News Tag: Diablo 4 Season 9

July is about to be halfway through, and Diablo 4 Season 9, which was launched at the beginning of the month, is naturally in full swing. Although it did not bring more breakthroughs to Diablo 4 in 2025, it is still worthy of being your first choice for playing ARPG.

However, although the previous 2.3.0 PTR showed some problems, Season 9 was not fully adjusted when it was officially launched. Therefore, the first major patch of this season, 2.3.1, will optimize these issues and fix other bugs after it goes online on July 15.

Based on this, we will introduce to you what changes patch 2.3.1 will make to the seasonal content and class experience of Diablo 4 Season 9 based on known information.

Most Classes Are Generally Enhanced

As you know, based on the experience in the first half of the month, it is obvious that the best class in S9 should be Sorcerer or Spiritborn, and their main builds have become more powerful after combining with Horadric Spells.

In comparison, other classes are somewhat weak. If you choose to play them, you may encounter difficulties in accumulating Diablo 4 gold in the early stage, which will hinder your progress.

Therefore, in order to avoid this problem and ensure the overall balance of the game’s class experience as much as possible, patch 2.3.1 has enhanced all classes except Spiritborn. Some are aimed at skills, while others are gear represented by new unique items.

Barbarian

• Battle Trance: Lucky Hit Chance increased from 10% to 20%; Damage bonus increased from 15%-30% to 30%-60%.
• Double Swing: Damage increased from 66% to 85%.
• Hammer of the Ancients: Damage increased from 110% to 175%.
• Rend: Bleeding damage increased from 120% to 135%.
• Upheaval: Damage increased from 132% to 200%.
• Whirlwind: Damage increased from 52% to 76%.
• Barbed Carapace: Thorns damage increased from 100% to 120%.

Druid

• Pulverize: Damage increased from 150% to 175%.
• Greatstaff of the Crone: Claw, in addition to being a storm skill, casts damage by 100-250% with Storm Strike.

Necromancer

• Hulking Monstrosity Passive: Additional Golem damage sacrifice bonus increased from 35% to 60%.

Rogue

• Deathmask of Nirmitruq: Damage bonus increased from 70% to 100%.
• Breakneck Bandit’s Aspect: Damage increased from 25%-45% to 35%-55%.

Sorcerer

• Meteor: Impact damage increased from 120% to 140%.
• Aspect of Frozen Orbit: Frozen Orb damage increased from 30%-50% to 50%-70%.
• Aspect of Frozen Memories: Avalanche vulnerable damage bonus increased from 50%-75% to 75%-100%.

While Spiritborn remained unchanged in Season 9 of the base game, they have been buffed in Vessel of Hatred. If you have been playing DLC recently, you will notice the following changes:

• Aspect of Pestilence: Damage bonus increased from 35%-75% to 50%-90%.
• Payback: Damage increased from 125% to 150%.
• Razor Wings: Damage increased from 75% to 95%.

From the above, it can be seen that Barbarian has received the most enhancements. This not only makes up for the long-term lack of interest in this class in Diablo 4, but also may cause a new dominant class competition in the second half of Season 9.

Optimization Of Seasonal Content

The main seasonal content of Season 9 is Horadric Spells. It can be used as a buff to bring more exploitable power to your characters and builds. At the same time, the game also sets up items such as Horadric Phials & Knowledge to help you upgrade this power.

In addition to the new power, Sins of the Horadrim also brings new dungeons Horadric Strongrooms and Escalating Nightmares. They are not only worthy of being explored, but also your main source of loot in Season 9.

Overall, the above mechanisms are working well, but there are also some minor issues. In order to give you the best experience in Season 9, patch 2.3.1 has made the following optimizations:

• Arcana drops obtained through combat can be automatically picked up.
• Myriad Stone can provide a temporary attack speed bonus, which stacks with permanent attack speed sources.
• For Nightmare dungeons with Equipment Delve affixes, the channeling time of Horadric Artifact has been reduced from 0.75 seconds to 0.25 seconds. In addition, the channeling process is no longer interrupted when you take damage.
• The completion rewards of Legion activities include more recycled materials; if completed on Torment difficulty, more Forgotten Souls will be included.
• Completing Nightmare dungeons with Horadric Materials Reserve affixes and obtaining Horadric Chests will give more recycled materials and Forgotten Souls.

In addition, Forgotten Wisdom affix of Nightmare dungeons itself has also received exclusive adjustments. If you unlocked this affix while completing Escalating Nightmares, please note the following changes:

• Motes now grant XP to all members of the entire combat party, rather than just to the player who picked it up.
• The maximum number of Motes that can spawn throughout the dungeon has been increased, while the drop frequency of Experience Motes has been slightly reduced.
• Each Mote grants more XP.
• Motes no longer drop when summoned by other monsters.
• Motes will no longer drop through Horadric Strongrooms.

Major Bug Fixed

In addition to normal content optimization, major bug fixes are also one of the major features of the patch. Among the fixes that deserve your attention include:

• Fixed an issue where Astaroth’s voice lines were barely audible when you are beginning his boss fight.
• Fixed an issue where Horadric Gateways could unexpectedly disappear and reappear when you are doing A Wanderer, Into Flames quest.
• Fixed an issue where Visions of Pain and Beastmaster’s Bane Season Journey objectives and the requirements for Truths that Line Within quest were inconsistent with their descriptions.
• Fixed an issue where teammates could not see your Cosmic Anomalies.
• Fixed an issue where Horadric Phials were sometimes incorrectly listed as Horadric Wayfinders.
• Fixed an issue where Barbarian’s Iron Maelstrom skill would not consistently trigger Catalysts.
• Fixed an issue where Druid’s Nature’s Fury skill would not trigger its cooldown after gaining Catalysts.

Those are the main things to watch for in patch 2.3.1. It’s worth noting that after the patch is released until 10am on July 19, you can get Rogue transmog item Arbalest crossbow by watching any streamer play Diablo 4 for three hours on Twitch! Don’t miss it!

After the nerfs in the first two seasons to achieve class balance, although now Spiritborn no longer has the outstanding advantages like it in Season 6 and DLC, it still shows extraordinary combat effectiveness in the latest Season 9 through new unique item.

