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While Diablo 4 is the fourth installment in a great series, it has been compared to other games in the same genre since its release. The general consensus among players is that Diablo 4 is an excellent ARPG, but not the best.

More than two years have passed since its release, and Diablo 4 has undergone many changes, even adding a new class, Paladin, in Season 11. Many players have praised Season 11, so is Diablo 4 worth playing in 2026?

Leveling Up Stage

Diablo 4 excels among all ARPGs in its leveling up and new player tutorials. This is because players have many choices from the start.

You can choose to experience the campaign story with beautiful cutscenes (which they've always excelled at), or jump straight into the opens world for free exploration.

During leveling up, you can conquer Strongholds, participate in Legions events, challenge World Bosses, and experience various dynamic events. Helltides events, which occur every hour, are filled with random events and dense enemy encounters, and are a major source of enjoyment and the primary method for players to level up.

While the developers adjusted the difficulty of monsters in Season 11, they weren't as powerful as in Path of Exile, and they simply returned to their expected level and didn't significantly interfere with the leveling experience.

Early Endgame Stage

When players reach around level 60 and begin accumulating Paragon Points and challenging Torment Ranks, they enter the early endgame phase. At this point, the core activities can be summarized into four main categories (although there are others):

• The Pit: Used to upgrade Glyphs.
• Nightmare Dungeons: Acquire equipment and items like Diablo 4 gold.
• Infernal Horde: Provides XP, equipment, and materials.
• Kurast Undercity: Farming Runes.

These activity systems provide players with ways to obtain materials and equipment, and the overall process is smooth. From the start of leveling to experiencing the early endgame content, experienced players may only need one to two days. While these activities lack sufficient variability and room for modification, the player experience remains good at this stage.

Deep Endgame Stage

However, once the player character is fully developed and enters the true endless farming phase, Diablo 4's current endgame content lack reveals a significant weakness, which is precisely why Diablo 4 lacks competitiveness compared to similar games.

The core gameplay loop in the late game is extremely monotonous: either constantly challenging higher levels of The Pit to level up glyphs to 100 to test the character's limits, or collecting materials, summoning Lair Bosses (which generally don't survive more than 10 seconds), and then checking the loot. This cycle repeats endlessly, switching between different bosses.

The occasional World Bosses are insufficient to break this monotonous loop, constituting the entirety of the current Diablo 4 Season 11 late-game content, which is undoubtedly a weak point that needs improvement.

Diablo 4 needs a deep endgame experience similar to Atlas in Path of Exile or Monolith of Fate in Last Epoch, allowing players to customize their goals and immerse themselves in long-term gameplay. If the developers could add existing gameplay elements to a system like Atlas in exchange for improved endgame content in 2026 update, it would be well worth it.

Crafting System

Besides new classes, the biggest change in Season 11 is the significant overhaul of the crafting system, making it almost entirely deterministic, retaining only the final step's randomness.

If you want to craft a piece of equipment with two Greater Affixes, you first need to add a Legendary Aspect to the equipment, then add sockets through a jeweler- both are guaranteed to succeed.

You can choose to reforge an undesirable affix until you get the desired attribute, then use Temper to select and add a new affix from the provided affix library. Although one less affix is manually added compared to previous seasons, the overall strength remains essentially unchanged due to the increased affix count of items.

Masterworking allows you to progressively upgrade gear quality, with the chance to upgrade common affixes to Greater Affixes.

Sanctifying gear is the only non-deterministic step. After sanctification, all item attributes are locked, but a comprehensive stat boost is granted, with a chance to upgrade multiple affixes to Greater Affix level.

Through this series of steps, you can transform an initially ordinary piece of gear into a top-tier item with multiple Greater Affixes. This highly controllable crafting system further reduces the game's difficulty, allowing players to almost always craft the gear they need by the endgame.

While some would prefer more randomness, the current system is actually quite reasonable. However, Sanctification is a seasonal mechanic for Season 11, disappearing after the season ends, much like Chaos Armor in Season 10.

Retaining Sanctification and Chaos Armor as endgame content would be a great option, allowing players to strategically cultivate their gear in the endgame.

Is It Worth Playing?

Overall, Diablo 4 Season 11 continues to excel in its core gameplay and social co-op aspects, performing almost as well as Season 10 and well worth your time.

However, its shortcomings cannot be ignored. Besides the lack of endgame content, the current skill and build options for each class remain limited, restricting character build diversity and exploration enjoyment. Diablo 4 needs a deeper, more expansive skill tree or similar system to truly allow players to build their characters.

Encouragingly, the developers have revealed future update plans, including expanding the skill tree, adding fishing gameplay, more boss battles, a new endgame system, and classes for the next DLC. This indicates they are moving in the right direction.

Diablo 4 Season 11's performance proves the game is on the rise. If you're willing to enjoy a 1 to 2-week in 2026 start, enjoyable journey with friends, now is a great time to return.

After reaching level 60 with your leveling build, you enter endgame content, but this is only the beginning. You still need to level up and boost your Paragon level.

In previous seasons, you could continue using your leveling build to farm The Pit or Nightmare dungeons for leveling, but this isn't the most efficient method in Season 11. The latest leveling meta strategy is farming bosses.

Current XP Gain Status

In previous seasons, the core strategy for gaining XP in endgame was to farm a large number of monsters. The main methods were farming The Pit, Nightmare dungeons, or Helltide. However, this method has been significantly weakened in Season 11, with XP gained from The Pit almost halved.

On the other hand, the official XP gain from defeating bosses has been significantly increased, and bosses no longer have invincibility during phase transitions. This means that if your damage is high enough, you can complete a kill in about a minute, making boss farming the meta strategy for XP acquisition in Season 11.

If done correctly, leveling from level 0 to Paragon Level 300 can ideally take only about 25 hours, and even without peak efficiency, 2 to 3 days is enough to reach the maximum level.

Optimal XP Farming Strategy

Of all the bosses, Lair Boss Urivar is the most efficient for XP gain, as a single kill grants nearly 30 million XP. This is equivalent to the rewards from some higher-level bosses, such as Duriel and Andariel, and some other bosses offer even less XP.

However, this doesn't mean Urivar offers the most XP. Bosses like Uber Lilith and Azmodan offer even more XP, so why not choose them? This brings us to Urivar's other advantages.

