Is Season 4 Loot Reborn what Diablo 4 needed to be a great ARPG? Or is it perhaps another lackluster attempt by the developers to save a bad game? Here we’ll look at the problems that have plagued D4 since its release. Then we’ll discuss how the game is doing now with Loot Reborn season.

So let’s start with the past. Usually I would install the game at the start of a season, level up one or two characters to level 50, sometimes even 70, and then immediately get bored with the game. The seasonal content and patch changes were so lackluster and the core endgame loop was non-existent.

Diablo 4 Season 3 didn’t even get me that far. I uninstalled the game at level 20! This situation was caused by many of the problems I had with the game before Season 4.

The first problem I encountered was the overly complex stats design. Diablo 4’s stats pool is bloated with a lot of useless affixes. I’m reminded of “Damage on Tuesdays” meme, which results in most gear drops being garbage.

Then its skill system is also very bland and basic. Most skill modifications actually come from Aspects in Diablo 4, not the skill system itself. As a result, the skill tree feels very bland, with only two choices per skill at most, and those choices rarely matter to how you play your build.

Paragon Board is also just boring and simple stat boosts that don’t offer any interesting choices.

The power and build diversity in Diablo 4 actually comes from legendary powers, aka Aspects. But the problem with Aspects is their scarcity. A really good Aspect can only be imprinted on gear once. This has made me accustomed to hoarding powers instead of using them freely in the game. I often finished my seasonal play through and never actually used that cool power because I was still waiting for the right parts to imprint it.

Also, despite the fact that these Aspects are very important and build-determining, the developers somehow managed to make the loot boring most of the time. I rarely get excited when $1 drops. Because unique items tend to feel very bland, and Uber Uniques are so rare that you can play for hours without seeing one.

So in summary, the developers have retained the worst skill tree system in the genre, and in addition, boring loot and ability design prevents players from using said abilities. This is a recipe for disaster in ARPGs.

On top of that, Diablo 4’s gameplay is extremely boring. The game feels like the developers are constantly trying to prevent you from having fun in the game. You want to use some cool skills? Then let your mana-starve bottom out.

There’s also too much running around and too few monsters to fight, especially in the open world. Enemy density on the map is low. And then when you do find enemies, they either die quickly after a few hits, or if not, you’re left with deactivated skills or no mana left, using basic filler skills instead of having fun.

Many classes feel unsatisfying while leveling, as it takes a long time to start feeling the power fantasy coming and your character’s build becoming complete.

Its build variety and flexibility are also pretty bland for an ARPG. This is most noticeable with classes like Barbarian or Sorcerer. Most of their builds use the same support skills, like Shouts or Defensive abilities.

Finally, Diablo 4 has no endgame, aside from running Nightmare Dungeons repeatedly. That might be fine if the dungeons were actually fun, but their maps are often boring, require a lot of backtracking, and there’s a lot of downtime without fighting monsters. All of these issues have led to Diablo 4 being an extremely disappointing game since its release.

As hopes for a true Diablo game slowly faded, so did players’ excitement for each new season. After all, even diehard fans of the series have limited patience for their beloved game.

Now let’s turn our attention to the present. Season 4 is called Loot Reborn, and it’s a season filled with hope and anticipation, but also doubt and anxiety.

Fans of Diablo series have been wondering: will this game finally become a quality action-RPG worthy of Diablo name? Or will the developers continue to make lackluster attempts to fix symptoms rather than deal with underlying problems? So how good is this update?

Well, there are a lot of improvements to Loot Reborn. First, while not perfect, the stats system in the game is better than before. While some conditional stats are still there, overall, the game offers a more streamlined and straightforward pool of item stats than before. There’s less bloat, resulting in more items with actual value and the potential to upgrade your character.

In addition, the game’s stats customization and variety have been improved with the new mechanic, Tempering. Tempering adds extremely powerful stats to your gear, and the 100% damage boost to your character in particular is an absolutely game-changing buff.

The addition of Tempering makes loot more fun because it elevates the power fantasy and gives us the delightful fun we all crave.

But Tempering also brings a problem. Unique items are weak by comparison. This is because unique items can’t be tempered, which is frustrating, especially since Ancestral items only allow two Tempering stats on one item.

Another concern I have about Tempering is that while the system is fun, the stats from Tempering are ridiculous! This makes their importance disproportionate to anything else on the item. It reminds me of how powerful set items were in Diablo 3, where they increased the damage of certain abilities by 1000%, making sets a must-have for many builds.

Loot Reborn also improves the feel of the early leveling experience in Diablo 4. Thanks to the introduction of Iron Wolves, whose rewards are seasonal items in Loot Reborn, which give you nice Legendary and Unique items early on, making early leveling smoother and faster than before.

Leveling up your alts in particular is especially easy and fast, and this is because Tempering Manuals are available account-wide, which can give your alts a huge boost in stats. For example, you can put a few thousand Thorns on your set and make enemies one-shot kills.

There are now more ways to earn resources like mana, making leveling more fun than before. Unfortunately, early leveling isn’t smooth sailing for all classes. Some classes, like Necromancer, level up easily, while others still struggle to generate resources and end up relying on frequent casting of basic skills.

Overall, for leveling, I hope the developers can balance the flow of the game by balancing classes. As it stands, your leveling experience will be very different depending on the class and build you decide to use.

Now let’s talk about the flow of the game in Loot Reborn. It flows much better now, and the density of enemies has been greatly improved, both in the open world and in Nightmare Dungeons. On top of that, Helltides is now basically a continuous activity, and it also applies to World Tier 1 and 2. This makes the open world more interesting, diverse, and intense in both the endgame and leveling process.

Nightmare Dungeons seem to have a better design now, with less backtracking. Additionally, side events and Corrupted Shrine challenges are now worthwhile activities to do, offering a ton of Diablo 4 Gold and XP as rewards.

It’s worth noting that this season also saw a much-needed redesign of how Codex of Power works. Extracted legendary powers are finally no longer a onetime consumable item! Now, when you extract power from an item, it’s added to Codex of Power at the highest value you extracted, for you to use infinitely.

Honestly, this change might be my favorite part of the entire season. Unlimited use of extracted power promotes experimentation and actually using those powers! The game doesn’t make you question using those powers; it tells you that you can use it as you please.

