Diablo 4: Best Way To Level Up Alts During Server Slam!
Posted: May 11, 2023 Views: 2862
As we all know, Diablo 4 Server Slam is about to begin. And this time around we have the regular legend drop rate, no longer the booster drop rate we saw in the open beta.
An important detail of leveling up new characters in Diablo 4 is unlocking Occultist NPC. If you plan on leveling up your Alts, this guide might save you from a lot of unnecessary item swaps and waste Diablo 4 Gold.
No one knows exactly what this means right now, but it’s safe to say that Occultist will become more important than ever. Players will not be able to kill Occultist with one shot, and once killed successfully, it can be used to extract Infrared Legendary Items. Players can even craft three Legendary Aspects there by completing Codex of Power, which is unlocked in certain dungeons.

The problem though is that Occultist doesn’t actually unlock until level 25. But the highest level in Server Slam is only level 20. So unless you get a Codex of Power, that actually unlocks Cultist Refuge even at lower levels.
Almost everyone has at some point completed at least some dungeon quests and encountered Occultist here. But if you try to make multiple characters and you want to level them up, you need to try again with different patches for different classes and things like that. You’ll realize that if you complete all the dungeon quests on your first character, you won’t be able to access Cultist Refuge on your Alt.
Related: 5 Tips For Beating Ashava During Diablo 4 Server Slam!
I can recommend the world map tool here, where you can filter the various things you can find in World of Sanctuary, at least for Fractured Peaks so far.
You can click on dungeons and Legendary Aspects, and then you can easily see which aspect comes from which dungeon before the service time actually goes live. You can also see it in-game on your Cultist. If you’re not going to play a certain class, you can leave those dungeon quests out while you’re doing your Renown, and just do some other dungeon quests.

This might actually give your dominant class some extra boost. You’ll need to complete at least you know a new dungeon quest that unlocks Occultist so you can visit that NPC.
Now this is not actually necessary. I think in most cases you can also keep all your items in your stash. Then go to your Carlos character and you’ll know what the extract is. I think it’s definitely worth your knowing, to save yourself a headache. Just remember how many dungeons you have.
During the past Beta weekend, many players were expecting their old characters to be kept. Because you know how annoying it is to run out there with another character and do the same thing over and over again. But I can no longer unlock Occultist early until we complete all dungeons.

We need to complete the famous level 3 dungeon quest to get a second skill point that you might want to unlock. But you don’t need to clear all the dungeons, you can also do some side quests, you can explore Alts and some new dungeons. You can, like most people, have somewhere ready to face challenges at any time.
The above is the complete process of my Diablo 4 Server Slam leveling Alts. Hope this helps and saves you from giving yourself too much headache when leveling Alts. I wish you a pleasant gaming experience.
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Diablo 4 Season 11 Class Tier List & Best Builds: Top Classes For The Tower Endgame Ranked
Diablo fans, with the 2.5.0 PTR concluded, the release of Season 11 is drawing ever closer, and it's time to prepare.
Through the 2.5.0 PTR, we learned about some potential changes in Diablo 4. While the core gameplay remains the same, many important gear mechanics have been completely overhauled, such as Tempering and Masterworking, the new Tower event, a brand-new season system, and a series of class balance adjustments.
Here, we review and summarize the changes that occurred during the PTR, especially the performance of each class in Season 11, and rank the relative strength of the current strongest builds.
However, we must make a disclaimer: the above content is based on PTR, meaning that many things are likely to change or be adjusted before the official release. Nevertheless, this will still give you a general understanding of the powerful builds the developers plan to create and the high-level gameplay that will emerge in the new season.
Furthermore, since The Tower replaced The Pits as a new endgame event in Season 11, the new standard for measuring strength in this class tier list will no longer be The Pits, but The Tower.
The Tower operates very similarly to The Pit, even sharing the same difficulty level, and it comes with its own complete leaderboard system. This means we can at least see the specific strength of different classes through data.

6. Rogue
First, let's start with the lowest completion record on the Tower leaderboard, which belongs to Rogue.
Rogue is currently in a very awkward position. Frankly, I think Rogue is the class most likely to receive significant changes after the release of Season 11, because in the early PTR, Dance of Knives build was too powerful, almost breaking the game balance and completely crushing the top events of The Pits and The Tower.
And this powerful force stemmed from the new legendary item centered around Dance of Knives, Death's Pavane. However, the official patch fixed this issue, which is why Dance of Knives build performed poorly in most subsequent dungeon events.
In the PTR, the strongest Rogue build is Death Trap Rogue, with the highest clear count on The Tower Leaderboard being 94 floors. The Trap Rogue build has held the top spot for several seasons, so seeing it replace Dance of Knives' dominance is truly regrettable.
That said, I've seen some top players experiment with various skill combinations, such as Heartseeker and even Twisting Blades. Therefore, Rogue still has a chance to avoid being forever stuck in Death Trap.