While Duriel provides similar experience points to Urivar, its summoning animation is extremely long, significantly slowing down efficiency. Harbinger of Hatred provides even more experience, but its Lair Boss materials (3 Abhorrent Hearts) are relatively difficult to obtain. Bosses like The Beast in the Ice and Lord Zir offer very little XP.

Urivar is relatively simple among all Lair Bosses, and its summoning and entrance animations are extremely short, saving a significant amount of time. Furthermore, its materials are easier to collect compared to other Lair Bosses, requiring only 12 Judicator's Masks. This means that while you're farming XP, you can also obtain a large number of Diablo 4 gold, and even Mythic Unique items.

If you use an efficient Boss kill build, you can complete all steps - summoning, killing, and looting - within 15-20 seconds, theoretically achieving 3 kills per minute and gaining approximately 18 million experience points.

At this rate, approximately 1 billion experience points can be gained per hour, achieving a level 1 per hour even in the late game, far exceeding the efficiency of the nerfed The Pit.

How To Maximize Experience Gain?

Besides the XP provided by the boss itself, you can increase XP gain through other means, such as Elixir and Incense. Combining all the following bonuses, you can increase experience gain by up to approximately 50%.

Pool Of Reflection

Pool of Reflection can provide a +15% experience bonus for 60 minutes, and you can stack the refresh time.

You only need to use Forgotten Wisdom Key to open a specific Abandoned Mineworks dungeon. You can find Pool of Reflection within this dungeon, and simply click on it to obtain it. The key can be obtained from the rotating World Boss.

Elixir, Incense And Team

• Elixir: Provides a +5% experience bonus when using any magic potion.
• Incense: For example, incense that provides an +8% XP boost.
• Party Bonus: Gain extra XP by teaming up with other players, and the more players, the greater the XP boost.

How To Farm?

Solo farming is the fastest because you don't need to wait for teammates and can quickly summon and kill Urivar. However, to get the rewards, you need to prepare your own Lair Boss keys.

Team farming is the most economical. If everyone has a Lair Boss key, you get the reward with each kill, saving you time on other events. However, this requires coordination and may involve waiting time, causing your kill speed to be slower.

You need to obtain Pool of Reflection buff beforehand, then drink an Elixir, use Incense, and go to Urivar's location. Summon it and use Lair Boss key to open the chest (skip this step if you don't have the materials), then immediately summon it again and repeat the process.

Regarding build selection, simply choose suitable boss killer builds. I recommend using Blessed Shield Paladin (Captain America build) in Season 11 to farm bosses, and it has high damage, requires minimal skill, and is relatively easy.

If you plan to use this build, you'll need to collect Forgotten Wisdom Key and Judicator's Mask beforehand. This method allows you to quickly reach Paragon Level 300, preparing for the upcoming endgame, The Tower, which will be released in January, 2026.

Sanctification is a new seasonal mechanic introduced in Diablo 4 Season 11. Initially, its function was somewhat similar to Vaal Orbs in Path of Exile series, but its negative effects were nerfed after the PTR.

Now, Sanctification can significantly boost gear power. If you want to improve your ranking in The Pit or the Tower, you must understand how to utilize Sanctification to compete with other players.

How To Reach Sanctification Area?

You can go to a major city and click on a specific portal, or directly click on the consumable item Heavenly Sigils in your inventory to instantly teleport to a Sanctification area. This method is faster than town portals and can even allow you to leave Helltides directly.

Additionally, random portals will occasionally appear during your leveling process. Entering one will grant you a free Sanctification opportunity.

Before level 60, you can use this opportunity every time, regardless of whether the equipment will be replaced. This is because you might gain extremely powerful Sanctification attributes, even allowing your lower-level equipment to be used directly up to level 60.

Preparation Before Sanctification

Once you reach level 60, you need to be more careful. At this point, you'll need to craft the strongest items for your build, but each piece of equipment can only be Sanctified once.

After Sanctification, you will be unable to perform the following operations: socketing, changing aspects, masterwork, adding temperers, or enchanting.

Therefore, before using Sanctification on your equipment, you must remember some steps to ensure they are at their best.

1. Socket: First, socket the equipment.
2. Temper: Add the correct temperer attributes to legendary items according to the build guides.
3. Enchant: Reforge an attribute at an Occultist.
4. Aspect: Ensure you attach the correct, ideally maxed-out, Legendary Aspect.
5. Masterworking: Masterwork your equipment to level 25.

Note that Unique and Mythic Unique items cannot be tempered or enchanted, so you can skip this step, but remember to max out Masterworking.

At level 25, a Masterworking crit will trigger, randomly increasing one attribute by 50%. You can use Neathhiron to reroll the target attribute of this crit until you get the desired attribute.

All of the above steps must be completed before Sanctification. While you don't need to strictly follow the order of visiting each vendor, Socket is the most easily forgotten step and must be completed first.

How Does Sanctification System Work?

Once your equipment has the attributes and maxed-out Aspect you want, and you've completed all the steps, you can consider using Sanctification on it. The only items you actually need are Heavenly Sigils; other materials like Forgotten Souls, Neathiron, and Obducites are mainly used for preliminary steps.

If you want to craft the ultimate gear, the rewards from Strongholds or Goblin Board alone are far from enough; the required materials far exceed your expectations. If you find farming materials and Diablo 4 gold troublesome, you can also directly buy these items from the reliable and fast D4gold, and enjoy a 10% Christmas discount using the XMAS code before December 31st.

The current Goblin March event is also the best time to farm materials in large quantities, while Treasure Breach Nightmare Dungeons are the best place to obtain Neathiron and Obducites.

Sanctification Strategies For Different Gear

Legendary Gear

Sanctification will replace one of the original attributes on a Legendary item. The replacement result is random and may cause good gear to become worse. Therefore, always prepare a spare before sanctifying any Legendary equipment, as an unsatisfactory result will irreversibly damage the original item.

However, it's still worth the attempt because it may grant an extremely powerful sanctification attribute or an additional Legendary Aspect, both of which can significantly enhance the equipment's power.

Unique And Mythic Unique Items

Sanctification does not replace the fixed attributes of unique and mythic items; it only adds an additional sanctification attribute. Therefore, you can sanctify with confidence, as there is virtually no negative risk. Even if the resulting sanctification attribute is not optimal, the equipment itself remains fully usable and will always offer a slight improvement.