Finally, the endgame in Season 4 feels better for one simple reason: it now exists as Pit.

Pit is similar to Greater Rifts in Diablo 3, with short instanced dungeons with theoretically infinite scaling. The goal of Pit is one thing: kill enemies.

But is Pit enough to make Diablo 4’s endgame interesting for years to come? I don’t think so. Adding features similar to what the series already had a few years ago doesn’t seem like an achievement worth celebrating. And Pit system is nowhere near as deep as the endgame in Path of Exile, or even as robust as the one in Last Epoch.

But the addition of Pits is certainly a step in the right direction. It adds something worth pursuing, especially for those who like to push their builds to the limit.

Pit also adds an element of variety to the endgame gameplay loop. As it stands, we essentially have three major activities in the endgame: Helltides, Nightmare Dungeons, and now Pit. So far, these are a good number of activities, but who knows how we’ll feel in a few weeks when we’re doing the same three repeatedly?

So is Diablo 4 now an ARPG worth playing in 2024? The answer is: kind of? Objectively speaking, it’s a better game now. But Diablo 4 isn’t the best in the industry in any way.

None of Loot Reborn’s changes sound particularly impressive if taken in isolation. Pit is not a revolutionary endgame system for ARPGs. Tempering and Masterworking don’t make loot in Diablo 4 the most fun in the genre. And the changes to how Legendary Powers work and the number of powers available don’t make build crafting the deepest on the market. They didn’t even address the flaws of the skill trees in Diablo 4.

But when you look at the big picture, when you put all of these additions and changes together, the improvement in the flow of the game and the increased fun it provides is pretty clear.

Loot Reborn is the biggest step the developers have taken since the release of Diablo 4, and it’s a step in the right direction. It moves their game toward better stats, loot, and tons of QOL changes. As a result, Season 4 is definitely the most fun I’ve had playing the game since the release of Diablo 4. What do you think? See you next time!

As many players enter the endgame in Diablo 4 Season 4, there's one major focus - acquiring Resplendent Sparks, the essential crafting material needed to create your chosen Uber Unique. To obtain these, you must defeat endgame bosses, which first requires gathering the necessary materials to summon them.

So in this guide, I'll cover how to acquire these boss summon materials in Season 4, the most efficient farming methods, and share useful tips and tricks to speed up the process.

Previously, boss materials in Diablo 4 were exclusively obtained through specific activities - Living Steel from Helltide, Varshan materials from Whispers, and Grotesque Debtors scattered across the world. However, in Season 4, that changes.

Now, every endgame activity offers the chance to obtain all types of boss materials, as they have random drop rates from all boss-type enemies, including regular Elites in rare instances. This abundance makes them more readily available than ever before.

In Season 4, the seasonal activity is known as Call of the Wolves, centered on the Iron Wolves seasonal quest line and reputation system. It offers substantial rewards in the form of boss materials, particularly in the later stages. If you haven't obtained these rewards yet and seek boss summoning materials, it's highly advisable to prioritize them.

It is important to emphasize that you can complete the Call of the Wolves for reputation multiple times with different characters. This allows you to accumulate a considerable amount of materials and even more guaranteed Resplendent Sparks. However, repeating reputation grinding for each character is very time-consuming.

Regarding the Iron Wolves reputation, let's delve into Helltide event. In Helltide, all chests yield at least 1 Living Steel for summoning Grigoire, with the Living Steel chest specifically providing 5. Throughout the Helltide event, numerous Elites spawn, each with their own drop chances for summoning materials.

Hellborn creatures emerge from events or when your threat meter fluctuates, offering a reasonably high chance of dropping boss materials. Interestingly, these Hellborn creatures tend to drop Lord Zir's materials more frequently than others.

Participating in Helltide as a group enhances efficiency since each member triggers their own threat meter, resulting in the simultaneous spawning of multiple Hellborn creatures and consequently greater material acquisition.

And the Blood Maiden enemy in Helltide, the big boss at the end of the altar summon activity, also has a pretty decent drop rate on various boss summoning materials. Helltide is essentially the prime location for specifically Living Steel but also just has a good drop rate on many different materials.

Moving on, we have the Whispers of the Dead. It seamlessly integrates with any other activity you wish to engage in. While it's widely recognized as the most lucrative source of $1 at present, it also yields a significant amount of Varshan summoning materials from each whisper cache. Additionally, there's a chance to obtain materials for other bosses, making it a well-rounded option for material acquisition.

Next up, we have world bosses, which arguably serve as the premier source of these materials, albeit in small quantities since they cannot be farmed. These bosses operate on a three and a half-hour timer, but every kill on a world boss in World Tier 4 has yielded at least 1 boss summoning material. Remarkably, most of these drops have been Pincushioned Dolls, specifically for the Andariel fight.

In addition, a significant portion of upgraded boss materials have come from world bosses this season. For example, out of the 4 Stygian Stones I've naturally acquired, 3 were random drops from world bosses, with only one obtained from the Pit, where they are typically found.

Therefore, for those who are interested in tackling ladder bosses, it's imperative not to overlook world bosses, as they not only have a decent chance of dropping Stygian Stones but also upgraded ladder materials, considerably simplifying the process.

To say that these bosses are more challenging than their normal version. They boast significantly higher health pools, immense damage output, and a stacking debuff that exponentially increases damage taken upon being hit by their more telegraphed attacks. Stygian Stones, which are essential for challenging the torment versions of ladder bosses.

However, the rewards from torment versions of ladder bosses are 5 times greater than those of normal ladder bosses, albeit at 3 times the material cost. It's worth noting that I've had 2 Andariel's Visage drop naturally in Season 4, both from torment versions of Uber bosses, leading to speculation about the potentially higher drop rates of Tormented bosses.

Moving on to the endgame systems, Nightmare Dungeons offer another avenue for acquiring boss summoning materials. Once you've reached World Tier 4, and potentially even World Tier 3, Treasure Goblins become a consistent source, dropping a minimum of 2 boss summoning materials each time.

This presents a lucrative opportunity, although it's important to note that Treasure Goblins cannot be forced to spawn. You can only react when you spot them on your mini-map. Therefore, it's crucial to eliminate every Treasure Goblin encountered, not only in Nightmare Dungeons but also in other areas like Helltide.