According to the powerful thorn damage provided by Balazan’s Maxtlatl, you can output a lot of damage in Season 9 with the related Quill Volley, Rake or Poison Thorns Spiritborn builds, but the premise is that you can complete the character upgrade.

In fact, the utilization of most advanced builds and the unlocking of more game content are based on your character level reaching the maximum level. We have introduced you to several ways to upgrade in S9 before, and you should also master the appropriate leveling builds base on them.

Therefore, if you want to harvest more Diablo 4 gold and other rare rewards as a Spiritborn in the later stage of the game through more powerful builds, you need to master the appropriate leveling build in the early stage.

Evade-Centric Leveling Build

Unlike mature Spiritborn builds that emphasize thorns or poison damage, leveling builds focus on ending battles quickly to complete the upgrade, so Evade Spiritborn Build will be a suitable leveling choice.

This build is not only fast, but more importantly, it can well integrate the new power Horadric Spells brought by Season 9. And when you finish upgrading and transform to more advanced builds, the similarity between Evade and Rake Build will allow you to adapt faster.

Which Skills Should Be Chosen?

For Evade Spiritborn Build, the choice of active and passive skills is equally important. The focus of active skills is the rotation order, and the passive skills are the allocation of skill points.

Active Skills

First, you should unlock the following active skills for this build:

• Accelerated Thunderspike (5/5)
• Measured Vortex (1/5)
• Measured Soar (1/5)
• Reinforced Counterattack (1/5)
• Reinforced Concussive Stomp (1/5)
• Exalted Hunter (5/5)

The core idea behind this active skill set is to allow you to stab enemies and throw feathers while swiftly moving across the map, or more specifically, to utilize Evade and attack enemies while moving through Thunderspike.

The main damage skill is Storm Feathers, which you can activate when you reach level 15 and unlock Eagle as your main Spirit Hall. This skill causes you to fire feathers while evading, and Evade reset caused by Thunderspike will increase the frequency of feather firing.

This is exactly where Spirit Hall’s choice comes in. Eagle Spirit Hall is the best for this build, not only because it provides enough damage, but also because it can apply vulnerability to enemies, and your critical hit chance increases for every four meters you move.

If you want to focus on evading, you can also replace Concussive Stomp with other skills such as Armored Hide or Toxic Skin. You can also utilize Ravager in between attacks.

Related: Diablo 4 Season 9 Brings Some Quality Of Life Improvements To Players But There Are Still Some Shortcomings

Passive Skills

The rule of thumb for choosing passive skills for this build is to provide damage buffs and additional evade chance, and then it is best to upgrade them to the highest level in order of importance as soon as possible.

When allocating skill points to them, you can decide based on your actual combat needs, but if you want to ensure your survivability is reliable enough, prioritize the ultimate passive skill.

• Follow Through
• Mirage
• Unrestrained Power
• Apex
• Swift
• Brilliance
• Acceleration
• Vital Strikes

What Horadric Spells Should You Pair With The Build?

As an extra boost for Season 9, the right Horadric Spells can make the builds more powerful than usual. As you know, Horadric Spells include 3 elements, each with 10-20 options, and the ones suitable for Evade Spiritborn builds include:

• Infusion - Thunderous Particle
• Catalyst - Celestial Surge or Cosmic Anomaly
• Arcana - Invigorating Helix and Volatile Crystal

The combination of Thunderous Particle and Celestial Surge can help you quickly clear enemy-dense areas represented by Horadric Storerooms to farm gold and XP.

If you replace Catalyst choice with Cosmic Anomaly, it will reduce the clearing speed while increasing the sustainability of the build. Invigorating Helix and Volatile Crystal and most Arcanas can improve your survivability.

How To Choose Gear?

Since the main damage source of this build is Storm Feathers, in order to trigger it more frequently, you need to improve the basic skills mainly based on Thunderspike, and the following legendary aspects can do this:

• Aspect of Disobedience
• Aspect of the Moonrise
• Aspect of Adaptability

As for the choice of specific weapons or armor, please give priority to those that can provide the following attribute bonuses:

• Dexterity
• Cooldown Reduction
• Vulnerable Damage
• Crit Chance and Crit Damage
• Storm Feather Potency

Also, although this build does not need to be played by runes, if you have the time to farm runes, CirGar and Cem ritual runes will be good choices. They can increase the critical damage of the build and allow you to refresh Evade more frequently.

The above is all you need to know about the craft Evade Spiritborn Build. If you are playing Spiritborn in Season 9, you might as well follow the guide to practice it in the game!

For each Diablo 4 season, which has not changed much from one to another, the exclusive seasonal powers, dungeons and items should be the most worthy of priority experience, and some items can only be obtained in seasonal dungeons.

In Season 9, the new dungeons include Horadric Strongrooms and Escalating Nightmares. Among them, Horadric Strongrooms is a limited-time micro-dungeon, the entrance is hidden in Escalating Nightmares, and completing it can get seasonal rewards.

Based on this, we will introduce you how to get the required Horadric Spell’s power or other seasonal items by completing Horadric Strongrooms.

What Are Horadric Strongrooms?

As a limited dungeon in Season 9, you can find the entrance to Horadric Strongrooms in Escalating Nightmares or regular nightmare dungeons, but the premise is that you have to obtain Nightmare Sigil to unlock these two nightmare dungeons.

It is worth noting that Escalating Nightmare Sigil will unlock random affixes that can increase the difficulty of the game and earn you more Diablo 4 gold. Witchwater Nightmare Sigil is a guaranteed Horadric Strongrooms encounter.

How To Find Horadric Strongrooms?

Once you have unlocked a Horadric Strongroom, you can utilize Wayfinder to find its portal entrance more quickly, marked by special flashes and sounds nearby. But before entering the portal, you will need to defeat the surrounding enemies guarding it.

In addition to working hard to obtain the relevant Nightmare Sigil, you can also increase your chances of finding the portal by:

• Choosing a higher difficulty.
• Clearing the entire Escalating Nightmare dungeon.
• Utilize the seasonal currency Horadric Phials to upgrade your Wayfinder.

