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As is well known, the returning Capstone Dungeons have been redesigned in Diablo 4 Season 11, becoming key to advancing through Season Journey.

These Capstone Dungeons are essentially special high-level dungeons, acting as gatekeepers to higher difficulty levels. You must complete these dungeons to unlock Torment Difficulty Tier.

Capstone Dungeon

Five Capstone Dungeons have been added in Season 11, each with unique mechanics and highly challenging boss battles. Completing them yields substantial rewards, such as unlocking the next Season Rank, additional Diablo 4 gold, Paragon Points, Skill Points, and better loot.

• Vault of the Crucible
• Hellish Descent
• Enclave of Darkness
• Den of the Apostate
• Breach of Sin

It's worth noting that the monsters in these dungeons are of fixed and high level, regardless of the player character's actual level, making them a challenging test of your character's build strength.

Here, we'll focus on showing you how to complete your first Capstone Dungeon: Vault of the Crucible. This dungeon is the gateway to unlocking the second tier of your Season Journey. Unlocking new Season Ranks is crucial because, unlike other seasons, in S11 you need to complete this objective to gain extra skill points. Without further ado, let's take a look at this Capstone Dungeon.

How To Enter Vault Of The Crucible?

First, you need to open Season Rank system from the menu. On the right, you'll see a prompt to complete Vault of the Crucible, your first Capstone Dungeon. Click the yellow icon, and you'll be automatically teleported to the dungeon.

Enter The Gatehall, defeat Master Executioner and his minions, then go through the portal to the first floor.

Floor 1: Savage Path

Savage Path is a simple level. You just need to find and defeat all the elite monsters marked with red skull icons, collecting the Animus Carriers from their bodies. Don't worry, the map is small, so you shouldn't have to spend much time completing the objective.

Once you've collected all the Animus Carriers, place them in Animus Urn. Then continue along the newly opened path, where you'll encounter your first boss - Demonic Automaton, a giant scorpion.

After defeating the scorpion, you can proceed to the next level; the exit is located in the northeast corner of the map.

Note that there is a red flame barrier there; you cannot pass through it unless you step on the golden circles that cool you down. This leads to the key mechanics of the second level.

Floor 2: Scorching Furnace

Step on the circles to enter the second level, where you will officially arrive at Scorching Furnace.

Here, you'll find the ground scorching, so you need to step on all the golden circles as you move forward. During this process, you also need to defeat three elite monsters called Barrier Wardens to continue.

• The first is located at the top after entering the level.
• The second is almost in the middle of the map.
• The last is located in the southeast corner of the map.

After defeating all three Barrier Wardens, you can find the exit by heading to the northeast corner of the map. These elite monsters are quite difficult, so it is recommended that you buy Diablo 4 items with better defensive affixes before starting to avoid accidental death and wasting your progress.

Floor 3: Curator's Forge

This last floor combines all the elements encountered so far, meaning you'll need to fight enemies while navigating through golden circles on the map to reach the northern part. Then, you'll need to fill a progress bar; once completed, simply keep heading north until you find the exit. You'll eventually reach the boss fight area, called Curator's Forge.

As before, you'll need to fight while stepping on golden circles to avoid being burned. You can also try standing on ice pillars to gain Ice Aegis, a 10-second buff that allows you to pass through flame barriers in the dungeon and provides damage over time reduction.

Curator boss here has a large-area attack that can deal fatal damage. However, you can dodge it by standing in the gaps between green pillars of light, or if possible, by getting behind him before he attacks to completely avoid the attack.

When Curator's health drops to about half, Demonic Automaton boss you encountered on the first floor will also appear. So you'll need to fight two bosses simultaneously. However, I recommend dealing with Demonic Automaton first, then Curator, as the latter is much more difficult and harder to defeat. Insisting on dealing with Curator first might lead to being surrounded.

Once you defeat Curator, you've completed Vault of the Crucible Capstone Dungeon. You can then unlock Rank II and continue to the next objective.

Rewards

Finally, upon completing Vault of the Crucible, in addition to accessing Season Rank 2, you'll receive some other valuable rewards to upgrade your character, including:

• 2 Skill Points
• Lesser Player Title
• Emissary Player Title
• Rank I Capstone Cache
• Archetype Cache
• 1 Smoldering Ash

This concludes the complete guide to the first Capstone Dungeon in Diablo 4 Season 11 - Vault of the Crucible. Overall, this dungeon isn't particularly difficult; as long as you master the techniques outlined in this guide, you can easily complete it and obtain better rewards in Season Journey.

Diablo 4 development team claimed they would surprise players at 2025 TGA, and they truly delivered. They not only announced the next DLC, Lord of Hatred, at TGA, but also introduced a new class for Season 11: Paladin.

