Diablo 4 Season 2: New Method To Farm 350+ Cinders In Helltides After Hotfix!

Posted: Nov 20, 2023 Views: 1947

Posted: Nov 20, 2023

Source: IGGM

Diablo 4 patch 1.2.2’s Hotfix addresses several issues in the game, but mainly the changes and buffs to Living Steel during Helltides. In addition to this, Living Steel Chests now generate correctly with this hotfix.

Hotfix Changes

Here you can see that it has increased World Tier 3 Living Steel Chest from 1 Living Steel to 2 Living Steels per chest. There has also been a corresponding increase in World Tier 4, from 3 Living Steels to 5 Living Steels. In addition to this, you have an additional chance to get 5 additional Living Steels drops.

Diablo 4 Season 2: New Method To Farm 350+ Cinders In Helltides After Hotfix!

With Hotfix, Living Steel has gained 66%. So this is actually insane for your gear materials and Living Steel income.

Basically, in Living Steel Chest, 1 Living Steel will cost 60 Cinders, and in the 75 Cinders box, there will be 1 Living Steel.

As you can see here, the values are almost the same. But obviously, when you use 150 Cinders boxes to go up, you still only get one Living Steel. The cost of Diablo 4 Gold and time to open these boxes will rise sharply.

So if you have a lot of Cinders left during Helltides, you can try opening the 75 Cinders box, but there’s absolutely no need to continue spending time on that.

This change is also great for now, as dual-character farming in Helltides may no longer be necessary. For example, you could focus your Cinders on one character but be completely outside of its scope. That’s about 600 more Cinders than you’ll have available when you open the chest. But after Hotfix, your Living Steel may be higher than your Varshan Materials.

Diablo 4: Hotfix Changes

New Method

Early in the season, I made a guide on how to get 300 Cinders every 10 minutes. Although this method still works for now, I will improve it.

First, let’s start with the highest density area, which is the area with the highest Cinders farmed per minute. As you can see, there is often a very high density of Cinders farming areas in Diablo 4. But there is no point in just staying in that dense area and continuing to farm. Because the regeneration speed of mobs is not that fast.

Diablo 4: High Density Cinders Farming Area

So, ideally, you can rotate between two high-density areas and control when mobs respawn. But it’s not a big deal here, so there’s absolutely no need to strictly plan your route in Helltides.

In the previous method, we could easily get 300 Cinders every 10 minutes. It’s probably higher now because the equipment has gotten better and players have become more skilled at farming.

Now you can also throw this method into the mix of running your Helltides and killing monsters, which is definitely doable.

I found this to be a rule of thumb. If there is an event that covers many areas and is actually a big event. These are very useful when it comes to Cinders per minute, and they won’t actually slow you down. Whatever you currently get, just ignore them. Some of them will actually increase this speed.

So if you see a big event that covers a lot of ground, be sure to stay for that event and try to complete it. Because this usually has a few more avenues to farm Cinders than smaller activities.

Diablo 4: The Gathering Legions Zone Event Guide

Now another pro tip is actually doing Legion Events that pop up in Helltides. If you’re lucky, the monster density here is actually insane, and monsters respawn pretty quickly.

It took me about 5 minutes to complete Legion Events and farmed about 350 Cinders, which is really insane.

As you can see here, we also have 75 Cinders boxes in Legion Events. So you can actually take Cinders you’ve earned while clearing out everything else. You can actually get an extra copy of Living Steel here.

But like I said before, there is absolutely no need to open all 75 Cinders boxes. Because after Hotfix, you will have enough Living Steels.

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Next: Diablo 4 Season 2: Massive Gold And Experience Buff From Recent Events! - Mother’s Blessing & Hotfix

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Diablo 4 Season 10 Ball Lightning Sorcerer Build: How To Choose Its Gear And Skills?
Diablo 4 Season 10 is an absolutely insane season. Chaos Perks and Chaos Armor are changing the build strategy this season, bringing some incredibly high-damage builds.

Currently, Raven Druid is incredibly popular on the PTR, as it can easily reach 150 The Pit. However, its near-infinite damage is because of a bug, a fairly serious one that will probably be fixed soon. Here's a recommended normal but strong build: Ball Lightning Sorcerer.

Diablo 4 Season 10 primarily buffs Lightning-related abilities. This build was already considered a Tier A build in Seasons 8 and 7, and the new unique item for Season 10 Sorcerer, Galvanic Azurite, further enhances this build, making this build potentially Tier S in Season 10.