How To Maximize The Benefits Of Horadric Strongrooms?

After entering Horadric Strongrooms, you need to activate Horadric Artifact Pillar and kill the enemies that appear to activate the ritual. After that, please continue to click on the pillars in the new room to generate more waves of enemies to earn more reward drops.

It is worth noting that the higher the game difficulty you choose, the more pillars you can choose, and you can activate as many pillars as allowed. In the end, you will get Horadric Attunement to redeem rewards by completing the dungeon.

In the process of clearing the dungeon, Arcana, a more important element in Horadric Spells, will also drop randomly. If you want to get as many of these drops as possible, it is recommended that you choose pillars that will generate additional ambushes to increase the density of monsters and thus produce more loot.

How To Get More Horadric Attunement?

Among the selectable pillars, some have the effect of providing you with items that can be carried to increase the percentage of coordination, but it should be noted that if you utilize potions or dodge, the items will become invalid.

If you have fast builds and can manage them well with attunement buffs, you should be able to get the most attunement from each clear of Horadric Strongrooms.

You will also get more attunement from defeating larger monsters, or from killing bosses that spawn after reaching attunement level 3. If you interact with multiple pillars to form a circle, you can also get extra attunement from defeating monsters that spawn inside the circle, as well as a group of elite monsters.

Don’t forget to activate Sacrifice Shrines, too. They are similar to pillars, but more like side quests. Activating Sacrifice Shrines will spawn more enemies, and while defeating them will not directly drop Horadric Attunement, they will provide other rewards.

How To Get More Horadric Arcana?

Arcana is actually a type of Horadric Spell, and there are 20 of them in three rarities, including magic, rare, and legendary. Arcana of different rarities are obtained in different ways:

• Magic Arcana: Completing Horadric Strongrooms.
• Rare Arcana: Completing Horadric Strongrooms after acquiring “Rare Arcana” from Horadric Knowledge.
• Legendary Arcana: Completing Horadric Strongrooms after acquiring “Legendary Arcana” from Horadric Knowledge.

Even if you unlock all the above rarities, the actual drop of these Arcanas is random. So if you want to get as many Arcana as possible, you can only keep farming Horadric Strongrooms. These Arcanas include:

• Bottled Wind
• Invigorating Helix
• Jagged Bramble
• Luminous Gem
• Murky Essence
• Reactive Ooze
• Shifting Powder
• Tendrilous Bundle
• Tranquil Stone
• Volatile Crystal
• Fractured Core
• Gleaming Conduit
• Potent Alloy
• Sapping Crux
• Siphoning Gizmo
• Bloody Charm
• Floaty Bobble
• Frigid Heart
• Nightmare Orb
• Pressurized Steam

What Do Horadric Chests Do?

In addition to attunement and Arcana drops, you can eventually get Horadric chests, and defeating the final boss of the dungeon will also reward you with a Grand Horadric Cache.

After opening these chests, you have a chance to get Horadric Phials and Horadric Tomes, and the more attunement you have before, the better the chest reward quality.

Horadric Phials can upgrade your Horadric Spells and can be used as materials for crafting Horadric Jewels together with gem fragments. Horadric Tomes will provide you with more of these two materials.

As for Horadric Jewels, you can think of them as additional benefits for Horadric Spells, which can further bring you benefits such as increased armor value and all elemental resistance, which is worth crafting!

If you think that the content we provide should be helpful for your experience of Diablo 4 Season 9 Horadric Strongrooms, please implement them one by one according to the suggestions! Thank you for reading!

As you know, the seasonal power of Diablo 4 Season 9 is Horadric Spells. You can combine the three elements of Catalyst, Infusion and Arcana as needed to create your own unique power for Season 9.

At the same time, as a large and complete ARPG, every new gameplay launched by Diablo 4 actually hides an exclusive mechanism network behind it.

Take Horadric Spells as an example. In order to successfully utilize it to assist in combat, you also need to understand and obtain Horadric Phials & Knowledge. They belong to “Horadric” system, but their specific functions are different.

We have already introduced the combat functions of various Horadric Spells to you in other previous guides. What we want to tell you next is the relevant information about Horadric Phials and Horadric Knowledge.

What Are Horadric Phials?

As you complete seasonal quests or clear the new dungeon Horadric Strongrooms, you will unlock different Horadric Spells in addition to the basic Diablo 4 gold rewards.

All currently known Horadric Spells and how to unlock them are:

Catalysts

• Astral Pillar: Earn by completing the seasonal quest Bearing the Weight of Ghosts.
• Cosmic Anomaly: Earn by completing the seasonal quest The Unseeable Demands Their Gaze.
• Propulsion: Earn by completing the seasonal quest To Walk Where Spirits Tread.

Infusions

• Glacial Nimbus: Earn by completing the seasonal quest Keepers of the Glen.
• Smoldering Ember: Earn by completing the seasonal quest To Walk Where Spirits Tread.
• Nebulous Extract: Earn by completing the seasonal quest The Unseeable Demands Their Gaze.

Arcana

• Bottled Wind: Earned by completing Horadric Strongrooms.
• Gleaming Conduit: Earn by completing Horadric Strongrooms after acquiring Rare Arcana from Horadric Knowledge.
• Floaty Bobble: Earn by completing Horadric Strongrooms after acquiring Legendary Arcana from Horadric Knowledge.

These spells have unique combat benefits, but as you progress through the game, both your character and your enemies will become more powerful, so Horadric Spells must be upgraded - and Horadric Phials are the only item that can do this.

How To Farm This Item?

To keep Horadric Spells available, most elite enemies or bosses in the world map will drop Horadric Phials after being defeated. But if you want to focus on farming, focusing on Helltides is your best choice in the early game.

Because Helltides contains multiple quests that drop Horadric Phials, and each is easy to do, you can maximize your farming efficiency in a short period of time. Specifically, they include:

• Obtained by collecting Aberrant Cinders to open chests.
• Complete Helltides quests in Tree of Whispers to collect Grim Favor in exchange for rewards.
• Consume Baneful Hearts to summon and defeat Blood Maiden to obtain loot.
• Increase the threat bar to summon stronger enemies to get more rewards.

