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This is an Ice Shard Barrier build, which is one of the best builds on Sorcerer. The reason why this build is so good is that it shreds through every content in the game and you don’t need any specific legendaries to make this build work. What you need is only a few aspects.
Since this build is focused on Barriers, this build uses four cooldown skills. Also, because Ice Shards are the key to this build, all of our chosen skills can focus our damage into Ice Shards.
The first skill we take is Frost Bolt.
We’re speaking all the way into Glinting Frost Bolt for extra Mana Regeneration. At lower levels, Mana Regeneration is going to be very important to upkeep our damage. But the second reason why we take it is that against bosses, this skill has really good stagger against mobs. This is a Mana Regeneration skill and only does slightly less damage than our Clash.
Later in the game, when you have a really good cooldown and Mana Regeneration, you can drop this skill for another skill or an ultimate. But for now, we’re going to keep Frost Bolt.
Second, we take another skill called Ice shards.
Much of the credit for this build being so powerful goes to the Ice Shard. It’s our machine gun. Ice Shards release 5 waves and five Ice Shards, which does bonus damage against Frozen enemies. With this build, everything will be frozen. So, you will always be doing 25% more damage.
We’re taking Enhanced Ice Shards, which we can get by using Diablo 4 Gold, so we can ricochet to other targets. Also, we’re taking Greater Ice Shards whilst you have a Barrier active, casts of Ice Shards treat enemies as if they were frozen.
With this one perk, this changes our entire build and makes our build insane. You’re going to have a Barrier up most of the time, meaning that Ice Shards will always be dealing 25% more damage.
Next, we take three defensive skills Teleport with the enhanced cooldown reduction and the shimmering part for the extra damage reduction.
This is basically a no-brainer in every Sorcerer build.
We will also take Ice Armor.
This is a barrier that naturally synergizes with our build. So, we’re going to be taking the Enhanced Ice Armor for extra Mana Regeneration for 6 seconds.
Finally, we have Frost Nova.
With the mystical perk, this makes it one of the only sources of vulnerable on Sorcerer. So, we have to take this to maximize our damage.
Frost Nova is one of the most important skills in this build if you can spam more skill ranks into this skill or get armor that increases the strength or has cooldown reduction. Reducing cooldowns is one of the most important things to make this build work effectively in the higher tiers of the game.
Frost Nova freezes everything around you and makes everything vulnerable, making you pump out way more damage. You can opt to take Flame Shield as your fourth defensive skill. But I find the cooldown is a bit too long. And since we’re always going to have a Barrier, you won’t need Flame Shield.
Ice blades is one of the only other ways of applying vulnerable targets and have a relatively short combo down compared to Flame Shield. So, we take Ice Blades.
Now, you can have some enchantments.
At level 15, you should spec into Fireball. since this is one of the best enchantments by far early in the game. So, taking Fireball, you’ll get insane area effect damage.
Later in the game, you’ll be dropping Fireball and you’ll be picking up Fire Bolt Enchantment instead. With Fire Bolt Enchantment, your direct damage will apply up to an additional 23% burning damage.
Second, you should pick Ice Shards Enchantment. Because the Ice Shards in this enchantment will not only automatically conjure the frozen enemies but also fly directly to the frozen enemies.
And you’ll always have Ice Shards flying around everywhere in frozen targets since you’ll have a barrier all the time.
Now, let’s talk about one of the most important passives for the Sorcerer.
That is Protection: using a cooldown grants 30% of your Maximum Life as a Barrier for 2 seconds. While you have a Barrier active, casts of Ice Shards treat enemies as if they were frozen.
Ice Shards deal 25% extra damage to Frozen enemies and Ice shards will always ricochet off Frozen targets. Ice Shards will also automatically conjure and fly towards Frozen enemies. This means that when you use one of your four cooldown skills and use Ice Shards, Ice Shards will fly everywhere across the screen and blast everything.
Also Read: 5 Tips You Need to Master When Diablo 4 Release Hits
Another passive though pairs naturally with Protection is Icy Veil.
Icy Veil makes it so that your Barriers have an increased 15% duration. This also means that your skill ice armor, which normally lasts 6 seconds, will now last 7 seconds.