Each DLC release brings significant changes to Diablo 4's gameplay. The official information regarding Lord of Hatred will be revealed gradually over the next few months, but let's first take a look at what this expansion pack brings.

Benefits Of Pre-ordering Lord Of Hatred

Lord of Hatred is currently available for pre-order. Only players who unlock it can play as Paladin in Season 11, and this will also directly unlock the 2024 DLC, Vessel of Hatred. This means that if you pre-order Lord of Hatred, you can experience 7 classes in Season 11!

Story Recap

Looking at the content of the past few seasons, the war between angels and demons in Sanctuary has intensified. The root of all this lies with Lilith and Inarius, the creators of Sanctuary, and each harbors a twisted plan.

Lilith's goal extends beyond granting power to humans, and her true intention is to devour her own father, Mephisto, Lord of Hatred, to seize his power. At the time, Mephisto was being reborn in Hell, weakened. The key to thwarting Lilith's plot is a wanderer who has drunk demon blood - the player-controlled protagonist.

Mephisto, too, has his own schemes. He sends his messenger to help Wanderer stop Lilith. Although the team tries to avoid making a deal with the devil, they are ultimately forced to accept.

Wanderer ultimately defeats Lilith, and Neyrelle, a member of the team, decides to seize the opportunity to bury Lord of Hatred completely. However, acting alone, she is quickly corrupted by Mephisto's corruption. Fortunately, Wanderer finds her and helps her resist the corruption.

Together, they find Tomb of Akara, the final resting place of the holy prophet. This was originally a prison from which Mephisto might never escape. Although Wanderer defeats Mephisto's messenger, Mephisto himself escapes and enters a new vessel - the body of the prophet Akarat (Vessel of Hatred storyline).

Thus, Lord of Hatred walks the lands of Sanctuary as the false prophet, and the upcoming storyline will culminate in Lord of Hatred DLC.

Confirmed Content

Lord of Hatred expansion introduces the new Paladin class, whose skill tree offers three enhancements to each skill, potentially indicating the direction for skill reworks in other classes. The official announcement also confirms that the expansion includes two new classes, with the next class to be released in April along with the expansion pack.

New Area

A new two-minute trailer has been released, showcasing some of the updated content. The expansion will also add a new area called Skovos Isles and a new campaign. This new area is Lilith and Inarius, the birthplace of human civilization.

This area was originally planned for Diablo III, but due to its art style being somewhat similar to Titan Quest, the decision was shelved. However, the development team has revived this area in Diablo IV.

Skovos Isles are currently ruled by a prophet and an Amazon Queen. If the new class in the DLC is related to this region, it might be a class like Hunter or Amazon.

New Features

The highly requested Horadric Cube will return in Lord of Hatred. First appearing in Diablo 2, it has many uses, including crafting equipment and resetting item affixes. While its role in Diablo 4 is currently unknown, it will likely be integrated with the current crafting system.

Additionally, the developers have confirmed the addition of loot filters to help players more efficiently locate target equipment from the massive loot drops, complementing the crafting system and collecting common quality base items.

New Skill Tree

The current skill tree in Diablo 4 is rather rudimentary, with only two upgrade paths per skill, but Paladins have three. This is the direction the developers intend to take for the skill tree rework.

Lord of Hatred will bring a completely new skill tree, with each skill offering more diverse upgrade paths, creating a vast array of build combinations. Additionally, skill enhancements may include transformation options that fundamentally change skills, such as Sorcerer's Ball Lightning potentially transforming into a Fireball. The current Enhancement system and passives may be integrated into the new skill tree.

The development team hopes to shift the core definition of build crafting toward the skill tree rather than legendary and unique Diablo 4 items, allowing gear to play a more supportive rather than essential role, thus providing more flexible and diverse deck-building possibilities.

Talisman System

A new Talisman system will be added, possibly similar to Idol system in Last Epoch or Charm system in Diablo II, to provide additional set bonuses or ability combinations.

Endgame Content

A new endgame system called War Plans will be added, perhaps somewhat similar to Atlas tree in PoE series, allowing users to customize the endgame events they want to participate in. Each event is expected to have its own smaller skill trees for customizing and enhancing gameplay.

Another new mode is being added called Echoing Hatred. This is likely a bullet hell endless mode, possibly inspired by Echoing Nightmares in Diablo 3. Mechanically, it may involve fighting increasingly powerful waves of monsters and includes an overwhelm mechanic, and failure to clear monsters quickly will result in failure.

Finally, and most importantly, fishing will be available in the waters of Sanctuary. This is not only relaxing but may also yield some particularly valuable items.

Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred is highly anticipated for both its story and new content, and it may bring about a complete transformation for Diablo 4.