However, as you enter the later stages of the game, Nightmare Dungeons and Horadric Strongrooms should be better sources of Horadric Phials. They will bring more high-rarity treasure chests through stronger enemies, and you can get more Phials after opening them.

In fact, all chests and caches you can get throughout Season 9 may bring Horadric Phials, including reward caches brought by increasing Horadric Knowledge.

How To Utilize Horadric Phials?

As you know, its main function is to upgrade Horadric Spells. It should be noted that as you complete more game content, you will also get more Horadric Spells, but not all of them are suitable for your class/builds/game habits.

So after getting a certain amount of Horadric Phials, don’t rush to upgrade by them. Instead, after determining your Season 9 battle builds, prioritize upgrading Horadric Spells that are most suitable for you to avoid waste.

What Is Horadric Knowledge?

If Horadric Phials is the upgrade currency for Horadric Spells, then Horadric Knowledge is more like the reputation system of the entire Horadric mechanism. The increase of Horadric Knowledge can unlock more relevant rewards and seasonal tasks/stories for you in Season 9.

Compared with Horadric Phials, Knowledge is not a must-have for completing all seasonal content, but the rewards it provides can really help you. In particular, some reward caches will also have Horadric Phials.

How To Get It?

First of all, it should be noted that Horadric Knowledge does not exist in the game as loot, so no matter how you get it, you will not receive a notification when you get it, and you will only see relevant prompts when it is upgraded.

At present, the channels for obtaining Horadric Knowledge in Diablo 4 Season 9 are basically the same as farming Horadric Phials (you can farm at the same time), mainly including:

• Complete Helltide events.
• Redeem rewards by Grim Favor by completing quests related to Tree of Whispers in Helltides.

In addition, while you gain some Horadric Knowledge by completing the above, you can unlock more seasonal quests, which can also bring you Horadric Knowledge.

Another way to gain Horadric Knowledge is to consume Horadric Phials to exchange. But to be honest, this method is not very practical, because upgrading Horadric Spells is the key role of Phials, and the rewards brought by improving Knowledge are not very prominent in comparison.

That’s all for this time. I hope this information can help you better master Horadric Spells in Season 9 to solve those tricky quests or bosses as soon as possible. Have fun!

Although Diablo 4 Season 9 has only been officially launched for two or three days, you should have already learned most of the content through the PTR and other information, such as the new dungeon and the new best class or builds.

If you are a Spiritborn fan, then Season 9 is still worth experiencing for you, because the new unique items make this class stronger in S9 through many available builds. Among them, Speed ​​Spiritborn Evade Build is the best for farming dungeons.

In terms of strength, this build is not the best Spiritborn build in Season 9, but it works wonders in clearing dungeons - not only new dungeons, but also classic The Pit. In this way, you can earn enough Diablo 4 gold, XP, and Paragon points with this build.

Based on this, we will introduce you to the key points of crafting this build and how it works in the new dungeon Escalating Nightmares in S9.

What Are The Key Skills?

As you can see from the name of this build, the core of its function lies in continuous evasion, but other offensive skills are also important. After all, you can’t kill the enemy by dodging alone.

For this reason, the core skill of this build is still Quill Volley, which is suitable for most Spiritborn builds. It can cause lightning damage by throwing feathers at the enemy.

But before utilizing this skill, you need to choose Rock Splitter as your basic skill, because it can naturally generate resources for you, and provide blocking resources and blocking chance.

Next, you also need to add ‍Soar, Thunderspike, Brilliance and ‍Acceleration to the build. Some of them are passive skills that can provide additional benefits, and some are active skills that can continue to provide you with lightning damage. None of them can be ignored.

After completing these skill combinations, what you have to do is to find a way to minimize the cooldown of Evade while attacking the enemy to form a “Perma Evade”.

This trick actually has nothing to do with the skill itself, but requires you to find and hold the static option in the settings, then bind “Hold Position” to the Shift key, and combine it with Thunder Spy hotkey.

In this way, in the future battles, you can just hold the Shift key, then right-click to hold position and press the spacebar to “Perma Evade”. On this basis, you can cast all other skills to deal more damage to the enemy while protecting yourself.

What Are The Necessary Gear?

Due to the nature of the build, it does not require the help of Balazan’s Maxtlatl as you think, after all, this is a gear that mainly increases damage. The really important gear for Speed ​​Spiritborn Evade Build is Harmony of Ebewaka and Sunbird’s Gorget.

Harmony Of Ebewaka

As one of the exclusive gear for Spiritborn, Harmony of Ebewaka armor has the following base affixes:

• + [47-65] All Stats
• + [8.0-12.5]% Movement Speed
• + [8.0-10.0]% Damage Reduction
• + [2-3] to Velocity

On top of that, it also provides Jaguar, Eagle, Gorilla, or Centipede skills to other skills in your build, depending on your secondary Spirit Hall choice. For this build, it is recommended to choose Jaguar because it can synergize with Sunbird’s Gorget.

Sunbird’s Gorget

This item is a unique item exclusive to Spiritborn launched in Season 8. As an amulet, its affixes include:

• + [16.0 - 25.0]% Movement Speed
• + [2 - 3] to Acceleration
• + [2 - 3] to Furnace
• + [2-3] to Potent

It is worth noting that the amulet’s unique power is mainly to allow you to damage enemies by picking up Storm Feather, which is actually a Jaguar skill.

Although these two pieces of gear are not new, the synergy between them can keep you alive in Season 9 in the classic Spiritborn class survival style. If used properly, it is not inferior to the new item Balazan’s Maxtlatl, which focuses on thorns and poison damage.

How To Complete Escalating Nightmares With This Build?

As an upgraded version of the nightmare dungeons brought by Season 9, Escalating Nightmares is composed of three regular nightmare dungeons connected in series. Each dungeon has its own positive and negative affix effects, which will be stacked as the progress deepens.

To unlock and enter Escalating Nightmares, you need to obtain Escalation Sigils as “keys” by completing Season 9 quest line or farming Grand Horadric Cache in another new dungeon, Horadric Strongroom.

