News Tag: Diablo 4 Gold

Aside from leveling up, acquiring and equipping gear is one of the primary ways to increase your combat effectiveness in Diablo 4. Therefore, your ability to progress effectively after entering the endgame is heavily influenced by the strength of your gear.

For this reason, Diablo 4 offers a variety of ways to enhance gear, such as upgrading affixes through Masterworking or embedding runes into gear to enhance it.

Although runes were first introduced to Diablo 4 via Vessel of Hatred DLC, they quickly gained popularity and played a significant role in most subsequent seasons. Below, we’ll explain the main methods for farming runes in Season 9.

About Runes

Besides being embedded into gear as enhancements, runes are also a currency for crafting specific Mythic Unique items. Furthermore, if you insert one Rune of Ritual and one Rune of Invocation into a two-slot piece of gear, they form a Runeword.

Furthermore, the utilization of runes is not unlimited. For more information, please refer to the following guidelines:

• You must obtain Vessel of Hatred expansion to farm and utilize runes.
• A single rune has no effect unless combined with other runes to form a Runeword.
• You can equip up to two Runewords at a time.
• You cannot equip the same rune twice.
• Runes can be stacked and traded.
• You can find runes on your character’s Socketable tab.
• If you wish to remove your runes, you can do so from a Jeweler.

One important thing to note is that if you want to sell excess gear to other players for Diablo 4 gold, be sure to check if the gear has runes attached to it before completing the trade. Otherwise, you will not be able to retrieve the runes separately once the trade is completed.

Also, Mythic Uniques that can be crafted from runes are typically determined by the rune’s nature, not randomly. If you have too many of the same rune, you can consume them to craft additional random runes.

How Do Runewords Work?

Runewords are actually a pair of linked Rune of Ritual and Rune of Invocation, which work together to trigger the desired gear bonus. Rune of Ritual generates offerings, which empower Rune of Invocation and trigger its effects.

Which Mythic Uniques Can Runes Be Used To Craft?

If you only have Resplendant Sparks, you can only use them to craft random Mythic Uniques. However, if you can combine Resplendant Sparks with runes at Jeweler, you can craft exclusive Mythic Unique you want!

How To Farm Runes In Season 9?

Before you start farming runes, you must complete Fundament of Faith chapter in DLC campaign; otherwise, runes won’t drop in-game.

Defeating All Bosses

Diablo 4 has multiple bosses to defeat in any season. World bosses in Season 9 are relatively easy to defeat and drop common rewards like gold or runes. While the rarity isn’t usually high, the quantity is still quite good.

Also, the lair bosses included in the endgame content, while more difficult to defeat, have a higher chance of dropping runes and a higher rarity. However, to obtain their loot, you must farm lair keys in advance to unlock boss hoards.

Also, if you own Vessel of Hatred, you’ll also receive runes from the first time you defeat campaign bosses in this DLC after the start of each season - but only once per season.

Farming Kurast Undercity

This dungeon was released with DLC, making it the primary dungeon for farming runes. Kurast Undercity is timed; upon entering, a countdown begins. Once the timer expires, you’ll be teleported out, regardless of how much loot you’ve collected.

However, you can extend your farming time by killing as many enemies as possible in the dungeon, earning more rewards. Alternatively, you can earn special tributes by completing other Diablo 4 events to increase the chance of rune drops:

• Tribute of Mystique: Offer it to Undercity Spirit Brazier to earn Magic Runes at Attunement Rank 1 (usable at all difficulty levels).
• Tribute of Harmony: Offer it to Undercity Spirit Brazier to earn Magic Runes at Attunement Rank 1 (usable only in Torment difficulties).

Obtaining Augment Caches

Starting in Season 6, you can begin hiring mercenaries. In addition to assisting you in battle, you can also gain additional benefits by improving your relationship with them.

For example, if your relationship with Aldkin reaches Rapport VIII, you can find an Augment Cache at Bartering vendor in Mercenary zone, The Den. Opening it has a chance of receiving Shattered Prisms, gems, or runes.

Reforging Runes

If you have too many low-level runes, you can reforge them at Jeweler to obtain a random new rune. Three runes of the same quality have a chance of being randomly converted into a higher-quality rune.