The Elemental Attunement passive will make it so that lucky hit critical strikes have up to 15% chance to reset one of your defensive cooldowns. And this can only happen every 10 seconds.
This means that you’ll also be able to have a defensive skill up more often so that you can apply more Barriers and deal more damage with Ice Shards.
Now, with the enchantment effect that applies burning, there are two passives that synergize with this.
The first we have is Devouring Blaze. You deal 30% increased Critical Strike Damage against burning enemies. And the other is Fiery Surge. Killing a burning enemy increases your Mana regeneration by 30 for three seconds.
This will make it so that we’re dealing more damage and also having increased Mana Regeneration that we are starving in the early to mid stages of the game.
Finally, with our Capstone Passive, we’re taking Avalanche.
Lucky Hit: Your Frost Skills have up to 10% chance to make your next cast of Ice Shards, consume no Mana and deal 40% increased damage chances doubled against vulnerable enemies.
This will allow us to save more Mana. So, we can spam Ice Shards and deal more damage as well.
Now, let’s talk about some legendary aspects that will really help out this build.
We have Aspect of Piercing Cold, which will make your Ice Shards pierce. This means that your Ice Shards have a higher chance of ricocheting as they’ll hit multiple targets. And this just makes your Ice Shards so much stronger as a skill. You will feel the difference with this legendary aspect.
The other is Aspect of Control, which means that we’ll deal more damage to frozen enemies. We’ll be freezing things all the time with Frost Nova. This damage will always be in effect.
In addition to the above two aspects that I think are more important, I also chose Aspect of the Protector, Aspect of Might, Aspect of the Expectant, Aspect of Disobedience, Wind Striker Aspect, Conceited Aspect, Storm Swell Aspect and Edgemaster’s Aspect. Please see the picture below for details.
Note that most of the legendaries I’ve put in the build are legendaries that you can reliably get from aspect dungeons, not legendaries that you need to find out in the open world. But there are more legendaries, such as Conceited Aspect that combos with Barriers. So, if you get those, that will really make this build take off.
The last thing to go through is just the basic skill rotation. It’s very simple. You cycle and you’ll go down skills. I usually teleport into a mob or a boss and use Frost Nova. This will apply freeze and vulnerable for which I can benefit from all of the damage passives. Then, I use Ice Shards and just blast everything down.
Since Diablo 4 was released not long ago, most players are still working hard to level up their characters. If you think this process is too time-consuming and laborious, you can take a look at our Boosting service. This way, you can focus more on strengthening your characters.
Perhaps because the season mechanics themselves haven’t been particularly innovative, this year’s Diablo 4 seems to be making a habit of adding extra events during the seasons to keep you playing.
For example, there was March of the Goblins event in Season 7 back in March, Berserk crossover during Season 8, and Gift of the Tree event in Season 9 a few weeks ago.
While there’s no confirmed update for Season 10 yet, Diablo 4 is bringing March of the Goblins back to Season 9 to ensure you have enough Diablo 4 gold, gear, and items to start the next season.
With only a day or so left until the end of the event, if you’ve only recently started playing or haven’t achieved the desired results due to poor strategy, we’ll provide a guide for you.
This event first appeared as part of Diablo 4’s first anniversary celebration last year. Its engaging gameplay and generous rewards proved so popular among players that it’s been retained as one of Diablo 4’s “flash events.”
The six goblins available for hunting during the event are actually permanent in-game. You can encounter them during regular adventures or quests, and winning battles will still earn you gold or other rewards. However, they appear more frequently during the event.
The rarity and rewards dropped by each of the six goblins vary, ranging from common but essential gold and crafting materials to precious Mythic and Resplendent Sparks. The more, the better, so don’t miss out on even the goblins that offer more modest rewards!
The reward tracks for March of the Goblins event are entirely based on your personal progress, so if you want to earn your desired rewards, you must rely on your own hard work and cannot rely on the help of other players—who might even rob you of your loot.
Log in to Diablo 4 during the event, travel to Kyovashad, and then find Altar of the Goblin statue in front of Idania’s Rings & Amulets shop, marked by the white badge icon on the minimap.