The most efficient way to farm Escalation Sigils is to clear Horadric Strongroom. And both Horadric Strongroom and Escalating Nightmares can bring you a lot of loot.

To complete them through Speed ​​Spiritborn Evade Build, you undoubtedly need to master all the skills first and get the gear required for the build. Then you must understand the specific operation of each dungeon.

On this basis, you can quickly solve the large number of enemies in the dungeon through skilled and uninterrupted evade in combat, the lightning damage provided by active skills, and the benefits provided by various gear, to earn the loot brought by Season 9.

The above is the information related to Speed ​​Spiritborn Evade Build and the introduction of how to clear the new dungeon through it. I hope it can help you!

Most new Diablo 4 seasons add new unique items with different effects to each class when they are launched, so that the class can get more benefits based on the existing skills, and it is also more playable in the new season.

Although the new unique items seems are not necessary to be compared due to different applicability, they can also be compared to determine the “best item” in the current season based on the degree of benefit they provide to their class.

For Diablo 4 Season 9, the best unique item is likely to be Balazan’s Maxtlatl, which belongs to Spiritborn class, and this judgment is based on many aspects. We will introduce you to it below.

What Is Balazan’s Maxtlatl?

This item is a new Ancestral Unique Pants added for Spiritborn in Season 9. After adjustments in the PTR and subsequent patches, its affixes and unique power effects now include:

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

Although its unique power effect has been weakened to ensure the balance of the class experience, this still cannot stop Balazan’s Maxtlatl from making Spiritborn the dominant class in Season 9.

Additionally, if you want to get this item, you need to farm the bosses Varshan and Urivar in Torment difficulty. Although getting this item may be a long process, you can also earn more Diablo 4 gold during this period.

Suitable For Most Spiritborn Builds

For any piece of gear, no matter how powerful or rare it is, its single effect alone cannot change anything. Only when it is combined with relevant builds can it play a real role.

Take Balazan’s Maxtlatl as an example. In Season 9, its power lies in the perfect combination of Toxic Skin and Noxious Resistance, which amplifies the poison damage to the extreme.

In this way, enemies affected by the poison effect in combat will burst when they hit critically, taking 180% poison damage, and also dealing 20% ​​poison damage to nearby enemies.

In general, Balazan’s Maxtlatl pants are designed to maximize your poison damage output by converting thorn damage in addition to increasing basic attributes.

From there, you can further combine Season 9’s seasonal power Horadric Spells to craft your own Spiritborn builds, or continue to utilize these reliable classic builds:

• Quill Volley Spiritborn
• Rake Spiritborn
• Crushing Hand Spiritborn
• Poison Thorns Spiritborn
• Thrash Spiritborn

By contrast, while Quill Volley has been around since the beginning of Spiritborn, the benefits of Balazan’s Maxtlatl make this build still the most worthwhile class to play in the new season.

The Old And New Best Items Are Changing Roles

From a seasonal perspective, Balazan’s Maxtlatl is the new best unique item, but for Spiritborn, Kepeleke Rod of Core was the key to helping the class dominate the game before Balazan’s Maxtlatl appeared.

Kepeleke Rod of Core is a unique item added by Vessel of Hatred for Spiritborn, and its main buff is to increase your damage output based on Vigor’s release and conume.

This allows powerful Spiritborn builds like Quill Volley to maximize their damage output by converting core skills into basic skills, making them free to cast and converting any unconsumed Vigor into guaranteed critical damage.

With the release of Balazan’s Maxtlatl, it further enriches the richness of Spiritborn builds with thorns and converted poison damage, and allows you to swap core skills and basic skills according to your preferences.

While these marks the end of Kepeleke Rod of Core era, the emergence of new powerful items also means that as the youngest class in the game, Spiritborn will not disappear due to the loss of novelty, but will be favored by players in Diablo 4 for a long time.

Impact On Other Unique Items

Perhaps the prominence of Balazan’s Maxtlatl makes you wonder if this has disrupted the balance of the game, but the effects of the existing 6 new unique items have been adjusted, and if there are still problems, it is not a defect of the items themselves.

In fact, the class balance experience of Diablo 4 has been questioned by players since Season 6. I believe you have also found that the old classes represented by Druid are always weakened unnecessarily. Although various optimizations have been made to restore it, it has to be said that the effect is not obvious.

There is no doubt that in the long run, the atmosphere of Diablo 4 game community and the game experience of players of weak classes will be negatively affected. Even for players of dominant classes, this imbalance is terrible.

Therefore, while you are happy about the reliability of Balazan’s Maxtlatl, you can also make suggestions to the game development team through various channels with other players to jointly maintain Diablo 4 better.

Diablo 4 adds new exclusive unique items to all base classes in each season update, and Season 9 is no exception. Usually, these class-specific items determine the popular build of the current season and lead the latest build trend!

Even if you don’t plan to advance the endgame and challenge Uber bosses in the new season, these items can let you know some new skills worth trying and some classic skills that have made a comeback, so that you won’t be at a loss in the new season content.

Therefore, it is so important to get these new exclusive unique items at the beginning of the season, which not only determines the direction of your build development, but also affects how far you can go in the endgame in the end. Here, we will talk about the 6 new class-specific items introduced in Season 9.

1. Barbarian: Hooves Of The Mountain God

First, let’s start with Hooves of the Mountain God on the list. This pair of Barbarian’s new exclusive boots finally gives them basic skills and generator gameplay. This means that when you reach max Fury, your Fury will deplete rapidly until it is depleted, after which all of your basic skills will now slash and deal up to 100% bonus damage.

Based on the results in the PTR, this will be the S-tier build for Season 9. Of course, this remains to be seen, as many players say that Barbarian has been nerfed a lot in the new season.

And to get this new unique boot, all you need to do is keep farming Beast in the Ice or Urivar Lair Boss. But be aware that Hooves of the Mountain God only has a certain chance to drop as a boss, and more often you will just get a bunch of common items, but you can also sell the excess loot you don’t need for additional Diablo 4 gold income.