• 4,000 Gold + 3 Magic Runes: 85% chance of generating a Magic Rune, 15% chance of upgrading to a Rare Rune.
• 4,000 Gold + 3 Rare Runes: 85% chance of generating a Rare Rune, 15% chance of upgrading to a Legendary Rune.
• 4,000 Gold + 3 Legendary Runes: Generates a new Legendary Rune.

That’s all we have to say about runes farming in Season 9! We hope it helps you with your rune accumulation!

Diablo 4 features a rich item system. These items not only support you in completing more challenging battles and quests, but also serve as your goal for diligent farming to advance in the game.

While theoretically, the more of any item, the better, the different mechanics and gameplay of each season indicate that each season has a set of items that deserve your priority farming and stockpiling as much as possible.

For Season 9, these items primarily include lair keys for each lair boss, runes, and Obducite. Even as the season nears its midpoint, these items remain your primary consumables for character enhancement.

Based on the recent Diablo 4 Season 9 performance, we’ll provide a detailed explanation of why and how to farm Obducites.

About Obducites

This item is essentially an upgrade material for gear. Masterworking allows you to upgrade your gear by Obducites from rank 1 to 4 at a blacksmith, making gear affixes stronger. It is only applicable to Ancestral Legendary and Unique Items.

Obducites aren’t the only consumable items for Masterworking from ranks 1 to 4, Diablo 4 gold, Veiled Crystal, Rawhide, and Iron Chunk are also essential. However, aside from gold, the demand for Obducites increases the fastest with rank.

Therefore, when you first start farming gear that can be upgraded by Masterworking, you’ll need a large amount of Obducites to upgrade it as quickly as possible. Therefore, it’s recommended that you make Obducites your primary item farming target in Diablo 4 Season 9.

How To Farm Obducites?

Initially, you could only obtain Obducites by running The Pit, but this was too limited and could potentially hinder your gear upgrade progress. Therefore, after Season 6, Obducites’ farming sources have become much more diverse.

Escalating Nightmares

Although this dungeon was released after Season 9, it’s essentially a chain of three regular Nightmare dungeons, which have been one of the primary Obducites farming locations since Season 6.

While Diablo 4 Obducites can typically be dropped by any enemy in a Nightmare dungeon, Escalating Nightmares is unique in that it grants combat buffs or debuffs to the next built-in dungeon by dungeon affixes before you enter it.

As a result, if you acquire Obducite-related affixes, or the affixes simply increase the amount of loot you receive before entering Escalating Nightmares, you’ll be able to obtain more Obducites than before.

However, to access this dungeon, you must obtain Escalation Sigils. The first Escalation Sigil can be obtained by completing the seasonal questline, and the more require clearing Horadric Strongrooms at Torment 1-4 difficulty and opening the caches obtained.

Horadric Strongrooms

This seasonal built-in dungeon not only drops items that unlock Escalating Nightmares, but also a small number of Obducites. The entrance to a Strongroom will typically appear randomly while exploring a Nightmare dungeon.

After unlocking a Horadric Strongroom, you’ll need to use your Wayfinder to locate the dungeon’s portal entrance and defeat the surrounding guards to enter. The higher the difficulty and Wayfinder level, the faster you’ll find the portal.

In the dungeon, you’ll need to activate a Horadric Artifact Pillar and kill the enemies that appear to trigger the ritual. Afterward, continue clicking the artifact pillar in the new room to spawn more waves of enemies, earning more rewards, including Obducites.

In addition to loot, you can also collect Horadric Attunements during battles to redeem them for more rewards. Defeating the dungeon boss will grant you a Grand Horadric Cache, which can also yield Obducites.

Kurast Undercity

As one of Diablo 4’s main dungeons, Kurast Undercity was released with Vessel of Hatred expansion, so using it to farm Obducites requires you to own this DLC.

This dungeon is also unique in that it’s timed, and the higher the difficulty and level, the shorter the time. However, if you manage to kill Afflicted Monsters, you can restore the time in varying increments.

However, to access this dungeon and farm Obducites, you need to get Tribute of Refinement to unlock it. Fortunately, this item can be obtained by clearing Nightmare dungeons and Infernal Hordes.