The reason for highlighting Nightmare Dungeons specifically is because certain rooms within these dungeons have a low chance of spawning a significant number of Treasure Goblins simultaneously. When this occurs, swiftly dispatching the entire horde results in a windfall of free boss materials, among other rewards.

In addition to Treasure Goblins, boss summoning materials can also be obtained from the boss of each Nightmare Dungeon. Moreover, every completion of a Nightmare Dungeon guarantees some Distilled Fear, which is essential for the Beast in the Ice summoning.

Last, let's talk about how to acquire Stygian Stones, while world bosses initially seem to be the best source. These stones are primarily supposed to drop from the Pit of Artificers. While some players indicate that Stygian Stones become slightly more common after reaching at least Tier 70 or 80, their drop rates remain inconsistent.

Even at higher tiers, they remain relatively rare. Despite my extensive engagement with the activity up to Tier 70, I've only encountered 1 Stygian Stone. Therefore, I recommend against excessive farming of this activity solely for Stygian Stones due to their notably low drop rate.

It's worth mentioning a commonly known practice for solo players: seeking out boss rotations in the Trade Chat. These rotations involve groups where each player takes turns using their own materials to summon the boss, allowing you to benefit from four summons for the cost of one lot of your own materials if executed correctly.

This concludes today's guide, which covers various ways to obtain boss ladder summoning materials in Diablo 4 Season 4, as well as the most effective strategies that I know of. Hope you have a good gaming experience!

Welcome, fellow gamers! I'm excited to show you the Bash Barbarian build for Diablo 4 Season 4! This build stands out as one of the most effective ways to take down Uber bosses or even Uber Lilith. In this guide, we'll delve into all the details of this build, along with strategies and tips you need to know. Let's get started!

First, let's break down the build starting with the Bash-focused strategy. We invest fully in the Bash skill for fortified generation when hitting stunned enemies. This core skill set forms the backbone of our offensive capabilities, particularly against non-boss foes.

Moving on, we bypass other enhancements and proceed to the defensive cluster. We prioritize Iron Skin and its enhancements, benefiting from a protective barrier and fortified generation upon activation. Additionally, Challenging Shout provides a taunt with damage reduction and increased maximum life while active.

We allocate points to key passives such as Imposing Presence for bonus maximum life, Martial Vigor for damage reduction from Elite enemies, and Outburst to facilitate the acquisition of Tough as Nails. The latter enhances Thorns damage and converts a portion of it into bleeding damage, effectively activating bleed effects upon taking damage.

In the Brawling cluster passives, Kick serves as a fury spender and applies vulnerability to bosses, while War Cry enhances damage output and activates Berserking. Passives like Booming Voice extend shout duration, Raid Leader provides healing during shout uptime, and Guttural Yell reduces enemy damage when using shouts.

Aggressive Resistance and Battle Fervor bolster our Berserking capabilities, providing damage reduction and extending Berserking duration upon damaging enemies with Kick. Pit Fighter in the Weapon Mastery enhances damage to nearby enemies, while the Thick Skin paves the way for Counteroffensive, granting bonus damage when health is above a certain threshold.

The Wrath of the Berserker ultimate skill and its enhancements amplify Berserk damage multipliers, ensuring consistent uptime through various triggers. Passives like Heavy Handed increase critical multiplier, Wallop boosts damage against stunned or vulnerable enemies, and Concussion adds a chance to stun enemies with budgeting weapons.

Finally, the key passive, Unconstrained, further augments damage gains while Berserking. In the technique slot, we prioritize vulnerable multipliers with the Two-Handed Axe Expertise, enhancing overall damage output in our current setup.

Next, let's discuss the gear setup. Prioritize strength, critical strike damage, and maximum life on weapons, with cooldown reduction ideally on your helmet and amulet. Aim for crit chance and attack speed on your amulet, and crit chance, attack speed, and either strength or maximum life on your rings.

Ensure you have ranks to Bash on your pants slot, prioritizing the Greater Affixes and Masterworking. On boots, focus on bonus ranks to Kick, movement speed, and a flex slot for strength or resistances based on your setup. Adjust your build as your armor cap shifts because of Tempering.

The Paingorger's Gauntlets are essential for non-boss content, enhancing Bash's natural cleave. Additionally, consider the $1 if you lack the Tyrael's Might chest armor, as it provides cooldown reduction when applying bleed through Thorns, physical crit chance, and damage reduction from bleeding enemies.

For two-handed weapons, prioritize Rapid Aspect for bonus basic skill attack speed on one and the Aspect of the Moonrise for bonus attack speed, damage with basic skills, and movement speed on the other. Consider dual-wielding for increased attack speed, although the two-handed version synergizes well for this build's purposes.

Aspect of Adaptability on your amulet increases bash damage, while the Edgemaster's Aspect boosts damage based on your full research bar, Aspect of Inner Calm offers a general damage increase multiplier, and Aspect of Elements rotates damage increases.

Bold Chieftain Aspect on your boots reduces cooldowns depending on nearby enemies. Defensive Aspects include Iron Warrior, which strengthens Iron Skin, and Aspect of Might, providing constant damage reduction because of the reliance on basic skills. Hectic Aspect on boots offers cooldown reductions for basic skill casts.

Let's take a look at the Paragon Board setup. On your Starter Board, we'll place the Exploit glyph for bonus damage to vulnerable enemies and vulnerable procs on first damage to enemies. We need to grab just enough Dexterity to activate the glyph. If you have less armor, consider going up through the rare armor node.

Switching to the Warbringer Board, we'll put the Territorial glyph for bonus damage to close enemies and damage reduction from them. Next, grab relevant rare and magic nodes, including extra all-element resist.

Move to the Carnage Board, insert the Ire glyph for bonus damage while Berserking and bonus damage reduction from Elites during Berserking. After, grab the necessary strength and other relevant nodes to maintain 40 damage while Berserking threshold. Proceed to the legendary node on the board, granting bonus attack speed for every critical strike while Berserking.