Hovering your mouse over the statue will display the level of goblins you can track and the rewards you’ll receive for killing different goblins. From there, you can begin your goblin-hunting adventures across all areas of the game map!
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Generally speaking, even the rarest goblins are not too difficult to kill in Diablo 4. The tricky thing about them is that they flee quickly once spotted, making them difficult to catch. With that in mind, we offer the following suggestions.
If you already have a lot of rewards from some goblins and don’t want to waste time on them, or if you want to farm specific goblins, it’s important to remember their physical characteristics. Otherwise, you might end up wasting time tracking the wrong goblin type.
After Season 7 update, the current goblin colors and drop rewards for March of the Goblins event are:
The two goblins that are easily confused are Curious Murl and Fancy Old Fedric, both of whom are purple. The difference in their colors can only be distinguished when you get close to them. However, because of the very low spawn rate of Fancy Old Fedric, you should be unlikely to encounter him.
Goblins will be indicated on your mini-map with a unique icon when they appear, allowing you to find them more quickly and avoid being lost in the midst of swarms of enemies.
While goblins can spawn anywhere during March of the Goblins, Helltides is a better choice because the enemy spawn density is generally higher during this event, making it more likely that you’ll encounter goblins.
However, be aware that you may encounter other, more dangerous enemies during an active Helltide, hindering your goblin-hunting progress. Therefore, be vigilant while utilizing powerful gear to protect yourself.
Another good goblin farming location is Fields of Hatred PvP location. If you prefer not to encounter too many or too powerful actual players there, you can reduce your chances of encountering enemy players by disabling cross-play.
Shrines are a special buff mechanic available in Season 9, and there are several types of shrines, one of which is Greed Shrines. They can spawn anywhere in the game, and activating them provides the following buffs for 30 seconds:
If you encounter and activate Greed Shrines while killing goblins, not only will you receive the above buffs, but they will also increase the chance of goblin spawns. Combined, this event promises countless rewards!
This concludes our guide to March of the Goblins, hoping to help you maximize your progress and rewards before the event ends! Have fun!
When Season 9 launched, Sorcerer and Spiritborn were the undisputed dominant classes. However, after adjustments in Patch 2.3.1, the class experience in Diablo 4 has become more balanced.
So, if you’re looking to play a new character now, other classes are also good choices. Of course, you still need to choose and craft the right build to maximize the power of each class.
Based on this, if you’re creating a Necromancer character, facing a wide variety of Necromancer builds, Blood Surge is actually a more reliable option in Season 9, especially if you combine it with Drain Vitality passive ability.
Below, we’ll first explain why Drain Vitality is so important and how it fits into Blood Surge Necromancer Build.
As one of Diablo 4 Necromancer’s passive skills, Drain Vitality primarily grants you a lucky hit, granting you a chance to gain additional Fortify upon hitting an enemy.
However, to trigger Drain Vitality, you must ensure you hit an enemy with your active blood skills. Drain Vitality then grants you a Fortify effect of 2.5% to 7.5% of your health, reducing the damage you take.
If you ultimately have an amount of Fortify equal to your health, your total damage taken can be reduced by up to 15%.
However, this skill is located on the fifth tier of Necromancer skill tree, meaning you’ll need to consume a considerable amount of skill points to gradually unlock additional skills until you “reach” Drain Vitality.
Luckily, earning skill points isn’t difficult. You typically earn them when you are farming Diablo 4 gold and character XP at the same time, or by completing quests issued by the reputation system.
While Drain Vitality is helpful in boosting this build’s effectiveness, its core skill is undoubtedly Blood Surge. Combined with other skills and gear, this build is highly effective in clearing groups of enemies or single-target attacks.
As for defensive mechanics, this build can boost health while stealing enemy health and heal itself with Blood Orbs. Additionally, you can curse enemies with Decrepify and Cursed Aura Aspect, reducing their damage.
Although Blood Surge Necromancer build’s overall effectiveness has decreased in Season 9 due to a significant damage reduction to Overpower, it’s still a good choice for clearing dungeons. Of course, it’s best to upgrade to a better build once you reach the endgame.