5. Sorcerer
Next, let's talk about Sorcerer class, currently the most efficient tower clearer, with a clear level of 103. However, Sorcerer is also in a somewhat awkward position now. Teleport Enchantment mechanism has been completely nerfed, so you can no longer have the super-fast teleportation ability as before.
In addition, Sorcerer's actual damage output was significantly inflated by Chaos Perks last season. Now that Chaos Powers have been removed, Sorcerer's strength has dropped considerably.
However, on the other hand, we've gained a brand new and unique piece of equipment for Sorcerer: Orsivane. This equipment is incredibly powerful, granting any defensive skill not on the skill bar a corresponding enchantment effect.
Furthermore, these off-skill defensive skills also receive a damage bonus, allowing Sorcerers to reduce reliance on actual defensive skills on the skill bar and enabling some very interesting playstyles through enchantments.
But these benefits cannot compensate for the loss of Chaos Perks, nor can they undo the overpowered Teleport Enchantment. Therefore, compared to before, Sorcerer is currently in a more difficult position.
Currently, the best-performing Sorcerer build on Tower Leaderboard is Crackling Energy & Lightning Spear. This is a classic Sorcerer build, featuring numerous lightning bolts streaking across the screen, piercing enemies, and significantly boosting Crackling Energy damage with Esadora's Overflowing Cameo enchantment. Combined with Galvanic Azurite Unique Ring, it generates even more energy, further enhancing its damage.
In addition, Frozen Orb build also looks competitive, and with the rework of Sorcerer's exclusive Diablo 4 items, the potential damage of Frozen Orb can be greatly increased.
4. Necromancer
Next in fourth place is Necromancer, whose highest clear time is also a level 103 tower, but about 7 seconds faster than Sorcerer's record. Therefore, currently, these two classes are very close in strength.
Last season, Necromancer's Blood Wave build performed exceptionally well, mainly due to its exclusive Chaos Perks, which allowed its ultimate ability to be converted into a core ability. However, with the removal of these Chaos Perks, the relative strength of Blood Wave build has decreased.
Currently, Necromancer build, centered around Shadowblight passive ability, dominates the leaderboard and has maintained considerable strength for several seasons.
However, a new build is emerging: Golem Necromancer. This build utilizes Necromancer's new and unique item - Gravebloom - which replaces your single Golem with three smaller Golems. These smaller Golems deal up to 60% more damage and have a 30% bonus attack speed. Furthermore, it speeds up Golem respawns.
But frankly, the most crucial element is that one of the affixes grants Golems a chance to attack twice, which is vital for boosting the build's damage output; combined with two Golem Mastery points, this build has received a significant boost in Diablo 4 Season 11.
3. Druid
Next up is third place today, Druid build that cleared 105 floors of the tower.
For Druid builds, Cataclysm has been consistently strong over the past few seasons, sometimes even ranking among the best builds in its class. Its core gameplay revolves around the concept of Snapshotting.
Snapshotting involves pre-preparing and activating a series of buffs that increase the damage of your next skill, then waiting a specific time to apply these buffs to a long-duration skill, repeating this process over and over. Therefore, you can permanently activate all buffs to enhance a single skill.
The main reason Cataclysm builds consistently rank among the top Druid builds is the rework of Melted Heart of Selig. It now provides a 3% bonus to maximum resources based on your primary attribute. This synergizes with Druid's Ancestral Guidance Paragon Node, allowing you to increase damage after expending resources. More importantly, when casting an ultimate skill, each Spirit you possess increases ultimate skill damage by 1%.
With the new Melted Heart of Selig and its mechanics, you can easily acquire approximately 10,000 resources. Combining these two points, it's easy to understand why this build is so powerful.
2. Spiritborn
Next is Spiritborn, whose highest clear record on the leaderboard is 109 floors, achieved using Evade Eagle Spiritborn build.
This Evade Eagle build has consistently been among the top builds in Spiritborn class since its inception. However, it excels more at fast farming than high-intensity endgame activities, as it progresses extremely quickly throughout the overall game content.
Regardless, its damage output is the highest of all builds in the class. This is partly because it's the only top-tier Spiritborn build that can effectively utilize Aspect of Unyielding Hits. This aspect provides a weapon damage bonus based on your total armor value. Furthermore, due to the redesigned armor system, this build easily achieves extremely high armor values in the late game.
1. Barbarian
Finally, currently ranked number one is Barbarian. But before delving deeper into this section, we must state that the current Barbarian build will not be released in PTR for the live version.
Barbarian is the only class to have cleared more than 109 floors on the Tower Leaderboard, with a current highest clear count of 124 floors. The main reason for this is similar to the Druid situation we discussed earlier.
