What Can You Learn About Diablo 4 Season 8 Through 2.2.0 PTR? - Difficulty Upgrade

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• Diablo 4 Season 11 Paladin Leveling Guide | Best Early Skills And Safe Builds

  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.

• Diablo 4 Season 11 Divine Gifts Guide | How Do They Work? What Are The Best Choices?

  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.

• Diablo 4 Season 11 Season Rank System | How Does It Replace Renown And Season Journey?

  Although The Tower dungeon and leaderboard have been delayed, Diablo 4 Season 11 still has plenty of new playable content waiting for you to explore. However, while enjoying the new events, don't overlook the changes to the existing mechanics!

  Compared to mechanics like Tempering and Masterworking, which are closely related to gear enhancement, the changes to seasonal systems may seem less significant, but any veteran Diablo 4 player should know their importance.

  Starting with Season 11, Renown and season journey systems will be replaced by a new Season Rank system, a change that has been well-received since its announcement. Below, we'll analyze the reasons and implications behind this change.

  What Is Renown System?

  It's essentially a regional point system in Diablo 4. You earn points by completing specific regional tasks, which then increase your Renown and unlock system rewards.

  These tasks typically include unlocking waypoints, strongholds, and dungeons, completing side quests, or finding Altars of Lilith. Rewards may include gold, XP, or skill and Paragon points.

  Renown system rewards are shared across your different Diablo 4 characters, but all progress and content in Renown system are reset with each season update.

  What Is Season Journey?

  This mechanism sets up 7 chapters based on seasonal gameplay, each with corresponding tasks. Completing these tasks earns you rewards and helps you gauge your current game progress.

  Notably, the rewards include Smoldering Ashes, which help you unlock seasonal blessings. Different seasonal blessings provide exclusive buffs to help you obtain more loot in combat.

  How Does Season Rank Work?

  As a new mechanism that combines and replaces both Renown and Season Journey, Season Rank system integrates the advantages and main functions of both, serving as your progression path in Season 11 and subsequent seasons.

  Season Rank system has 7 specific ranks, each containing tasks you need to complete and an exclusive dungeon. You must complete the current rank to unlock rewards and the next rank, as well as other game objectives related to rank progression.

  For example, you can only unlock The Pit and The Tower after completing Rank 2, and the four bosses associated with Divine Gifts mechanism in Season 11, along with their corresponding Purified slots, will only be unlocked after you reach a specific rank.

  Regarding rewards, the main content is largely consistent with what the two removed systems provided, including skills and Paragon points, Smoldering Ashes, and more, although the distribution method may differ from the past.

  Furthermore, similar to Renown system, Season Rank progress applies to all your characters on the current server. So if you play a new character, you don't need to farm Season Rank levels from scratch.

  It's important to note that Renown system hasn't been completely removed from Diablo 4, but a portion of it remains in Eternal Realm. However, if you only play on seasonal servers, you can completely forget about it!

  Why This Change?

  Previously, to unlock higher game difficulties, you had to consume a significant amount of time each season resetting Renown system, rediscovering altars, and completing tasks you had already done many times.

  Additionally, this system overlapped with Season Journey in many ways, and their independence dispersed your gaming energy and time, making the entire reward system redundant.

  Now, the introduction of Season Rank means you no longer have permanent upgrade rewards, but can only unlock them within the season. This might sound like a downgrade, but it actually makes the game experience better.

  Advantages Of Season Rank

  Previously, when you entered a new season, you were level 1 with 12 skill points. While this allowed you to start fighting quickly, the subsequent progression was less significant, making you feel that the power increase became less noticeable as you leveled up.

  Now, although you will be weaker at the beginning, with only one free skill point, you will gradually become stronger as you level up. Both your character's abilities and your sense of accomplishment will be more significant.

  However, because of this, the ultimate Rank 7 challenge of Season Rank may be more difficult to complete than previous Renown or journey objectives, requiring more effort. But we believe the rewards are worth it.

  Here are all Rank 7 challenge objectives and their specific details for your reference:

  • Irrefutable Power: Complete Sanctification for 66 Ancestral items.
  • Monster Mash: Defeat 6666 elite or champion enemies in Torment 4 difficulty.
  • Lords of Nothing: Defeat 4 Lesser Evil bosses from Season 11 in Torment 4 difficulty.
  • Grand Shimmer: Craft 4 grand gems and any jewelry cache. Power Beyond Comprehension: Upgrade 9 items to Rank 10 in Masterworking system.
  • Unyielding Ascent: Increase your Paragon level to 250.
  • Who do you want to be: Earn over 1,000,000,000 gold.
  • Den of Dread: Defeat lair bosses within 5 minutes on Torment 4 difficulty.
  • Bane of Astaroth: Defeat the boss Astaroth on Torment 4 difficulty.
  • Plutonian Havoc: Defeat the boss Bartuc and open the greater equipment chest on Torment 4 difficulty.
  • Purified Hatred: Purify 6666 Seeds of Hatred at Altar of Extraction on Torment 4 difficulty.
  • Blessed Mother Departed: Defeat the boss Lilith on Torment 4 difficulty.

