Buy Diablo 4 Items

The many patches released during Diablo 4 Season 14 have greatly improved Mythic Unique system. Even players who are not among the top-tier can now have the opportunity to equip multiple Mythic items. This has not only made already powerful builds even stronger, but also rescued many builds that previously struggled to perform well.

Apocalypse Warlock is one of the builds benefiting from these changes. Its main playstyle revolves around creating massive explosions, and many players enjoy this unique combat style. Let's take a look at its core mechanics and skill setup.

Core Mechanics of Apocalypse Warlock

Apocalypse Warlock is not only excellent for pushing high-tier Nightmare content, but also has impressive mobility in the open world. At Torment 12 difficulty, as long as you continue casting Apocalypse, enemies will be wiped out instantly.

How to Achieve Infinite Apocalypse Casts?

You mainly rely on Umbral Chains and its upgraded variant, Chain Whips. This skill transforms it into a Hellfire skill.

By rapidly hitting large groups of enemies with Chain Whips, you can build stacks for Apocalypse's special upgrade, Annihilation.

Once the stacks are fully charged, you can cast an enhanced version of Apocalypse that deals devastating area damage.

Therefore, additional Attack Speed is extremely important for this build. The faster you throw out your chains, the quicker you can reach 100 stacks of Annihilation and continuously trigger explosions, dealing hundreds of trillions of damage.

Buffs

When playing Apocalypse Warlock, you need to make sure three buffs are active at the same time: Dark Prison, Command Valloch, and Sigil of Subversion.

Sigil of Subversion provides a significant Movement Speed bonus, allowing you to move through dungeons much faster.

Command Valloch provides Overpower stacks while ensuring that you do not run out of health due to Soulshard effect, as Soulshards continuously drain your health unless Command Shield is active. 

Dark Prison slows enemies and provides additional Fortify.

Apocalypse Warlock Skills

Annihilation skill variant is the core of repeatedly casting Apocalypse. It uses Hellfire skills to build stacks, with each stack increasing damage and explosion radius by 40%. It can stack up to 100 times, providing an enormous damage boost. If enemies survive Apocalypse, they take an additional 25% damage.

In addition, when Apocalypse is under Volatility effect, it hits twice. You need to maintain this state at all times, which effectively doubles the damage to 200%.

Command Fallen is the basic skill on your action bar and can be automatically cast. It summons rotating unatics around your character. Since every demon you summon increases your damage by 15% for 20 seconds, the bonus can reach up to 105%.

Apocalypse Warlock does not have outstanding survivability, so you need defensive skills to compensate.

Dark Prison is a defensive skill that weakens enemies, reducing the damage they deal while providing Fortify. It also creates an aura that significantly slows nearby enemies.

Nether Step provides additional Damage Reduction. Whenever you dodge and use Shadow Step, incoming damage is reduced. It is recommended to dodge and then stand still while dealing damage to avoid losing Shadow Form stacks.

Due to the Talisman effects, you need to use all three Sigils. Sigil of Summons summons Hellwyrm. Sigil of Chaos ensures that Volatility state remains active and helps progress Sigil of Chaos effect. Meanwhile, Sigil of Subversion grants 20% bonus movement speed, can be placed at a distance, and features a Hellfire variant.

Apocalypse Warlock Equipment

Apocalypse Warlock's damage relies heavily on equipment, but most gear pieces can be replaced. Even with only Unique items and Legendary items, you can still clear Torment 12. Below are some of the more important Diablo 4 items.

Moloch's Beating Flame is the most important item for this build. Each skill enhanced by Volatility increases your Hellfire skill damage. Casting a Volatility skill also increases your Core Attribute by a large amount.

Since five of your skills are enhanced by Volatility, this usually provides around 200% additional damage. At the same time, your Core Attribute can easily increase by several thousand points, creating a massive damage multiplier from All Attribute scaling. If you have Mythic Unique version, your damage will become even higher.

Harlequin Crest provides +6 ranks to all skills because increasing Apocalypse's skill level as much as possible is extremely important. You can also choose Godslayer Crown, which pulls enemies together and allows your chains to hit more targets at once, helping refresh Apocalypse faster.