Pros And Cons

In Diablo 4 Season 9, this build's strengths lie in its high damage and fast farming speed. It's particularly effective in situations with many enemies, such as Infernal Hordes and Chaos Rifts. It also offers decent survivability. Besides being able to teleport away from monsters, you can also use Chaos Perk, Mana Shield, to boost your survivability.

This build is even highly effective against bosses, as the immunity phase for all lair bosses (including Lilith) has been removed. Now, you can instantly kill them with high damage without having to wait for them to transition. Just unleash all your Ball Lightning upon the boss, and they'll be swiftly annihilated.

On the downside, besides requiring some resource management and a relatively high number of skills to unleash, you'll also need Mythic items to maximize your damage.

Skills
- Lightning Spear (Rank 1): Enchanted Lightning Spear and Invoked Lightning Spear
- Ball Lightning (Rank 5): Enchanted Ball Lightning and Mage's Ball Lightning
- Ice Blades (Rank 1): Enchanted Ice Blades and Invoked Ice Blades
- Unstable Currents (Rank 5): Prime Unstable Currents and Supreme Unstable Currents
- Familiar (Rank 1): Enchanted Familiar and Invoked Familiar
- Chain Lightning (Rank 1): Enchanted Chain Lightning and Destructive Chain Lightning
- Teleport (Rank 1): Enchanted Teleport and Shimmering Teleport
- Enchantment Slots: Teleport and Familiar
In fact, most lightning-related skills are worth using in Season 10, so the above skill options are not the only choices, and you can even make all your skills with lightning skills. If you think there is a better skills match, you can also use Diablo 4 gold to reset them.

The main use of this skill set is to spam Ball Lightning at enemies. Once you're surrounded by Ball Lightning, you can repeatedly teleport among monsters to deal damage. Unstable Currents provides useful buffs like attack speed, while Ice Blades makes your enemies vulnerable.

Chaos Perks
- Mana Shield (Sorcerer Unique): Your maximum health is reduced, and damage you take is first applied to mana, then to health. If you haven't taken damage in the past 4 seconds, your mana regeneration is increased by 5,000%. Your maximum mana is increased by 200-400%, and your Intelligence can be used instead of mana.
- Advanced Techniques (Sorcerer Rare): Your base core skill level increases mana cost or cooldown by 10% and further increases damage by 10-20%.
- Power Siphon (Rare): Your core abilities deal increased damage, but your maximum resource is reduced.
- Mana-Infused Conjurations (Sorcerer Legendary): Your spells are empowered, increasing damage by 30% (multiplicatively), but each cast costs 5 mana per second. Ice Blade attacks create bursts of energy around the target. Lightning Spear attacks have a 10% chance of spawning static ball lightning.
Chaos Perks address Sorcerer's survivability issues. With the massive shield provided by Mana Shield, even with half your maximum physical resistance, virtually no monster can penetrate it, making you practically a tank.

Mana-Infused Conjurations, on the other hand, leaves static ball lightning on the field after you cast Lightning Spear, damaging nearby enemies. This improves your Diablo 4 item farming efficiency.

Equipment
- Helm: Heir of Perdition (Nagu and Ohm)
- Chest Armor: Shroud of False Death (Cir and Vex)
- Gloves: Aspect of Inner Calm
- Pants: Banished Lord's Talisman (Topaz and Topaz)
- Boots: Crown of Lucion
- Amulet: Aspect of Tenuous Destruction
- Ring 1: Galvanic Azurite (Skull)
- Ring 2: Ring of Starless Skies (Skull)
- Weapon: Aspect of Shredding Blades (Ruby)
- Offhand: Strike of Stormhorn (Ruby)
Since Season 10 Sorcerer is more survivable than in previous seasons, the armor requirements for gear are less stringent, allowing you to focus more on attack speed and critical strike, which can boost your DPS.

This gear set requires three Mythic unique items, which is a bit of a burden for most players. Heir of Perdition provides a significant DPS and critical strike chance boost, while Ring of Starless Skies reduces resource consumption. These two Diablo 4 items are practically essential.

Before you get Shroud of False Death, you can use Raiment of the Infinite as a replacement. The unique item that enhances Teleport and improves your farming efficiency somewhat.

