Diablo 4 Story Campaign

Since the introduction of Rune system in Diablo 4, runes have been a coveted resource for almost every player. This is not only because they can activate powerful Runewords, providing synergistic buffs for character builds, but more importantly, they are essential consumables for crafting specific Mythic Uniques.

With the developers significantly increasing monster strength and readjusting defensive mechanisms in Diablo 4 Season 11, the days of clearing Pits 100+ without requiring Mythic items may be over. Therefore, runes have become crucial for improving survivability in the endgame, often surpassing the power of support gems, especially in armor sockets.

So, here we introduce a new Legendary Rune farming method introduced in Season 11, which is likely the fastest way to obtain runes in Diablo 4 currently. We will explain step-by-step how to set it up and how to farm efficiently. Let's begin.

Step-by-Step Guide

Upgrading Essence Of Pain

First, you need to upgrade your Essence of Pain Divine Gift to level five. This allows players to have a chance to obtain dropped Socketables such as Royal Gems, Gem Fragments, and Legendary Runes when defeating Pangs of Duriel. However, this is not the only reason we choose this Divine Gift; we will explain later.

To upgrade this Divine Gift, you need to kill monsters in Helltide. When monsters in Helltide die, there is a chance they will provide experience points for this Divine Gift.

However, a more efficient way to upgrade it is to kill as many Duriel bosses as possible in Helltide, as he is guaranteed to provide experience points for this Divine Gift.

Collecting Corrupted Horn Of Duriel

While upgrading your Divine Gift, it is recommended that you collect as many Corrupted Horns of Duriel from the Duriel boss as possible, as you will need them later.

However, please note that each person can only carry a maximum of 20 Corrupted Horns of Duriel. So, if you find that Duriel is no longer dropping this item, it may be because your inventory is full. It's time to clear your inventory.

Once you have upgraded your Divine Gift to the maximum level five, you should place it in the Purified Gift slots. 

Defeat Azmodan & Open Duriel's Chest

Next, head south of Zarbinzet to summon the open-world version of Azmodan. There are usually many players farming there, so defeating him shouldn't be too difficult.

After defeating the boss, three chests will drop for you to choose from. Open Duriel's Hoard chest, which requires five Corrupted Horns of Duriel. However, since the newly upgraded Essence of Pain Divine Gift also works on this chest, it guarantees you at least one Legendary Rune. This is your main source of runes.

Farming Loop

Next, we'll discuss how to continuously open this chest.

These chests also contain boss materials, more specifically, a large amount of Living Steel. Some players have even obtained over 40 Living Steels from a single Duriel chest, which is a considerable amount of wealth. Therefore, in addition to aiming for Diablo 4 Legendary Runes from this chest, Living Steels are also important items worth collecting.

Why? Because we need to use these Living Steels to obtain more Corrupted Horns of Duriel.

After opening all the Duriel chests, you should have a large amount of Living Steel in your inventory. Next, we will use all of this Living Steel to open Grigoire's Hoard chest.

Travel to Grigoire's lair, defeat him, and open his chests as many times as possible, using up all your Living Steel. During this process, you will obtain a large amount of Shards of Agony and some Stygian Stones. You should convert these Stygian Stones into Shards of Agony, and then head to Duriel's lair. Note that this is not the Duriel in Helltide, but the Lair version of the Duriel boss. After defeating him, you can use your Shards of Agony to open the Hoard chests as many times as possible.

We do this because the Duriel Lair boss also drops Corrupted Horns of Duriel. This allows you to collect enough materials without too much effort and provides the motivation to continue farming.

In short, once you have replenished your stock of Corrupted Horns of Duriel, immediately summon Azmodan boss, defeat him, and open as many Duriel chests as possible. Each time you open a chest, you are guaranteed to get a Legendary Rune. This creates a complete farming cycle:

1. Use your Corrupted Horn of Duriel to open the Duriel chest at the Azmodan boss location to obtain a large amount of Living Steels and Legendary Runes.
2. Use these Living Steels to summon and defeat Grigoire, which will grant you a large number of Shards of Agony. You can then use these to summon a higher difficulty version of Duriel to obtain some dropped Corrupted Horns of Duriel.
3. Then, return to the open-world version of Azmodan and use the Corrupted Horn of Duriel to open the chest for guaranteed runes.
4. If you don't get enough Living Steels from the chest, you can supplement them from Helltide chests.

Duriel Chest vs. Kurast Undercity Farming

Finally, some players might question whether this farming method is as good as farming the Tribute of Harmony in the Kurast Undercity. Diablo 4 Season 11 significantly enhanced the Kurast Undercity, especially Tribute of Harmony and Tribute of Mystique, greatly increasing the drop rate of Legendary Runes and other valuable loot. So why would we choose the more cumbersome Duriel boss chest farming method to obtain runes?

The reality is that Tribute of Harmony is difficult to find and limited in quantity, while this farming cycle is sustainable and unlimited. Therefore, it definitely has many advantages.

In short, this is a currently viable and relatively easy rune farming method that allows you to obtain endless Legendary Runes in the early stages of D4S11. If you are lacking specific runes, why not give it a try!

The new Paladin class in Diablo 4 Season 11 offers a completely different experience compared to other classes, mainly due to its wider range of skill upgrades, thus providing more possibilities.