Then, acquiring the damage while Berserking rare and magic nodes. Attach the Decimator Board and travel down and right to the glyph socket. We'll place the Undaunted glyph for bonus damage while fortified and scaling damage reduction based on Fortify. Gather rare and magic nodes, ensuring enough Willpower to power the glyph.

Attach the Hemorrhage Board, moving down and left to reach the glyph socket. Insert the Might glyph for bonus effects to all magic nodes within range and an increased damage multiplier with two-handed weapons.

Finally, attach the Flawless technique node from the Blood Rage Board. Insert the Revenge glyph for bonus rare nodes within range and a stacking damage multiplier with Thorns damage.

Let's discuss how to effectively play the build in various scenarios such as Nightmare Dungeons, Pit runs, or facing Unber bosses. The approach is quite consistent across these situations. Begin by activating Wrath of the Berserker, followed by using Kick when your Fury is at its maximum.

Then, ensure you replenish your Fury to the maximum and use Kick again. Even without maximum Fury bonuses, this exhausts 200 Fury, the maximum for benefiting from Wrath of the Berserker's bonuses. After this sequence, utilize War Cry for the damage boost. If possible, employ Iron Skin before using the Challenging Shout to reduce its cooldown.

Otherwise, maintain a steady barrage of Bash attacks, with War Cry used whenever it's off cooldown. Keep an eye on the Berserk timer in your ability bar to determine whether an extra Kick is needed to prevent your bonuses from resetting. If you lose Berserk at any point, you must restart the process by activating Wrath of the Berserker once more.

Diablo 4 has entered its fourth season, and this season is mainly focused on the setting of in-game items, the functions of some of which will greatly improve your experience of leveling up in the game. These settings can make it easy for you to reach level 100. Next, let’s take a look at what methods can be used to help you reach level 100 faster.

This guide can address all the different forms of content in your gameplay and allow you to solve the problem in the shortest time and with the simplest method. But it’s also important that you have complete control over what you run until you reach the highest level, because that’s where the fun of the game comes from.

In Diablo 4, experience points (or call it XP) can be gained from all missions by destroying enemies. However, in some missions under certain circumstances, XP gained in this mission will be much more than in regular missions. Here are some general upgrade methods:

Most of the general quests above aren’t the best way to level up, but they still depend on what you specifically want to play. If you want to know more about the story background of Diablo 4, you can participate in side missions or some battles. But if you want to upgrade quickly, besides researching Helltide and Dungeons, what I will tell you next is the unknown upgrade method.

You should understand all XP boosts before using this method. If you use all experience point boosts at the same time, you can reach the maximum level in less than 10 hours.

The earliest forms of this approach came from team rewards. Simply put, if you have a team and complete the mission content with them, you will receive rewards; but if you complete the mission with non-party players, you will receive half the experience points.

In addition to the party experience bonus mentioned above, you can also research Elixirs. Elixirs can obtain it during early game crafting or when destroying enemies. Elixirs can provide up to 5% bonus experience points for 30 minutes. Later in the game, Elixirs may be 8% effective. These perks will increase the speed at which you complete tasks in the game.

If you feel that making Elixirs is cumbersome, you can purchase Elixirs directly in the mall. Different types of Elixirs can provide different upgrade speeds.

The last and most important thing comes - season bonuses. If you open your battle pass or menu, you will see some rewards that have ended. Don’t be discouraged, you just need some Smoldering Ashes to apply the upgrade, so you’ll need to go through Season 4 Loot Reborn’s battle pass to get Smoldering Ashes first.

Once you have Smoldering Ashes around level 28, you can use it to expand your experience rewards for completing quests, up to the maximum.

As mentioned before, the best way to level up quickly is to research Helltide and Dungeons. Next, let us carefully analyze the upgrade methods of the two modes and find the method that suits you best!

If you want to skip the campaign and not wait there to level up, Helltide is the most efficient way to level up. You can reach level 60 or World Tier 3 or 4 in 3 hours. The major way to upgrade Helltide is to go to the Baneful Altars in the current Helltide area and use three Baneful Hearts to activate events to achieve the upgrade goal.

This method will generate hundreds of enemies, including a maiden boss that will drop a lot of valuable equipment. When you take out three Baneful Hearts, everyone in Helltide area will be activated and gather to clear all enemies as quickly as possible.

Please note that growing enough Baneful Hearts requires unlocking Baneful Hearts seeds first. These seeds can be obtained by completing specific tasks in the game or by talking to the commander. Once you have a Baneful Hearts seed, you can plant it on the appropriate land and take advantage of related events to obtain more Baneful Hearts.

In addition, you can also obtain Aberrant Cinders by destroying enemies, and use Aberrant Cinders to open treasure chests to obtain more $1 and equipment. In Helltide region, you can find these treasure chests in specific locations.

In the opinion of some players, Helltide always levels up faster than regular dungeons, but once you touch Nightmare Dungeons, your level will rise faster. Unlike Helltide, which relies on its community to keep the event up and running, Nightmare Dungeons are entirely dependent on how many levels you can complete and how quickly you can complete it, giving you significantly more freedom.

You can have a fast and stable experience farm by using Sigils. If you can meet the following two requirements, you will receive higher experience points than Helltide:

These requirements are difficult to achieve, but if your game character is strong and flexible, you can easily do it.

Now the choice is up to you. Which one do you think is more suitable for you, Helltide or Dungeons?

They all have their own pros and cons, depending on you, and their rewards are different, regardless of experience points.

Helltide will give you more gear, and where events have 80% to 90% uptime, Helltide will also give you more experience points. In addition to this, you also get exclusive Helltide materials. This means that when you need these materials in other tasks, you still need to enter Helltide to obtain these special materials.

The special thing about Nightmare Dungeons is that it gives you some Glyph experience points. These Glyph experience points can be used to strengthen your game character’s Glyph on the Paragon Board in Nightmare Dungeons.

In Helltide, if you can defeat all enemies, you can get at least 925 pieces of power equipment. This way you can switch from Helltide to Nightmare Dungeons.

But if you’re around level 90, and you already have Profane Mindcage consumable that increases Helltide monster levels by ten levels for an hour, you can also get the same item-powered gear in Helltide.

In Helltide, you need to kill monsters every moment, but in Nightmare Dungeons, because the monsters are not as dense. It takes some time for you to go from one pack to another.

