Diablo 4 Season 11 Dance Of Knives Rogue Build Guide: Death's Pavane Makes Rogue A Top-Tier Meta Choice

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• Diablo 4 Season 11 The Tower Guide | Gameplay And Newly Announced Reward Details

  While currently in a transition period between the end of 2.5.0 PTR and the yet-to-be-released Season 11, Diablo 4 development team continues to release information about Season 11 periodically.

  Interestingly, compared to previous seasons, the most appealing aspect of Season 11 isn't its seasonal Divine Gifts mechanic, but rather the updates and additions to various gear upgrade systems, and the new dungeon, The Tower.

  While The Tower itself isn't particularly innovative in terms of gameplay, its true uniqueness lies in its return to the leaderboard system - a system that previously appeared in D4 but was removed in Season 6.

  Recently, the developers' revelations about the special leaderboard rewards for The Tower have reignited the excitement of players who have been quietly awaiting the new season. We'll introduce the relevant information below.

  

  What Is The Tower?

  The Tower is an event added to Diablo 4 endgame content starting with Season 11, specifically manifested as a randomly generated, multi-stage, time-limited dungeon.

  It's worth noting that The Tower operates similarly to the permanent The Pit, and there are even more connections between them:

  For example, both require you to travel to The Artificer's Obelisk in Cerrigar to enter. Furthermore, the available The Tower levels can be re-selected, or you can directly enter the corresponding level of The Tower from an unlocked The Pit level.

  It's also worth noting that unlocking The Tower requires completing the seasonal journey's rank mission, Hellish Decent Capstone Dungeon. This dungeon system, like the leaderboard, returned to the game in Season 11.

  How To Complete The Tower?

  Each run of The Tower dungeon has 5 levels. All enemies and bosses you encounter are randomly generated, and you must clear them within 10 minutes.

  During the clearing process, you can collect progress orbs from defeated enemies to fill the dungeon's progress. Once full, a Tower Guardian will spawn as the final boss; defeating him completes that run of The Tower.

  The stronger the enemy, the more progress orbs they provide, thus helping you complete The Tower faster and achieve better rankings on the leaderboard. Enemy types typically include:

  • Elites
  • Champions
  • Mastery Goblins

  To gain more damage or defense against rarer The Tower enemies, you should not only equip Diablo 4 items that provide boosts, but also utilize the help of Pylons.

  What Are Pylons?

  Pylons are buff shrines that appear during The Tower dungeon runs. There are three types, each with different effects. You will encounter four each round of The Tower, with the last one having a random effect from the three types.

  • Pylon of Channeling: You don't consume resources when using skills, and skill cooldowns are reduced.
  • Pylon of Power: You can deal more damage.
  • Pylon of Speed: You gain the unstoppable and unhindered effects, and your movement speed is greatly increased.

  When you encounter Pylons, you will find that they are surrounded by shields. Only by destroying the shields can the corresponding Pylon be activated. While The Tower itself isn't difficult to complete, activating Pylons can help you climb the leaderboards.

  How Does The Tower Leaderboard Work?

  The leaderboard is broadly divided into hardcore and casual categories. Each category includes solo, duo, trio, and quad modes. Solo mode is further subdivided into six game classes.

  Based on your team and class choice when completing The Tower dungeons, your final ranking, character ID, completion date, and dungeon level will be displayed in the relevant category - provided you rank in the top 1000.

  What The Tower Rewards Are Available?

  Due to the leaderboards, you cannot earn rewards by repeatedly farming The Tower. You only receive onetime rewards upon clearing new levels.

  The development team recently revealed that regular rewards will probably include gold and gear. The higher your ranking on the leaderboard, the more numerous and rarer the rewards will be. Top players will also have the opportunity to unlock exclusive cosmetic rewards!

  These cosmetic items will likely be titles and halos with unique formats or visual effects, allowing other players to immediately see your achievements in The Tower challenge and fully demonstrate your skill level.

  Therefore, obtaining these cosmetic rewards will likely be difficult; you might need to consistently rank top in your category every time the leaderboard resets.

  It's important to note that only the character you used to complete the challenge can wear these cosmetic items, not other Diablo 4 characters in your account. Otherwise, it might cause confusion when others view the leaderboard.

  

  Since rewards are not distributed through leaderboards in 2.5.0 PTR, and the developers have stated that they will continue to optimize the leaderboard system after Season 11 launches, the final reward system is currently unclear.

  However, what is certain is that in the future, you will be able to prove your Diablo 4 skill and ability through The Tower challenge, motivating yourself to continuously improve. After all, leaderboards are inherently competitive.

  In summary, the mechanics and gameplay of The Tower itself are not complex; the challenge lies in achieving the top rankings. Dungeon time is limited, so sometimes the difference between your time and the person ahead of you can be just a matter of seconds.

  That's all for this introduction. More details will be revealed when Season 11 goes live. Let's look forward to December 9th!

• Diablo 4 Season 11 Fast Leveling Guide | How To Reach Level 60 Quickly With Boss Farming And Helltides?