You may also gain a new Legendary Aspect, or upgrade one of its affixes to a Great affix; at worst, you will receive a quality upgrade.

Stacking Rules For Sanctification

Generally, a maximum of two identical Legendary Aspects can be active simultaneously. However, if the same power appears on a necklace (75% increase), a two-handed weapon (100% increase), and a Sanctification affiex, they are theoretically stackable since they are considered different sources of amplification, resulting in a significant boost.

But mythic items like Melted Heart of Selig typically only have one base item and one Aspect power provided by Sanctification, for a total of two sources.

Therefore, if you want to obtain the same power from another piece of gear through Sanctifyon the unique Melted Heart of Selig mythic necklace to stack the effects and greatly increase your tankiness,

you can choose the lowest-cost legendary gear type, trade large quantities of materials with Murmuring Obols, and then repeatedly Sanctifyuntil you get the desired legendary power. This process requires a large amount of materials and gold, and most importantly, luck.

Sanctification in Diablo 4 Season 11 is not mandatory, but if you can use this mechanism well, the boost it provides can even exceed that of Masterworking and Tempering.

The sudden release of Diablo 4 Paladin in Season 11 rendered many pre-season build rankings obsolete. It boasts multiple builds that dominate all game content, excelling in speed farming, boss battles, and rushing The Pit.

Let's take a look at the builds currently available in Season 11 that combine extremely high damage and survivability, and they will be the most powerful builds for challenging higher levels of The Pit and The Tower.

10. Evade Spiritborn

This build revolves around Eagle primary spirit hall effect, which fires feathers that automatically attack enemies when using the eagle skill or evading.

Early on, basic attacks need to be interspersed between dodges; later on, the goal is to maintain a high frequency of dodges throughout to trigger feather attacks. In endgame, near-infinite dodges can be achieved by stacking cooldown reduction.

9 .Shadowblight Necromancer

Shadowblight Necromancer doesn't require unique equipment to function. Its core idea is to stack multiple damage multipliers, causing enemies to simultaneously suffer multiple types of continuous shadow damage, triggering Shadowblight explosion damage at high frequency.

Shadowblight is Necromancer's key passive skill. Shadow damage dealt by the player infects enemies, triggering a high-damage explosion every eighth instance of shadow damage. This damage benefits from corrupting damage and shadow bonuses.

8. Crackling Energy Sorcerer

Compared to the previous two builds, Crackling Energy Sorcerer requires core unique equipment to reach its full potential. It primarily uses Ball Lightning to generate Crackling Energy, which is extremely fast and deals high damage, but its maximum stack count in The Pit is lower than Paladin.

Esadora's Overflowing Cameo

It provides damage reduction based on Crackling Energy stacks, movement speed upon pickup, significantly increased Crackling Energy damage, and automatically releases all charges to nearby enemies upon reaching maximum stacks, dealing 80% bonus damage.

Galvanic Azurite Ring

Lightning damage magnetizes enemies, continuously generating Crackling Energy and increasing all lightning damage they take by 60%.

7. Heartseeker Rogue

Heartseeker Rogue is a basic attack build. While not the fastest, it boasts high single-target and area-of-effect damage and is relatively durable among ranger builds.

Its damage stacking is heavily reliant on equipment:

• Shard of Verathiel: Significantly increases basic skill damage but consumes primary resources.
• Paingorger's Gauntlets: Increases basic skill levels. Furthermore, when you damage an enemy using a non-basic skill, the enemy will be marked, and additional damage will be dealt to them.

6. Hammer Of The Ancients Barbarian

HotA Barbarian build primarily revolves around stacking damage with the core ability, Hammer of the Ancients, requiring high maximum fury.

You need to utilize skill and equipment synergies to transform Hammer of the Ancients into a large area-of-effect (AoE) ability, increasing its damage and attack speed.

The required equipment for this build is as follows:

• Aspect of Ancestral Force: Increases the quake damage of Aspect of Ancestral Force, tripling its effect against bosses.
• Mantle of Mountains Fury: Increases the level of HoTA. After an earthquake explosion, increases the damage of the next HoTA by 100%.

5. Lunging Barbarian

Lunging Barbarian build is another basic skill build that uses Lunging Strike as both an attack and a gap-closer ability.

It primarily relies on equipping Hammer of the Ancients. To gain the effect of “10% increased Rage and maximum Rage per enemy hit,” allowing you to stack extremely high Rage values to enjoy various Rage-based damage bonuses.

Required equipment is as follows:

• Hooves of the Mountain God: When Fury is full, using a basic skill will enter a Rage-consuming state, during which the basic skill gains Cleave effect and deals double damage.
• Paingorger's Gauntlets and Shard of Verathiel: Both enhance basic skills.
• Ramaladni's Magnum Opus: Skill damage increases with Rage, but consumes 10 Rage per second.

4. Pulverize Druid

Pulverize Druid gameplay is somewhat similar to HotA Barbarian, a build with a large area of effect, high damage, and relatively high resilience. Current variants utilize a new mechanic to generate a poison pool for additional bonuses.

Pulverize Druid primarily utilizes the Survival Instincts legendary paragon node and the Ursine Strength passive to gain increased damage based on life difference and Bear Form. It primarily focuses on stacking synergistic benefits from Overpower, Poison damage, and Critical Strike. It also requires Calm Before the Storm effect to reduce the cooldown of Grizzly Rage.

3. Blessed Hammer Paladin

Blessed Hammer Paladin requires Disciple Oath to maintain Arbiter Form and trigger related buffs. Its unique equipment allows summoning more Blessed Hammers.

Key Equipment:

• Herald's Morningstar: Increases Blessed Hammer level and damage, with a chance to deal double damage and generate an additional basic hammer at the hit location.
• Argent Veil: In Arbiter Form, evasion automatically triggers the equipped core ability every certain distance traveled, increasing core ability damage during and after the event.

2. Blessed Shield Paladin

Blessed Shield Paladin build is somewhat similar to Captain America, requiring you to throw your shield to attack enemies. However, it's essentially a Thorns build. By stacking Thorns damage and utilizing Oath mechanic, it frequently throws Blessed Shields to deal massive damage.

Key Items:

• Ward of the White Dove: Increases Blessed Shield level, damage, double damage chance, and reduces cost.
• Aspect of the Juggernaut's Covenant: Grants bonus damage when consuming Resolve.