Based on the above, the different upgrade options you choose will depend on what type of content you prefer and how powerful and flexible your build is. In addition to Elixirs mentioned above, there are also some Boss Summons on sale in the mall. When necessary, you can purchase and summon Boss to help you get a better gaming experience. Happy gaming!

Recently, we discovered through developer chat some of the new changes coming to Diablo 4 Loot Reborn, including Helltide density, bosses, mechanics, quests, events, and even Andariel is making a comeback with Tormented Boss changes.

In this guide, we’ll summarize some of the key changes to help you quickly understand how Season 4 is different from previous seasons and get a head start on Loot Reborn!

For Helltide, the developers looked closely at player feedback and general experience gained from other popular activities that players seemed to enjoy, such as Blood Harvests in Season 2. So, what’s the difference?

When you step into Helltide, you’ll notice a new Threat meter on the right side of the screen. This one fills up as you kill demons and engage in content.

Threat levels are divided into three levels. Each level increases the rewards and difficulty of monsters. They will throw ambushes at you, and elites will start spawning. But it also means you’ll get more $1 and loot from it.

Once the meter is completely filled, you become Hell-Marked. Hell-Marked triggers the final ambush, which means a full-scale wave of demons will be thrown at you, all culminating in the last battle against Hellborne. Hellborne is very challenging and actually resurrected the hero of Sanctuary.

Regardless, once the frenzy wave ends, or if you die, Threat meter resets.

Another new addition is the ability to collect a new material called Baneful Hearts. They mainly drop from Tortured Gifts around Helltide, which are basically Helltide Chests, and sometimes you may see them from various demons around the area, such as Doomsayers and Hellborne.

These Baneful Hearts are important because you can summon a zone-wide boss for each one, called Blood Maiden.

To find this demon, head to the demon head icon on the map. Summoning the big bad requires three Hearts, but if you’re leaching from a friend, you’ll need zero Hearts. Instead, contributors who summon Blood Maiden receive additional rewards. No matter what, everyone is a winner.

There are many other major changes, including new random pop-up Doomsayer, Iron Wolf, and Demonic events waiting to be discovered. Additionally, Helltide-specific Whisper Bounties are included here, and Whispers in general have been fully enhanced.

Next, let’s talk about some Tormented Bosses. Joining Boss Ladder is Maiden of Anguish, Andariel. She shares the same loot table as Duriel, so you can get some of the best items in the game from both sources.

Additionally, this encounter has been updated, so it should feel different than before. You can expect to encounter a variety of elements in combat, even her signature Poison Nova attack.

Andariel is located in Hanged Man’s Hall, east of Tasarak. You will need the summoning parts for Lord Zir and Beast in Ice.

Besides this, you can now summon level 200 versions of each Tormented boss, which are called Tormented Echoes. If you level them up to Echo, you’ll get five times more rewards than a normal Tormented Boss, but it only costs three times the materials and a new summoning item called Stygian Stones.

They can be summoned from the same altar as the normal boss, so just click through to Tormented version.

Stygian Stones can be found deep in Pit. After completing Nightmare Dungeon Tier 45, you will be given a priority task to unlock Pit. You can run them individually or in a team. Additionally, when you first kill any of these Tormented Echo bosses, you’ll gain a Resplendent Spark for your troubles, which can go a long way toward crafting some unique items.

Currently, Helltides can still be unlocked by completing the campaign or creating a campaign-skipped character. I’m guessing some of Season 4’s updates like Helltide expansions will cause them to appear in World Tiers 1 and 2 now. If you create a campaign-skipped character, you can use Helltides from level 1 to level 100.

So do Helltides’ changes now pose a threat? Undoubtedly, through the feedback of some PTR players, it is obvious that Helltides is actually more threatening than in any previous season.

Helltides are definitely the most effective upgrades we have in Season 4. Both Hell on Sanctuary and Demonic Invasions provide significant challenges for players.

Additionally, in Season 4 PTR, the developers actually increased the pickup radius of Aberrant Cinder, and they also stated that it will definitely still be there in Season 4.

As we all know, one pillar of Helltides upgrades is to find opportunities to maximize efficiency, and increasing Aberrant Cinder pickup radius is undoubtedly a huge quality of life change. Because you know, no one likes to backtrack and pick up Cinder and interrupt your flow.

On the subject of maximizing efficiency, one thing that wasn’t present in PTR but was present in Season 4 release is that the developers actually reduced the time required to interact with and open Tortured Gifts. As monster density increases, this could play a key role in a player’s endgame journey.

Finally, the developers also stated that they may add more encounters to Helltides, like a Butcher-style mechanic. While considering Helltides upgrades, these types of chance encounters, random encounters, or just the opportunity to add some novelty or surprise are definitely something to look forward to, and are definitely in the spirit of Doomsayer events.

To be honest, most of these changes are prompted by the community, and hopefully Diablo developers will hear more feedback. That’s all for today. See you at the Sanctuary!

After Diablo 4 devs investigated the feedback from players after PTR ended, they seem to have a new direction for the development of Season 4. Recently, the specific name of Season 4 has been revealed, namely “Loot Reborn”, which is based on fire and the forge, and Iron Wolves seems to be the specific theme of this season.

So what is “Iron Wolves”? It is a combat company composed of experienced mercenaries, specially created to destroy invading demons. From the PTR, we have seen how it actually performs in battle. Are you ready to fight alongside them?

As usual, Diablo 4 Season 4 has also added some new quests and mechanics for players to explore for great loot, such as gold, $1 or other Uniques. What may surprise players is that devs previously promised it would bring players an earth-shaking experience in Season 4. From the exposure of the season name, we can see their emphasis on loot. Therefore, before the start of S4, players can learn more practical items farming ways, leveling tips or review the past and learn the new based on previous seasons experiences.

After the previous Seasons 1, 2 and 3, it was clear that none of those seasons went beyond the Seasonal Realm, let alone left anything worth playing in Eternal Realm.

Although the overall number of dropped items has decreased, the quality has improved. It greatly saves us time in organizing items and allows us to enjoy the game itself more.

Devs reduced the affixes for legendary items to three, and the affixes for rare items to two. Although the affixes were reduced, they became more effective. And, they have increased the overall value of these affixes, and every item has become more valuable. Every time we gain an item, we will become stronger.

