Diablo 4 Red Dust

Diablo 4 PTR 2.5.0 will bring a host of dramatic yet exciting changes, revising many fundamental aspects of the game, including armor and potions. As the pinnacle of the game, Mythic items are also receiving some buffs.

Knowing that not all Mythic items are useful, will the adjustments in Season 11 make some previously useless Mythic items useful again? Let's take a look at the core changes they've received in PTR.

Melted Heart Of Selig

• Change: Added an effect that increases your primary resource by 3% per point in your primary stat.

This is the most impactful item change of the season, as it grants all classes a mana shield-like effect, allowing you to treat your resources like a second health bar.

Since late-game characters typically have around 2000 primary stats, this represents a 6000% increase in the resource cap. Combined with the base resource attributes, your resource pool can easily reach tens of thousands of points. However, items will first use resources to absorb damage. You need to maximize resource generation and utilize out-of-combat resource recovery mechanics or immunities to keep the resources at a healthy level, or you will be very vulnerable.

Many of the percentage-based recovery and resource consumption effects listed in the patch notes have been capped to prevent them from being overpowered or completely incompatible with Melted Heart of Selig.

Ahavarion Spear Of Lycander

• Changes: Unchanged.

While it hasn't received any changes, it is a beneficiary of the Season 11 defense system changes. With the new defense system's uncapped resistances, the all-resistance and movement speed bonuses provided by Ahavarion Spear of Lycander have become more valuable.

Furthermore, its Lucky Shot recovery of 66% of primary resources modifier has not been nerfed. If your build relies on Lucky Shots, Melted Heart of Selig and Ahavarion Spear of Lycander will provide a next-level survivability boost. This item has great potential for speedrunning low-level The Pit or Torment IV, but may not be useful for high-level The Pit.

Shattered Vow

• Changes: Increased the duration of damage over time from 44% to 111%.

Shattered Vow acts as a direct damage multiplier, especially for spells that consume DoTs, with virtually no downside.

This significantly improves Spiritborn builds (such as Pestilent Swarm and Touch of Death). Barbarian builds with Rend or Bleeding may also consider using this item, as Barbarians have more weapon slots.

Tyrael's Might

• Changes: Updated the All Resistance attribute to +80 All Resistance, and changed the resistance percentage to Maximum Resistance.

Tyrael's Might is expected to become a top-tier defensive item. Combined with the new system, it significantly increases resilience to elemental damage. Furthermore, officials indicate that there will be stronger monsters, longer encounters, and a slower game process - all those will make this type of pure defensive item more valuable.

Andariel's Visage

• Changes: Removed the inherent poison resistance reduction and increased the maximum poison resistance to +666 poison resistance.

Andariel's Visage's exceptionally high poison resistance makes it nearly immune to poison damage, and its health-on-hit modifier has skyrocketed in value in Season 11, with the overall healing nerf. It provides powerful instant regeneration for multi-attack builds.

Furthermore, with the nerf to Masterworking, the attack speed and strong regeneration provided by Andariel's Visage are less than before, which will narrow the gap between it and Harlequin Crest.

Ring of Starless Skies

• Changes: Unchanged.

Due to its excellent and versatile stats (core skill damage, attack speed, critical strike chance, and resource cost reduction), it remains a top-tier pick. While Masterworking nerfs have reduced its absolute stat boost, its position remains strong.

Doombringer

• Changes: Unchanged.

The bonus health and damage reduction provided by Doombringer, along with its special Lucky Hit heal, are invaluable in the current heal-scarce meta. Doombringer is a solid choice for solving defensive problems, especially in hardcore modes or scenarios where survivability is crucial.

Heir Of Perdition

• Changes: Unchanged.

Heir of Perdition remains a top-tier helm. However, like Ring of Starless Skies, it has been impacted by Masterworking nerf, causing it to lose ground to other Diablo 4 mythic items.

Harlequin Crest

• Changes: Unchanged.

The damage reduction, + All Skill Levels, and armor provided by Harlequin Crest are all valid in Season 11. However, with the nerf to Masterworking, its cooldown reduction stat won't reach its previous maximum. For builds heavily reliant on cooldown reduction, it may revert from a game-changer to a very powerful item.

Shroud Of False Death

• Changes: Unchanged.

The +1 to all passive skills provided by Shroud of False Death is extremely powerful, typically providing a 50-70% damage increase and a host of utility and defensive stats.

While its resource generation and all-stat affixes synergize well with Melted Heart of Selig, some builds may opt for Tyrael's Might for ultimate defense in extremely challenging situations.

The Grandfather

• Changes: Unchanged.

The Grandfather grants a 100% increase in critical hit damage, but this effect requires 100% critical hit chance to fully function, which is more challenging given the increased difficulty of stacking critical hit chance in the new patch.

When a player's gear has reached its peak through Divine system and can no longer be improved through unique items, The Grandfather, a Diablo 4 item with excellent stats and no conflicts, may be the ultimate upgrade.

Nesecem, The Herald

• Changes: Unchanged.

While Nesecem, The Herald appears powerful, its performance is anything but. Its effect only marks one enemy, making it practically useless in combat. Furthermore, it's a two-handed weapon, requiring two slots, sacrificing significant damage to use it, making it practically unsuitable for Spiritborn builds. However, it's not entirely without value. If you're planning to buy Diablo 4 gold, selling it could net you hundreds of millions of gold, though it won't be as valuable as the other items.