Footfalls of the Waning World transforms your dodge into Shadow Step. Whenever you lose or consume a Shadow Form stack, your dodge cooldown is reduced by 1 second. You do not need Mythic Unique version, but its stats should be as high as possible.

Charms

• Berú of the Nameless
• Fer of the Nameless
• Linta of the Nameless
• Mlor of the Nameless
• Phoba of the Nameless
• Scepter of the Three

Nameless set effect increases your damage against all enemies affected by Sigils by 200%. Since Apocalypse can be converted into a Sigil skill, casting Apocalypse allows you to activate and benefit from all the powerful bonuses provided by this set.

Although Apocalypse Warlock is not the strongest Warlock build, the feeling of clearing the entire screen full of enemies with massive explosions is difficult for other builds to replicate. It is highly recommended to give this build a try.

Given the intricate nature of Diablo 4's item and crafting systems, there are numerous crafting materials you need to farm.

Some are used to upgrade gear, while others are for crafting new items; Forgotten Souls serve both purposes. Consequently, they remain highly sought after, even in Season 14, and are required in large quantities.

If you are playing Season 14 and constantly find yourself running short on Forgotten Souls, don't worry, we've put together a detailed farming guide for you!

How can you get Forgotten Souls?

Because they are so useful, Diablo 4 offers several ways to farm Forgotten Souls; they are included as rewards in most endgame events. There are also some special methods to acquire them.

If you prefer not to invest too much time in the tedious farming process, a great alternative is to buy Diablo 4 Forgotten Souls at D4GOLD.com. This allows you to immediately utilize them for crafting and dive faster into more challenging game content.

Salvaging Ancestral Gear

Although Ancestral Legendary gear is quite rare in Diablo 4, if you obtain pieces that don't suit your character or get duplicates, you can take them to The Blacksmith to salvage them.

When gear is salvaged, the game returns materials based on its rarity tier; salvaging Ancestral gear yields Forgotten Souls.

Farming Tree of Whispers Cache Rewards

Tree of Whispers is essentially a special system that issues bounty-style tasks. Accepting and completing these bounties earns you Grim Favors; once you accumulate ten points, you must return to the tree to exchange them for the cache rewards.

These caches come in various types, each offering different rewards. Opening certain Whispers Caches can yield a significant number of Forgotten Souls.

Completing Legion Events

Legion Events become available once you unlock Tree of Whispers. This mechanic spawns Mastery objectives randomly across the world map; you must follow the instructions to complete the objectives and defeat the final boss to earn loot chests and bonus chests.

Clearing Helltides

As the most important method for obtaining Forgotten Souls, Helltide is a recurring endgame event. It operates on a cycle, refreshing every five minutes and lasting for 55 minutes at a time.

Helltides spawn various special enemies, bosses, and mini-events within the affected area. You should clear these challenges to collect a special drop called Aberrant Cinders.

You need a sufficient amount of Aberrant Cinders to open Tortured Gifts found within Helltide zone. If you complete Helltides on Torment difficulty, every gift you open is guaranteed to contain Forgotten Souls.

Other endgame events

Beyond the primary methods mentioned above, other endgame events, such as Infernal Hordes and Undercity of Kurast, can also reward you with Forgotten Souls.

Infernal Hordes functions somewhat like a Helltide; you defeat enemies to collect Burning Aether, which can then be exchanged for various types of Spoils. If your main goal is farming Forgotten Souls, simply exchange your Aether for Spoils of Materials.

Undercity of Kurast is unique because you can offer specific Tributes beforehand to boost the drop quantity of certain types of loot. Your final loot payout depends on your Attunement Rank you achieve through combat.

Farming with War Plans

In Diablo 4 Season 14, you can organize these endgame events into an efficient War Plans list. This not only yields extra Forgotten Souls through War Plan rewards but also allows you to progress Upgrade Trees associated with each event.

These trees feature various nodes that can increase the difficulty or enhance the loot rewards for their respective endgame events, helping you gather resources more efficiently.

How to make the most of Forgotten Souls?

Now that you know how to obtain this item, it is important to understand its purpose so you don't waste it by using it in the wrong places.