  Other rank objectives and challenges, while not as difficult, are also as many as Rank 7, so you will need to invest sufficient time and effort during Season 11 to achieve your desired achievements and loot. These mainly include:

  Rank 1：

  • Divine Intervention
  • Surging Tides
  • Ruins Reclaimed
  • Artisan's Touch
  • Forged in Sanctuary
  • Herald of Pain
  • Divine Situations

  Rank 2：

  • Hadriel's Blessings
  • Fields of Desecration
  • Potent Alterations
  • Descend into Madness
  • Echoes of Fate
  • Rune Linguistics
  • Expertly Executed

  Rank 3：

  • A Blessing in Disguise
  • World in Sin
  • Sanctuary's hero
  • Pang of the Hunt
  • Test of Luck
  • Awaiting Torment
  • Defeat a Helltid

  Rank 4：

  • Lesser Corruption
  • Greater Hoard
  • Beasts Beneath
  • Judgement Unleashes
  • Into the Pit
  • Power Unleashes
  • Flawless Facet
  • Paid in Valor
  • Bloody Warlord
  • Finely Attuned

  Rank 5：

  • Divine Powers
  • Lesser than Evil
  • Liar Boss
  • Escalating Nightmare
  • Master at Work
  • The Pit of the Artificer
  • Contracted Courage
  • Hatred Denied
  • Myliasis Preventative
  • Deceiver's Tower

  Rank 6：

  • Greater of the two Evils
  • Lucid Fever
  • Horadric Secrets
  • Field of Hatred
  • Enticing Offerings
  • Hell Pangs
  • Precursor of might
  • Swift whisperers

  That's all for this introduction. We wish you all the best in Diablo 4 Season 11!

• Diablo 4 Season 11 Leveling Guide: How To Fast Level From 1 To 60?

  Diablo 4 Season 11 will launch on all platforms on December 11th. With the season update fast approaching, players are eagerly awaiting new season guides. Notably, this season features a major update, including changes to monster difficulty mechanics and the item upgrade system.

  With the new season, players' previous seasonal level experience and hard-earned Diablo 4 items will be reset. This means you'll have to re-select your character leveling and farming. However, don't worry, they won't disappear; they'll simply be transferred to Eternal Realm.

  It's important to note that the optimal leveling path for Season of Divine Intervention has changed. Leveling is more difficult, and players will no longer receive the initial 14 skill points at level 1. These skill points can only be obtained through the new Season Rank system.

  Furthermore, Capstone Dungeon has been reintroduced this season, becoming a key point in the season's progression and thus altering the optimal way to acquire XP.

  If you're currently looking for ways to level up in the new season, you definitely can't miss the following content. I'll recommend the best leveling path for Season 11, which we've summarized. However, since the new season hasn't launched yet, we can only make predictions based on the new season patch and previous livestream content. Therefore, we will update this information again if there are better methods or adjustments needed later.

  Preliminary Preparations

  First, you need to choose a class as your main character for this season. You can continue to choose the class you were most familiar with in previous seasons. If you want to try something new, you can choose a class that interests you and its best build to start the game.

  We need to level up our chosen character to level 60. After creating your new season character, you need to skip the campaign and choose Normal difficulty. Currently, level 1 characters in Season 11 are relatively weak because we can't gain basic skill points in rank 1 matches. Therefore, it's best to gradually increase your Season Rank in Normal difficulty.

  Once we've leveled up and gained enough skill points to become powerful in Normal difficulty, we can then switch the game difficulty to Hard. After logging into the game, open your character panel and select a pet on Wardrobe page to fight alongside you. The pet will automatically collect resources, reducing a lot of hassle.

  Next, teleport to Nahantu and select your Mercenary. In the early game, Subo is highly recommended. He's not only a mercenary but also a member of Pale Hand. He's chosen because he can display all materials and enemies around you, a significant advantage even in the late game. Your second Mercenary can be chosen freely based on your preferences.