While Drain Vitality isn’t a panacea, it does provide a solid boost to Blood Surge build. When using Blood Attacks with this build and pairing it with the unique gloves Cruor’s Embrace, you can deal bonus damage from Coalesced Blood while also gaining a shield bonus.
In contrast, Blood Wave Build doesn’t rely on Drain Vitality to increase damage. Instead, you must continuously enhance this skill until you obtain Mutilator Plate to truly enhance the entire build.
It’s important to note that when unlocking the prerequisite skills for Drain Vitality, it’s best to prioritize skills that complement it, such as Coalesced Blood, which allows you to deal more damage while you’re healthy.
To maintain your health, you need to maintain 80% or more of your remaining health. If you already have a wealth of enhancements, Coalesced Blood may not be very useful, but if you’re in urgent need of additional boosts, it can be very helpful.
In addition to Drain Vitality and other related skills, crafting a Blood Surge Necromancer Build also requires other class mechanics and appropriate gear. We’ll explain each of these.
Book of the Dead, a Necromancer-exclusive mechanic, unlocks at level 5 and allows you to customize your available minions and how they’re deployed.
Since the primary purpose of Blood Surge build is to ensure you can sustain continuous enemy attacks, and Blood Surge itself causes enemies to scatter, using minions in this build is essentially a waste.
Therefore, it’s recommended to sacrifice them directly:
In addition to Cursed Aura Aspect, there are other aspects of the game that can benefit this build. As for how to obtain them in Season 9, it’s recommended to farm Helltides or gamble with Obols.
After acquiring reliable gear, besides improving your character, Diablo 4 allows you to enhance it by acquiring additional affixes, making it even more beneficial in combat.
Note that different gear slots are suited for different affix types. Here are some recommendations:
If you find the above information useful, try combining all the gear and skills, including Drain Vitality, to craft and enhance a Blood Surge Necromancer build! I wish you success!
As one of the leading ARPGs, it’s fair to say that Diablo 4’s performance since the start of 2025 has been rather lackluster: delayed DLC and a near-unchanging seasonal update format can make you tired of it.
While anticipation for the second expansion may keep you playing until next year, it’s more important to ensure that Diablo 4 doesn’t disappoint again in the second half of 2025.
While the game hasn’t yet revealed further details about Season 10, the final regular season of 2025, you’ll notice that Diablo 4 has recently made some changes during Season 9, which may be a sign of better service.
Based on this, we’ll introduce the major recent changes and events in the game and speculate on what changes might be coming in August and Season 10.
Approximately two weeks have passed since the release of Season 9’s previous patch, 2.3.1. To further optimize the seasonal experience, Diablo 4 released Patch 2.3.2 on July 29th. This update is available regardless of whether you own Vessel of Hatred.
Please note that Patch 2.3.2 primarily addresses bug fixes for general gameplay and does not include the class balance adjustments included in 2.3.1. However, we recommend keeping an eye on this update primarily because of its impact on dungeon experience.
Patch 2.3.2 primarily addresses issues related to Season progression and rewards, some Escalating Nightmares affixes, and skill mechanics, minimizing issues like missing Diablo 4 gold or incorrect gear quality when checking loot.
In addition, this patch improves overall game stability, performance, user interface, and visuals, ensuring a smoother than ever experience in Diablo 4 regardless of your device.
The following patch notes are worth noting:
Dungeon Bug Fixes:
Specific Combat Experience Bug Fixes:
This event was last held in March 2025, during Season 7. March of the Goblins event was popular for its simplicity and rich rewards, so Diablo 4 brought it back to the game to spark renewed enthusiasm for the lackluster Season 9.
March of the Goblins event was originally a special one-week event held in June 2024 to celebrate the game, but its high drop rate for Diablo 4 gold kept it in the game.
If you participated in March of the Goblins event, you’ll know that Diablo 4 has made significant improvements to it, with a wider variety of rewards and amounts. We expect this event to retain the same mechanics and gameplay.
Season 9 March of the Goblins event began at 10:00 AM PT on July 29th and will run until 10:00 AM PT on August 5th, approximately one week. During this time, the spawn rate of Treasure Goblins will be significantly increased across all world tier events.
You can track your progress by checking the goblin statue in Kyovashad, and have a chance to receive loot chests, treasure bags, and even rare items like Resplendent Spark.