Diablo 4 PTR 2.5.0 changes have successfully increased the value and usability of most Mythic items. While Nesecem, The Herald remains a minor drawback, overall, players will have more meaningful choices when building their gear, and you can test it out on PTR.

While the upcoming 2.5.0 PTR release suggests the challenges of Season 11 are imminent, Season 10 isn't over yet, and you'll need to continue working hard based on your Season 10 character's traits.

As you know, Druid class has become one of the most popular classes in Season 10 thanks to numerous buffs. If you're a Druid fan, there are plenty of builds to try, each with its own distinct focus.

So, if you're looking to focus on damage output, we recommend Pulverize Puddle Druid build. It currently offers the highest DPS in the game, helping you quickly clear enemies and earn a ton of Diablo 4 gold.

Next, we'll explain the specifics of this build and how to craft it.

Pulverize Puddle Druid Build Overview

This build primarily relies on Rotting Lightbringer Ancestral Unique, making it available during Season 8 and receiving several buffs in Season 10. This makes it easy to farm and level in Season 10.

This build uses numerous powerful puddles of water for splash and attack, helping you quickly clear multiple levels of The Pit or other challenging dungeons, even in the endgame. The occasional bug where venom didn't splash has also been fixed in Season 10.

Notably, Rotting Lightbringer ensures that every attack has an overpower effect, and adding the unique Chaos Perk Brawn Over Brains to this build grants a 125x overpower boost. Of course, there are many other perks worth acquiring, which we'll discuss in detail later.

The Most Important Gear

A key piece of gear for Pulverize Puddle Druid build, Rotting Lightbringer can be obtained as a drop from defeating bosses Vashan and Urivar. Its primary function is to force Pulverize to form a puddle if there aren't any nearby.

This gear also ensures you have an Overpower effect and a poison effect that deals 200-600% of its normal damage over 7 seconds.

In addition, Pulverize itself causes all nearby puddles to splash damage equal to 20-60% of their total damage in a larger radius. The larger Pulverize radius, the greater the damage of the puddles and their splash damage.

Interestingly, with the addition of Chaos Armor in Season 10, you can now also place this gear in your boots. This allows you to double the damage output of your entire build while retaining Pulverize effect.

Adding Banished Lord's Talisman amulet also grants a 72% increased damage multiplier and higher-level core abilities. After ensuring you have all the above gear and can properly combine and utilize them, it's recommended that you also equip the following items:

• Heir of Perdition
• Shroud of False Death
• Shockwave Aspect
• Tibault's Will
• Aspect of the Ursine Horror
• Aspect of the Rabid Bear
• Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast
• Ring of Starless Skies

It's worth mentioning that while Aspect of the Rabid Bear has been slightly nerfed, placing it in a two-handed weapon slot can balance this out, allowing the gear to still be effective in combat.

Available Skills

As the build name and overview suggest, the first skill worth mentioning is Pulverize. Originally, this skill allowed you to transform as a Druid into a Werebear, slamming the ground to deal damage to nearby enemies.

Now, combined with the venomous splash effect created by the puddle, Pulverize's overall damage output has been significantly increased. This is one of the main reasons why Pulverize Puddle Druid build is considered having high DPS.

Another indispensable skill is Grizzly Rage. Its basic effect is somewhat like a more powerful version of Pulverize, allowing you to transform into a Dire Werebear for ten seconds, gaining damage reduction and dealing increased damage.

More importantly, Grizzly Rage's damage increases with increased duration/boss suppression time, as well as the number of enemies killed. This means that the deeper the fight progresses, the stronger you become. Of course, you still need to ensure your health is safe.

Detailed Explanation Of Suitable Chaos Perks

First, the already mentioned unique Chaos Perk Brawn Over Brains not only provides increased Overpower effects, but also increases your maximum health and allows you to receive more healing during combat.

While this perk also brings a debuff - your maximum resistance and armor damage reduction cap are both reduced - it generally works well with our recommended gear and skills, making the entire build stand out in Season 10 compared to other seasons.

Besides this perk, which is best left unchanged, you can adjust the other three equippable perks before battle based on the enemy types you'll encounter. However, in most cases, we recommend the following three:

• Purge the Infected
• Overabundance
• Crazy Brew

To obtain these perks, you must continuously farm Helltides and Nightmare Dungeons during Season 10 to find and complete more Chaos Rifts, which will earn you Chaos Powers and Infernal Warp drops - the latter helping you level up the former.

Notes On Choosing This Build

While we say Pulverize Puddle Druid build is suitable for leveling, it's not the best choice. However, you can switch to it immediately after completing your leveling.

As you can see from our introduction, compared to other high-level Season 10 builds, Pulverize Puddle boasts high DPS while maintaining a simple skill and gear combination, making it easy to master.

In fact, the only tricky aspect of this build is that you must obtain Rotting Lightbringer to function effectively. But honestly, almost all Diablo 4 builds require at least one unique item as a core, so this is completely acceptable.

Also Read: Diablo 4 Season 10: 3 Best Ways To Efficiently Farm Forgotten Souls

That's all for this introduction. If you think this build is right for you and you already have Rotting Lightbringer, now's the perfect time to utilize it to complete your final farming for Season 10!

While it's possible to obtain Rotting Lightbringer by farming bosses, it's much quicker to get cheap Diablo 4 Rotting Lightbringer from IGGM! And if you're looking to buy other related gear all at once, IGGM Diablo 4 items for sale page also caters to that!