Infernal Hordes

Infernal Hordes is a wave-based survival mode culminating in a unique boss battle. Your goal is to complete all waves and defeat Fell Council without using up all your resurrections, while also collecting Burning Aether to redeem Spoils of Hell chests.

These chests may contain gear, gold, and various crafting materials, including Obducites. To obtain sufficient Obducites through Infernal Hordes, you must slay more demons and collect more Burning Aether.

Each Infernal Hordes encounter has a 60-second timer, during which various events and demons may spawn. You don’t need to eliminate every demon on-screen before the timer expires; instead, you simply need to survive all the waves while collecting Burning Aether.

Because of the interconnectivity of unlocked items, you can actually run all the above dungeons or events continuously to maximize your Obducite farming efficiency within the limited timeframe.

This is the main information about Obducites farming in Diablo 4 Season 9. We hope it helps you enjoy the game!

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.

March Of The Goblins Overview

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.

How To Get Started?

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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What Tips Can Help You Get Rewards More Efficiently?

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.

Memorize All Goblin Characteristics

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:

• Odious Ector (Green): Crafting materials.
• Gilded Baron (Yellow): Enormous sums of gold.
• Glittering Prym (Diamond): Gem fragments, runes, and Undercity Tributes.
• Curious Murl (Purple): Murl’s Bag of Obols.
• Gelatinous Syrus (Blue): Splits into multiple goblins when killed, then drops legendary gear, gold, boss lair keys, and elixirs.
• Fancy Old Fedric (Mythic Purple): A Mythic and a Resplendent Spark.

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.

Always Monitor Your Mini-Map

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.

Make Helltides To Be Your Primary Farming Location

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.

Activate Nearby Greed Shrines

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:

• Hit enemies and drop gold.
• You can automatically pick up gold from a greater distance.
• Gives a movement speed bonus.

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.

What Is Drain Vitality?

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.

What Is Blood Surge Necromancer Build?

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.

How Does Drain Vitality Improve This Build?

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.

How To Further Craft This Build?

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.

Exclusive Mechanic Book Of The Dead

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:

• Melee Skeletons: Skirmisher [Sacrifice] - Increased Critical Strike Chance.
• Mage Skeletons: Bone [Sacrifice] - Increased Overpower Damage.
• Golem: Iron [Sacrifice] - Increased Critical Strike Damage.

Available Legendary Aspects

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.

• Aspect of the Embalmer
• Aspect of Hardened Bones
• Cruor’s Embrace
• Blood Moon Breeches
• Cadaverous Aspect
• Blood-bathed Aspect
• Cursed Aura Aspect
• Aspect of the Great Feast
• Sacrificial Aspect
• Aspect of Rathma’s Chosen

Best Gear Affixes

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:

• Helm: Maximum Life, Essence per second, Intelligence
• Chest: Maximum Life, Essence per second, All Resist
• Gloves - Cruor’s Embrace Cruor’s Embrace: Blood Surge Drains, X Times from Elites
• Pants - Blood Moon Breeches: Critical Strike Chance
• Boots: Armor, Essence per second, Movement Speed
• Amulet: Ranks to Tides of Blood, Intelligence, Attack Speed
• Rings (2x): Attack Speed, Maximum Life, Overpower Damage
• 1H-Weapon (Mace): Maximum Life, Intelligence, Lucky Hit
• Off-hand (Focus): Maximum Life, Critical Strike Chance, Intelligence

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.

Patch 2.3.2

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:

• Fixed an issue where you couldn’t obtain Horadric reward cache after completing Escalating Nightmares with Equipment Delve affix.
• Fixed an issue where Cultist Horde Escalation affix wasn’t correctly applying the health bonus to monsters.
• Fixed an issue where Lesser Aegis Escalation affix was applying incorrect barrier values to monsters.
• Fixed an issue where Escalating Nightmares wouldn’t progress properly if Strongroom and the base dungeon had the same boss.
• Fixed an issue where Butcher could get stuck on Horadric chests.
• Fixed an issue where Animus could disappear if too many items were placed on the ground.
• Fixed an issue where you couldn’t obtain the reward chests after completing Ravenous Soul event Mastery.