That's the basics of this build. When using this build, be mindful of mana consumption. Besides the mana regeneration provided by Legendary Diablo IV runes and glyphs, you can also use Elixir of Resourcefulness II to supplement your mana. However, as long as you have Ring of Starless Skies, you're pretty much covered. Currently, reaching 100 The Pit with this build is no problem.
Diablo 4 Season 10 PTR Class Reviews And Recommended Builds
With Diablo 4 Season 10 update now released and PTR now open, players still in Season 9 shouldn't worry too much. Season 10 officially begins in about a month, so you still have plenty of time.

Each season begins with adjustments to unique items, skills, and more, and Season 10 will also introduce Chaos Armors. These changes will undoubtedly have a significant impact on the season's meta. Let's have a look at how these classes are affected in Season 10 and which ones will emerge as the best.

Spiritborn

Recommended Builds:
- Storm Feathers Spiritborn Build (Eagle)
- Crushing Hand Spiritborn Build (Gorilla)
Spiritborn players have been incredibly dominant in Season 9, with Spiritborn players currently reaching 140 The Pit. The other classes haven't been able to break past 120 yet.

The most significant change Spiritborn received in season 10 was a rework of Eagle Main Hall, making Primary Jaguar Hall no longer Spirit's only option in the endgame. They also modified Jaguar skills so that their bonus hits no longer benefit from Aspect of Plains Power. Eagle skills have become much more useful after the remake, not only releasing feathers when using Eagle skills and dodging, but also making the target vulnerable.

Hesha e Kesungi (Unique Gloves), Spiritborn received in season 9, pairs well with Chaos Perks. Hesha e Kesungi enhances Spiritborn's Gorilla skills, while A Beast Cornered and Marred Guard combine with the shield granted by Gorilla skills to provide a 180% damage increase and significant survivability. Overall, Spiritborn has a lot of options in Season 10.

Druid

Recommended Builds:
- Pulverize Poison Puddle Druid Build
- Fleshrender Druid Build
- Companion Druid Build
Pulverize Poison Druid performed well in Season 9, reaching over 100 The Pit. However, because of the bug, this wasn't its strongest form. After Season 10 fixes this issue, it will undoubtedly become even more powerful.

Fleshrender Druid can also reach over 100 The Pit. In Season 10, Fleshrender unique item has received a tweak. Casting defensive skills and auto-casting skills now triggers its effect, dealing damage to nearby poisoned enemies.

Season 10 Druid-exclusive Chaos Perk, Wild Transformations, enhances Druid's transform skills. Every time Druid transforms, Fleshrender effect is triggered, resulting in significant damage.

Another Druid build worth noting is Companion Druid. In Season 9, players used this build to reach 116 The Pit. In Season 10, two items enhance Druid's companions. One is Chaos Perk, Savagery, which increases the size of the companion and increases its damage by 60%. The other is Kilt of Blackwing (Unique Pants), which summons a raven when you activate a companion's ability. Together, these two items provide a significant boost to Companion Druid.

Sorcerer

Recommended Builds:
- Hydra Sorcerer Build
- Lightning Nova Sorcerer Build
- Charged Bolts Sorcerer Build
In Season 9, Hydra Sorcerer build was everywhere. It was a dominant build, and it was certainly good enough. Season 10 new unique item, Galvanic Azurite, is a ring that works with Ophidian Iris.

However, Hydra Sorcerer did receive some nerfs. After consuming mana, the damage granted by Serpentine Aspect is reduced to one-third of its original value, and the mana restored by Lucky Shot has been changed from a percentage to a fixed amount, which makes it incompatible with Chao Perk, Mana Shield. Mana Shield significantly reduces health, but damage prioritizes mana over health, leaving it with extremely high mana regeneration and maximum mana when undamaged.

On the other hand, in Season 10's adjustments, the developers enhanced many Charged Bolts-related gameplay. Since Lightning Sorcerer build was already quite powerful, Charged Bolts Sorcerer is also worth trying.

Necromancer

Recommended builds:
- Shadowblight Necromancer build
- Bloodwave Necromancer build
Bloodwave and blight still dominated Season 9. Bloodwave Necromancer has been strong for several seasons. It's efficient at farming Diabo 4 gold and has decent survivability, so it's no surprise that it's in this spot.

The build that's expected to become even better in Season 10 is Shadowblight Necromancer. This is because of the remake of Wither Legendary Node, which no longer focuses solely on damage over time. All Shadow damage now has a chance to deal 300% bonus damage. This, combined with Shadow Blight's passive's 450% damage increase and other damage-boosting effects, creates a formidable damage boost.

