season 13 and Lord of Hatred has finally been officially revealed! Not only is there new content, but also significant optimizations to several regular mechanics!

While some new features are exclusive to Lord of Hatred owners, systemic changes are available to all Diablo 4 players, such as adjustments to the skill trees.

Different classes have different available skills and related builds, and this update includes further adjustments for Druid and Necromancer beyond the main changes.

Therefore, regardless of which class you want to play in Season 13/LoH, you must understand these changes to ultimately master the best skill tree setup and build crafting strategies. Below is a detailed guide.

What is the skill tree?

The skill tree is a progression system in Diablo 4 that allows you to unlock and upgrade active, passive, and ultimate skills using points earned during leveling.

While the system stops leveling your character after they reach the level cap, with Paragon board taking over, skills are the foundation of your crafting character and builds and cannot be replaced.

General changes to the skill tree

Season 13's skill tree changes can be divided into generic and Druid/Necromancer-specific changes, but the actual impact of these generic changes varies across different skill tree classes.

Firstly, all skill trees have been redesigned with reset/addition options, while existing passive skill nodes have been moved out, becoming more associated with legendary aspects or unique items.

To fill this gap, some legendary aspects that were previously similar to skills have been moved into the skill tree.

Based on this, you can think of the reworked Diablo 4 skill tree as primarily driven by active skills, with each active skill having three branches that can be unlocked by leveling up the skill itself.

The first two branches provide general trainer effects, while the last one introduces three additional variants, which may be based on legendary aspects or offer entirely new surprises!

These variations can even directly change skill categories, making it easier to create synergies with the corresponding types of effects from your acquired gear.

It's important to note that only two of the three skill variations offered by the third branch can be unlocked and used without Lord of Hatred. To maximize the impact of this new mechanic, it's best to acquire the new expansion immediately!

Overall, these changes strengthen the skill system through branches and variations while streamlining it through additions and removals, making skill unlocking and combination more efficient.

This way, even during the early stages of a season, when rare gear is scarce, you can leverage the skill tree to craft simple yet reliable builds, allowing you to farm more Diablo 4 gold than you could at the same stage in previous seasons.

It's also worth mentioning that, perhaps to better complement the new skill tree, the character level cap has been raised to 70 starting with Season 13, allowing you to gain more skill points.

Druid additional changes

In addition to the general changes mentioned above, Druid and Necromancer have received "extra attention."

As you know, Druid is a class that can gain different benefits through transformation. With this in mind, the game has added additional node switching functionality to some Druid skills.

More specifically, you can switch between different transformation forms at any time between the second and third branches as needed, simply by changing skill points, and this switching requires no consumption.

Of course, switching Druid nodes isn't without its limitations, as that would disrupt class balance. For example, some skills cannot be applied to multiple forms, or cannot be used to transform into a human based on the native Werewolf/Werebear skills.

Necromancer additional changes

This class includes multiple skill types: blood, bone, darkness, and summoning magic, and can utilize the unique mechanic, Book of the Dead.

This mechanic allows you to customize your minions' abilities and deployment methods, using them to deal more damage. Available minion types include skeletal warriors/mages and golems.

Each type of minion has two different upgrade paths and a sacrifice option. Sacrifice results in losing the minion but gaining permanent buffs.

Based on this, the new skill tree system incorporates these three types of minions, while the original Book of the Dead remains largely unchanged, but sacrifice can be used with minions active due to the corresponding skill.

As for the sacrifice skill itself, while it reduces the number of minions and damage, it's still quite effective for some support functions.

Detailed changes to the other 6 classes

Paladin is the only class that provides three enhancement options for each skill at the end of the skill tree, and most of the new variants are derived from these enhancement designs.

Based on this, the actual changes to Paladin are not significant; only some modifiers are entirely new. However, considering it's still a new class, this is quite normal.

After the Barbarian skill tree was reworked, you can specialize it to be more focused on single-target or AoE damage based on your preferences and needs. Many skill variants allow you to trigger fire damage more frequently.

As for Rogue, besides various new nodes and variants, the most prominent change to this class's skill tree is that Dance of Knives has been reworked and become a core skill.

One variant of this skill now directly replaces the throwing knife thrown while spinning with a grenade. This not only effectively turns it into a grenade skill but also gives it new synergies and more combo possibilities.

The core of Sorcerer skill tree changes lies in elemental switching, giving almost every skill the ability to switch elements. While this isn't unique to Sorcerer, the class does have many unique elemental synergy mechanisms.

Spiritborn, on the other hand, combines the reworked skill variant mechanics with a mix of Spirit Skill Tags, allowing skills to interact more deeply with the class's core mechanics, making Spiritborn skill system feel more cohesive.

As for Warlock, it's a completely new class that will only be available after Lord of Hatred opens, so the skill tree rework doesn't bring changes to it, but rather represents a completely new system.

In short, mastering the skills and skill tree setup of your chosen class will allow you to level up your character faster in the early season, complete progression, and lay a solid foundation for endgame. Wishing you all the best on your Season 13/LoH journey!

Following the images shared in subscriber emails and a standalone Shorts teaser released three or four days prior, ARC Raiders finally delivered a new, 30-second Riven Tides teaser on April 24th.