Barbarian benefits immensely from the reworked Melted Heart of Selig. Furthermore, the class's biggest advantage is that each point in primary attribute translates into an additional 3% of maximum resource value. Since Barbarian has four weapon slots, two of which are two-handed weapons, it can achieve the highest primary attribute damage of any class.
In addition, it has two sources of damage bonuses that are not capped. The first bonus applies to most Barbarian builds: Ramaladni's Magnum Opus, a unique one-handed sword that grants a damage bonus based on current resource value when using abilities. From a few hundred resources to tens of thousands from Melted Heart of Selig, this significantly increases the damage bonus.
The other key bonus is Hammer of the Ancients ability itself, which is why HOTA Barbarian build far surpasses other builds on PTR. This skill provides additional critical strike damage and critical strike chance for every 10 resources you have at the time of casting, currently with no cap. This means thousands of resources can flood into this enhancement, and it can be amplified to an astonishing degree.
It is this combination that allows the Hammer of the Ancients build to easily reach T124. While this build won't be as dominant as before after the official release of Season 11, it will probably remain a mainstream build.
In any case, the above is a summary of the performance of each class in PTR, ranked according to their leaderboard results in Tower endgame event. But will their performance in Diablo 4 Season 11 be the same? Only time will tell!
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Diablo 4 Season 10 Rake Spiritborn Build Guide | Speed Through The Pit And Other Events
Even as the youngest class in Diablo 4, Spiritborn has been around for over a year, resulting in numerous powerful builds created by players, who update these builds according to the season.
Different Spiritborn builds have different strengths; some focus on single-target damage, while others help you level up faster. However, for quickly clearing multi-layered endgame events like The Pit, Rake Spiritborn build is the most reliable.
Based on this, we'll show you how to craft this build in the still-running Diablo 4 Season 10 and utilize it to progress quickly within The Pit, farming more rewards.

Rake Spiritborn Build Overview
This build relies on a variety of unique items and Spiritborn-specific mechanic, Spirit Hall, to function. It excels at dealing AoE damage, making it better suited for dealing with groups of enemies rather than single bosses.
However, because it requires multiple damage-dealing gear, this build cannot be paired with enough armor, resulting in a lack of defensive capabilities.
Another tricky aspect of Rake Spiritborn Build is the need for precise timing of triggering various effects to maximize the value of skills and gear, making it somewhat difficult to use.
However, once you overcome these challenges, you can deal primary damage by triggering Jaguar's Spirit Hall multiple times per second, then utilize the stacking buffs from various gear to further increase damage output.
Building upon this, choosing Eagle as the secondary Spirit Hall increases clearing speed. Through continuous dodging and instant repositioning, you can quickly unleash burst damage, even in Torment 4 difficulty, rapidly clearing large groups of monsters.
As an additional reminder, the skill choices for this build in Season 10 can largely follow the strategies used in previous seasons, primarily including the following skills:
- Rake
- Ravager
- Armored Hide
- Vortex
- Toxic Skin
- The Hunter
Which Gear Is Needed?
As we've already mentioned, this build is gear-intensive, so you'd better follow our recommendations for farming and equipping Diablo 4 items, and don't easily change your item lineup.
Let's start from top to bottom, beginning with the helmet. Fortunately, Season 10 introduced Chaos Armor, so just choose the best Spiritborn-available Chaos Armor you can get - don't forget to add affixes that provide damage and agility boosts.
As for the chest armor, Razorplate is actually an essential item for the entire build to function. It can be obtained by farming the boss Lord Zir, and equipping it increases your Thorns damage.
For the gloves slot, we recommend Aspect of the Moonrise, which allows you to increase your attack speed by dealing damage to enemies. Combined with the massive damage from your abilities, you'll become a high-speed monster-killing machine on the field.
Here's a list of more gear pieces and the corresponding affixes or Masterworking effects:
- Pants - Harmony of Ebewaka (Chaos Armor version): Provides all attributes, movement speed, and damage reduction with advanced affixes.
- Boots - Hesha E Kesungi: The affix needs to increase the gorilla's skill level and attack speed, and reduce ultimate skill cooldown.
- Weapon - Aspect of Wild Claws: Ensures free damage and extra hit chance trigger.
- Amulet - Aspect of Adaptability: The affix needs to increase resource bonuses.
- Ring 1 - Aspect of Redirected Force: The affix needs to increase dexterity, maximum health, and overpower damage.
- Ring 2 - Aspect of Unyielding Hits: The affix needs to increase dexterity, elemental resistance, and damage, and reduce resource consumption and skill cooldown.
Besides the gear pieces mentioned above, another essential item is Rod of Kepeleke.
As a Spiritborn-exclusive quarterstaff, this gear's Chaos Armor version receives a 0.90% critical strike damage boost, allowing it to unleash even greater power when paired with other gear.
Best Chaos Perks
As another core seasonal mechanic of Season 10, every build available in that season should have a best Chaos Perks combination (maximum 4 can be combined.).