1. Judgment Paladin Build

The core of this build is to trigger Judgment effects as frequently as possible. Judicator Oath increases the damage taken from you each time you judge an enemy, stacking up to 80%. It can effectively handle large groups of enemies through chain explosions and also has a strong damage amplification effect on single targets.

Key Items:

• Aspect of the Judicator: Increases the damage and range of Judgment explosions.
• Aspect of the Golden Hour: Judgments deal double damage, and Judgment explosions can prematurely detonate other Judgments.
• Seal of the Second Trumpet: Increases Judgment damage, double damage chance, and has a chance to cause Judgment to explode twice.

The above are the current meta builds for the game. It's clear that Paladins are currently too strong and may be nerfed in the future.

Do you remember the feeling of first entering Nahantu in Diablo 4 over a year ago? This mysterious jungle region and Spiritborn residing there brought you the exciting and engaging Vessel of Hatred expansion experience.

Originally, the development team planned to release one DLC per year, but to ensure the quality of the expansion, the release date of the second expansion was postponed to 2026.

After nearly a year of waiting and anticipation, Diablo 4 finally released information about its second DLC, Lord of Hatred, at TGA at the end of 2025! So what content will this expansion include and when will it be released? We will introduce it to you.

Lord Of Hatred Release Date

Currently, the expansion is tentatively scheduled for release on April 28, 2026. However, considering Diablo 4's frequent changes to season release dates, this date may also change - perhaps to further refine the game or avoid conflicts with other game updates, who knows?

New Class: Paladin And An Unknown Class

Paladin previously appeared in Diablo 2, and a similar class, Crusader, was in Diablo 3. As the seventh Diablo 4 class, Paladin is still the familiar melee type, with the following main characteristics:

• Resource: Faith
• Damage Types: Holy, Fire, Physical
• Class-specific Mechanic: Oaths (4 types of power)
• Available Weapon Types: Swords, Maces, Axes, Flails, Shields

In addition, Diablo 4 has added a large number of Paladin-specific unique items and legendary items, although currently there are no dedicated drop channels for them. Existing class-agnostic gear is still applicable to Paladin.

As for the other new class, the developers have not yet released any relevant information; the only thing visible is a black silhouette, leading the player community to speculate that it might be a Witch or Warlock - hopefully not another melee class!

New Region: Skovos

After Vessel of Hatred introduced Nahantu as a new region, Lord of Hatred will bring Skovos, which will be the setting for the new story and is also closely related to the new class.

Unlike the purely jungle landscape of Nahantu, Skovos is a region with diverse terrain and landscapes. You can find volcanoes, oceans, forests, and temples and towns related to human activity.

The new dungeons and bosses expected to be added in the expansion will also appear in Skovos, where you can earn Diablo 4 gold or other items to help improve your character through combat.

New Campaign: Main Story Update

Diablo 4's main story unfolds based on the demon factions Lilith and Mephisto, and the angelic faction Inarius, later introducing more human characters, such as the young girl Neyrelle.

In Vessel of Hatred, you and others rescued Neyrelle, who was almost corrupted by Mephisto, but Mephisto escaped in the final battle and possessed Akarat's body to continue his schemes, all of which are expected to culminate in Lord of Hatred.

While we know that good usually triumphs over evil in most stories, whether this battle for humanity to defend Sanctuary ends here or continues into a third DLC or even Diablo 5 remains unknown.

Endgame And Gameplay Experience Optimization

In addition to the new additions, this expansion will also optimize the endgame and gameplay experience through overall mechanics.

War Plans

This new endgame feature allows you to customize your personal progression path through your favorite Diablo 4 events and add modifiers to increase the difficulty of events for more rewards.

Echoing Hatred

In this endgame event, you will encounter endless waves of increasingly dangerous demons, and only by surviving to the end can you unlock the ultimate rewards. You can also use this opportunity to test the builds you want to try.

Skill Tree Rework

Currently, all Diablo 4 classes except Paladin only have two upgrade paths, limiting the gameplay experience. The new DLC will open up more skill upgrade options, allowing players of any class to have a brand new experience.

Other New Features

Horadric Cube, which appeared in Diablo 2, will return in this expansion, introducing new ways to craft items. There will also be a new casual fishing activity and a loot filtering system to improve quality of life.

Pre-Order To Unlock More Content!

Although you still have to wait nearly half a year for Lord of Hatred, if you pre-order it, you can play one of the new classes, Paladin, in Season 11 now! And it will also unlock the first DLC simultaneously, if you don't already have it.

The entire Lord of Hatred expansion and Paladin class are included with the pre-order of Standard Edition. If you pre-order a higher edition, you'll receive additional rewards.

Deluxe Edition:

• All Standard Edition content
• Mini Chimera Pet Skorch
• Skartaran Basilisk Mount Bundle
• High Heavens Guard Cosmetic Bundle
• Premium Battle Pass Bundle

Ultimate Edition:

• All Standard + Deluxe Edition content
• Umbral Knights Armor Bundle (6 class sets)
• 3,000 Platinum
• Steed of the Shining Realm Bundle
• Tymn, Echo of the Spire Back Trophy
• Ascent of the Just Town Portal Skin

If you want to get ahead of other Diablo 4 players next year, pre-order now! At least based on the performance of Vessel of Hatred, Lord of Hatred shouldn't disappoint you!

Many players enjoy AFK builds because they automatically complete farming tasks while you can eat or watch videos. Unfortunately, there aren't many truly excellent AFK builds in Diablo 4. Minion necromancer builds might achieve this, but it's not strong enough in the endgame.

So, is there a build that allows you to AFK and still perform strongly in the endgame? Season 11's Auradin Paladin allows you to do just that.

Core Gameplay

Holy Light Aura is the core skill of this build. You need to level up this skill as much as possible to increase its damage.

This build also relies on a unique item. You need to equip Dawnfire unique Glove, which transforms Holy Light Aura into Fire Aura. This can automatically deal hundreds of billions of damage to nearby enemies, enough to one-shot most enemies in Torment 4. You can obtain it by farming Varshan.

This build primarily utilizes Judicator Oaths effect. Holy Light Aura automatically applies Judgment to enemies, while other equipment significantly amplifies Judgment damage, creating two main sources of damage.