  Diablo 4 Season 11 made changes to many fundamental mechanics, such as equipment drops, skills, and monster AI. These changes have increased the difficulty of leveling in the early game.

  So, did leveling speed slow down in Season 11? Actually, no. According to player testing, leveling speed in Season 11 was not only not slower, but even faster, provided you knew which enemies and events to focus on.

  

  Diablo 4 Season 11 Changes

  Season Rank And Reputation

  First, the new Season Rank system completely replaces the old reputation system. Players no longer need to grind reputation by region. Characters will gain skill points at Season Ranks 1, 2, and 3, and Paragon Points at Season Ranks 3, 4, 5, and 6.

  Lilith Shrines no longer grant permanent stat bonuses. Instead, they drop XP,  gold, Murmuring Obols, and gem shards, making them less essential.

  Capstone Dungeons

  Capstone Dungeons are no longer optional; they must be challenged to increase your World Tiers. You must complete them in order and at the specified levels and difficulties to access higher difficulties:

  • Torrid Menagerie (Level 30): Hard
  • Hellish Descent (Level 50): Penitent
  • Unseen Awakening: (Level 60, Pit 15): Torment 1
  • Tempest Oasis (Level 60, Pit 30): Torment 2
  • Sins of the Many (Level 60, Pit 35): Torment 3

  Item System

  Rare Diablo 4 items drop less frequently before level 30, and unique items before level 40. Originally, the level cap was 25, forcing players to use magic and rare items early on. For new players, the lack of powerful equipment in the early game slows down leveling and makes dungeon runs riskier.

  However, the corresponding Tempering system is completely free from level 1. Players can freely choose and apply desired tempering effects at the blacksmith, without randomness or the need for reforging. If used effectively, it can slightly increase early-game leveling speed.

  

  How To Level Up Fast?

  Helltides And Duriel

  In Season 11's Helltides, Blood Maiden was removed from it and replaced by Duriel. When Helltides progress bar is full, Hellborns no longer appear; instead, illusions of Duriel appear. Defeating them drops Baneful. Hearts, when collected in sufficient quantities, can summon the true Duriel.

  An XP bug appeared in Helltides on the PTR. Due to various events (which spawn large swarms of maggots), and Heavenly Sigil obtained after killing Duriel, which can be interacted with by finding an angel in town, equipping a Divine Gift in Corruption Slot will cause the killed maggots to drop pure experience orbs.

  A 30-second fire circle event can level you from level 55 to 59, and by chaining these events, it's theoretically possible to level from 1 to 60 in 2 hours. This bug may be fixed in the live server, but even if it is, it remains the fastest way to level up in the early game under normal circumstances.

  Infernal Hordes

  Infernal Hordes have also received a significant buff, basically granting 120 million XP per participation, with high-health monsters like Aether Lords providing particularly high amounts of experience.

  World Bosses And Wilderness Bosses

  Based on PTR 2.5.0 patch that the official update has increased the XP players gain from various events in Overworld, especially from boss battles. This makes defeating bosses the most efficient way to level up in the mid-to-late game of Season 11.

  Azmodan, The Lord Of Sin

  Azmodan, the Lord of Sin, is a new world boss in Season 11. Each kill grants approximately 70 million XP. In addition to experience, it drops a large amount of loot, including Runes, Essence of Sin, and Essence of Hellfire.

  Even The Pit 150, which is theoretically impossible to complete at the moment, only provides 15 million XP per run. Defeating Azmodan is equivalent to completing nearly five Pit 150 runs.

  It is the simplest, but not the most efficient, leveling goal, as players can easily defeat it in a group, and some can even participate semi-AFK. Furthermore, no specific materials are required to challenge it, and the treasure chest items are immediately available after the kill. Other world bosses provide significantly more XP. Both are relatively good farming targets.

  Lair Bosses

  Lair Bosses like Duriel and Andariel provide 25 to 30 million XP. Challenging lair bosses doesn't require materials; they're only needed when opening treasure chests. This means that if you just want to level up, you can summon them immediately after defeating them.

  Of all Lair bosses, Urivar is the fastest and most efficient for XP gain because it's extremely fast to kill. If your build is good enough, you can basically kill it in 20 seconds. Farming Urivar can yield approximately 4.5 billion XP per hour.

  Defeating Lilith grants a whopping 73 million XP, currently the highest known source of experience per kill. However, she doesn't drop loot and is quite difficult, making it less efficient.

  Leveling Tips

  Players can gather at boss spawn points, taking turns or fighting bosses together. Experience is shared, and there's an XP bonus for team play. For bosses like Lilith and Urivar, located in dungeons, you can quickly reset the boss and skip the waiting time by using the “escape dungeon hotkey” or leaving the game and creating a new one after defeating it.

  This is the fastest way to level up in Season 11. If you can efficiently utilize boss farming for leveling, you can reach paragon level 300 in about 12-13 hours, although this might shorten your game lifespan. However, this method of gaining XP is too fast obviously and may be nerfed.

• 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.

  Also Read: Diablo 4 Season 10 Compass To Carnage Event And Patch 2.4.3 Delayed | New Dates, Details And Player Reactions

  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!

• 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!

• 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!

• 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!