Sanctuary is home to many NPCs who provide various services. The Blacksmith, for instance, offers functions such as salvaging, repairing, and tempering.

Most of these services are designed to strengthen or stabilize your gear and require specific crafting materials; Tempering function, specifically, requires Forgotten Souls. Tempering allows you to add an extra affix to your gear.

Once you obtain Tempering Manuals of Magic, Rare, or Legendary rarity through various activities, you can take them to The Blacksmith to begin the tempering process.

Only Ancestral Legendary tier gear requires the use of Forgotten Souls during this process; lower-tier gear relies on Veiled Crystals instead.

Another function of Forgotten Souls, which becomes particularly important in Season 14, is their use in crafting Grand Gems at The Jeweler.

Since their introduction, Horadric Gems and Flawless Horadric Gems have been highly sought after due to the exceptional stat bonuses they provide to gear. Flawless Horadric Gems can only be obtained by upgrading Horadric Gems, which in turn are crafted from Grand Gems.

To make matters more challenging, Grand Gems do not drop directly; crafting a single one requires you to gather vast quantities of gem fragments, gold, and Forgotten Souls.

This means that if you want to acquire a top-tier Flawless Horadric Gem, even just one, you will need to invest a significant number of Forgotten Souls.

We hope this guide helps you realize your dream of amassing a fortune in Forgotten Souls during Diablo 4 Season 14, allowing for a more flexible and enjoyable gaming experience. Have fun!

Diablo 4 Season 14 brings a major overhaul to the gem system. The most noticeable change is that gem dismantling and conversion now incur almost no loss, while gem drop rates have also received a welcome boost. Compared to Season 13, the efficiency of gem farming has improved dramatically.

That said, the top-tier Flawless Horadric Gem still remains a matter of time accumulation; you need a massive quantity of gem fragments to craft even one. Nevertheless, certain strategies can save you considerable time, and with the right approach, you might even obtain one within an hour.

Flawless Horadric Gem Crafting

Flawless Horadric Gem offers the highest stat bonuses among all gems. Its damage multipliers, armor, and primary attributes far surpass those of Grand Gem. To craft a single Flawless Horadric Gem, you require 5 Horadric Gems (equivalent to 25 Grand Gems), which translates to roughly 25 million gem fragments.

A single character can equip multiple gem sockets. Even with Season 14's increased equipment multipliers, outfitting all sockets on one character with Diablo 4 Flawless Horadric Gems still takes a dozen or so hours - and that is assuming you focus exclusively on farming gem fragments.

Escalating Nightmares Dungeon Exploit

An exploit exists within Escalating Nightmares Dungeon that can, under optimal conditions, grant you a Flawless Horadric Gem within just one hour.

Preparation

First, you need to activate any Escalating Nightmares Dungeon. The specific dungeon type does not matter, and the affixes have no bearing on this method.

If you do not have an Escalating Nightmare Sigil on hand, you can craft one in Horadric Cube by combining five regular Nightmare Sigils. The affixes on the sigil are irrelevant; what truly counts are the affixes generated inside the dungeon itself.

The difficulty level at which you start the dungeon does not affect the exploit, but higher difficulties obviously yield better rewards and greater efficiency. Farming on Torment 12 is recommended.

You must unlock Branching Pathways node in Nightmares Dungeon War Plan. This node provides an additional portal option after each floor of the escalating nightmare dungeon is completed, so that you see three portals at the end of every floor. This gives you the chance to select the desired affix from among them.

How to Farm?

Once you enter the escalating nightmare dungeon, your sole objective is to clear the first and second floors as fast as possible. Speed is critical, because you need to roll for a specific third-floor entry affix from the three portals that appear at the end of the second floor.

Since you cannot predict which affix will appear, ignore the sigil's innate affixes and the choice for the second floor. Head straight to the end of the second floor and check the affixes on the three portals.

Sometimes none of the three portals carry the affix you want. In that case, simply leave the dungeon, open another escalating nightmare sigil, and try again. This may take multiple attempts before the desired affix shows up on the third-floor entrance.