This has resulted in numerous Paladin builds, many of which have performed exceptionally well in Season 11, with most Paladin builds ranking in Tier S.

Tier S

Judgement Paladin

Judgement Paladin is currently the best Paladin endgame build. It excels in leveling, farming, boss fights, and The Pit.

The player community has also discovered new playstyle variations of this build, focusing on keeping the conviction effect of Judgement on enemies until it expires, then triggering an explosion for massive damage. This aims to maximize single-hit damage.

For fast farming Diablo 4 gold or leveling, Arbiter of Justice skill can be used to efficiently apply Judgement to a large number of enemies. Judgement effects will then passively clear the entire screen of enemies, making it highly efficient.

Wing Strikes Paladin

Wing Strikes Paladin is a speed-farming build in endgame characterized by fast movement and relaxation. It relies entirely on Arbiter of Justice and uses Falling Star for movement.

Wing Strikes skills automatically trigger when you move and blink, often killing enemies as you rush towards them, somewhat similar to Evade Spiritborn build.

Fist Of The Heavens Paladin

This is a relatively new build, and not many players may have tried it yet. It requires Argent Veil unique ring, which allows you to randomly trigger core skills while dodging.

You also need to convert Spear of the Heavens into a core skill through Fist of the Heavens skill, thus synergizing with Argent Veil. Combined with Arbiter Disciple, it achieves a near-permanent Arbiter state. As long as you use Evade while in Arbiter state, Fist of the Heavens will be automatically released to clear all monsters.

Blessed Hammer Paladin

Blessed Hammer Paladin possesses immense AoE clearing capabilities. It also combines Argent Veil and Evade, casting Blast Hammer through Evade.

Its core feature is that the released hammer rotates around the character for a long time, dealing damage to any enemies it touches. Furthermore, when you use Falling Star to jump into a new monster group, you don't need to immediately recast the hammer, as the previous hammer is still rotating and dealing damage. While its farming speed may not be as fast as Fist of the Heavens Paladin, it is much safer.

Shield Of Retribution Paladin

Shield of Retribution Paladin is a build based on Thorns damage reflection mechanism. Your Shield of Retribution moves slowly, transferring thorn damage to enemies within range. It's relatively slow and not the easiest to control, but it's safe and reliable in the endgame.

Brandish Paladin

Brandish Paladin is a Supplication-dependent build. It allows Brandish to fire in all directions, greatly increasing its range. Returning Light allows Brandish attacks to return to the character after being fired, making this combination sufficient to harvest most monsters.

Shield Bash Paladin

Shield Bash Paladin has two variations. You can use the common Argent Veil and Evade combo to manually cast Shield Bash for automatic farming.

If you want to challenge The Pit, you need to replace the shield with Gate of the Red Daw. Its effect is that when your Juggernaut core skill hits an enemy for the first time, it stores the damage in Fortress, up to 10 stacks.

When you cast Fortress again, all stored damage is unleashed at once within the fortress's area of effect, dealing devastating damage.

Advance Paladin

Advance Paladin is a build that relies on the basic skill, Advance. It transforms the basic skill Advance into the Juggernaut skill using Wave Dash, and then builds a damage rotation around the generation and consumption of Resolve.

Auradin Paladin

Auradin Paladin is an AFK build that many players enjoy using. You simply stand still, and Holy Light Aura automatically eliminates all enemies.

This requires the unique Dawnfire gloves, which allow Holy Light Aura to passively burn enemies, and the damage increases with each enemy that dies. It can even be used to AFK complete Infernal Hordes; you only need to occasionally come back and click it.

Tier A

Divine Lance Paladin

Divine Lance Paladin has a strong ability to clear monsters. You need to transform the original Discrete skill, Divine Lance, into a Zealot skill through the skill tree.

After the transformation, it can generate Fervor stacks. Utilize Aspect of Jacques' Fervor and Aspect of the Zealot's Covenant to increase its damage. If you want to experience Zealot playstyle, it's a good choice.

Zeal Paladin

Zeal Paladin is a pure Zealot skill build. It has a fast attack speed and a direct feel. Its core skill is Zealot's Zeal Frenzy. It synergizes with all Zealot Aspects that increase Fervor stacks, attack speed, critical hit chance, and critical hit damage.

Shield Charge Paladin

Unlike the evade concept of Shield Bash, Shield Charge Paladin build requires you to hold down the skill button to continuously charge.

Shield Charge can be upgraded through Relentless Charge, turning it into a Core skill. It has an initial Faith cost and continuously consumes Faith while the button is held down.

The gameplay involves simply holding down Shield Charge, smashing your way through hordes of monsters, and destroying everything in your path. While the damage isn't top-tier, the gameplay is incredibly fun.

Blessed Shield Paladin

Blessed Shield Paladin is the weakest of all Paladin builds, but still ranks in Tier A. It also uses Arbiter, Argent Veil, and Evade combination to automatically trigger Blessed Shield.

However, there's a difference compared to Blessed Hammer Paladin build. Blessed Hammer can be upgraded to a Disciple skill, perfectly enjoying the massive bonuses of Arbiter and Disciple combination. Blessed Shield lacks this conversion option, preventing it from gaining the same benefits from Arbiter system, thus lagging behind in strength.

These are the rankings of the mainstream Paladin builds for Season 11. Almost all Paladin builds are strong this season, even the Tier A builds are worth trying.