Combined Strikes
For Rake Spiritborn build, the core perk should be Combined Strikes. It allows core abilities to not only attack multiple times but also deal a 40% damage boost.
While this perk also increases the core ability cooldown by 10 seconds, the core ability cooldown is reset when the basic ability attacks for the third time based on Rod of Kepeleke.
This allows you to continuously unleash wide-area core abilities, combining damage and attack speed boosts to quickly clear enemy groups.
Brawn Over Brains
This perk instantly grants you 200% increased maximum health, 100% increased healing received, and 125% overpower damage. The downside is a 25% reduction in maximum resistances, with armor providing a maximum damage reduction of 60%.
While the reduced resistances make you more vulnerable, enemies will practically never get close, as your survivability and damage output are significantly increased, allowing you to eliminate enemies before the resistance debuff takes effect.
Unstable Power
This perk unleashes chaotic magic on your basic abilities, guaranteeing a Critically Strike and Overpower effect, while increasing damage output by 50-100%. However, there is a 3-second cooldown on this power.
Combined with Rod of Kepeleke, your core abilities are treated as basic abilities, thus guaranteeing all your spells will crit.
Back Off
When you cast any skill, this perk reduces damage taken by nearby enemies by 30% while increasing your damage to all other enemies by 100-200%, making it suitable for ranged combat.
Based on this, as long as you maintain a mid-to-long range from enemy groups and ensure accurate positioning, you can deal double damage to all enemies.
Practical Effect Of This Build
Pit of the Artificers is a timed endgame event that requires you to kill a sufficient number of enemies within 15 minutes to summon a boss. Only after killing the boss is a level completed, so speed and damage output are crucial.
While Rake Spiritborn Build is somewhat lacking in dealing with single-target bosses, our recommended crafting strategy is sufficient until level 140. After that, if you want to use this build to delve deeper into The Pit, you will need to upgrade your gear and affixes.
And it's not just effective at The Pit, Rake Spiritborn Build also performs well in clearing Infernal Hordes, which also have timed and progress bar mechanics, or in the high-monster-density Season 10 Chaos Rifts.
In short, whether you want to delve deeper into The Pit or farm more loot through Infernal Hordes after Compass to Carnage event begins, Rake Spiritborn Build will be very useful!
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Diablo 4 Season 10 Compass To Carnage Event Delayed | New Release Date And Tips
Diablo 4 typically releases more boost events at the end of each season to help you complete your seasonal journey or other tasks before the season ends, preventing you from missing out on rewards.
Therefore, with Season 10 ending in about a month, Diablo 4 launched Mother's Blessing and Seasonal Splendor events on October 28th, helping you earn more gold and Infernal Warp within about a week.
The development team originally planned to launch Compass to Carnage immediately after these two events on November 4th, but for unknown reasons, both this event and Patch 2.4.3 have been delayed.
While this change will disrupt your game schedule, it means you have more time to prepare for Compass to Carnage. Below, we'll introduce the new release date and participation method for this event.

Postponed Release Date
Compass to Carnage was originally scheduled for November 4th, as the first two boost events ended on November 3rd. It has been postponed to November 25th and will run until December 2nd - just one week before Season 11 begins.
The reason for the postponement is irrelevant to you, as it doesn't change the fact that the date has been delayed. The only thing to note is that this means the event's nature as a mid-Season 10 boost event has changed to a catch-up event at the end of the season.
While this may result in more farming pressure in Compass to Carnage, you also gain more time to familiarize yourself with the event mechanics and gameplay. Incidentally, the release of patch 2.4.3 has been delayed to November 12th.
What Is Compass To Carnage?
During this event, you can earn more Infernal Compasses by completing related Diablo 4 endgame events, allowing you to unlock and participate in Infernal Hordes more frequently. In addition, you will receive the following two buffs:
- Clearing and sealing Chaos Rifts will grant you more Burning Aether.
- Chaos Waves appearing in Infernal Hordes will bring more enemies.
More Infernal Compass means you can complete more Infernal Hordes challenges, earning rewards by defeating the final boss Bartuc or Fell Council, as well as Viz-Jaq'taar Veneration Reputation points.
More Burning Aether means you can unlock Bartuc boss fight earlier and redeem more rewards after completing Infernal Hordes challenges.
How To Participate In Compass To Carnage?
In fact, the event itself only provides various buffs. To fully utilize these buffs, you still need to complete Infernal Hordes.
First, you need to farm Infernal Compasses by participating in Helltides and Nightmare dungeons. If you can obtain Greater chests in Helltides, or enter Nightmare dungeons using Chaos Rifts-related affixes, you will obtain more compasses, and the drop rate will be more consistent.
It's worth noting that you can also earn Whisper caches by completing bounty missions posted by Tree of Whispers. Greater Collection of Dungeon Keys will reward you with more Infernal Compasses and Nightmare Sigils.