The affix you are looking for depends on your current target resource. Keep trying until the one you need appears.

Third Floor

When the ideal affix finally appears, enter that portal and clear almost the entire third floor - but be careful not to kill the floor's final boss. If you kill the boss, the entire exploit breaks.

During the clear, pick up all drops and kill any Treasure Goblins or The Butcher that appear along the way; these are just bonus rewards.

Your primary gains come from the chests. This floor typically contains 7 to 8 chests, and each chest yields around 250,000 fragments of the corresponding gem type (using Ruby fragments as an example).

After emptying all chests and clearing all lesser monsters, leave the boss alive. This is the prerequisite for resetting the entire cycle.

Resetting the Third Floor

Once you have finished clearing the third floor, teleport back to town. Then, on foot, run (or mount) from town to a nearby regular dungeon. The reason you must run there rather than teleport directly is that if you teleport to the nearest dungeon from within town, you have not actually left the town area, and the town portal will not disappear - thus the exploit will not trigger.

Enter that regular dungeon without going deep; just stand at the entrance, open World Map, and switch to the global map of Sanctuary.

On the map, locate Escalating Nightmares Dungeon you have not yet completed, and click to teleport back. You will find yourself back at the start of the third floor, with the map reset to an unexplored state, while all affixes, bonuses, and penalties remain unchanged.

This means you can clear all the chests again, obtain the same quantity of gem fragments, and still leave the boss alive. Repeating this loop grants you a steady supply of the specific gem fragments you need.

War Plans

Even without using this exploit, Escalating Nightmares Dungeon is already one of the most efficient areas for farming gem fragments. You can combine it with War Plan nodes to further boost fragment drops in nightmare dungeons.

Below are the most important nodes for regular gem-fragment farming:

Dread Revival

Enemies slain within the effect duration have a chance to revive. Because elites with stocked affixes drop large quantities of corresponding fragments when they die, this node proves highly valuable.

Recurring Nightmares

Bosses in nightmare dungeons become stronger and drop better loot, and they also have a chance to drop Escalating Nightmare Sigils, enabling a sustainable cycle of regular nightmare dungeon farming.

Breaching Pathways

Provides extra options on each floor, which is equally useful for routine gem farming.

Waking Spoils

Generates an additional chest at the end of a nightmare dungeon, offering a small assortment of gem fragments of various colours and other loot.

Gauntlet

In nightmare dungeons, enemies killed while under the effect of a Shrine have their souls imprisoned within the player. When Shrine effect ends, all imprisoned enemies respawn (except bosses). This effect works on Goblins, The Butcher, elites, and other foes.

Exploiting any glitch carries inherent risks. However, if you are doing this solely for your own character's benefit, the risk remains relatively low - as long as you do not abuse it excessively.

Dear players, Whirlwind Barbarian build in Diablo 4 Season 14 has reached the pinnacle of Bleed build era, delivering 200 trillion Bleeding damage per second, easily crushing The Pit at level 145. This Barbarian build utilizes ingenious synergy between skills to make Aspect of Berserk Rippin almost permanent, resulting in relentlessly stacking Bleeding damage.

Want to know how to achieve this terrifying efficiency with your Bleed Whirlwind Barbarian? Let's break it down!

Core Mechanics

This build uses Barbarian's Whirlwind as its core damage source, capable of dealing up to 200 trillion Bleeding damage per second. 

Furthermore, because Whirlwind has two damage hits per hit, the actual cumulative damage will further stack in actual combat.

This build successfully breaks through level 145 of The Pit. The key innovation lies in reactivating the potential of Aspect of Berserk Rippin and creating a powerful synergy with the core chest armor Rage of Harrogath. 

Whether for speedrunning or pushing higher levels, the Bleed Whirlwind Barbarian set performs exceptionally well in Season 14. 

Even if your Diablo 4 items haven't been sanctified and some affixes aren't optimal, it can easily crush level 135 of The Pit, achieving extremely high progress efficiency - completing half the content within the first minute and completing a level in approximately two minutes.

Powerful Synergy

As mentioned above, the essence of Bleed Whirlwind Barbarian lies in the synergy between Aspect of Berserk Rippin and Rage of Harrogath.