2. Druid: Rotting Lightbringer

Next, we have Rotting Lightbringer, a unique Two-Handed weapon for Druid.

This weapon is interesting because it allows Werebear Druid builds to deal a lot of poison damage. In patch 2.3.0, the poison damage of this item was significantly increased from 150% to 550%, so this one is worth a try.

To get the new unique mace, you need to farm Varshan or Urivar Boss. But if you want to make the most of this unique, it is recommended that you still try to make a Pulverize Druid build to maximize synergy with it.

3. Necromancer: The Hand Of Naz

Next, we move on to the new unique item of Necromancer class, which is The Hand of Naz. To be honest, I am very interested in the mechanics of this unique glove, because it allows you to successfully build a powerful Skeletal Mage Minion Necromancer endgame build.

In simple terms, you have to sacrifice all other types of minions to summon additional maces, which means no more Skeletal Warriors and Golems, but in return, your damage will increase for each minion you sacrifice.

This unique item also grants you a unique power: when your Skeletal Mage survives 25 attacks on an enemy, it will upgrade to a Skeletal Arch-Mage.

And when this happens, the final unique power is activated: Skeletal Arch-Mages teleport to safety when attacked, and their attacks occasionally shatter on impact, dealing up to 100% bonus damage to the target.

In addition, the time between their attacks shattering has been reduced by 50% compared to the PTR period, and more importantly, Skeletal Arch-Mages are now unstoppable within 1 second of teleporting.

To get this unique gauntlet, you need to defeat Andariel, Duriel, or Harbinger of Hatred, which has a chance to drop this item.

4. Rogue: Deathmask Of Nirmitruq

Let’s move on to Rogue. Unfortunately, things look bad for Rogue compared to last season, as the new item Deathmask of Nirmitruq only serves to increase Flurry skill ranks and damage.

Flurry Rogue Endgame build for Season 9 will be a B tier build, which makes it the weakest one on this list.

Remember that Flurry is basically a skill that quickly stabs enemies in a circular area, but from what we have read so far, to get the most out of it, you’d better try Twisting Blades, Rain of Arrows, or Rapid Fire. You can get this helmet from Beast in the Ice or Urivar.

5. Spiritborn: Balazan’s Maxtlatl

Next, we come to Spiritborn class. Its new exclusive item is called Balazan’s Maxtlatl Unique Pants, which looks very interesting because it allows for a build related to poison and thorns.

But in the latest patch, this item was nerfed by 50%. In the previous PTR, each attack dealt 300% of Thorns’ damage to melee enemies, but in the official version, its damage was reduced to 150% of Thorns’ damage. However, 100% of the damage will be converted into poison within 3 seconds.

Another unique power is that every time you use Thorns skill to counterattack, the poison damage will increase by 100% within 5 seconds, stacking up to 300%. This new change makes many players think that Poison Thorns Spiritborn build is the most powerful build in Season 9.

But to get this unique pants, you need to participate in Varshan or Urivar boss battle and win.

6. Sorcerer: Ophidian Iris

Finally, for all Hydra lovers, Sorcerer will make a comeback with this build. Because the new Unique Amulet Ophidian Iris can give Hydra an extra 2 heads, increased attack speed, +30% resistance to all elements and up to 100% fire damage.

The unique power of this item is that Hydra is now a core skill and always summons a three-headed Hydra whose attacks explode on impact.

On the other hand, for each Hydra you have more than 3 heads, it will grow larger and deal 50% to 100% more damage. You need to combine this build with Shatter to deal huge damage.

In fact, Hydra is one of the iconic builds of Diablo series, and I think it’s great that it can still be used after leveling. This makes it one of the best-looking builds in the entire game.

To get Ophidian Iris, you’d better actively complete Andariel, Duriel or Harbinger of Hatred boss encounters, which have a certain chance of random drops!

These are all 6 class-exclusive items added in Diablo 4 Season 9. What do you think of them? Do you have a better understanding of the build play in the new season? Looking forward to seeing you in the game!

Usually, the launch of a new class can always cause a new round of sensation in the game community in ARPG represented by Diablo 4, because it means that you can experience new skills, gear and decorations.

Therefore, Spiritborn launched by Diablo 4 through DLC last year also caused heated discussions. Although some players soon believed that Spiritborn was too powerful and destroyed the balance of the game, causing the class to be weakened from Season 7, it is still very popular.

As time progresses to the eve of the launch of Season 9, the previously speculated new class possibilities have not been realized, so Spiritborn is still the freshest Diablo 4 class.

Not only that, according to the performance of 2.3.0 PTR, after three seasons of continuous adjustments, this class has the hope to dominate Diablo 4 again in Season 9 on the premise of class experience balance. Next, we will analyze why we say this to you.

Still Reliable Basic Skills

Although Diablo 4 will adjust each class according to the changes in the playable content of the season, it is usually based on the newly added unique items or skills that cause the game environment to be unbalanced. Conventional basic skills are rarely changed significantly.

On this basis, for the new dungeons and bosses added in Season 9, many of the main skills of Spiritborn can still play a reliable lethality under the right casting occasions and builds, including:

• Vortex: Create a whirlwind that can pull enemies inwards and then deal 35% damage to enemies through the strong downdrafts generated.
• Toxic Skin: Passive - Make the enemy who attacks you poisoned within 3 seconds, and take 36% of the damage; Active - Poison the enemy and make you Unhindered for 5 seconds.
• Armored Hide: Passive - You can gain a point of Resolve every five seconds; Active - Gain 100% block chance for 3 seconds and make you Unstoppable.
• The Hunter: Ride Jaguar Spirit across the battlefield, dealing 50% damage to enemies upon landing, then quickly hacking at enemies in the area, dealing 200% total damage in 7 attacks.
• Scourge: Summons a wave of insects that cause fear of enemies and slow them down for 3 seconds, while also dealing 100% poison damage to enemies over 6 seconds,
• Rock Splitter: Dash directly at and hit the enemy in front of you for 20 damages; the third attack deals 38 damages to enemies around you.

More Builds Available

As can be seen from the effects of some skills, the types of damage output by Spiritborn include poison and thorns, which can help you earn more Diablo 4 gold faster through combat through powerful group damage.