  Leveling Quest Route

  Grind To Level 30 In Helltides

  Once you're ready, you'll begin advancing through the season questline until you obtain your first season power and unlock the reputation board. It's recommended to start the season journey challenges from the first tier, remembering to choose those that reward skill points, as you'll need these skills later to improve your strength.

  Once you've completed the various stages of Season Rank and gained enough skill points, you can enter Helltides. Helltides have changed in the new season; the leader has changed from Blood Maiden to Duriel.

  After summoning Duriel using Baneful Hearts, remember to prioritize killing him, as he has a chance to drop Essence of Squalor. Equip Essence of Squalor immediately after obtaining it; this will make Maggots drop experience orbs later, which will help you level up.

  In Helltides, repeatedly farm XP by completing all quests that may trigger, whether it's Whisper quest for 10 Grim Favors or the bonuses from Infernal Compasses and Tribute of Growth. Continue farming until you reach level 30 in Helltides, or when you feel strong enough, then move on to the next area.

  Gain XP And Skill Points In Capstone Dungeon

  Next, we should challenge Season Rank 1 Capstone Dungeon. Enter Season Path menu and click the teleport button on the right to go to the level 1 Capstone Dungeon - Torrid Menagerie.

  The level 1 monsters are level 30, which is why it was mentioned earlier that you should wait until you reach level 30 before coming here. Completing the corresponding quests in Torrid Menagerie will reward you with 1 skill point and a Greater Ranking Cache.

  Note that completing the level 1 challenge will unlock the corresponding level 2 challenge. You can then complete the level 2 quests that reward skill points, but don't rush to challenge Capstone Dungeon. Challenging it before reaching the level cap will require a lot of time and effort.

  Reaching Level 60

  After gaining enough experience and skill points in the level 1 Capstone Dungeon, you need to farm XP by completing other quests until you reach the level cap.

  Repeatedly Farming Helltides

  It's recommended that after completing all the skill point-rewarding challenges in the level 2 Capstone Dungeon, you should return to Helltides and complete quests and kill monsters to farm experience, repeating this process until you reach level 60. This will give you your first level 60 character.

  Azmodan

  If you find repeatedly farming Helltides too tedious, there are other options. This season, Diablo 4 introduces a new summonable World Boss, Azmodan, which can be summoned to the ground from the south of Zarbinzet using three Altars.

  Previously, on PTR server, players could repeatedly summon and defeat Azmodan to gain a large amount of XP, and even Corrupted Essence, to unlock chests that appeared after the battle. However, the developers have mentioned that this method may be significantly weaken upon release on the live server, so it's not currently highly recommended.

  Strongholds

  Besides the two methods mentioned above, another leveling technique is to challenge all Strongholds on the map on normal difficulty when you reach level 50, such as Fractured Peaks and Scosglen Stronghold. This also earns a lot of XP, but it's somewhat tedious and suitable for players with limited time and energy.

  These are our recommended best paths to quickly reach level 60 in the new season.

  If you don't like this method, you can also choose to complete the entire campaign on normal difficulty; completing the campaign will also level you up to 60. A drawback is that you must complete the entire campaign to obtain Seasonal Reputation and Powers. 

  Hopefully, these methods will help you quickly level up and improve your strength in the upcoming Season of Divine Intervention. Good luck!

• Diablo 4 Season 11 Developer Update Livestream | More New Changes For Season Of Divine Intervention

  At 11:00 AM PDT on December 3rd, Diablo 4 held its latest developer interview, revealing the official name of the season and introducing more changes to the new season's content based on 2.5.0 PTR.

  Based on this, we'll summarize the main points revealed in this livestream, allowing you to quickly adapt to the gameplay of Season 11 upon its release.

  Season 11 Overview

  The official name of this season is Season of Divine Intervention, and it will officially launch at 8:30 PM PDT on Thursday, December 11, 2025. Interestingly, this timing coincides with The Game Awards, leading players to speculate that D4 might be planning something big.

  However, focusing on Season 11 itself is clearly more important than worrying about the still-vague second DLC or other plans.

  This season's main seasonal mechanics are Divine Gifts and Sanctification. Along with new dungeons, seasonal events, and unique items, several fundamental mechanics have been adjusted, including:

  • Tempering and Masterworking system upgrades
  • Defense system changes
  • Monster mechanics changes
  • Season Journey replaced by Season Rank
  • Removal of Renown system's cross-seasonal trait

  News From This Developer Livestream

  2.5.0 PTR only provides an opportunity to experience the prototype of Season 11 and does not represent the final form of the new season. Developers must continue to optimize based on player feedback to present a better Season 11.

  Tempering And Masterworking

  After the changes, Tempering allows you to directly select the affixes you want to apply from the recipe instead of random assignment. While this also limits the number of affixes that can be upgraded, the upgrade results for Diablo 4 items will be more consistent.