Rogue

Recommended Builds:
- Poison Trap Rogue Build
- Death Trap Rogue
Poison Trap Rogue dominated the top spots in The Pit in Season 9, but overall, Rogue's ceiling isn't as high as other builds. Twisting Blades Rogue was one of the best end-game builds in Season 9, but its base damage has been nerfed.

Rogue's unique item, The Orphan Maker, now deals extremely high damage after reloading, and attack speed reduces reload time. So, to take advantage of this unique item, you'll need to stack attack speed and constantly spam monsters. This may have some advantages when farming Diablo 4 items, but overall, Rogue hasn't received any impressive improvements (including Chaos Perks).

Barbarian

Recommended Builds:
- Mighty Throw Barbarian Endgame Build
- Rend Bleed Barbarian Build
- Flay Barbarian Build
Mighty Throw Barbarian was quite powerful in Season 9, and it hasn't been nerfed in Season 10, so you can still play it. While Bleed has received significant enhance in Season 10.

First, Dual Wield Specialization no longer requires a kill to gain the 30% bleed damage bonus. Second, One Turn Rupture Aspect has been enhanced, increasing its explosion radius and increasing the duration of all bleed effects. Barbarian's Chaos Perk, Single-Minded Fury, also increases bleed duration by 200%. This makes Bleed Barbarian build quite worth trying in Season 10.

Barbarian's new unique weapon, Saber Earth Seagull, increases damage based on the number of damage-causing abilities equipped. Overall, it's a versatile item that can improve most builds.

Class Rank
- Tier S: Druid and Necromancer
- Tier A: Sorcerer
- Tier B: Spiritborn
- Tier C: Barbarian and Rogue
Druid and Necromancer received various enhances, while Sorcerer enhanced its lightning gameplay from Season 9. However, both builds rely heavily on Diablo 4 items to function. Although Spiritborn received a reworked Eagle Main Hall, the improvements were modest. Barbarian and Rogue's enhances aren't mainstream.

The above is a brief evaluation of each class in Season 10. Although Sorcerer, Necromancer, and Druid seem to have great potential based on the current information, other classes also have new gameplay worth exploring.
Diablo 4 Season 10 Chaos Perks Guide: What Are The Recommended Matches?
Diablo 4 Season 10 Chaos Perks are incredibly complex, even more unpredictable than Season 9 Horadric Spells. They bring unprecedented flexibility and depth to Diablo IV builds, while also emphasizing the risk-reward trade-off.

Below is a brief overview of how they work and some recommended Chaos Perks mathes.

How Do They Work?

Diablo 4 Season 10 Chaos Perks come in four qualities: Magic, Rare, Legendary, and Unique. You can only equip one unique Chaos Perk, while the other three slots are yours to choose from. You can equip any three Magic Chaos Perks, three Legendary Chaos Perks, or one of each of the three Chaos Perks, and switch between these Chaos Perks for free, without taking any Diablo 4 gold.

Season 10 Chaos Perks are particularly complex because, besides universal Chaos Perks, there are also class-specific Chaos Perks (one for each qualities).

Sanctuary imbues the player's abilities with devastating power. Chaos Magic alters everything it touches, affecting the player as well! While these forces are immensely powerful, some also come with risks.

Here are all Chaos Perks announced:

Magic Chaos Perks
- Invigorating Attacks
- Accelerating Chaos
- Unstable Power
Rare Chaos Perks
- Erupting Chaos
- Power Siphon
- Alternating Alterations
Legendary Chaos Perks
- Marred Guard
- Chaotic Cooldowns
- Crazy Brew
Unique Chaos Perks
- Chaos Unleashed
- Brawn Over Brains
- A Beast Cornered
Class Specific Chaos Perks

Barbarian:
- Dual Threat (Magic)
- Raging Chaos (Rare)
- Deafening Chorus (Legendary)
- Single-Minded Fury (Unique)
Druid:
- Overabundance (Magic)
- Purge the Infected (Rare)
- Wild Transformations (Legendary)
- Savagery (Unique)
Necromancer
- Grim Reapers (Magic)
- Decimating Desecration (Rare)
- Defile the Dead (Legendary)
- Alter the Balance (Unique)
Rogue
- Unpredictable Alchemy (Magic)
- Enervated Strikes (Rare)
- Chaotic Grenades (Legendary)
- Hit and Run (Unique)
Sorcerer
- Explosive Combinations (Magic)
- Advanced Techniques (Rare)
- Chaotic Grenades (Legendary)
- Mana Shield (Unique)
Spiritborn
- Alacrity (Magic)
- Combined Strikes (Rare)
- Back Off! (Legendary)
- Convocation of Spirits (Unique)
How To Leveling Chaos Perks?