This build allows you to AFK in Helltide and Whisper quests, simply standing still and letting the bosses in Ambush event and small Duriel automatically run into the aura and die. Against Lair Bosses and some of The Pit Bosses, you almost don't need to use any skills, and just dodge their attacks and let the aura burn them.

Divine Gifts

Andariel

• Corrupted: Essence of Anguish
• Purified: Essence of Screams

Azmodan

• Corrupted: Essence of Hellfire
• Purified: Essence of Sin

Belial

• Corrupted: Essence of Shadows
• Purified: Essence of Lies

Duriel

• Corrupted: Essence of Pain
• Purified: Essence of Squalor

Divine Gifts is this season's seasonal power, though not as strong as last season. Its main use is to allow you to get more Diablo 4 runes, gold, or XP, etc. You can adjust them according to your needs.

Auradin AFK Paladin Skills

• Falling Star: Enhanced Falling Star and Freefall
• Fanaticism Aura: Enhanced Fanaticism and Rite of Vengeance
• Holy Light Aura: Enhanced Holy Light Aura and Rite of Judgement
• Defiance Aura: Enhanced Defiance and Rite of Might
• Rally: Enhanced Rally and word of inspiration
• Spear of the Heavens: Enhanced Spear of the Heavens and Pronouncement of Heaven

Holy Light Aura and Judgment are the core damage dealers of this build, while Fanaticism Aura is used to increase damage. The remaining skills mainly provide survivability, cooldown reduction, and mobility, but as an AFK build, these are not essential; you can still complete the game smoothly relying solely on aura damage.

Oath

Judicator Oath is the preferred choice, providing more Judgment effects and a damage multiplier of up to 80 times. However, this build also has an Arbiter variant. It triggers Arbiter form using Falling Star skill, granting faster movement and jumping abilities, and also allows for AFK play.

This Arbiter-centric variant deals slightly less aura damage, with the primary damage sources being Arbiter and Falling Star. It requires slightly more operations but can reach 115 The Pit.

If you want to try this variant, you can equip the following skills:

• Holy Light Aura: Rite of Judgement
• Arbiter of Justice: Seraph's Wings
• Falling Star: Fanatic Descent
• Fanaticism Aura: Rite of Vengeance
• Defiance Aura: Rite of Prayer
• Consecration: Hallowed Ground

Auradin AFK Paladin Equipment

• Helm: Heir of Perdition (Gar and Igni)
• Chest Armor: Shroud of False Death (Qax and Yul)
• Gloves: Dawnfire
• Pants: Aspect of Firm Decree (Ruby and Ruby)
• Boots: Wildbolt Aspect
• Amulet: Aspect of the Golden Hour (Diamond)
• Ring 1: Seal of the Second Trumpet (Skull)
• Ring 2: Aspect of Holy Punishment (Skull)
• Weapon: Griswold's Opus (Emerald)
• Offhand: Herald of Zakarum (Ruby)

Dawnfire provides aura conversion and double damage, which is the core of this build. Herald of Zakarum enhances survivability, and affixes that boost core skill levels are even better. Seal of the Second Trumpet increases Judgment damage and deals double damage.

Griswold's Opus increases critical strike damage and chance after killing an enemy and restores health. This weapon is crucial if you plan to AFK. Other gear primarily provides movement speed and damage multipliers.

The two Mythic items raise the build's ceiling, but they are not core to this build. If you're not interested in The Pit, you can replace them without affecting your experience on Torment 4 difficulty.

• Heir of Perdition: Can be replaced with Judicant's Glaivehelm.
• Shroud of False Death: This can be replaced with Aspect of the Indomitable.

Prioritize Affixes as follows: Strength, Maximum Health, Armor, All Elemental Resistances, Critical Strike Chance. If Critical Strike Chance is already maxed out, replace it with Critical Strike Damage or Resistances.

Arbiter Variant Gears

• Helm: Godslayer Crown
• Chest Armor: Aspect of Angelic Masterwork
• Gloves: Dawnfire
• Pants: Aspect of the Indomitable
• Boots: Aspect of the Arbiter's Zephyr
• Amulet: Aspect of Celestial Strife
• Ring 1: Aspect of Ascension
• Ring 2: Aspect of Proselytizing
• Mainhand: Griswold's Opus
• Offhand: Aspect of Holy Punishment

This build is Tier S build for Season 11, with excellent damage and defense. If you want a lazy farming experience, there are probably no better builds than Auradin AFK Paladin.

Diablo 4 Season 11 is returning with Goblin Greedings event. This is a generous Christmas-themed event, not only the longest-running seasonal event in Diablo 4 history, but also one of the most rewarding for both new and returning players.

If you're currently struggling with insufficient materials, a shortage of Diablo 4 gold, or slow gear upgrades in Season 11, you no longer need to worry. Goblin Greedings event is about to change everything, bringing you plenty of rewards.

Event Date

This Goblin Greedings event will run from December 18th, 2025 to January 6th, 2026, lasting nearly three weeks. Most importantly, the event coincides with Christmas, meaning you'll have ample time to collect rewards amidst the festive atmosphere of the game.

Event Overview

Goblin Greedings is a limited-time event that combines Diablo 4's regular gameplay with the goblins treasure hunt and holiday-themed rewards. Unlike previous quest-based events, players don't need to perform any special tasks; simply hunting a sufficient number of goblins will advance the game.

The event also introduces March of the Goblins reputation board. Killing enough goblins will unlock new levels on the reputation board. Higher reputation levels will increase the quality of the loot packs dropped, meaning you'll receive higher-tier and rarer rewards.

And don't worry about finding goblins in the game. During the event, goblins carrying treasure will spawn more frequently in the world and dungeons, so you'll see these greedy monsters often.

How To Kill Enough Goblins?

To obtain more rewards and accumulate enough reputation, focus on areas with a high goblin population or fast respawn rates.

• Open World: Goblins will randomly spawn in areas with world levels;
• Nightmare Dungeons: Dungeons with Treasure Breach affix will definitely spawn goblins;
• Greed Shrines: Activating Greed Shrines will summon many goblins;
• Nahantu: Nahantu is also an area where goblins spawn in large numbers.

These are the main locations in the game where goblins appear frequently. In addition, be aware that goblins are very fast runners. Riding a horse will help you approach and kill more goblins faster, or you can team up with friends to hunt them.