  Masterworking will no longer randomly increase affix effects but will directly affect item quality. This means it will more effectively enhance items based on their gear type, such as directly increasing armor resistance or defense.

  Each subsequent Masterworking will randomly increase the item's quality and slightly improve the stats of all affixes. Upon reaching the highest quality, you can perform a final enhancement, increasing one random affix on the current gear by 50%.

  More Changes To Monster Mechanics

  First, starting with Season 11, monsters in the game become more intelligent in combat, making their subsequent actions less predictable and resulting in a more realistic and engaging combat experience.

  Furthermore, more monsters with affixes will appear, or the difficulty of monsters that already have affixes will be further increased - even before entering Torment difficulty, these situations may occur, enriching the overall game experience.

  For players who excel at dealing AoE damage, be aware that monster gathering frequency will decrease in the new season, so you won't be able to use previous tactics and must quickly develop new strategies.

  New Boss Azmodan Combat Mechanics

  This boss is not only a new permanent world boss but also one source that allows you to obtain Divine Gifts, corresponding to Essence of Sin and Essence of Hellfire.

  You can find and defeat this boss in Capstone Dungeon after reaching Season Rank V, or you can summon him by collecting materials at Summoning Altar. Note that each summon will grant Azmodan a power belonging to another Lesser Evil.

  Given the uncertainty and unknown nature of this new boss, we recommend that you be fully prepared before summoning Azmodan. At least unlock some Divine Gifts by defeating the other three demons, Belial, Andariel, and Duriel.

  Other Systemic Changes

  Regarding the defense system, Season 11 will introduce a new concept called Toughness. You can think of it as a new metric for measuring your defensive capabilities, representing the total amount of damage you can withstand after using all damage reduction methods.

  Because of this, you'll need to consider more factors when acquiring and upgrading gear. While it may be a bit more troublesome, it's a good thing to improve overall defensive capabilities.

  The existing armor and resistances will be calculated based on the level system, and the armor and resistance penalties from Torment difficulty have been removed. If you choose Torment difficulty, the game will default to recommending Toughness level.

  Regarding the healing mechanics, Season 11 reduces the base capacity of lootable potions to 4, and potion healing is now based on percentage-based instant healing, restoring approximately 35% of your total health.

  While the number of lootable potions has decreased, one potion slowly regenerates every 30 seconds. To balance the overall reduction in quantity, the original Life on Hit effect has been changed to an affix that can be added to other items.

  It's worth noting that the change in the healing mechanics means that Fortify also needs to be modified to work in tandem with the other potions. Therefore, Fortify's function will change from damage reduction to allowing you to store additional health.

  In other words, starting with Season 11, Fortify can stack onto your maximum health. When the cap is reached, it restores a percentage of your maximum health per second, along with an equal amount of Fortify effect.

  Twitch Drops This Time

  Although the stream has ended, it's still worth mentioning. If you watch the livestream for a full 30 minutes and ensure Twitch Drops are enabled, you'll have a chance to win Unhilted Striked one-handed sword cosmetic.

  If you unfortunately miss the livestream, you'll miss out on the cosmetic, but you can still catch up on the content by watching the replay on Diablo YouTube or Twitch channels.

  To claim your drop rewards on time, please note the following:

  • Rewards can only be claimed on the livestream channel you watched and through Drops Inventory menu on Twitch.
  • Link your Battle.net and Twitch accounts within 7 days.
  • Make sure you're using a PC web browser or Twitch app for Android/iOS to claim your rewards.

  These guidelines should also apply to future Diablo 4 Twitch Drops releases via other livestreams, so it's best to remember them to avoid your prizes expiring or becoming un-claimable.

  That concludes this guide. With Season 11 drawing ever closer, let's look forward to it and any other new Diablo 4 developments that may emerge!

• Diablo 4 Season 11 Survival Guide | How To Choose Gear And Skills After Nerfs?

  Diablo 4 Season 11 will feature a significant overhaul, and based on PTR data, it's nerfed in many ways compared to Season 10. Regardless of your build, your DPS will be noticeably lower.

  Survivability is also crucial in Season 11, especially in the early game. You'll need to focus more on defense due to stronger monsters. So, how should you adjust your gear in Season 11?

  Season 11 Nerfs

  Due to the loss of Greater Affixes and the damage bonuses from the old Masterworking set, player DPS is significantly reduced.

  Players will also lose the survival attributes provided by these systems, such as health and armor. Furthermore, the entire game has undergone a survivability overhaul; monster damage is higher, and elite monster control effects will be more pronounced.