Based on the schedule, Season 10 is likely to launch in mid-to-late September or early October, so Season 9 should at least provide a reliable base gameplay experience through August.
Besides bugs, the most common criticism of Diablo 4 recently has probably been the seemingly lower loot drop rate. Honestly, as a combat-and-loot-focused ARPG, while combat needs to be challenging, a low drop rate is only detrimental.
On the one hand, this will prevent you from properly powering up your character and unlocking lair boss hoards, and on the other hand, it will further disrupt the game’s item and gold trading markets.
Therefore, if Diablo 4 doesn’t launch other new activities with Season 9 in August, the most likely new measure will be adjusting loot drop rates. Otherwise, if this leads to a loss of players before Season 10 launches, it would be more harm than good.
I hope the above information is helpful for you as you play Diablo 4, and I wish the game continued success. Thank you for reading.
Although the second Diablo 4 DLC, originally scheduled for 2025, has been delayed to 2026, if you are a new player, the first DLC, Vessel of Hatred, plus the existing seasons are enough for you to play for a long time.
Generally speaking, DLC is not a mandatory choice for you to play Diablo 4. You can play the seasons of the base game smoothly without it, but you can’t experience the classes or other mechanisms exclusive to the expansion.
But it must be said that Vessel of Hatred’s exclusive content can sometimes make your regular season experience easier and more interesting, making you choose to get the expansion, especially in Season 9.
So what exclusive content of this DLC performs well in Season 9 and is recommended for you to get it? We will introduce it to you.
As you know, Diablo 4 added the sixth class, Spiritborn, to the game when the DLC and Season 6 were launched simultaneously last year, but it was actually exclusive to the DLC, not directly added to all game content.
Of course, if you are not a new class fan or game blogger, you can save this investment and continue to play other old classes. But when you enter Season 9, you will find that Spiritborn is indeed stronger than most classes in that season.
When it was first launched, this class showed a relatively prominent advantage. With the power of skills such as Quill Volley and gear such as Rod of Kepeleke Unique, it showed amazing lethality in DLC and Season 6.
Although in Season 7&8, the development team weakened Spiritborn appropriately due to its overly prominent advantages, in S9, perhaps because the new Spiritborn unique items work well with the season mechanism, this class once again showed an unstoppable momentum.
As the main reason Spiritborn is so difficult to replace in Season 9, the main affix effects and combat functions of Balazan’s Maxtlatl are:
The fact that you’re using Balazan’s Maxtlatl right now has been nerfed by the patch doesn’t stop it from working reliably with already powerful Spiritborn abilities or builds, such as:
More importantly, Balazan’s Maxtlatl and related builds are more than enough to get you through most of the endgame content in Season 9, especially when clearing the new Nightmare Dungeon Escalations.
Take Quill Volley Spiritborn Build as an example. AOE damage from this build combined with Balazan’s Maxtlatl’s Thorns + Poison can quickly kill many enemies, earning countless Diablo 4 gold, as well as rare other loot in a short time.
Since the release of Vessel of Hatred, you’ll find that many Diablo 4 builds will start to add Mercenaries to their lineups. This mechanic first appeared in Diablo 2, and it’s still reliable after being introduced to D4.
Diablo 4’s mercenary mechanic allows you to set up a primary mercenary and a reinforcement mercenary for yourself, the former providing main support in battle, and the latter only appearing briefly after a trigger and using a onetime skill.
These triggers are usually tied to your actions in battle, such as controlling an enemy or using a specific skill. So you need to choose the right combination of the following four mercenaries as your helpers according to the characteristics of your class or builds:
And in Season 9, especially in Nightmare Dungeon Escalations, since you have to complete three built-in dungeons and kill the final boss Astaroth, your builds must have enough durability, and the support of mercenaries can do it.
The combination of primary mercenaries and reinforcement mercenaries can make the dungeon clearing process, especially the final boss battle, easier, allowing you to get cover when you are attacked by Amalgam of Hatred and Astaroth himself at the same time.
If you don’t have Vessel of Hatred DLC and can’t get the support of the mercenaries, although the reliable character strength and rare gear should also help you complete the battle, the risk is higher and the process will be more difficult.