Event Rewards

Final Reputation Level Rewards

Remember to go to Goblin Square in Kyovashad to claim your rewards each time you unlock a new March of the Goblins reputation level. Upon first unlocking the highest level, you will receive a Resplendent Spark, a crucial raw material for crafting Mythic Uniques!

The March of the Goblins reputation tier can be challenged repeatedly, meaning you can continue to receive rewards even after completing the challenge. However, Resplendent Spark is only obtainable on the first attempt.

Also, be sure to claim all rewards before January 6th, 2026, otherwise they will disappear into a mysterious Treasure Goblin's lair.

Tree Of Whispers Rewards

During Goblin Greedings event, Tree of Whispers will provide players with an additional reward. When you return Grim Favors, in addition to the usual rewards, you will receive a Gift of the Tree cache, which is essentially a Collection of Chaos, and may contain substantial rewards.

Therefore, besides killing goblins, farming a large amount of Grim Favors during the event and turning them in to Tree of Whispers can also earn you some extra rewards.

How To Obtain Grim Favors?

You will receive a certain number of Grim Favors after completing Whispers of the Dead in Diablo 4. Whispers of the Dead are quest objectives given to players by Tree of Whispers. These Whispers will appear on the map as markers of different colors, depending on the number of Grim Favors awarded.

Once you have 10 Grim Favors, you must return to Tree of Whispers to select your desired collection reward and reset your Grim Favors collection progress to 0. Below, I've listed some quests that reward Grim Favors and the corresponding reward amounts.

5 Grim Favors Rewards:

• Fugitive: Find Headhunter or Slaughter Husk;
• Dungeon: Tree of Whispers will mark a dungeon quest that needs to be completed;
• Defeat Seething Abomination in a PvP area;
• Helltide: A Tree of Whispers quest objective will appear every hour.

3 Grim Favors Rewards:

• Kill monsters with the guardians;
• Kill Headrotten;
• Find Cleansing Herbs;
• Legion Events.

1 Grim Favor Reward:

• Dispel Shrouding Charms;
• Find the hidden Headrotten;
• Complete Cellar marked by Tree of Whispers.

Additional Event Benefits

This Goblin Greedings event is incredibly generous, with free gifts available for players to claim in the in-game store.

• December 18th: Tackle of the First Snows (Mount Trophy)
• December 19th: Fallow-ward (Mount Trophy)
• December 20th: Crook of First Snow (Mount Armor)

Rewards will not be automatically distributed, so you need to claim all rewards before January 6th, otherwise they will disappear.

Events with such generous rewards are rare. Whether you're aiming for top-tier gear or gaining experience for rapid leveling, Goblin Greedings is an excellent opportunity to gain an advantage early in the season and shouldn't be missed. Get your gear ready, hop on your mount, and go find the goblins!

In Diablo 4, as you progress through each new season, the drive to continue playing comes from achievement through defeating increasingly dangerous enemies. To achieve this, the assistance of Mythic Uniques is essential.

As the rarest gear type in Diablo 4, Mythics can be obtained through combat drops or crafting, but both methods are difficult: the former has a low drop rate, and the latter requires Resplendent Sparks, which also require significant farming.

However, in Season 11, the development team has quietly added a new Nightmare Dungeon affix that allows you to obtain Mythic items more easily than before! We'll provide a detailed explanation below.

What Mythics Are Available In The Game?

Currently, there are 12 Mythic items available:

• Andariel's Visage
• Doombringer
• Harlequin Crest
• Melted Heart of Selig
• Ring of Starless Skies
• The Grandfather
• Ahavarion Spear of Lycander
• Tyrael's Might
• Heir of Perdition
• Shroud of False Death
• Shattered Vow
• Nesekem, The Herald

It is expected that Diablo 4 might add new Mythics after the release of the second DLC, Lord of Hatred, but this is just speculation; the number of available Mythics remains unchanged at this stage.

How To Farm Mythics Through Combat?

Since Season 8, the higher-level bosses in Diablo 4 have been collectively referred to as lair bosses and are divided into three rarity tiers based on their difficulty. These lair bosses theoretically can all drop Mythics, but the higher the rarity, the higher the drop rate.

If you are focusing on farming Mythic Uniques in Season 11, we recommend prioritizing unlocking battles with the three lair bosses: Duriel, Andariel, and Belial.

This is not only because of their high rarity, but also because defeating them grants you the new seasonal power, Divine Gifts. If you have the first DLC, the boss Harbinger of Death is also a viable option.

It's important to note that these bosses are only unlocked after you reach Torment difficulty, and you need to farm the corresponding lair keys beforehand to open each boss's hoard after winning the battle and check for Mythics.

The four bosses above and their corresponding keys are:

• Duriel: 3x Shard of Agony from Grigoire or Varshan
• Andariel: 3x Pincushioned Doll from Lord Zir or The Beast in the Ice
• Belial: 2x Betrayer's Husk from Belial's Ambush
• Harbinger of Death: 3x Abhorrent Heart from Urivar

Other Ways To Obtain Mythics

Besides defeating lair bosses, you can also obtain Mythics by gambling with special currency at Surveyor of Curiosities vendor (although the chances are very low), or by consuming Resplendent Sparks and runes/gold to craft them.

Resplendent Sparks are essential. Based on this, gold and runes allow you to craft specific gear at Jeweler, but if you only add gold, you will just craft random Diablo 4 Mythics at Blacksmith. The specific recipes are as follows:

• Random Mythics at Blacksmith: 2 Resplendent Sparks + 50,000,000 gold
• Specific Mythics at Jeweler: 2 Resplendent Sparks + 6 Legendary Runes + 6 Rare Runes + 6 Magic Runes + 5,000 gold

Mythic Prankster Affix Makes Everything Easier!

Whether you want to experience Season 11 seasonal content or focus on Mythics farming, Nightmare Dungeons were not a good option before, but the addition of Mythic Prankster affix changes that.

What Is Mythic Prankster Affix?

First, you need to know what Nightmare Sigils are. This item transforms ordinary dungeons into Nightmare Dungeons, changing their difficulty and rewards by adding one positive and one negative affix to the dungeon.

Mythic Prankster affix is one of the positive affixes. It guarantees that you will encounter Treasure Goblin Fancy Old Fedric in Nightmare Dungeon you enter afterward. This rare enemy usually only appears in goblin events with a very low probability.