  The drop rate of Legendary gear will be nerfed early in the season and will only increase later. Amulet slots will no longer have higher affixes for primary attributes, further reducing damage.

  Overall movement speed has been nerfed, affecting map clearing efficiency and positioning. Resource generation has been changed to a fixed value instead of a percentage, significantly impacting builds that rely on skill rotations.

  Survivability Building Strategies

  Ensuring sufficient survivability is extremely important in Season 11, as you can only deal damage if you're alive. Below are some general suggestions regarding builds.

  Skill Selection

  Each class has mobility skills or crowd control break skills, such as Rouge's Shadow Step and Necromancer's Blood Mist. You must carry these skills to quickly escape monster encirclement or deal with elite monster crowd control.

  The skill tree offers several options that provide damage reduction, even if they sacrifice some DPS. You can also carry crowd control abilities, using effects like chill to slow or freeze enemies, creating opportunities for yourself to deal damage.

  Attributes

  First, you need to stack Life and Maximum Life affixes on more equipment slots. After the rework, Armor remains a primary stat, but Resistances should also be maximized. Aspect of Disobedience and Juggernaut's Aspect are recommended for maximizing armor.

  Cooldown reduction becomes more important because it allows you to use survival skills more frequently. In Season 11, Cooldown reduction will be available on new slots such as gloves.

  Life on hit, especially percentage-based Life on hit, is an important means of recovery because its benefit increases with maximum life.

  Recommended Equipment

  Season 11 has adjusted or even reworked many unique items, especially mythic items. Below are some recommended unique Diablo 4 items for Season 11.

  Helm

  Harlequin Crest provides significant damage reduction and cooldown reduction, making it a top choice for many builds in Season 11. While Heir of Perdition offers a significant damage boost, Harlequin Crest is a better option until survivability is a priority.

  Andariel's Visage provides life on hit in Season 11, and its recovery effect will be even more pronounced when combined with high attack speed builds.

  Chest Armor

  Shroud of False Death remains a top choice, offering comprehensive stat boosts and resource generation, which is invaluable for any build. Tyrael's Might is no longer as useless in Season 11 as before; while not as good as Shroud of False Death, it provides considerable survivability.

  Pants

  Tassets of the Dawning Sky, while not unique to mythic builds, are very useful in Season 11. They provide all stats, resistances, maximum resistances, and movement speed, effectively compensating for the losses in stats, resistances, and movement speed in the new season.

  Gloves

  Endurant Faith provides an effect similar to Progenesis Amethyst Flask in Path of Exile, converting a portion of damage into damage over time, buying time to regenerate health. However, many players in Diablo 4 don't use this unique item because its direct resistance boost isn't very strong. Therefore, you should only use it when you desperately need survivability.

  Boots

  Rakanoth's Wake isn't a mythic unique item either. However, it provides up to 35% all elemental resistances and cooldown reduction, allowing your other gear to stack attack affixes, making it highly recommended.

  Weapons

  Doombringer, as a mythic item, provides a significant amount of maximum life, making it a good defensive choice.

  Rings And Amulets

  Starlight Aspect provides primary resources when health regenerates. Combined with items like Undying Aspect, it can solve both survivability and resource issues.

  While the Melted Heart of Selig is still under adjustment, if it doesn't receive too many nerfs, it will be the preferred amulet for many builds.

  Eternal Realm

  Season 11's seasonal power provides additional defensive stats such as resistances, armor, and fortify, for example, increasing Fortify by 1% of maximum health or adding 20% ​​to all resistances. These bonuses are vastly different in terms of damage output compared to the better affixes provided by Chaos Armor from Season 10.

  The nerfs to Tempered and Masterworking in Season 11 will have a significant impact on player builds. Players will lose approximately 40% of their power simply due to the changes to Masterworking.

  However, if gear with higher affixes and Masterworking from Season 10 is retained in Eternal Realm after the update, Eternal Realm characters will be objectively stronger. This is because these items provide a significant damage multiplier and stat boost that Season 11 characters cannot obtain.

  For players seeking maximum power or wanting a smoother experience with new content, using a character from Eternal Realm in Season 11 might be a better choice, especially for those already possessing high Paragon levels and endgame gear.

  If you're considering continuing with your Eternal Realm character instead of creating a Season 11 character, it's recommended to immediately max out some key defensive unique items using the current Masterworking system. If this gear is retained, its power will far surpass that of the new season's equipment.

  That's a general overview of how to improve survivability in Season 11. Remember, don't blindly pursue maximum DPS; survival should be your top priority.