Going after other players in Diablo 4’s PvP zones is practically useless right now

In a rather unexpected change, Blizzard has disabled Hatred’s Chosen in Diablo 4 after the developer identified an issue with the game’s PvP. Blizzard didn’t say what the problem was, but did explain that you will no longer get the Hatred’s Chosen buff while in Fields of Hatred.

Hate Fields are designated areas on the Diablo 4 map where players can chase other players. While you can target monsters in those zones, the best rewards come from fighting other players.

If you manage to earn 100 points by killing other players (~10 kills), you become Hatred’s Chosen. This reveals your location in real time for everyone else to see for five minutes. The player who ends your reign is rewarded handsomely, but you’re also incentivized to try and stay alive during the hunt.

As long as you are the Chosen of Hate, you will gain Seeds of Hatred with every hit you land. Seeds of Hatred is the main reward of the zones. But you can’t take Seeds of Hatred out of Fields of Hatred without purifying them in designated Altars of Extraction, which is what makes Hatred’s Chosen the most powerful buff in Fields of Hatred.

If you survive the full five minutes, all of your seeds are immediately purified and turned into red dust, the currency you can use to buy from vendors in the area, etc. This is what makes it worth risking everything to become the Chosen of Hate.

But it won’t be true again until Blizzard can re-enable it. In an announcement about the diablo 4 forums, Blizzard explained that you will still see the UI alert for Hatred’s Chosen, but the buff will not activate. This also means that you will no longer gain seeds with every hit.

“We will work on a fix in a future update and will update the community when this is enabled again after a fix has been submitted,” the developer said.

This obviously means that you shouldn’t bother targeting other players at this point in Fields of Hatred, until the issue is resolved. We expect the big pre-season patch to arrive tomorrow, July 18, so hopefully the patch notes will include a fix for that issue.

If you haven’t already, you should definitely start checking off everything on this list to prepare for Season of the Malignant.