Based on this, the mechanism of adjustment of Season 9 allows you to utilize the new top-level build, Poison Thorns Build, which focuses on these two types of damage by playing as Spiritborn.

Although this build is not new, in Season 9, it will be more reliable while following the standard settings, combining seasonal power and new unique items.

Once in battle, this build will pull enemies in with skills such as Vortex, and utilize skills such as Scourge and Toxic Skin to poison them when they attack you. It can also cause further damage to enemies attacking you with thorns.

The combat style of this build is to defeat enemies by approaching them and utilizing passive effects. But on the other hand, the closer distance will also increase your risk of being attacked by enemies, so if you choose this build, it is best to equip reliable armor and master defensive skills such as Armored Hide.

In addition, Quill Volley Build, one of the classic Spiritborn builds, can continue to play a role in Season 9. Its damage value, mobility and tank ability are very strong, provided that you can match it with reliable gear, such as Balazan’s Maxtlatl, which will be introduced to you soon.

New Unique Item

Season 9 adds a new unique item for each class, and further optimizes them based on actual combat performance in 2.3.0 PTR to ensure that the benefits obtained by each class are basically balanced.

Among them, the new unique item for Spiritborn is Balazan’s Maxtlatl. The pants can be said to be customized for Poison Thorns Build, because it allows you to deal 200-300% thorn damage and 100% poison damage to close enemies with each attack.

In addition, if you can deal retaliatory thorn damage to the enemy on this basis, the poison damage output will be increased to 300% within 5 seconds.

If you can, you can also pair Balazan’s Maxtlatl with Razorplate and Wound Drinker to utilize the synergy to continue to increase the damage output of thorns and poison.

Perfect Combination With New Seasonal Powers

Season 9’s seasonal power Horadric Spells include Catalysts, Infusions, and Arcana. You can combine them according to your needs to craft the spell that suits you best. For Spiritborn, the best Horadric Spells combination is:

• Disintegrate Catalyst: Damage nearby enemies.
• Corrosive Vapor Infusion: Converts damage to poison damage.
• Jagged Bramble Arcana: Complete the whole combination by adding a lucky hit to output 250% of the damage of the thorns you have formed.

I believe the above content is enough to drive you to play as a Spiritborn in Season 9, but the prerequisite for obtaining this class is that you have Vessel of Hatred. Considering that the next DLC will be launched next year, it is completely worth it to start now!

In any season of Diablo 4, the main task of players is always to quickly level up a new season character to obtain higher-level and quality items and enter the endgame as soon as possible to complete more challenging battles.

Diablo 4 Season 9, Sins of the Horadrim, due to hit the game on July 1, will also introduce big changes to Nightmare Dungeons, new seasonal mechanics, and more lucrative World Tiers that can be unlocked by players who reach the level cap of 60.

With this in mind, this guide will categorize existing classes and corresponding builds into 3 tiers: S/A/B, based on multiple aspects, including initial strength, survivability, area of ​​effect ability, ease of use, and reliance on gear. You can make the right choice depending on your exploration needs and gaming style.

S Tier

1. Necromancer

In the first few seasons of Diablo 4, the power of leveling up Necromancer, who could summon minions to fight, was obvious to everyone, and the developers have not weakened it on a large scale in this new season, so it can still be the best class to quickly pass through the leveling stage.

Among the builds you can choose for Necromancer, the build with Bone Splinters and Corpse Explosion as the core can make you dominate the combat and exploration in the early game.

After reaching the middle and late game, you can use the skills that can summon skeletons to allow you to continuously cast damage to the enemy in a safe combat environment, or use Blood Surge and Blight to obtain better range damage and endurance.

It’s worth noting that the above builds require less gear of higher rarity and quality, so the loot and Diablo 4 Gold you farm from regular exploration should be enough to reach the level cap pretty easily.

Recommended Builds

• Minion Summoner Necromancer: Your minions will help you take the bulk of the enemy’s attacks, while you can just use those corpses for a super effective explosion damage from a distance, which makes it very safe and powerful to finish most fights, perfect for casual players.
• Blood Surge Necromancer: You only need to activate a skill during combat, and you have amazing area damage. On top of that, you have the ability to heal yourself to stay alive.

2. Spiritborn (only in Vessel of Hatred DLC)

Although Diablo 4 has been very aggressive against Spiritborn for two seasons, it still has some excellent leveling builds in Season 9. For example, the high burst damage, long range, and high mobility of builds focusing on Quill Volley or Stinger skills are very suitable for farming a lot of experience points for fast leveling.

Not only that, the skills possessed by Spiritborn are very adaptable, and they can provide you with strong crowd control and survivability after you unlock the first core skill. In addition, the unique Spirit Guardian buff will give you a passive skill, and you only need to invest a small amount of to have a very comprehensive build.

Recommended Builds

• Quill Volley Spiritborn: It can easily clear all enemies and pick up a lot of loot with its super high firing rate barrage. It also has excellent mobility and expansion capabilities.
• Stinger Spiritborn: It lets you dish out deadly damage to enemies at range, especially if you choose the right Spirit Guardian buff for it.

3. Rogue

With high lethality, high attack speed, and high mobility, Rogue has high leveling potential in Diablo 4 Season 9 as well. Not only that, Rogue has many build options to meet the needs of different players.

For example, Twisting Blades and Flurry are more suitable for challenging some single enemies; Barrage is very effective in long-range against some group enemies; and players with prime requirements for mobility can choose Dash and Shadow Step as the core of the build.

However, since its skill rotation requires players to have high dynamic capture ability and temporary adaptability, it is slightly inferior to the first two classes.

Recommended Builds

• Dance Of Knives Rogue: It allows you to use the synergy of Poison and Shadow to kill monsters easily and quickly, so that you can pick up more experience points in a short time.
• Barrage Rogue: It has a very wide range of damage and reliable damage ability, and is one of the best long-range builds you can choose.

A Tier

1. Barbarian

While Barbarian isn’t as fast at leveling as S tier options, it can still give you an edge in certain combat situations. For example, Upheaval lets you deal massive area damage and has powerful synergies with Warcry skills like Rallying Cry.