Specific Combat Experience Bug Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where Endurant Faith gloves could cause you to land a lucky hit on yourself. Fixed an issue where you could get stuck in the first stage of the boss fight if Lilith’s health depleted too quickly.
• Fixed an issue where, in some cases, you couldn’t reach Guardian’s Lair in The Pit.

New March Of The Goblins Event

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.

What New Changes Might Diablo 4 Introduce In August?

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.

DLC-Exclusive Class Spiritborn

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.

Basic Performance Of Spiritborn

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.

Unique Pants Balazan’s Maxtlatl

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:

• + 309 - 430 Thorns.
• + 489 - 526 Maximum Life.
• + 107 - 121 Dexterity.
• + 2 - 3 to Bastion.
• Each attack will cause damage equal to 100-150% of the number of your thorns to close enemies and cause poisoning effect equal to 100% of this damage within 3 seconds.
• Each time you use thorns to counterattack, the poison damage will be increased by 100% within 5 seconds, up to 300%.

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:

• Rake Spiritborn
• Crushing Hand Spiritborn
• Quill Volley Spiritborn

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.

DLC-Exclusive Mercenary Mechanic

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:

• Raheir, the Shieldbearer
• Varyana, the Berserker Crone
• Aldkin, the Cursed Child
• Subo, the Drunken Archer

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.

DLC-Exclusive Bosses

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.

How Does Diablo 4 Season 9 Perform?

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.

POE 3.26 Was Launched In Mid-June

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.

The Main Opponent Should Be POE 2 0.3.0

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.

The Competition Is Concentrated On Druid 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.

Get To Know POE 2 Druid In Advance

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”.

How Will Diablo 4 Deal With It?

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.

How Does Masterworking Improve Gear?

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:

• Legendary items with 2 Tempers applied
• Unique items
• Mythic Unique items

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.

What Preparations Are Needed For Masterworking?

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:

• Nightmare dungeons
• Spoils of Materials chest from Infernal Hordes
• Using Tribute of Refinement in Kurast Undercity
• Mercenary’s Den by bartering for Masterworking Cache

Veiled Crystal can be obtained through:

• Salvaging rare, legendary, unique, and mythic gear at the blacksmith
• Tree of Whispers Cache Rewards
• Legion Events Cache Rewards
• Infernal Hordes Cache Rewards
• Elite Monsters Cache Rewards

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:

• 2,250 Obducite
• 180 Rawhide
• 180 Iron Chunk
• 100 Veiled Crystal
• 25 Coiling Ward
• 25 Abstruse Sigil
• 25 Baleful Fragment
• 15 Forgotten Soul
• 3,000,000 Gold

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.

Resetting Masterworking Ranks

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:

• 30 Iron Chunk
• 30 Rawhide
• 20 Veiled Crystal
• 5 Forgotten Soul
• 5,000,000 Gold

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%.

Risk Of Random Affixes

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.

Should Masterworking Be Utilized In S9?

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.

In addition to seasonal content, Diablo 4 sometimes adds some new fixed mechanisms as optimization content for the entire game when updating the season. The closest and most representative one is the lair boss in Season 8.

This mechanism changes Diablo 4 gameplay, which has always required specific summoning materials to fight the relevant endgame boss to a direct challenge, but you must have lair keys to unlock the hoard that provides loot after the boss dies.

After entering Season 9, although you no longer need to kill lair bosses to obtain boss power, they are still the main source of Diablo 4 gold, Unique and Mythic gear. However, it is precisely because of this that not all lair bosses are worth challenging.

Based on this, this time we will introduce you to the bosses that are worth solving first in S9 according to the loot rarity, in order from high to low.

1. Belial

• Lair keys: Betrayer’s Husk

As a boss that returns to the game through D4S8, Belial first appeared in Diablo 3 and was eventually retained in Diablo 4. Although the threat he brings to you may not be as great as the new boss Astaroth in Season 9, he is still the first choice for farming Mythic items.

2. Varshan

• Lair keys: Malignant Hearts

Although this boss is only at the initiate level, defeating him in Season 9 will give you a chance to obtain two new unique items through his hoard: Druid’s Rotting Lightbringer and Spiritborn’s Balazan’s Maxtlatl.

