Diablo 4 Season 11 will feature a significant overhaul, and based on PTR data, it's nerfed in many ways compared to Season 10. Regardless of your build, your DPS will be noticeably lower.
Survivability is also crucial in Season 11, especially in the early game. You'll need to focus more on defense due to stronger monsters. So, how should you adjust your gear in Season 11?
Season 11 Nerfs
Due to the loss of Greater Affixes and the damage bonuses from the old Masterworking set, player DPS is significantly reduced.
Players will also lose the survival attributes provided by these systems, such as health and armor. Furthermore, the entire game has undergone a survivability overhaul; monster damage is higher, and elite monster control effects will be more pronounced.
The drop rate of Legendary gear will be nerfed early in the season and will only increase later. Amulet slots will no longer have higher affixes for primary attributes, further reducing damage.
Overall movement speed has been nerfed, affecting map clearing efficiency and positioning. Resource generation has been changed to a fixed value instead of a percentage, significantly impacting builds that rely on skill rotations.
Survivability Building Strategies
Ensuring sufficient survivability is extremely important in Season 11, as you can only deal damage if you're alive. Below are some general suggestions regarding builds.
Skill Selection
Each class has mobility skills or crowd control break skills, such as Rouge's Shadow Step and Necromancer's Blood Mist. You must carry these skills to quickly escape monster encirclement or deal with elite monster crowd control.
The skill tree offers several options that provide damage reduction, even if they sacrifice some DPS. You can also carry crowd control abilities, using effects like chill to slow or freeze enemies, creating opportunities for yourself to deal damage.
Attributes
First, you need to stack Life and Maximum Life affixes on more equipment slots. After the rework, Armor remains a primary stat, but Resistances should also be maximized. Aspect of Disobedience and Juggernaut's Aspect are recommended for maximizing armor.
Cooldown reduction becomes more important because it allows you to use survival skills more frequently. In Season 11, Cooldown reduction will be available on new slots such as gloves.
Life on hit, especially percentage-based Life on hit, is an important means of recovery because its benefit increases with maximum life.
Recommended Equipment
Season 11 has adjusted or even reworked many unique items, especially mythic items. Below are some recommended unique Diablo 4 items for Season 11.
Helm
Harlequin Crest provides significant damage reduction and cooldown reduction, making it a top choice for many builds in Season 11. While Heir of Perdition offers a significant damage boost, Harlequin Crest is a better option until survivability is a priority.
Andariel's Visage provides life on hit in Season 11, and its recovery effect will be even more pronounced when combined with high attack speed builds.
Chest Armor
Shroud of False Death remains a top choice, offering comprehensive stat boosts and resource generation, which is invaluable for any build. Tyrael's Might is no longer as useless in Season 11 as before; while not as good as Shroud of False Death, it provides considerable survivability.
Pants
Tassets of the Dawning Sky, while not unique to mythic builds, are very useful in Season 11. They provide all stats, resistances, maximum resistances, and movement speed, effectively compensating for the losses in stats, resistances, and movement speed in the new season.
Gloves
Endurant Faith provides an effect similar to Progenesis Amethyst Flask in Path of Exile, converting a portion of damage into damage over time, buying time to regenerate health. However, many players in Diablo 4 don't use this unique item because its direct resistance boost isn't very strong. Therefore, you should only use it when you desperately need survivability.
Boots
Rakanoth's Wake isn't a mythic unique item either. However, it provides up to 35% all elemental resistances and cooldown reduction, allowing your other gear to stack attack affixes, making it highly recommended.
Weapons
Doombringer, as a mythic item, provides a significant amount of maximum life, making it a good defensive choice.
Rings And Amulets
Starlight Aspect provides primary resources when health regenerates. Combined with items like Undying Aspect, it can solve both survivability and resource issues.
While the Melted Heart of Selig is still under adjustment, if it doesn't receive too many nerfs, it will be the preferred amulet for many builds.
Eternal Realm
Season 11's seasonal power provides additional defensive stats such as resistances, armor, and fortify, for example, increasing Fortify by 1% of maximum health or adding 20% to all resistances. These bonuses are vastly different in terms of damage output compared to the better affixes provided by Chaos Armor from Season 10.
The nerfs to Tempered and Masterworking in Season 11 will have a significant impact on player builds. Players will lose approximately 40% of their power simply due to the changes to Masterworking.
However, if gear with higher affixes and Masterworking from Season 10 is retained in Eternal Realm after the update, Eternal Realm characters will be objectively stronger. This is because these items provide a significant damage multiplier and stat boost that Season 11 characters cannot obtain.
For players seeking maximum power or wanting a smoother experience with new content, using a character from Eternal Realm in Season 11 might be a better choice, especially for those already possessing high Paragon levels and endgame gear.
If you're considering continuing with your Eternal Realm character instead of creating a Season 11 character, it's recommended to immediately max out some key defensive unique items using the current Masterworking system. If this gear is retained, its power will far surpass that of the new season's equipment.
That's a general overview of how to improve survivability in Season 11. Remember, don't blindly pursue maximum DPS; survival should be your top priority.