As long as you're able to perform Chaos Rifts, you can unlock Chaos Perks and collect currency (which is used to level up Chaos Perks). Chaos Perks can be upgraded up to level 10, but upgrading them does not provide any additional effects, simply increasing stats.

Chaos Rifts is a Season 10 event, and when you approach a Rift, numerous monsters will spawn. Killing them will drop Chaos armor, currency, and other Diablo 4 items.

Chaos Perks Recommended Matches

Necromancer
- Chaos Unleashed (Unique): Killing enemies accumulates stacks. At the 100th stack, Chaotic Bursts are generated nine times, dealing significant damage and increasing the critical chance and bonus damage of Chaotic Bursts.
- Defile the Dead (Legendary): Consuming a corpse triggers a Chaotic Burst, dealing 200%-400% Shadow damage. A corpse can be consumed twice.
- Erupting Chaos (Rare): Causes Chaotic Bursts randomly in the surrounding area.
- Accelerating Chaos (Magic): Lucky hits have a 10% chance to create Chaotic Bursts.
This Chaotic Bursts Chaos Perk is perfect for Necromancer builds. You'll be able to create Chaotic Bursts frequently, and the more enemies you're surrounded by, the more likely you'll trigger Chaos Unleashed.

Necromancer's glyph also received a buff in season 10, increasing all Shadow damage by 20%-300%, giving you an insane damage boost.

Rogue
- A Beast Cornered (Unique): Damage increases for every 10% health lost. Consuming resources also drains a portion of your health and returns some resources (it won't drop below 10% health).
- Chaotic Grenades (Rogue Legendary): Stun grenades trigger Chaotic Bursts and restore energy upon impact.
- Alternating Alterations (Rare): Casting a Core ability empowers the next non-Core ability and returns resources.
- Accelerating Chaos (Magic)
Rogue's Second Wind grants you a barrier after using energy, while skills like Penetrating Shot instantly clear energy and grant you a barrier equal to 100% of your health. With barrier, health becomes less important, allowing Rogue to gain the damage reduction and damage boost provided by A Beast Cornered simultaneously.

Chaotic Grenades is a Rogue-exclusive perk that enhances Rogue. Alternating Alterations is particularly well-suited to this class because of the new Season 9 unique item, Orphan Make, which boosts your marksmanship. Pairing these two together can yield an insane damage boost.

The Spiritborn also gains barrier when using Gorilla skill, and this combination with A Beast Cornered is also quite good, but you'll need to swap out other perks.

Druid
- A Beast Cornered (Unique)/Chaos Unleashed (Unique)
- Wild Transformations (Druid Legendary): Transform to gain free skills and a 5-second buff.
- Marred Guard (Legendary): While above 50% health, you cannot be healed, but gain bonuses to all elemental resistances, armor, and shields.
Only three chaos perks are listed, and the last one you can decide for yourself. These perks were chosen primarily because of the already powerful Fleshrender Druid build in Season 9. In Season 10, this weapon has been buffed, and both auto-cast and defensive abilities now poison nearby enemies.

Druid's shapeshifting skill, Debilitating Roar, allows Druid to cast their abilities upon transformation automatically. For example, a Bearcat can cast Debilitating Roar, which triggers Fleshrender's effects. Since this build has many defensive abilities, it actually offers excellent defensive capabilities, and also benefits from the 180% damage boost from A Beast Cornered. However, if you prefer even more damage, you can opt for Chaos Unleashed.

That's a quick overview of Diablo 4 Season 10 Chaos Perks. They offer some pretty powerful perks, so consider pairing them with other Diablo 4 items to maximize their effectiveness.
Diablo 4 Season 10 PTR New Event Chaos Rifts: What Is It Like To Play?

To coincide with the new Seasonal Powers, nearly every Diablo 4 season features a corresponding seasonal event, where you'll earn basic loot by killing new enemy types and gaining new powers.