Not only that, a Barbarian build focused on Double Swing and Hammer of the Ancients gives you very impressive survivability and damage against some single-target bosses. In addition, you can add Weapon Expertise to it to make it even more powerful.

Recommended Build

• Upheaval Barbarian: Each of your attacks has super high crit potential and super wide-area damage, making it a splendid choice for melee players.

2. Sorcerer

Although both are spell-casting classes, Sorcerer’s fast leveling ability is far inferior to Necromancer’s. This is because you are often limited by the mana shortage when using this type of character.

So if you want to rely on Sorcerer builds that can cast different elemental damage to level up, you may need to spend more Diablo 4 Gold on it to keep your mana in a stable and safe range.

Such a build equipped with skills such as Chain Lightning or Fireball can provide you with continuous damage and area control capabilities, which is important for farming a lot of loot and experience in the early and mid-term.

Recommended Builds

• Chain Lightning Sorcerer: With its high maximum damage potential and ability to auto-target enemies, it’s a great pick for players new to Diablo 4.
• Incinerate Sorcerer: It can clear groups of enemies with high fire damage, making it great for use in dungeons, Infernal Hordes, and Helltides.
• Firewall Sorcerer: In addition to its high damage potential, it can also make enemies with high mobility easier to defeat in controlled areas.

B Tier - Druid

The last and least suitable class for fast leveling is Druid. Although its Pulverize and Shred skills have strong damage capabilities, these skills have extremely long cooldowns and very complicated upgrade paths in the early game.

And the companion skill Landslide can only play enough fast clearing potential with Earth skills, but it requires you to unlock Legendary Aspects, which are very difficult to farm, before you can use it. So this also leads to it not having an optimal leveling build in Diablo 4 Season 9.

These are the best classes and builds for fast leveling in Diablo 4 Season 9 Sins of the Horadrim. We will continue to monitor the best builds for passive skills, gear, and the latest Horadric spells, and will announce them when the new season begins. We wish you all a great game!

Dissatisfaction with the content of Diablo 4 has actually been present in the game community since Season 6, and the second DLC release postponed to 2026 will make you want to see more changes in the theme game.

According to 2.3.0 PTR and other information, Season 9 will meet you on July 1st and will bring new seasonal powers, dungeons and bosses. Although these contents are new, the mechanisms they rely on are actually the same old ones.

This will inevitably make you pay attention to the game mechanisms other than the playable content. After all, their optimization can also improve your Diablo 4 experience from another aspect, such as the auction house that some people have wanted to experience since Season 8.

What Is The Auction House?

In fact, most ARPGs have similar functions. For Diablo 4, if it has this function, its role should mainly provide you with a channel to sell excess items to earn Diablo 4 gold, or to exchange unique items that you find difficult to farm with other players.

Why Do You Want To Add This Feature In S9?

The auction house was added to Diablo 2 and 3 in the same series. It has to be said that this provided a lot of convenience for players at the beginning.

Because for low- and medium-level players, earning gold is much easier than farming high-level items, but these items are essential for challenging the endgame, and the auction house can make it easier for them to get the items they want.

Since Season 7, Diablo 4’s loot drop rate has been criticized. You will find that the drop rate of many key items is always very low. Although the development team has made adjustments later, it is hard not to feel that it is just a superficial effort.

Therefore, if the new playable content can no longer arouse more interest, if Season 9 adds an auction house, it will definitely make it easier for you to complete the new season challenge and re-stimulate your motivation and interest in playing Diablo 4.

Why Do Some People Oppose It?

Although no game feature can satisfy everyone, the fact that the auction house was eventually removed from Diablo 2 and 3 shows that its problems can no longer be solved by simply fixing it.

After the initial craze, you will soon find that this convenience will cause more serious problems. Players will become more and more dependent on the auction house and lazy to farm items on their own, resulting in the normal gameplay being ignored and the participation of the game will decline.

More importantly, the auction house in Diablo series allows RMT. This not only promotes the proliferation of transactions and greatly undermines the balance of the game, but also leads to more security issues unrelated to the game, such as fraud or reselling.

In addition, the lack of content and aggressive monetization practices shown by Diablo 4 during Season 8 Berserk collaboration will also disappoint you, so that it is difficult to expect improvements in the game in terms of “trading”.

Based on this “lesson”, it is normal that some players do not want Diablo 4 Season 9 to change through the auction house. But this problem is not incurable.

How To Make Auction House Better?

If the auction house in the same series is a lesson of failure, then Diablo 4 can also try to learn similar functions of other successful ARPG operations. After all, no one stipulates that all Diablo games must adopt the same set of mechanisms.

Take Last Epoch as an example. The game launched Season 2 in April this year and competed fiercely with Diablo 4 and Path of Exile 2 in a short period of time.

First of all, the transactions of Last Epoch auction house are completely based on gold in the game. In this way, on the one hand, it can minimize malicious transactions (after all, the value of game gold itself is not very high), and on the other hand, gold farming is also based on game content, so as not to cause the game itself to be ignored.

In addition, no matter what items you exchange with others in Last Epoch auction house, you can only trade once. Although this seems a bit rigid, it can also effectively prevent resale.

Therefore, if Diablo 4 will not make major innovations or changes to the game mechanism in the next few seasons, it can completely learn from the successful experience of other games and transform the auction house and add it to the game.

Auction House In D4S9

Based on the new seasonal content of this season and the new dungeons Nightmare Dungeon Escalation and Horadric Strongrooms, several important items have also been derived, such as various Horadric Jewels and Escalation Sigil that are essential for opening dungeons.

Therefore, if Season 9 wants to add the auction house function later, these key items can be used as goods, allowing you to exchange the items by special seasonal currencies, which can be obtained by consuming Diablo 4 gold.

In this way, a trading chain based entirely on the game itself can be formed in the game, making it as convenient as possible for you to experience the new season without affecting the game participation.

In short, no matter what the previous Diablo auction house was like, it can be improved through transformation and play a reliable role in Diablo 4, rather than completely denying it because of past mistakes.