Infernal Hordes are wave-based endgame events, each wave lasting one minute. Infernal Compasses have three rarities; the higher the rarity, the more Chaos Waves are triggered:
- Magic: 6 waves
- Rare: 8 waves
- Legendary: 10 waves
After completing each wave, the game allows you to choose an Infernal Offer, which adds a positive and a negative effect to all subsequent waves. This means the deeper you go into the waves, the higher the difficulty becomes.
During wave clearing, you'll obtain Burning Aether. Collecting 666 unlocks Bartuc boss fight. Defeating this boss rewards you with Spoils of Greater Materials and Season 10 exclusive Chaos Armor.
It's worth noting that Season 10 introduces a new Offer, Chaos Waves, which primarily increases the drop rate of Burning Aether. Generally, one Legendary Infernal Compass can trigger two Chaos Waves.
What Are Aether Events?
When you kill enemies in the current wave, Aether events are randomly triggered. The faster you kill, the more events are triggered. Currently available Aether events include Soulspires, Masses, and blisters that spawn powerful enemies.
Soulspires are the most challenging because they require you to kill enemies within Soulspire circle, but the monsters spawn relatively far apart. Therefore, you need to find ways to gather and pull enemies closer, such as by unlocking Offering The Hungry Spires.
Hellborne deserves additional attention. While not an Aether event, it can be summoned through Infernal Offerings or occasionally appear briefly in Chaotic waves. Defeating it yields a large amount of Burning Aether.
How To Maximize The Value Of Completing S10 Infernal Hordes?
Based on understanding the above mechanics, if you want to fully utilize the benefits of Compass to Carnage and farm Infernal Hordes faster for more rewards, consider the following suggestions:
- Increase your speed by equipping relevant gear to reach Aether event location more quickly.
- Balance your AoE and single-target damage output.
- It's best to challenge it in a group with other players.
- Utilize relevant Infernal Offers or other effects to force enemies to approach you in groups.
When choosing specific Infernal Offers, the following are recommended to unlock first:
- The Exalted Hordes: Increases normal monster damage and accelerates Aether events' spawn rate.
- The Aether Goblins: Increases monster health, and the event also spawns killable Aether Goblins - they drop more Burning Aether.
- The Stalking Devil: Summons Burning Butcher; defeating it grants 100+ Burning Aether.
- The Burning Rain: Generates an additional 9-15 Burning Aether after the current wave ends.
- The Wrath of Hellfire: Generates an additional 15-24 Burning Aether after the current wave ends.
While Chaos Armor is only available in Season 10, the other rewards you gain from Infernal Hordes offer longer-lasting benefits, so you should take advantage of Compass to Carnage boost!
That's all for this time. Please remember the delayed date and don't miss Compass to Carnage! We wish you all the best during the event!
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Diablo 4 Season 11 Gear Upgrade Changes | Masterworking, Tempering & Sanctification Explained And Reviewed
In Diablo 4, besides upgrading characters and Paragon Board, another crucial way to enhance a character's overall capabilities is by continuously acquiring better gear and upgrading it.
To ensure your gear always has room to improve throughout the season, Diablo 4 introduced several gear upgrade mechanisms, primarily Tempering and Masterworking.
However, these two mechanisms have long been criticized for their excessive randomness, meaning that even consuming a large amount of upgrade materials may not yield the desired gear benefits.
To address this, Diablo 4 plans to radically change these two mechanisms starting with Season 11 and add a new Sanctification mechanism, further raising the room for gear upgrades.
We will now introduce these changes based on their performance in 2.5.0 PTR and analyze whether this overhaul is necessary.

What Is Masterworking?
This is an endgame crafting mechanic in Diablo 4. You need to farm gold and available materials beforehand and then craft them at the blacksmith to upgrade your gear's affixes by 8-12 levels.
It's generally not recommended to Masterworking items below level 750, as they are easily replaceable, and Masterworking them wastes materials.
Furthermore, Diablo 4 items between 750 and 800 can have their affixes upgraded by eight levels, and those above 800 can be upgraded by 12 levels. Therefore, the rarer and higher the level of your gear, the greater the value increase after Masterworking it.
However, this valuable mechanic has a tricky aspect: every four levels, only one random affix receives a 25% upgrade. This means that if you're unlucky, you might end up with useless affixes applied in three such upgrades.
While you can reset Masterworking by salvaging the gear, you only get a portion of the crafting materials back, not including gold, which is undoubtedly a waste of your resources.
What Changes Will Season 11 Bring?
To avoid potential waste from random upgrades, starting with Season 11, Masterworking will no longer boost gear affix effects, but will directly increase the gear's base stats.
Based on this, each Masterworking will randomly increase the gear's stats by 2-5 levels, up to a maximum of 20 levels. After that, you can perform one last Masterworking to obtain the ultimate affix bonus.