If you defeat this goblin in a Mythic Prankster Nightmare Dungeon, you will receive 5 Mythic Uniques, 1 Resplendent Spark, and 2 Legendary Runes! This means crafting Mythics will also become easier!

How To Obtain This Affix?

The methods for farming Nightmare Sigils include Tree of Whispers caches, world boss drops, and drops from enemies and completion rewards in Nightmare Dungeons, but the affixes on the resulting Sigils are always random.

Therefore, if you want to more reliably obtain a specific affix, crafting is a better option. To do this, you first need to salvage unwanted Nightmare Sigils to obtain Sigil Powder, and then consume the powder and gold at Occultist to craft new Sigils.

Each craft requires 4,000 gold and 40 Sigil Powder. Theoretically, as long as you have enough materials, you can keep crafting until you obtain Sigils with Mythic Prankster affix, and unwanted Sigils can be salvaged at any time.

How To Maximize The Value of This Affix?

Although Fancy Old Fedric is not a very dangerous enemy, he is very vigilant and good at escaping, so teaming up can help you chase and surround him more quickly.

More importantly, if your team encounters and kills this goblin, thanks to the game's loot drop mechanism, each of you will receive a full set of loot without having to share.

Since the dropped Mythic items are random, if you encounter duplicates, you can salvage them to obtain Resplendent Sparks, increasing your chances of crafting Mythics.

That's all the information we have for you this time. Considering that farming Mythic Prankster affix requires a lot of time, we recommend that you start working on it now!

At 2025 TGA, Diablo 4's official announcement brought a surprise: while many players anticipated Paladin class, no one expected it to be released directly in Season 11.

Since it wasn't tested on the PTR, many players are unfamiliar with its gameplay. Paladin is very strong in Season 11 due to having the most skill enhancements (3 branches) of any class. Players who pre-ordered the new expansion can already play Paladin, so let's look at the most efficient way to level this class.

Early Game Recommendations

In the early stages, your build isn't fully developed, so you'll need to rely on some powerful skills to clear monsters and level up. Therefore, we recommend prioritizing the following three skills during the leveling phase.

Holy Light Aura

This skill passively deals damage to surrounding enemies, and actively casting it not only deals damage but also heals you. Around levels 1-10 on Normal difficulty, you can instantly kill most small monsters, allowing for safe leveling in the early game.

Rally

Using Rally increases movement speed and provides a burst of Faith regeneration. With Words of Sacrifice skill enhancement, this skill has no cooldown and instead consumes health. Combined with the healing from Holy Light Aura, you can gain infinite Faith, allowing you to unleash your core abilities.

Falling Star

This is a Movement Ability, similar to Necromancer's Soar or Sorcerer's Teleport, but with a short delay before launch and damage upon takeoff and landing. It's a very useful skill for both farming monsters and running for maps.

Recommended Leveling Builds

Paladin's damage is quite good, but due to the increased monster strength in Season 11, you can easily die if you're not careful. Therefore, below are some reliable upgrade builds that don't rely on Diablo 4 items and primarily rely on skill enhancements.

Blessed Hammer Paladin

After using Blessed Hammer, your hammer will spiral out by default. Choosing Disciple's Halo enhancement will cause your hammer to spin around your character and follow their movement, similar to Druid's Boulder playstyle, but without requiring Legendary Aspects or unique items.

You can combine this with the basic skill Clash and its Skirmish enhancement for up to a 30% critical strike chance bonus.

For the ultimate skill, choose Arbiter of Justice, which allows Paladin to transform into Arbiter form, granting increased movement speed, special evasion, and Wing Strikes. Enhancements and upgrades increase the frequency and speed of Wing Strikes and make enemies vulnerable.

Key Passive Exaltation provides a significant damage bonus during Arbiter form and doubles the damage of Wing Strikes.

Finally, choose Disciple Oath, which triggers a brief Arbiter form when you use Falling Star. The overall rotation deals sustained damage with Blessed Hammer and bursts burst damage with Falling Star and Arbiter of Justice.

Blessed Shield Paladin

This upgrade build relies on Blessed Shield, requiring the skill choice, Shield of Retribution Enhancement. This slows the movement of the thrown shield but deals area damage per second to surrounding enemies equal to your Thorns value, and multiple shields can be active simultaneously.

Thorns are primarily gained through Clash's Punishment Enhancement, which increases Thorns damage with skill and character level.

For the ultimate skill, choose Heaven's Fury and enhance it with Walk With The Light, transforming it into five beams rotating around the character, allowing for multiple Judgment debuffs on enemies. Combined with the passive Code of Arms, this provides a passive damage bonus based on armor and block chance.

Finally, choose Judicator Oath. The more Judgment you apply to enemies, the higher the damage you deal, significantly amplifying Thorns damage.

You can further increase Thorns damage by utilizing the passive Thorns and Thistles and Rite of Thorns enhancement from Defiance Aura skill tree.

Shield Of Retribution Paladin Build

This build is very similar to the one above, but focuses more on the frequency of Retribution triggers.

You need to trigger Retribution effect through Shield Bash or later Shield Charge, which gives him a chance to unleash Thorns as area-of-effect damage when blocking.

Shield Bash's Breach enhancement makes its attacks count as blocks. Shield Charge's Relentless Charge enhancement makes it a core skill that can be channeled by holding down the button, during which all hits count as blocks, and the chance to trigger Retribution increases with channeling time.

You can further increase Retribution chance by combining it with other skills. For example, Aegis' Impunity enhancement provides a significant Thorns damage boost and a 40% Retribution chance during its activation. Clash's Punishment enhancement provides an additional 30% Retribution chance.

In short, you can easily stack Retribution chance to over 100% through skill tree passives, equipment, and other combinations, achieving a continuous area-of-effect Thorns explosion. The choice of ultimate skills and vows is basically the same as the previous build.

Other Key Passives

• Judgment Day: Increases damage when Judgment is triggered, potentially very good in the late game, but difficult to trigger frequently during leveling.
• Path of the Penitent: High potential, but requires increased resource consumption, making it difficult to manage during leveling.

Key Oaths

• Juggernaut Oath: It can be stacked by consuming Resolve to increase Juggernaut Skill damage. However, Thorns build primarily uses Overpower abilities to enhance Thorns damage, rather than its own damage output.
• Zealot Oath: Grants bonus hit chance to Zealot Skills, requires late-game gear and build support.