Although the amount of gold consumed is at its highest when players re-roll items, the amount of materials you need to perform all forging activities at BlackSmith is now much smaller than before, which can reduce a lot of unnecessary expenses. In this way, you can get more powerful item support in the subsequent journey.

Next is the rarity of the items you receive will be affected by the level of the world you take part in. You can only gain sacred items and higher-level items in World Tier III. Ancestral items will only appear in World Tier IV. If you want to get those Legendary items with 925 Item Power, you must defeat enemies with level over 95.

Finally, all Uniques will appear in World Tier III, while some Uniques will only appear in World Tier I and II. And Uber Uniques will appear at max Item Power level when you kill a level 55 monster.

The new version of Codex of Power will bring fresh changes. First, you have unlimited use of Legendary Aspects you stored in Codex of Power when you salvage Legendary items. Legendary items salvage at the Blacksmith have great power and can upgrade your Legendary Aspects. After you enter Diablo 4 at the first time when Season 4 is released, some of your legacy aspect items will automatically be converted to a certain level in Codex of Power. By the way, your warehouse space will still allow you to load the same shares as before items, so you don’t have to worry about not being able to fit them into your small warehouse when you get better loot.

It contains many Aspects, and you can choose the direction you like to improve. And when you reach the highest level in some Aspects, the system will remind you that you have reached your goal.

Codex of Power will have new features, namely search, filtering and collection of Aspects. When selecting a power for imprinting in Occultist, your equipped power will be displayed via an icon and tooltip. These powers will be automatically saved to the Eternal Realm in the Seasonal Realm when the season is about to end. If these two same powers both exist in Eternal Realm and Seasonal Realm, the system would choose the higher one.

As the name suggests, Tempering Manuals are used to upgrade the quality of the equipment, which are divided into 6 categories.

Each Tempering Manual contains several optional affixes. You can easily find Tempering Manuals throughout the game. Once you find the Tempering Manuals, just add the right affixes to equipments to strengthen them and your combat power. But, before you Temper an item, you have to focus on its Tempering Durability.

Affixes given to equipment in the manual in Seasonal Realm will last until the end of the season, but affixes given to equipment in the Eternal Realm will be permanent.

Use all the materials you have worked so hard to get from those terrible mines and caverns into weapons, exploit their potential to the limit, and then you will have a greater chance of winning when facing future raids or missions.

The specific function of Masterworking is to increase the strength of all affixes on the equipment, and every 4th tier, it would improve the random affixes in the equipment. Affixes will turn blue after receiving the first reward, then yellow and then orange. But, if you want to make Affixes turn yellow, you may have to put in 10 times more effort than turning them blue. Similarly, if you want to make them change from yellow to orange, it is even more difficult. When you Masterwork an item and it has reached its limit, if you are still not satisfied with its performance at that time, the system also gives you the opportunity to reset the item.

However, I think most players are not willing to reset the top-notch weapons they have worked so hard to upgrade. So, this is a ridiculous permission. But I also think that for those old players who have the courage to return to Diablo 4, they can use the Masterworking mechanism to reset all their items and give themselves a chance to start over.

For those players who are lucky enough to get Ancestral Legendary and Unique Items, don’t just sit there and be happy. If you look closely at these precious things, there may be Greater Affixes on them. This thing is 1.5 times stronger than normal affixes. But I guess no one would be that careless. After all, when you get those items, the system will also give you a different audio prompt, and there will also be a special icon in your inventory to remind you that you have become a Lucky dog.

For those who haven’t obtained Greater Affixes through Ancestral Legendary and Unique Items, don’t be discouraged. After all, each Greater Affix is born in different ways. Because every Affix on the item has a chance to become a Greater Affixes in World Tier III and IV. Only one thing to note is that it is wishful thinking to want to turn an ordinary Affix into a Greater Affix by Enchant. lol!

In Season 4, it would be easier, streamlined and more effective.

In addition, devs also added Diamonds' Resistance values.

In general, the various upgrades made in Diablo 4 Season 4 are all considering players. The devs are making subtractions for this game, simplifying the Codex of Power and Gems mechanisms, optimizing various Affixes and Masterworking. While enriching the gameplay, it takes into account the feelings of returning players and new players, and perfectly fits the season theme of “Loot Reborn”. I wish everyone who starts Season 4 good luck.

Hi, players! Prepare for an exciting new Rogue in the upcoming Season 4 of Diablo 4. Despite it still with the Rapid Fire, it incorporates a unique ring that completely alters its effects, thanks to the addition known as the Scoundrel's Kiss. This brings about significant gameplay differences.

However, when facing bosses, we need the Scoundrel's Kiss unique ring. With a sufficient amount of $1, you can seamlessly utilize this build and enjoy a fantastic gaming experience.

The Scoundrel's Kiss offers several benefits: increased critical strike chance, additional ranks to Rapid Fire, and cooldown reduction for imbuement. However, running this unique ring may slow down the game, as it is most beneficial during boss fights. The Rapid Fire shoots exploding arrows that deal with exponentially increased damage, enhancing its effectiveness, especially in terms of AOE damage.

However, when facing bosses, a critical adjustment is needed: achieving a point-blank range. This necessity gave rise to the exploding shotgun build. The altered mechanics mean that the arrows tend to arc towards targets. Consequently, failing to position within the designated area leads to complete misses, resulting in diminished DPS. This is why it's dubbed the Scoundrel's Kiss.

So as far as the skills, we choose the Puncture, so that's just going to deal with the ability to apply vulnerability to the target if our Exploit Glyph wears off. Most of the time, you can kill everything in Diablo 4 within a few seconds. Then we are running the Dark Shroud. This is going to give you extra survivability and give you extra crit or movement speed.

And then we are running Dash. This is going to proc our Cutthroat because we are going to be going back to Close Quarters like in Season 2 because it's just as much better. The Shadow Step also activates our Cutthroat skill for our Close Quarters. In terms of basic skills, if you really want to run Cutthroat, that's totally fine too.

The Caltrops skill is kind of optional. It just allows us to get a quick little damage multiplier onto the enemies, and then it will also apply the Chill effect because we're going to be in melee range. It can be used most of the time if you want to maximize DPS.