For example, in Season 8, if you wanted to gain boss powers, besides targeted boss farming, you could also complete Apparition Incursions events early in the game to gain a more basic level of boss Power.

For Season 10, the new event that allows you to earn seasonal powers, Chaos Perks, is Chaos Rifts! While this season itself doesn't launch until September 23rd, the week-long 2.4.0 PTR launched on August 19th!

This time, we'll analyze Chaos Rifts' performance on PTR to see if it offers real value.

Chaos Rifts Overview

A Season 10-only event, Chaos Rifts will randomly appear in Helltides and Nightmare Dungeons throughout this season (2.4.0 PTR). Once encountered, they unleash a horde of demons, which you must defeat these enemies in a timely manner.

Chaos Rifts are divided into normal and mythic types. In addition to Chaos Perks, both normal and mythic Chaos Rifts can drop Diablo 4 gold, Chaos Armor, XP, gems, and other standard rewards, while mythic Chaos Rifts may yield Mythic Uniques.

How To Complete Chaos Rifts In Helltides?

Helltides are limited-time, regional events in Diablo 4 that respawn at random locations in Sanctuary every 75 minutes for one hour. Your goal is to kill enemies within the allotted time to collect Aberrant Cinders, which unlock Helltide Chests for loot.

In Season 10, when you enter Helltides and explore, you might see giant hands rising from the ground. These represent Chaos Rifts.

Defeat the enemies released by Chaos Rifts, and you'll most likely receive rare or magic Chaos Powers, along with other rewards and Infernal Warp, a special currency used to upgrade these powers.

In general, the chances of obtaining high-rarity perks or mythical Chaos Rifts in Helltides are relatively low. However, you can equip existing perks to enhance your character's power and increase your efficiency in finding and clearing Chaos Rifts in Helltides.

How Do You Complete Chaos Rifts In Nightmare Dungeons?

Generally speaking, you need to first obtain Nightmare Sigils to convert a normal dungeon into a Nightmare dungeon before you can enter and begin searching for Chaos Rifts.

There's nothing special to say about Chaos Rifts clearing process. Whether in Helltides or Nightmare Dungeons, all you have to do is kill enemies.

The Value Of Chaos Rifts

Of all Chaos Rifts' loot, the most important are undoubtedly Chaos Perks and Chaos Armor. The former provides seasonal bonuses in combat, while the latter acts as stronger armor, providing more reliable gear affix effects.

However, it's important to note that Chaos Perks are passively activated and don't require any additional equipment to function. However, some abilities also inflict debuffs while providing benefits.

Therefore, if you want to utilize them, you must plan ahead based on their characteristics.

As for Chaos Armor, remember that in addition to exclusive armor, the unique items added to each class in Season 10, as well as many universal armor pieces, can also be used as Chaos Armor!

How Is The Overall Chaos Rifts Experience?

Based on 2.4.0 PTR, Chaos Rifts generally spawn at a low rate. Sometimes, you might consume a significant amount of time exploring Helltides or Nightmare Dungeons, only to find one or two Chaos Rifts, with irregular spawn intervals.

Rare seasonal powers and mythic Chaos Rifts spawn even less frequently, but the common rewards and Infernal Warp drops are more than adequate, meeting your early game needs for upgrading your base character and Chaos Perks.

Honestly, however, earning a Chaos Perk, even at a lower rarity, will benefit you throughout Diablo 4 Season 10 PTR, especially after upgrading it with Infernal Warp.

Even without Chaos Rifts, Helltides and Nightmare Dungeons are essential content for completing any Diablo 4 season, as they provide the primary sources of gold, gear, and various crafting materials.

So, combining them with Chaos Rifts also saves you some unnecessary exploration time, allowing you to complete multiple quests simultaneously, both improving your character and completing necessary resource farming.

Overall, Chaos Rifts encounter itself is worth experiencing, but the associated loot drop rate, as well as other event mechanics, still need improvement.

What Changes Should Chaos Rifts Receive?

To ensure a wonderful experience for Chaos Rifts on subsequent 2.4.0 PTR and in the official release in Season 10, Diablo 4 should set a minimum number of times they should appear within a fixed timeframe. Otherwise, the low refresh rate could discourage participation.

As for Chaos Rifts in Nightmare Dungeons, Diablo 4 could add specific Nightmare Sigils as dungeon affixes that guarantee Chaos Rifts' appearance or increase their loot drops, thereby increasing the event's playability and value.