Endgame Items

With the addition of new classes, Season 11 also introduced some new items that may become core to Paladin builds in endgame.

• Aspect of Lapa's Scripture: Grants Thorns after consuming Faith, potentially synergizing well with Juggernaut Oath and Shield of Retribution Paladin build.
• Aspect of Verdant Restoration: Heals the user while dealing Thorns damage, suitable for Thorns builds.
• Aspect of Lagera's Soverignty: Increases Disciple skill damage, suitable for Blessed Hammer Paladin build.
• Aspect of Holy Punishment: Significantly increases Holy Damage, suitable for Blessed Hammer Paladin build.
• Herald's Morningstar: Increases Blessed Hammer damage and has a Lucky Hit chance to generate an additional hammer.
• Dawnfire: Causes Holy Light Aura to deal fire damage, and the damage is increased whenever an enemy dies within its range.
• Griswold's Opus: Increases critical strike damage on hits, and when fully stacked, grants a Lucky Hit chance to refresh the effect and gain double critical strike damage and healing.

The above recommendations are only for the leveling phase. In the endgame, you should consider which skill to primarily utilize for your build. You can explore its mechanics during the leveling phase and discover your preferred playstyle in the endgame.

Sanctuary in Diablo 4 has been ravaged by demons for far too long. Signs in Season 11 suggest that the angels may be about to launch a counterattack, and the unique mechanics of this season are Sanctification and Divine Gifts.

Divine Gifts are somewhat similar to Chaos Perks and Boss Powers from previous seasons, but far less powerful. They can bring both benefits and penalties. Let’s take a look at how to acquire and utilize them.

Divine Gifts Interface

Divine Gifts system interface consists of an inner and outer circle. Divine Gifts have two states: Purified and Corrupted. Their effects depend on whether they are placed in the inner or outer circle. A total of 8 Divine Gifts can be placed, 4 in the inner circle and 4 in the outer circle.

The position of each Divine Gift is fixed and cannot be placed arbitrarily. Specific gifts can only switch between purified and corrupted states in specific locations and cannot be swapped with gifts in other locations. Players cannot freely choose to place all four Divine Gifts on the purified or corrupted side, as the system has predefined settings for each location.

How To Get Them?

Divine Gifts interface is divided into four main areas, each representing a significant boss in Diablo 4. Defeating these demons and their Lesser Evils unlocks the corresponding Corrupted Essence.

Once you obtain a Corrupted Essence, use the angel-colored portal on the map to find Hadriel (the angel guy), who will convert it into two Divine Gifts. Continue defeating these enemies to upgrade your Divine Gifts.

Duriel In Helltide

• Essence of Squalor: Defeating Duriel in Helltide unlocks Socketables Diablo 4 items.
• Essence of Pain: Defeating Maggots in Helltide will drop experience orbs.

Belial In The Pit

• Essence of Lies: Allows for additional upgrades in The Pit.
• Essence of Shadows: Grants more gold in The Pit.

Azmodan In The Overworld

• Essence of Sin: Surviving World Boss battles grants additional Activity Keys.
• Essence of Hellfire: Grants additional Lair Boss Keys in World Boss battles.

Andariel In The Undercity

• Essence of Anguish: Completing Undercity grants additional Obols.
• Essence of Screams: Completing Undercity grants additional Salvage Materials.

Divine Gifts Mechanism

After Hadriel obtains Corrupted Essence, you will unlock the corresponding two Divine Gifts.

• Purified state: Provides a buff that benefits the character.
• Corrupted state: Inflicts a negative effect or increases difficulty, but also provides additional rewards.

Furthermore, regardless of which slot you activate, you will receive the corresponding reward buff, and activating Purified grants double the rewards.

You might find this strange, as normally you should receive double rewards after activating Corrupted Divine Gifts to increase the game difficulty, but Season 11 doubles the rewards after using Purified Divine Gifts to decrease the game difficulty.

The developers don’t want to artificially increase the game’s difficulty in this way, but rather let players choose for themselves. However, Purified Divine Gifts slots aren’t unlocked at the start, and they unlock gradually as the game progresses, depending on your Divine Favor ranks:

• Rank II: Duriel
• Rank IV: Andariel
• Rank VI: Azmodan
• Rank VIII: Belial

Therefore, if you want to reduce the game’s difficulty, use Purified Divine Gifts more and Corrupted Divine Gifts less in the later stages.

How To Choose Divine Gift?

Essence Of Sin

Purified Divine Gifts provide a 20% increased armor value, making it the most powerful gift in the entire game, as armor is crucial in Diablo IV.

Essence Of Lies

Purified Divine Gifts provide Fortify for 1% of maximum health per second. This enhancement is one of the best choices for builds that don’t easily obtain enhancement mechanics. Combined with the changes to the enhancement mechanics this season, it provides strong survivability.

Essence Of Hellfire

Corrupted Divine Gifts will cause meteors to fall when challenging World Bosses, but reward additional Lair Boss Keys. Its Purified effect is weaker, only having a chance to stun enemies. The main reason to choose it is its decent reward.

Essence Of Squalor

Purified status grants potions, with mediocre effects, while Corrupted status causes you to lose potions when attacked by maggots. Its greatest use is providing experience orbs, which are very useful during leveling.

Essence Of Screams

Purified Divine Gift provides a 20% increase in all resistances. Since Season 11 resistance system changed to a direct stacking of values instead of percentage reductions, this bonus is calculated based on existing values and is effective, but usually less important than armor.

Essence Of Pain

The reward of Essence of Pain is increased gem and rune drops. Purified Divine Gift is very useful when you need top-tier gems and runes for upgrades or trading, but you can consider switching to it later.

Essence Of Anguish

Purified Divine Gift provides a 30% movement speed boost, which is useful during leveling, but may be less effective than other gifts later on.

Essence Of Shadow

Corrupted Divine Gifts amplify Baal illusions, and their attacks can blind or knock back players, resulting in strong negative effects. Purified Divine Gift occasionally grants the unstoppable status, but its impact is not significant. If you don’t need double gold, you can consider skipping this gift slot.

Since the overall strength of Divine Gifts this season is not high, you don’t need to worry too much about whether you’ve collected them all or chosen the wrong ones, as your character is strong enough even without them.