If you prefer to run the Precision, that's perfectly acceptable. Your next skill activation occurs after either critting twice or reaching the required stacks, which means it's not always active. So, if your critical hit chance is around 20%, then opting for crit damage would be more beneficial in this scenario.

When it comes to gear, both the Disobedience and Juggernauts are important aspects. However, for lower tier content, running just one of them will suffice. However, in order to reach the new monster level cap, you need to run both, or have high armor.

For the Tempering, you can get a chance for Rapid Fire to double or you get damage to Crowd Control, which is easy to just throw on all of your pieces of gear, and it's going to give you way more value than getting your Precision. As far as the crit goes, you can actually get 100% crit in this Rogue build. So you may want to get crit in your gloves, your amulet, as well as in your rings.

In terms of gloves, we're only using the Aspect of Arrow Storms. Not only are these great for open world content, but they can also do a significant amount of damage in other scenarios. And then we're running the Umbrous Aspect. This will give us free dark shrouds when we crit with our Marksman skills.

Then we're also running the Mangler's Aspect. This will apply a daze to the enemies, and while the enemy is actually dazed, they can get knocked down, and then that's going to give us additional crit. That's something that actually got buffed in Season 3. And then we are also running the Repeating Aspect, so more of these Rapid Fire explosions for our shotgun.

And then as far as the other aspects, we're running the Edgemaster's Aspect in our amulet, just gives us some more damage. We also have the Inner Sight, which got buffed. And then we are running the Accelerating Aspect for some more attack speed.

Finally, as for the paragon board of this build, it's actually very similar to the Flurry Rapid Fire, except we don't scale the Stun Grenades. So, on the starter board, we are going to be getting Ranger, and then we are going to be going up to get Exploit Weakness and Control, and then we're going to be getting the Turf glyph.

And then Tricks of the Trade with Combat, that will give us extra resource. Then, we will have the Cheap Shot, which is physical damage, increases the damage an enemy takes from you. It doesn't change the element, so if you got bonus damage to non-fist, then you could still throw in imbuement if you want to.

In fact, you could throw on poison and get the additional poison imbuement. The reason is that these new Pit bosses, when you start going higher in the tier. So you need to one-shot him before the boss one-shots you.

As Diablo 4 Season 4 begins play testing on PTR on April 2, we’re discovering that the developers have made changes in the new season that affect nearly everything about the game. Not only that, Season 4 also reshapes the meaning of character creation and attempts to make them a tool to destroy bosses. This is crazy!

Here, we’ll summarize the top five changes in Season 4 that surprised me the most, which may make you feel that the familiar Diablo 4 has completely disappeared. Without further ado, let’s get started.

It’s no secret that level 50 marks the beginning of Diablo 4 endgame, as this is when your gear and builds should start to come together.

It is at this stage that you need to clear Capstone Dungeons and their bosses to advance to the next World Tier for more XP and better loot. Previously, it only took a few hours to get to this point, but next season, it will be faster.

The developer has previously introduced in a live broadcast how players in Diablo 4 will gain XP benefits through World Tier difficulties. Starting next season, World Tier 2 has a 50% bonus XP, World Tier 3 has a 150% bonus XP, and World Tier 4 has a 250% bonus XP.

You can expect to see the new endgame crafting system in Season 4 sooner as you progress to higher World Tiers faster. This is an exciting change for those who crave more powerful $1 but don't have the time to spend weeks grinding to level 100.

The powerful buffs Legendary Items or Aspects bring to a build work well. But the original Aspect system forced you to keep Legendary Items or Aspects in your stash in order to put on new gear, which was very annoying.

But in Season 4, not only can you replace gear less frequently, but Legendary Aspects will now be permanently present in your Codex of Power menu.

Most Aspects can be randomly rolled to determine the strength of the bonus number. While Legendary items have increasingly higher bonuses as they roll, you can permanently increase the number in your Codex of Powe by salvaging them at Blacksmith. You can imprint this aspect on other gear as needed without retaining anything in your stash.

This means our risk of using a perfectly rolled aspect on ordinary items will disappear, and it will be easier to try different ones.

The developers seem to have simplified this system so that you can focus on Tempering and Masterworking items later in the game.

The most exciting change is that the number of useless items dropped in Season 4 is about to drop significantly. Because the developers removed the restriction on Uniques, they now drop in World Tier 1 and 2, and monsters of level 55 or higher can even drop Uber Uniques.

For example, Necromancer can even find Black River Scythe before level 50, which causes devastating Corpse Explosions. This way, builds that rely on powerful Uniques will no longer have to wait until the endgame to reach their maximum strength.

The change to item power is also one of the surprising statistics in Diablo 4 and will also make loot more relevant. Previously, it was always bad to find gear with weak stats because of low item power. But in Season 4, item power has been standardized to where you don’t really need to think about it.

Maximum item power gear will always drop from level 95 or higher monsters. This means that by a round level 80, item power will become irrelevant when you run Nightmare Dungeons in World Tier 4. You only need to care about the actual stats of your gear and whether it’s worth upgrading them.

Also, Diablo 4 Season 4’s two new crafting systems, Tempering and Masterworking, allow you to add specific statistics to your items.

Whether you want movement speed or class-specific stats, your items will reflect which stats are important to you. On the surface, this may not seem like a big deal, but it will radically increase the number you can build.

In the new crafting system, you can choose which stats to invest in and to what extent. A Rogue with a lot of mobility cooldown reduction and grenade damage can invest heavily in Stun Grenades since they will drop whenever you evade.

Flexibility in stat selection adds variety to Diablo 4’s build options. Even if you decide to follow the build guide, it will take a while to create the theoretically best item, so you’ll have to decide which stats you personally care about during the process.

Finally, the developers revealed the new endgame dungeons coming to Season 4, which are Greater Rifts in Diablo 3. This is a limited-time dungeon that becomes increasingly more difficult as the levels go up, and has a new name: Pit of Artificers.

You can think of them like Nightmare Dungeons, but the goal is to race through them and eventually earn rare loot and materials.

The game will have more than 100 tiers, and the monsters will become increasingly difficult. Of course, as you level up, the rare loot at the end gets better and better.