Fortunately, the purpose of 2.4.0 PTR is to find the shortcomings of existing mechanics through testing so that timely improvements can be made before the official release of Season 10. Therefore, there is no need to worry even if Chaos Rifts does not perform well at this stage!
Diablo 4 Season 10 New Unique Items Preview: How Do They Affect Each Class?
Every season brings a few new unique items, and Season 10 is no exception. Last season's new unique items significantly boosted Sorcerer and Spiritborn. The Ophidian Iris was arguably the best unique item ever designed.

So what about Season 10's unique items? Will they deliver the same crazy boosts to a particular build as they did in Season 9? That depends on their specific effects.

Barbarian: Sabre Of Tsasgal (Unique One-Hand Sword)
- Inherent: +50% Damage
- +107-121 Strength
- +62.5-85% Physical Damage
- +2-3 Core Skill Ranks
- +2-3 Warpath
Unique Effect: Each damaging skill you equip increases your damage by 3-5% [x], and each time you use a skill, your damage is increased by an additional 6-10% [x] for 15 seconds.

This unique item is clearly a general-purpose item. These unique items can provide a significant damage boost, increasing with more damaging skills. However, Barbarian's many Shout skills provide a significant buff, and without giving up Shout skills, this weapon can provide a maximum damage boost of 15-20% [x].

Druid: Kilt Of Blackwing (Unique Pants)
- +636-685 Maximum Life
- +2-3 Ranks to Ravens
- +13-17.5% Raven Cooldown Reduction
- +16-25% Chance for Ravens to Deal Double Damage
Unique Effect: Ravens deal 60-100% increased damage [x] and can transform into other forms or activate a companion skill, summoning ravens to attack nearby enemies. Summoning ravens has a chance to inflict Unkindness for 10 seconds, increasing the number of summoned ravens to 3 for the duration.

This unique item primarily enhances Druid's Ravens skill and increases the number of Ravens. Ravens can also summon wild wolves to attack enemies. This unique item shares many similarities with Ophidian Iris, allowing you to become a Druid summoner.

Necromancer: Gospel Of The Devotee (Unique Focus)
- +80-94 Intelligence
- +424-457 Maximum Life
- +4.4-10% Basic Skill Attack Speed
- +13-17.5% Chance for Basic Skills to Deal Double Damage
Unique Effect: Your basic skills are empowered. When you damage an enemy with a basic skill, the damage dealt by your other basic skills against them is increased by 10-30% [x] for 10 seconds.
- Reap attack speed increased by 10%.
- Decompose now creates a corpse every 0.5 seconds.
- Hemorrhage triggers an additional burst on the initial target.
- Bone Splinters will pierce enemies.
This unique weapon primarily enhances Necromancer's basic skills: Decompose, Reap, Hemorrhage, and Bone Splinters. Necromancer builds centered on basic skills aren't exactly mainstream. While Reap Necromancer build might be considered one, the attack speed boost alone isn't a significant improvement. You'll also need more Diablo 4 items that increase critical hit chance to make it perform well in the endgame.

Rogue: Orphan Maker (Unique Two-Handed Crossbow)
- Inherent: +130% Vulnerable Damage
- +4-6 Ranks to Marksman Skills
- +2-4 Ranks to Exploit
- +32-45% Chance for Marksman Skills to Cast Twice
- +125-170% Vulnerable Damage
Unique Effect: Using this weapon's Basic and Core Skills now allows recharging. Recharge skills now deal 250-300% more damage, and this bonus is doubled every two recharges.

PS: Skills with recharges incur a slight delay, preventing them from being recast. Its damage and reload speed are increased by 50% of your attack speed.

This unique item significantly strengthens Rogues, as Barrage, Rapid Fire, and Penetrating Shot are already powerful core abilities. This unique item increases their damage by up to 300%, making them particularly effective against bosses.

Sorcerer: Galvanic Azurite (Unique Ring)
- Inherent: 12.5% Resistance to All Elements
- Inherent: 5% Resistance to All Elements
- +5.2-6% Critical Strike Chance
- +57-75% Lightning damage
- 8.1-8.8% Cooldown reduction
- +2-3 Ranks to Elemental Synergies
Unique Effect: Lightning damage magnetizes enemies for 4 seconds, causing them to release explosive energy and increasing all Lightning damage you deal by 40-60% [x]. If two magnetized enemies collide with Burst Energy, they will be pulled towards each other.