Among all the lair bosses in Season 9, Urivar and Harbinger of Hatred are exclusive bosses that can only be challenged if you have Vessel of Hatred. Defeating them can get new unique items or regular gear.
Although the loot they provide can also be obtained by challenging other bosses, more bosses mean you have more farming options and higher loot drop rates.
In addition, the hoard of the lair boss must be unlocked through the relevant keys, and these keys can only be dropped by killing other bosses. So if you can’t unlock Urivar and Harbinger Of Hatred, it may affect your challenge of other bosses.
In general, you can play Diablo 4 normally without DLC, but it does add more valuable details to your overall experience. So if your budget allows, it’s a good idea to get Vessel of Hatred now!
Usually in any game type, except for the occasional popular game, most of the time the competition is formed by several top-level games in the type. In ARPG, the most intense competition in recent years undoubtedly comes from Diablo and Path of Exile series.
After Diablo 4 was launched in 2023, it seems to have more advantages, but since POE 2 was launched at the end of 2024, although it is still at early access stage, it still took away a lot of attention.
For Diablo 4, what’s worse is that the plan for the second DLC has also been postponed to 2026. Therefore, in 2025, Diablo 4, which has entered a flat period, has to face the competitive pressure from Path of Exile 3.26 and the continuous large patches of POE 2.
Coincidentally, the release time of Diablo 4 Season 9 is just between POE 3.26 and POE 2 patch 0.3.0 (not yet released). Based on this, we will analyze how Diablo 4 should deal with this crisis.
Although players have complained about the lack of novelty for several consecutive seasons, Diablo 4 still has not changed the basic mode of new season power + new boss + season-limited dungeon.
Fortunately, with a solid content foundation, the overall performance of Season 9 is not too bad even so: Horadric Spells brings new exploitable power, and Escalating Nightmares and Horadric Strongrooms provide more Diablo 4 gold farming options.
On the other hand, this season also optimizes the class experience as much as possible by adding new class-specific unique items and related patches, although there are still weak classes.
Based on the above and other performances, Season 9 may not be novel enough for Diablo 4 itself, but at least it is not a terrible season. However, it is hard to say for Path of Exile 1&2.
In the past, the first game of Path of Exile usually maintained a relatively stable league update frequency, but because of the focus on the development of POE 2, after the release of 3.25 league in July 2024, 3.26 was repeatedly postponed until June this year.
Fortunately, the returning Mercenaries of Trarthus league brings a lot of new content. Although there are bugs and QoL problems that make you dissatisfied, it is also a qualified Path of Exile league.
POE 2 early access was released at the end of last year, and patch 0.2.0 was launched in April this year-in fact, it had already fought with Diablo 4 Season 8 at that time, and the competition also included Last Epoch Season 2 at the same time.
Since 0.2.0 brings a lot of new content and a new class, Huntress, it poses an enormous threat to Diablo 4 Season 8, but it does not have an absolute advantage.
The reason 0.3.0, which will be launched around August 29, may be more worrying for Diablo 4 is that POE 2 will use this patch to launch Druid as a new class.
As a classic ARPG class category, most games will add Druid, and Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 1 both do so. Since the latter has many classes, Druid’s popularity seems to be higher in Diablo 4.
The tricky thing is that in recent seasons, for some reason, Diablo 4 has always intentionally or unintentionally ignored the development of Druid. Whether for fun or strength, you may not want to play this class in Season 9.
On the contrary, POE 2 had planned to launch Druid as a new class before 0.2.0 patch was launched, but it was abandoned because it was not yet perfected. Therefore, the new class in 0.3.0 is likely to be Druid.
Compared with POE 1, there are not so many existing classes in POE 2, and Druid is a new class, so it will definitely receive more attention. And given the average performance of this class in D4 S9, the focus shift from Druid fans will put pressure on D4 to lose players.
At last year’s Gamescom, POE 2 showed a 13-minute Druid game video. With the development and improvement of the game, POE 2 should show more related content at this year’s Gamescom, and the exhibition time is just before the release of 0.3.0 patch.
It can be imagined that if Path of Exile 2 Druid gameplay shown at that time is attractive enough, the next few months will be enough for Diablo 4 to “headache”.
