Diablo IV's next expansion isn't far away, with the release date being officially set for October 8, 2024. However, before that happens, players will experience Diablo IV on the PTR (Public Test Realm) from September 4 through September 11. In this version of the PTR, players will experience the new character progression, which has experienced many changes. There are also major updates to the loot system (Sacred items will no longer drop and existing ones will be marked as Legacy items), the Paragon system (all Paragon Levels will be shared across all your characters on the same Realm), and new Difficulty Tiers (Normal, Hard, Expert, and Penitent) that replace the old World Tiers. Then there's the Torment difficulty, which will be tied to progression in the Pit.
Those who choose to participate in the PTR for Diablo IV will also be able to experience the new Class Skills and Passives, the new Paragon Boards (each class receives an extra one), and the brand-new Runeword system.
Runewords are essentially a way for Diablo IV players to craft their own skills. There are two types of Runes called Ritual and Invocation. Runes of Ritual specify the actions you need to take to trigger the Runes into working, whereas Runes of Invocation gives you a powerful effect once you have done the actions to trigger it. For example, BacJah is a Runeword composed of Bac and Jah. The former stipulates that the character gains 50 Offering (a new resource used for Runewords) every 5 meters traveled; the second that upon gathering 500 Offering, the next Evade is replaced with the Sorcerer's Teleport skill.
Indeed, Runewords can provide access to Skills from other Classes, as well as increasing your movement speed and other stuff. There will be 17 Runes of Ritual and 28 Runes of Invocation available at launch. Beware that outside PTR 2.0, Runewords will be exclusive to owners of Vessel of Hatred. The blog post on the Blizzard website details all of the hotfixes and tweaks made to each class.