Rage of Harrogath allows characters to significantly reduce Cooldown Reduction time of key abilities such as Wrath of the Berserker when inflicting Damage over Time, while Aspect of Berserk Rippin can inflict additional Bleeding damage on each of your attacks.

The multiple Bleed checks generated by Whirlwind continuously trigger the chest armor's Cooldown Reduction effect, allowing for almost seamless Wrath of the Berserker combos and maintaining high uptime throughout.

Simultaneously, the 1.3x Bleeding damage bonus from Two-Handed Sword Expertise is fully utilized, further amplifying the sustained damage output of Bleed Whirlwind Barbarian.

Furthermore, this build still has room for further development, such as testing whether Damage over Time affix will produce a double dipping effect because of specific multiplicative bonuses, thus further increasing the damage ceiling of this build.

Gear Configuration

The gear configuration used for this Bleed Whirlwind Barbarian build is not fully optimized, but the base strength demonstrated by our build in Diablo 4 is already highly competitive and considerable.

Helmet

Mythic Unique quality Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty is a decent helmet. While its Citical Strike Chance affix isn't essential for Bleed Whirlwind Barbarian set, it's a good match overall.

Chest Armor

Without hesitation, lock in the chest armor as Rage of Harrogath and prioritize enhancing its Damage over Time effect through Masterworking. However, strictly control your Life cap to prevent this chest armor from triggering negative mechanics in Diablo 4 Season 14.

Weapon

For weapons, we can use Ramaladni's Magnum Opus and The Grandfather combination for this Barbarian set. If the weapon's affixes roll Physical Damage, it will provide a significant boost, but the randomness might lead to frequent Fire Damage and other undesirable attributes.

Amulet

Amulet uses the renowned Melted Heart of Selig to balance the survivability and damage output of Bleed Whirlwind Barbarian build.

Other Slots

For boots and rings, players can pursue the 25% damage bonus affix, as well as the Legendary aspect, which is more suitable for Damage over Time build. This Bleed Whirlwind Barbarian build uses Aspect of Channeling on these slots, which is quite effective, but players can continue to explore for better solutions.

Skill Usage

Our core damage skill is Whirlwind, but you must also use Aspect of Anger Management to ensure Barbarian's Berserking state is constantly active for a powerful buff.

War Cry, Challenging Shout, and Wrath of the Berserker form a buff rotation. Challenging Shout can be replaced with Weaken depending on your needs at higher levels, but Movement Speed ​​is often preferred for speed runs.

Regarding the choice of stat, we do not need to use a stat that can prolong the duration of Berserking state, because Fury Generation would be a better choice to better cooperate with Cooldown Reduction mechanism of Full Throttle and Rage of Harrogath to form a smooth energy cycle.

Paragon Board Setup

Players can use Exploit on the starter board, followed by Carnage Legendary Node with Marshal, Twister with Blood Rage, and Warbringer with Wrath. Add Might to further enhance the damage of Bleed Whirlwind Barbarian.

This will essentially bring your Whirlwind, Fury, and Life stats to a high standard, meeting the survivability requirements of this build.

Gameplay Tips

Take this Bleed Whirlwind Barbarian build to Diablo 4 Season 14 battlegrounds, and you'll find it still delivers overwhelming clearing efficiency against monsters up to level 135.

Whirlwind's Dust Devils, resembling a tornado, automatically track enemies and apply Bleed, instantly stacking trillions of damage over time even with a single hit.

Then, utilizing Teleport runes to traverse walls and terrain obstacles significantly optimizes routes and progress gains when dealing with groups of ranged monsters.

During boss fights, Bleeding damage escalates over time, exceeding 300 trillion damage per hit, allowing for extremely short boss battles.

It's normal for Progress Orbs to occasionally drop during speedruns; simply kill nearby monsters quickly and pick them up again, without affecting the overall smoothness of this Barbarian build.

This Bleed Whirlwind Barbarian build once again provides Barbarian class and players with a powerful option that combines speedrunning and pushing higher levels, showcasing the immense potential of combining Whirlwind and Bleed mechanics in Diablo 4!