Since the roadmaps of major games are fixed for the current year, Diablo 4 cannot add more new seasons or DLCs to compete with POE 2, but at least it can add new limited-time events to the existing Season 9 as an attempt.
In addition, according to the time calculation, Diablo 4 will launch Season 10 in September-October. At that time, it can optimize Druid to attract fans who have been diverted, or innovate the season mechanism to compete with Path of Exile 2.
To be honest, the competition between games is endless. No matter which side should not be troubled by the temporary lag, the important thing is to always focus on improving the quality of the game to retain loyal players.
In Diablo 4, there are not only a variety of ways to obtain gear, but also a variety of mechanisms to continue to improve the role of gear. Only when your gear is getting better and better, your builds and even characters can be strong enough to cope with the endgame.
In Season 9, the endgame content worth challenging mainly includes challenging lair bosses, Infernal Hordes, Pit of the Artificer, and two new dungeons. The ways to optimize gear are mainly Tempering and Masterworking.
Among them, the operating principle of Masterworking is to upgrade by consuming related materials to make the affix effect of gear stronger. However, as the progress deepens, the affix that can be enhanced is random, which may lead to unsatisfactory results of your gear enhancement.
So is this mechanism still worth utilizing in Season 9? We will introduce it to you.
Masterworking is an endgame crafting system in Diablo 4 that increases the value of existing affixes on specific gear through 8-12 separate upgrade levels, which can be performed at the blacksmith. Gear that can be made stronger in this way must be one of the following three types:
Based on this, items below level 800 can only be upgraded to level 8 through Masterworking, and items at level 800 can be upgraded to level 12. If it is below level 750, it is not suitable for Masterworking because the value is not great.
In general, the materials consumed for Masterworking include Diablo 4 gold, Obducite, Veiled Crystal and more, which will vary depending on the type and level of gear, but gold, Veiled Crystal and Obducite are required.
Most events and challenges in the game will drop gold, and the main sources of Obducite farming include:
Veiled Crystal can be obtained through:
Once you have enough materials, each level of Masterworking will increase the effect of all affixes of the item by 5%; every four levels will increase the effect of a random affix of the item by 25% - the required materials include:
It is precisely because of this “random” effect that the deeper Masterworking effect, the greater the risk. If the affix that is enhanced happens to be the least useful for the gear, you will lose a lot.
If you are not satisfied with the random affixes that are enhanced on the item after upgrading to Masterworking level 4, you can also re-roll the dice later by resetting the level.
Open the Blacksmith’s Masterworking tab and select the Reset Masterworking Ranks option to complete the level reset operation. The materials consumed in this process are:
Although the consumption is not small, if the current dice roll result is not good, you’d better reset the level as soon as possible. Of course, subsequent dice rolls are also not guaranteed, but at least you have gotten rid of a poor result.
Alternatively, you can choose to send unused Masterworked gear to the blacksmith for salvage, and all materials consumed when upgrading it except gold will be returned to you 100%.
Typically, a level 800 gear will have a 45% increase in all affixes, and its best affix may be increased by 75%, but if this 75% increase is eventually applied to a garbage affix, it will be a nightmare.
The higher the rarity of the gear, the greater its role in builds, and the more effort you put into it at the time, but a bad Masterworking dice roll result may make everything meaningless.
Although the risk is high, once successful, Masterworking can make your gear sufficient to cope with all endgame content and bosses, and help craft better builds, so this risk is worth taking.
Even if the final effect is not good, you can recover by resetting, although this will consume more of your efforts to farm gold and related materials.
Or, for safety, you can just keep Masterworking level of the gear at level 3 and not try the random dice roll afterwards. But this way, you will lose the opportunity to try to have top-level gear.
In general, although random affix enhancements are annoying, there is a minor possibility of enhancing the strength of your Diablo 4 gear to your surprise. Even if the risk is great, it is recommended that you continue to utilize Masterworking.
The above is the content about Diablo 4 Masterworking introduced to you this time, as well as the relevant suggestions on whether you should continue to utilize it in S9. I hope it will be enlightening and helpful to you. Thank you for reading.
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