This ultimate bonus will upgrade a random non-high-level affix on the gear to Greater Affix. This upgrade result is changeable and will not affect the gear's existing Masterworking bonuses.
What Is Tempering?
This mechanism is more widely applicable than Masterworking. You can add relevant affixes to your gear by finding Tempering Manuals during your exploration. Furthermore, Tempering only requires materials, not gold.
The randomness of this mechanism lies in the fact that the affixes included in each Tempering Manual appear randomly. You might perform multiple Tempering runs but still fail to obtain your desired affix.
If you don't intend to waste time and materials gambling and think that obtaining an affix is enough to "make do," you're mistaken, because a meaningless affix will actually lower the value of your gear.
Changes In Season 11
After the update, when Tempering your gear in Season 11, you can directly specify the affixes you want each time using the recipe in Tempering Manual, eliminating the frustration of randomness!
However, to balance this, a gear can now only have one Tempering affix instead of the previous maximum of three. But honestly, getting the best one faster is always better than endless gambling, isn't it?
What Is Sanctification?
This system, added in Season 11, allows your gear to continue to improve after Tempering and Masterworking! Once sanctification is complete, the gear is permanently "finished" and cannot be modified further.
The benefits of sanctification are random; they might include gaining a Sanctification affix or new powers, or even making your gear's durability never deplete. Regardless, they are well worth the investment.
How Are These Changes Reviewed?
While the performance and experience on PTR may not fully represent Season 11, it's sufficient to evaluate these new mechanics.
With the reduced randomness of the benefits from Tempering and Masterworking, you'll notice a subtle decrease in the amount of materials dropped, such as Obducite.
This is understandable, as the reduced or eliminated randomness means a lower chance of needing to reset Tempering and Masterworking results, while the materials required to complete the upgrade haven't increased.
Therefore, from this perspective, these changes allow the updated Tempering and Masterworking mechanics to function better, preventing imbalances.
Furthermore, Season 11 will allow you to craft some Tempering materials yourself. For example, Veiled Crystals and Forgotten Souls.
As for Sanctification system, because its buffs are random and the gear cannot be changed after completion, player opinions are mixed. After all, if you randomly get a useless Sanctification affix, you can't even reset it.
However, before 2.5.0 PTR ended, according to the player community and other statistics, the percentage of unlucky players was not large; most people could obtain the desired buffs through Sanctification.
Therefore, after Season 11 goes live, if these gear upgrade mechanisms in PTR don't undergo significant changes, you will be able to upgrade your gear and even your entire build more efficiently, resulting in a better season experience.
Season 11 is expected to officially launch on Tuesday, December 9th. At that time, you will be able to personally verify whether these new mechanisms will bring positive effects! Let's look forward to it!
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Diablo 4 Season 11 Capstone Dungeons Guide: Locations, Bosses, And Torment Difficulty Unlocked
Diablo 4 Season 11 introduces several new Capstone Dungeons. These dungeons return as key challenges, serving as the path to higher difficulty levels and unlocking rewards through the new Season Rank system.
Unlike previous dungeons, these Capstone Dungeons no longer have fixed levels or difficulties, but instead possess unique mechanics and themes. Now, players must complete an ultimate dungeon to advance their Season Rank. Therefore, it's easy to imagine these new dungeons becoming a hub for leveling in the new season.
Here, we'll examine how these returning Capstone Dungeons work in Season 11 and how they affect player leveling.

Capstone Dungeons Explained
As mentioned before, you won't be able to advance to the next rank in your seasonal journey until you complete the required Capstone Dungeons. This slows down leveling, forcing players to complete these dungeons to continue their seasonal journey and become stronger.
Capstone Dungeons unlock important mechanics, such as The Pits or The Tower, which allow for rapid leveling.
There are a total of 5 Capstone Dungeons in Diablo 4 Season 11:
- Torrid Menagerie: Level 30 | Difficulty Tier: Hard
- Hellish Descent: Level 50 | Difficulty Tier: Penitent
- Unseen Awakening: Level 60 (Pit Tier 15) | Difficulty Tier: Torment 1
- Tempest Oasis: Level 60 (Pit Tier 30) | Difficulty Tier: Torment 2
- Sins of the Many: Level 60 (Pit Tier 45) | Difficulty Tier: Torment 3
The first two are the most important because they unlock The Pits, allowing you to unlock Torment difficulty levels. The last three dungeons represent challenges at Torment 1-3 difficulty levels. Since Season Journey has been changed to Season Rank, you now only gain full skill points and paragon points by completing the objectives for each rank. Therefore, you need to complete all five dungeons. Each Capstone Dungeon guards the next dungeon; for example, you need to clear Torrid Menagerie before you can see and complete the next dungeon, Hellish Descent.