Judging by the release schedule for the previous Flashpoint update, ARC Raiders will probably release one final, longer official trailer, showcasing even more details, on the day Riven Tides launches: April 28th.

In contrast, this latest teaser maintains the vintage film documentary aesthetic seen previously, offering further glimpses of the new map.

Below, we will provide a detailed breakdown of this latest teaser's content and use it as a basis to speculate on ARC Raiders' future plans.

April 24th teaser content

Although the teaser runs for 30 seconds, the actual footage containing new visuals lasts only about 20 seconds, a common trait among game teasers.

The video opens with a concise text log in the bottom-left corner, indicating that the subsequent footage is sourced from Scout Report 0057 (echoing a text-based report of the same name previously released by the developers). The log notes the detection of an unknown ARC threat within Riven Tides sector.

Following the text log, the visuals shift, presented as a flashback, to reveal glimpses of various distinct areas within the map. A common thread runs through them all: a state of decay, yet one where massive ruins silently attest to the glories of the past.

First, you can spot a flock of birds in the distance alongside a large tower-like structure of some kind; next, a massive concrete edifice comes into view, standing sentinel at the water's edge.

Additionally, the footage reveals several metallic structures or buildings with a distinct reddish hue. Immediately thereafter, the camera cuts to a close-up of that colossal, distinctly industrial-style building. Finally, you catch a glimpse of the shipyard area.

Compared to all previous trailers or articles related to Riven Tides, the new footage in this teaser focuses more heavily on showcasing the industrialized sections of the new map, rather than the hotel complex, which is expected to serve as the map's central POI.

To be honest, this new teaser doesn't offer a massive amount of new information. However, the opening text log does allow us to tentatively confirm that the name of the new map is indeed Riven Tides.

Furthermore, these industrialized zones, each featuring unique interior layouts, are almost certain to become key battlegrounds in the game moving forward. Buried inside, there may be many rare ARC Raiders blueprints.

Further speculation on other new content

Based on the information currently available, save for a few minor details, the general layout of the new map can already be largely pieced together.

Consequently, the true mystery at this stage lies in the new ARC and map events, regarding which there have been virtually no leaks.

However, regarding the new ARC, previous trailers allow us to make an initial guess that it will be a flying-type enemy; furthermore, the game's roadmap, released early this year, indicated that it would also be a large-scale ARC.

It is worth noting that this new enemy should be distinct from Assessor introduced in Flashpoint update. While the latter is also a massive aerial apparatus, it is incapable of launching direct attacks itself.

In contrast, the new enemy appearing in Riven Tides will, much like Queen or Matriarch, pose a direct, lethal threat to you, with its aerial capabilities potentially granting it additional tactical advantages!

Among the flying-class enemies currently known in ARC Raiders, aside from a few exceptions with high damage output, most are primarily characterized by their agility and swarm-attack behaviors; however, this new addition may well shake up that dynamic.

Of course, its massive size virtually guarantees that this new enemy won't be particularly agile; however, it can leverage the vertical distance between the ground and the sky to gain unique advantages. Nevertheless, players will undoubtedly devise effective countermeasures in short order.

As for the new map events, they will naturally be centered around Riven Tides map; furthermore, we speculate that they may be linked to some form of extreme weather phenomenon.

The weather conditions that have appeared in various events thus far include cold snaps, hurricanes, and lightning strikes; consequently, the new event may very well be water-related, after all, Riven Tides is a coastal-themed map.

Given that Raiders are human, and that no ARCs appear to possess deep-diving capabilities, it remains difficult to predict exactly what form these new map events will take; however, one thing is certain: they must offer a fresh and novel experience.

Potential additional content

With almost every update release, ARC Raiders tends to introduce content that wasn't originally on the schedule, or new missions that, while never explicitly listed, are consistently added to the game.

Therefore, beyond the confirmed map events, the new ARC, and the new Expedition Window, we can expect several additional missions to go live alongside this update.

These missions are typically not difficult to complete, and they may require you to traverse the new map extensively, thereby helping you familiarize yourself with the terrain.

Furthermore, though the likelihood is slim, we cannot rule out the possibility that Riven Tides will introduce some form of new gadget or device that can be acquired and crafted. Perhaps this will serve as your secret weapon for tackling the new map events!

What will come after Riven Tides?

As you may recall, in the roadmap released at the beginning of the year, ARC Raiders, specifically through its Escalation program, only outlined its update schedule for the period spanning January through April; Riven Tides marks the final installment of that initial lineup.

Now, with a multitude of similar games launching or receiving updates of their own, you might be wondering what new surprises ARC Raiders has in store for you over the coming eight months as we look ahead to 2026.

Although ARC Raiders has yet to reveal its plans for the immediate future, we anticipate that they will make an announcement once Riven Tides update cycle is roughly halfway complete. After all, if a game ceases to receive updates, it is quickly forgotten by its player base.

However, given that the first four updates have already introduced a substantial amount of new content, ARC Raiders might instead opt to use these updates to bring the first half of the year to a smooth conclusion, reserving any further update announcements for the end of June.

That wraps up our breakdown of the new teaser, along with our predictions and speculations regarding future developments for ARC Raiders. We hope this helps you plan your gaming schedule!