A fresh Diablo IV PC bug report says the Vessel of Hatred side quest The Scales of History can no longer be completed because it asks players to hand over an Elixir of Shadow Resistance. The problem? Lord of Hatred removed elixirs, meaning players who do not already have one sitting around may have no way to craft the required item.
An old quest meets a new system change
This is not the usual “monster stuck in a wall” bug. This is more interesting, and honestly more annoying in a design-archaeology sort of way.
The quest appears to belong to the previous Vessel of Hatred content, but Lord of Hatred has changed the surrounding systems. If the quest still checks for an old elixir while the game no longer lets players create that elixir, the quest becomes a little museum exhibit of outdated mechanics. Very educational. Completely useless if you want the quest finished.
The issue may only hit players without old elixirs
The report specifically says the quest is blocked unless the player already has an existing Elixir of Shadow Resistance from before the system change. That distinction matters. If someone kept old elixirs in their inventory or stash, they may be able to get through it. If not, the quest may be stuck asking for a ghost item.
That makes this a weird edge-case bug, but not a harmless one. Side quests are the sort of content players often clean up later, especially after big expansions pull them back into the game. Being punished because you did not hoard a now-removed consumable is peak RPG inventory comedy, except the joke is on your completion log.
Lord of Hatred’s cleanup list keeps growing
Diabloz has already covered Blizzard’s Hotfix 4 changes, including the removed Pit/Tower portal, the Nemesis exploit fix, and another progression blocker getting patched. This Scales of History report is a smaller issue, but it belongs to the same launch-week theme: one system changes, another system complains from the basement.
It also shows why old quest content can be tricky after major overhauls. Removing or replacing a system is one thing. Making sure no quest, NPC, cache, reward, or ancient fetch objective still depends on that system is the real dungeon.
The fix should be simple, at least on paper
If the report is accurate, Blizzard has a few obvious options. Replace the required item, auto-complete that step, make the NPC accept a modern equivalent, or bring back a limited quest-specific way to obtain the old elixir.
Until then, players trying to finish The Scales of History may want to check whether they already have an Elixir of Shadow Resistance before chasing the quest too far. If the game asks for one and your stash is empty, you may not be missing a vendor. You may be staring at a quest that forgot time moved on.
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