Next, let's take a closer look at the two Capstone Dungeons that unlock Torment difficulty. They are the foundation for experiencing higher difficulties, and it's recommended that you focus on conquering them early in the game. Of course, if you are confident in your abilities, you can try the ultimate dungeon before reaching the recommended difficulty level, but this will also bring higher risks.
Torrid Menagerie
The first is Torrid Menagerie, a dungeon with three levels.
The first level looks similar to any other dungeon you've completed before, except that there will be volcanic eruptions. In addition, you need to kill elite monsters to collect Animus. After collecting it, you need to put it into Animus Urn to enter the next area, where the first Shadowclaw boss is guarded.
After defeating the boss and finding the exit, you'll discover a new type of pillar that cools you down and grants you Cold Aura. Because of the fire barrier ahead, you can't pass through unless you go past the cooling pillar.
Entering the second level, you'll find that due to the high temperature, the numerous ice pillars will damage you. You need to use these ice pillars to fight your way through. This mechanic is very similar to the levels in Dark Citadel, but here Death Aura will be fatal.
At the end of this level, you'll see the last ice pillar, next to which is the entrance to the third level of the dungeon. This is the arena where The Curator resides. Once you enter, you'll immediately notice two ice pillars; you need to use them to avoid the high-temperature damage. Unfortunately, you can't stay on the ice pillars indefinitely, or you'll become The Curator's sitting duck.
When The Curator's health drops to about half, another werewolf boss, Emberclaw, will join the battle. This dual-boss battle is quite challenging, so we do not recommend you attempt it if you are not level 30, unless you have enough Diablo 4 gold to fully upgrade your gear and give you a huge advantage in the early game.
After defeating both of them, you will complete Torrid Menagerie and unlock the next rank and Capstone Dungeon.
Hellish Descent
The next dungeon is Hellish Descent, recommended level 50.
On the first level of this dungeon, you need to kill 5 door wardens. After defeating the 5th doorkeeper, the gate to Hellfire Adherent will unlock. Defeating the boss will allow you to enter the second level, Corrupted Jail.
Here, you need to charge 5 Sacrificial Altars. They function similarly to the pillars found in Dark Citadel or the spires found in Helltide. After activating the altars, you need to stay within the circle and defend against enemy attacks.
The highlight of the second level is that Butchers will spawn approximately every 30 seconds. Basically, each altar corresponds to one Butcher, so you will encounter at least five. After destroying the last altar, the path to the final level, Burgening Hatred, will open.
In the final level, you need to destroy five demonic corruptions. Like the previous level, Butcher can appear at any time, and you also need to watch out for the persistent hellfire that runs throughout the dungeon.
Once you've cleared everything, the door to the arena will open, where you'll find Elias. Here, you only need to be wary of a powerful attack that can damage half the arena - a massive wave of fire unleashed by Elias.
When Elias's health drops to around 50%, Butcher will reappear. Now you need to defeat both of them simultaneously. However, during PTR, we found through multiple attempts that we could only successfully defeat Elias after killing Butcher; otherwise, the dungeon couldn't be completed.
Therefore, we recommend killing Butcher first, then Elias. Trust me, this will be an absolutely thrilling battle, and it will eventually unlock The Pits.
That's all we know about Capstone Dungeons in Season 11 so far. The remaining three dungeons are left for brave warriors willing to push their limits. If you want to learn more, stay tuned to IGGM!
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Diablo 4 Season 10 Fireball Sorcerer Build Guide | Best High-Damage & Tanky Chaos Perk Setup
Diablo 4 Season 10 boasts the highest damage output of any season, with each class featuring exceptionally powerful builds. Thanks to Mana Shield (Chaos Perk), many Sorcerer builds this season maintain high damage while also possessing strong survivability.
Fireball Sorcerer is one such build, offering both high damage and exceptional survivability. Its controls are incredibly simple and you only need to hold down one skill button to incinerate all monsters on the field.

Core Gameplay
You continuously cast Fireballs, causing them to explode across the field while regenerating mana. Then use Teleport to move to the next pack of monsters.
Your Fireballs explode across the entire screen, dealing massive damage to mobs and bosses. With the right Chaos Perks and unique items, you can achieve consistently high critical hit damage. This playstyle becomes powerful early on, allowing you to efficiently farm items or level up quickly.
Fire Ball Sorcerer Mechanism
First, you need Mana Shield (a Chaos Perk), which allows you to transfer damage taken to mana, making your character virtually invincible in most situations. This allows you to disregard health and freely consume mana while charging into dense enemy groups.
Power Siphon provides a significant damage boost to core skills, but reduces maximum mana resources with each cast. However, as long as you have enough total mana, you can maintain a high current mana pool even with the reduction.
Your core skill, Fireball, will increase both its mana cost and damage as it levels. You need to use equipment (such as Gloves of the Illuminator) to level it up, thereby increasing Fireball's power.