What’s more gratifying is that due to the low level, it is not difficult to obtain his lair keys or defeat him. It is more reliable if your shadow resistance is high enough.

3. Urivar

• Lair keys: Judicator’s Mask

Urivar has an even higher chance of dropping new unique items for you than Varshan, because his hoard may include Rotting Lightbringer, Balazan’s Maxtlatl, Barbarian’s Hooves of the Mountain God and Rogue’s Deathmask of Nirmitruq at the same time.

But the reason why he ranks behind Varshan is that you can only encounter him if you have Vessel of Hatred DLC, and his battle difficulty will be higher.

During the battle, Urivar will summon knights to continuously shoot fire at you according to the established trajectory, which requires you to have enough fire resistance, otherwise it will be difficult to defeat him.

4. Andariel

• Lair keys: Pincushioned Dolls

As one of the classic Diablo 4 bosses, Andariel is still powerful after the game adds the lair boss mechanism and is classified as a greater level, so you can’t take her lightly.

Andariel can provide Season 9 loot including Shroud of False Death, Heir of Perdition, and Harlequin Crest, suitable for all classes. Pincushioned Dolls, which unlock her hoard, are obtained by defeating Lord Zir.

The danger of Andariel’s boss battle is that it includes a long battle line including 3 stages. During this period, she will use various powerful magic attacks. You must try to predict her actions as much as possible while ensuring that your resistance to multiple elements is maximized.

5. Duriel

• Lair keys: Shard of Agony

The loot list of this boss in Season 9 is basically the same as Andariel, and the battle process also has 3 stages. The difference is that Duriel is more difficult, so it is better to directly choose Andariel.

In all stages of the battle, Duriel will continue to attack you. Once you are hit, you will be poisoned or unconscious, making it easier to attack again. Therefore, facing Duriel, you must not only have the highest poison resistance, but also be fast and flexible enough to dodge every attack.

6. Harbinger Of Hatred

• Lair keys: Abhorrent Hearts

This boss is also exclusive to Vessel of Hatred. The challenge difficulty and loot provided are basically the same as Andariel and Duriel, so its priority is below the first two bosses.

Since the source boss of its lair keys is Urivar, if you decide to farm Urivar and get enough Abhorrent Hearts, then challenging Harbinger of Hatred may be a good option.

7. The Beast In The Ice

• Lair keys: Distilled Fear

The main loot provided by this boss is the new unique items Hooves of the Mountain God and Deathmask of Nirmitruq. Its challenge difficulty is not high, and you can deal with it by mastering the boss’s attack pattern, but it is precisely because of this that repeated farming may become boring.

8. Lord Zir/Grigoire

• Lair keys: Exquisite Blood/Living Steel

The common point between these two bosses is that they cannot drop new unique items, and the rarity of other loot is also relatively ordinary. Although the difficulty is not high, there is no need to waste time on them.

If your character strength is not enough for the time being, you can farm them to get temporary universal gear, but to be honest, their main role in Season 9 is to provide you with lair keys to unlock hoards of other bosses.

Lair Keys Farming

Only by obtaining enough corresponding lair keys can you get the final reward through lair bosses in Diablo 4, and different lair key drop channels are also different.

• Betrayer’s Husk from Mini Belial.
• Shard of Agony from Varshan and Grigoire.
• Pincushioned Doll from Beast and Lord Zir.
• Abhorrent Heart from Urivar.
• Malignant Heart, Living Steel, Distilled Fear, Exquisite Blood, Judicator’s Mask from Dungeons or other world events.

That’s the best order to challenge lair bosses in Diablo 4 Season 9, along with other information you should know. Thank you for reading.

In addition to the newly available Horadric Spells, the biggest highlight of Diablo 4 Season 9 should be Escalating Nightmares and the miniature dungeons Horadric Strongrooms hidden in them through related affixes.

Among them, Horadric Spells are the main gold farming assistant, the two new dungeons are the best sources of Diablo 4 gold in Season 9, and Horadric Strongrooms can also help you get more Horadric Arcana.