Pit of Artificers will drop items to summon Tormented Bosses, which will drop materials allowing you to select an Uber Unique on your first kill. With Andariel joining the regular boss roster, you will no longer have to fight Duriel repeatedly to find the rarest items in the game.

While the new endgame activities in Season 4 won’t solve the problem of challenge in the open world fading away over time, it will add variety where it’s desperately needed. Considering we still don’t know what the season-specific features will be, this is a promising foundation for an increasingly stale part of the game.

In any case, the arrival of Diablo 4 Season 4 is bound to bring us a series of new surprises. Let us wait and see!

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Here I bring my ultimate guide to farming Uber Bosses in Diablo 4, and we’ll walk you through how to farm materials like Living Steel effectively.

First, we’ll take a deep dive into the farming techniques of two of the game’s most popular creatures, Echo of Varshan and Grigoire, The Galvanic Saint, learning about the best farming routes, gear setup, and effective tactics.

But that’s not all. We’ll also cover how to summon Uber Duriel, as well as the strategies needed to defeat this powerful enemy. Whether you want to farm Duriel for loot or challenge yourself in combat, we’ve got expert tips and tactics for you.

Next, we’ll reveal the secrets behind getting Living Steel. Living Steel is a rare and valuable material necessary for crafting advanced equipment and upgrades. Explore the most efficient farming methods and locations to collect this coveted resource and enhance your arsenal.

So if you’re ready to take your Diablo 4 farming skills to the next level, don’t miss our ultimate guide to unlocking the secrets to farming Uber Bosses!

Before we start running Duriel, we should understand the basics of Diablo 4 boss ladder.

First, you need to do Whispers to get Varshan Body Parts in order to summon Varshan. Defeating Echo of Varshan will drop Mucus-Slick Eggs, one of two items required to summon Duriel.

The other is to do Helltides to get Living Steel, which we will use to summon Grigoire. Grigoire drops Shards of Agony, another item necessary to summon Duriel.

You can find Whispers on the map by their icons. Their help text will give you an objective and how many Grim Favors they will give you.

Turn in 10 Grim Favors to get Whisper Caches at Tree of Whispers. Opening the cache will give you random Varshan Body Parts. You need to collect all 4 Varshan Body Parts to summon Varshan.

It should be noted that Malignant Hearts will only drop from chests obtained from World Tier 4. Therefore, I recommend against farming Varshan summon items in World Tier 3.

In Season 3, there are 4 ways to farm Varshan efficiently.

My favorite method is to farm Arcane Tremors when they are available, which you can do once an hour. You need to interact with 3 Obelisks, which will drop Elemental Cores. Defeat 100 Constructs in the area and use 3 Elemental Cores to spawn Herald of Malphas. Defeating 100 Constructs and Herald of Malphas can be accomplished at the same time, as it will spawn waves of enemies.

This method of farming Whisper Caches only takes about 3 minutes and yields a total of 11 Grim Favors. As an added bonus, you also get Igneous Cores needed to generate Uber Malpha.

The next farming method is to take advantage of the red PVP areas. There are two separate areas on the map, each with a Whisper to defeat Seething Abomination.

First, you need to go to PVP area and find Abomination walking in a circle around the center of the area. This boss can be powerful, but if you’re willing to spend $1 on decent gear, he’ll probably only take about 30 seconds to defeat. Defeating two Seething Abominations will also net you 10 Grim Favors in about 3 minutes.

Our next farming method is completing Whisper dungeons, which will provide 5 Grim Favors for each completed dungeon.

This can be a little tricky because the completion time of the dungeon depends entirely on the objectives. Typically, dungeons with the objective of killing all enemies may take the longest to complete. For this reason, it is recommended to use a Speed Farming Build for your class and stack as much movement speed as possible.

Other ways to grow Varshan Body Parts are to look for Grotesque Debtors. These special enemies will have a chance to spawn when you or anyone near you complete Whisper objectives. You just need to keep an eye out for this symbol on the minimap. It means Grotesque Debtors are spawning at that location.

Helltides is a special event in Diablo 4 where two areas spawn higher level enemies. Enemies in Helltides drop a special currency called Aberrant Cinders during the event. Aberrant Cinders will be used to open new treasure chests that spawn around the area.

Note that dying in Helltides will cause you to lose half of Aberrant Cinders you collected.

Once you have collected 275 Aberrant Cinders, you can find a Living Steel Chest. Each Living Steel Chest provides 5 Living Steel, while other chests only drop 1 Living Steel. Each area has 1 Living Steel Chest, which means you can get a total of 10 Living Steel per run.

Overall, the best farming strategy is to prioritize collecting two Living Steel Chests from Helltides every hour. Whisper can also be farmed while you’re waiting for the next Helltides to spawn.

After completing Helltides, follow the priority list of Arcane Tremors and Seething Abomination first, then use the remaining time to run Whisper dungeons until the next Helltide appears.

Next up is running Uber Bosses. I recommend being properly equipped and fully upgraded before attempting these.

Grigoire is located in Hall of the Penitent in Dry Steppes Region. You need 5 Living Steel to summon Grigoire. They usually drop 1-2 Shards of Agony per run.

Varshan is located next to Tree of Whispers in Malignant Burrow. Because summoning Varshan requires collecting all 4 Body Parts, if your Body Parts are unbalanced, you can exchange them by trading Varshan Body Parts for Malignant Cache at Alchemist.

Defeating Varshan again has a chance to drop 1-2 Mucus-Slick Eggs. After completing each run of Grigoire or Varshan, you can use Reset Dungeon button on the right side of the map.

To find out how many times you can summon Uber Duriel, check your Mucus-Slick Eggs and Shards of Agony and divide the lowest number of summoned items by 2.

To get the most out of beating Duriel, I recommend that you create or find an entire team of players, which means you have more chances of running Uber Duriel.

Uber Duriel always drops 925 gear, which is a great place to find the best gear. But the main reason to grow Duriel is Uber Uniques, but there are some regular Uniques as well. Tibault’s Will, X’Fal’s Corroded Signet, Godslayer Crown, and Flickerstep are popular choices for different builds.

That’s all for my Uber Bosses farming guide, follow this guide and you will become a master farmer and conquer all challenges in Diablo 4!