Fire Ball Sorcerer Gear
Normal Gear
- Helm: Crown of Lucion
- Chest Armor: Raiment of the Infinite
- Gloves: Gloves of the Illuminator
- Pants: Aspect of Concentration
- Boots: Flickerstep
- Amulet: Banished Lord's Talisman
- Ring 1: Tal Rasha's Iridescent Loop
- Ring 2: Flash Fire Aspect
- Weapon: Staff of Endless Rage
Chaos Gear
- Helm: Heir of Perdition
- Chest Armor: Banished Lord's Talisman (Chaos Armor)
- Gloves: Gloves of the Illuminator
- Pants: Staff of Endless Rage (Chaos Armor)
- Boots: Crown of Lucion (Chaos Armor)
- Amulet: Flash Fire Aspect
- Ring 1: Tal Rasha's Iridescent Loop
- Ring 2: Firestarter Aspect
- Weapon: Aspect of Tenuous Destruction
- Offhand: Aspect of Shredding Blades
For rings, amulets, and weapons, prioritize Attack Speed, Double Fireball Throw Chance, Cooldown Reduction, Critical Strike Chance, Critical Strike Damage, and Intelligence.
Gloves of the Illuminator are the core item of this build, taking its damage to the next level., taking damage to the next level. Ideally, they should have Fireball attack speed, critical strike chance, and Fireball explosion mana regeneration. Prioritize attack speed and Fireball rating.
Your boots, pants, and helmet can be replaced with Chaos Armor pieces, while the amulet should mainly increase core skill ranks, cooldown reduction, or attack speed.
Note that you need to ensure you have enough mana, because Power Siphon reduces maximum resources, and Mana Shield converts damage to mana. Therefore, you must maintain a sufficiently high maximum mana to have enough mana remaining after multiple uses.
Because you are using Mana Shield, you don't need to increase maximum health; instead, focus on affixes like maximum mana, mana regeneration, intelligence, and spell power.
Fireball Sorcerer Skills
Active Skills
- Frost Bolt (Rank 1): Enhanced Frost Bolt
- Fireball (Rank 5): Enhanced Fireball and Destructive Fireball
- Chain Lightning (Rank 1): Enhanced Chain Lightning and Destructive Chain Lightning
- Teleport (Rank 1): Enhanced Teleport and Mystical Teleport
- Frost Nova (Rank 1): Enhanced Frost Nova and Shimmering Frost Nova
- Familiar (Rank 1): Enhanced Familiar and Invoked Familiar
- Unstable Currents (Rank 5): Prime Unstable Currents and Supreme Unstable Currents
- Note that you also need to include Meteor and Firewall in your skill slots to trigger Elemental Synergies.
Passive Skills
- Elemental Dominance: at levels 11–13 (Rank 3)
- Glass Cannon: at levels 17–19 (Rank 3)
- Mana Shield: at levels 26–28 (Rank 3)
- Inner Flames: at levels 29–31 (Rank 3)
- Devouring Blaze: at levels 32–34 (Rank 3)
- Crippling Flames: at levels 35 (Rank 1)
- Permafrost: at levels 36–38 (Rank 3)
- Hoarfrost: at levels 39–41 (Rank 3)
- Icy Touch: at levels 42–44 (Rank 3)
- Elemental Synergies: at levels 45–47 (Rank 3)
- Evocation: at levels 48–50 (Rank 3)
- Esu's Ferocity: Level 51 (Rank 1)
- Fiery Surge: Level 52 (Rank 1)
- Coursing Currents: Level 53 (Rank 1)
- Convulsions: Levels 54–56 (Rank 3)
- Static Discharge: Levels 64–66 (Rank 3)
- Soulfire: Levels 70–72 (Rank 3)
Esu's Ferocity is a very important passive. It significantly boosts critical strike chance and damage at different enemy health thresholds, almost guaranteeing constant critical strikes.
Note that if you allocate too many points to Soulfire (which reduces mana cost), it might lower Fireball's mana cost (which cannot be lower than 300) to the point where Overpower cannot be reliably triggered. Therefore, you need to fine-tune your point allocation.
Also Read: Diablo 4 Season 11 Best Builds: Top Class Setups And Playstyle Guide
Chaos Perks
- Mana Shield (Sorcerer Unique Perk): Reduces health to 1% and redirects damage to mana.
- Advanced Techniques (Sorcerer Rare Perk): Increases the damage and mana cost of base core skills.
- Explosive Combinations (Sorcerer Magic Perk): Increases the damage of core skills when a basic skill is used.
- Power Siphon (All-class Rare Perk): Increases the damage of core skills, reduces maximum resources.
This is a general overview of Fireball Sorcerer build. Most Sorcerer builds are quite satisfactory in Season 10. Even if Fireball Sorcerer build doesn't qualify as a Tier S build, it's enough to easily spam enemies in level 100, The Pit.