But to fully clear Horadric Strongrooms to maximize its value, you need to master some additional and more targeted tips instead of treating it as a regular Diablo 4 dungeon. Based on this, we will bring you relevant help.

How Do Horadric Strongrooms Work?

First, to enter the dungeon, you need to get Nightmare Sigils with the associated affix to unlock Escalating Nightmares, and then follow the direction of Horadric Wayfinder to find the portal to Horadric Strongrooms.

There are usually guards at the portal, defeat them and choose Horadric Pillar buffs to continue to explore Horadric Strongrooms. After that, all you have to do is kill enemies to collect more attunement, so that the quality of the chests you finally get is better.

So, in fact, improving the clearing of Horadric Strongrooms is how to increase the attunement value you can get, which is closely related to your combat efficiency.

Choose The Best Horadric Pillar Buffs

This choice is related to what benefits you can get in Horadric Strongrooms, and it cannot be changed later, so you must treat it carefully, especially those pillars that provide both benefits and disadvantages.

Generally speaking, if you can, it is recommended that you give priority to those pillars that only provide benefits. Although the benefits from the pillars which have both of buffs & debuffs may be better, they will also bring more dangers and cause additional losses.

Based on this, pillars that increase the frequency of enemy appearances or bring more Swiftness Motes will be the safest choice. They allow you to kill more enemies faster, farm a large amount of attunement in a short period of time, and these pillars have almost no negative effects.

Don’t Pay Too Much Attention To Shrines

In addition to Horadric Pillar, you will also encounter interactive shrines in dungeons. They work similarly to pillars, but the difference is that pillars provide you with additional benefits besides spawning enemies, while shrines can only increase the number of enemies.

If the pillars in Strongrooms you have currently unlocked provide wonderful benefits, then it is recommended that you don’t pay too much attention to shrines. Otherwise, you can consider activating shrines as appropriate.

Choose The Right Class And Builds

If the first two tips are about the enemy settings, then the next thing you need to consider is the improvement of your own strength - the stronger your character is, the more enemies you can kill in the specified time and range.

Unless you are very good at playing a certain class, we recommend that you choose to play classes with additional advantages in advance in any Diablo 4 season based on the PTR or other information.

For Season 9, Sorcerer, Spiritborn, or the 2.3.1 patch-enhanced Barbarian are all good. On this basis, the following builds should play a greater role in Horadric Strongrooms:

S Tier

• Hydra Sorcerer Build
• Lightning Spear Sorcerer Build
• Pulverize Druid Build
• Minion Necromancer Build

A Tier

• Spiritborn Builds (Focus On Thorns Damage)
• Blood Bone Spear Necromancer Build
• Blood Wave Necromancer Build

B Tier

• Poison Pool Druid Build
• Death Trap Rogue Build
• Dance Of Knives Rogue Build

Among them, the reason why S tier builds are the top builds for clearing Strongrooms is mainly because they all have powerful AOE damage characteristics, which can clear a large number of enemies faster and allow you to gain more attunement.

Choose A Higher Game Difficulty As Much As Possible

As you know, the game difficulty levels of Diablo 4 include Standard and Torment, each of which includes 4 levels. Although you can enter Horadric Strongrooms at any difficulty, it is true that the dungeons above Torment 3 are the most valuable.

Because only when you enter the dungeon at Torment 3 or 4 difficulty, the available Horadric Pillars may spawn an additional demon boss with Tier 3 attunement, which can be defeated to gain a large amount of attunement.

This boss may be an elite enemy or a Butcher that appears randomly in the dungeon. Although it is more challenging, more attunement means that everything is worth it.

What Rewards Do Horadric Strongrooms Provide?

In the process of clearing the dungeon, you will get regular rewards such as gold, as well as special Horadric Arcanas and attunement.

More Arcana can enrich your Horadric Spells and builds, and enough attunement can improve the quality of Grand Horadric Cache you finally get.

After opening this cache, you will get Horadric Phials and Horadric Tomes, which will help you upgrade spells and craft Horadric Jewels, giving your Season 9 character more combat benefits.

If you haven’t obtained all Arcanas yet, or are short of basic resources such as gold, please follow the above suggestions to clear more Horadric Strongrooms as soon as possible! Good luck!