This unique item further strengthens Lightning Sorcerer build and adds some crowd control. This item will increase the speed at which Sorcerer can farm Diablo 4 gold pairs in the endgame. Chain Lightning Sorcerer build reached Tier A in Season 9 and it may be reach Tier S in Season 10.

Spiritborn: Hesha E Kesungi (Unique Gloves)
- 10.5-15% Attack Speed
- 46.5-60% Vulnerable Damage
- 15.5-20% Ultimate Cooldown Reduction
- 3-5 Gorilla Skill Ranks
Unique Effect: A guardian summoned from a distance, whose heavy attack pulls enemies inward. Enemies within range receive 30-50% increased damage from your Gorilla skills, with double damage for knocked-down enemies or when targeting a boss.

This new unique item provides a significant damage multiplier for Spiritborn's Gorilla ability. While Gorilla's unique ability is known for its barrier-generating properties, it lacks damage compared to other abilities. This unique item addresses this shortcoming, especially against bosses, where it can even double Spiritborn's damage, creating a high-damage, high-survivability Spiritborn. This Gorilla Spiritborn build could potentially reach Tier A or even Tier S in Season 10.

Diablo 4 Season 10's unique items offer significant benefits to all classes, and some of these new unique items have the potential to rival Ophidian Iris from Season 9. Furthermore, their unique effects can be applied to Chaos Armor in Season 10. Combining them with other unique items and mythic items could be extremely effective, but this could also introduce unexpected bugs. How they perform remains to be seen through player testing on the PTR.
Diablo 4 Season 10 (2.4.0 PTR Preview): Chaos Rifts, Infernal Hordes, Chaos Armor, Chaos Perks, Unique Items And More
With Diablo 4 Sanctuary Sitdown now over, we're really starting to get to know the new Infernal Chaos season. Season 10 features reworks to popular features and powers that will completely shake up the landscape. Are you ready for another shakeup in the leaderboards?

Here, we'll explore the core changes coming to PTR 2.4.0 to help you prepare and become unstoppable as you conquer the new Chaos Dungeons!

Chaos Rifts

First, let's take a look at one of the new Season's activities - Chaos Rifts. These are portals that appear in Helltide events and Nightmare Dungeon, unleashing countless demons into Sanctuary.

Your goal is to slay all the monsters that emerge from the portal and successfully close it to restore order. Chaos Rifts are not only a new demon-slaying activity, but also a great source of Diablo 4 gold and unique items.

Once a rift is deactivated, it drops a new Nightmare Dungeon Sigil with Chaos Rifts effects, which increases the number of rifts and monsters encountered in the dungeon, and they're quite powerful.

In addition, deactivating these Chaos Rifts also drops a Fleeting Hordes Compass. With this key item, you'll only face four waves before entering Torment difficulty version of Infernal Hordes, and you'll only have to fight two Fell Council members.

Infernal Hordes Rework

Having mentioned Infernal Hordes, it's worth mentioning that this mechanic is getting a revamp in Season 10. This endgame activity is being reworked with new rewards, a new boss type, new seasonal powers, and unique items.

First and foremost, they've added a brand-new boss that you might be familiar with: the infamous Bartuc, the Warlord of Blood. You can choose between fighting Fell Council or Bartuc. While Bartuc's encounter is more difficult, I honestly think it'll be just as manageable as Andariel in Season 9 if you have decent gear. But we'll have to wait and see.

Also, its loot drops are quite exciting. In addition to new Chaos Uniques, we'll also have the opportunity to choose Chaos Waves from Infernal Offerings.

Chaos Waves will completely overhaul the upcoming waves in Infernal Hordes, offering a more intense challenge. These waves will be significantly more difficult, but if you survive, you'll be rewarded with more Burning Aether.

Note that during these Chaos Waves, you won't benefit from boons and bans, but you will encounter many enemies and encounter special events, such as dodging threatening projectiles from Chaos Rifts, slaying powerful Hellwyrms, and swarms of Aether Goblins. Surviving these Chaos Waves will reward you with a large amount of Burning Aether, which increases with your Hordes Compass level.

Honestly, I'd prefer an endless supply of enemies in the endgame to provide a challenge, rather than the usual tedious farming cycle of nothing to do.

Also, the new Bartuc boss fight in Season 10 requires Aether consumption before starting. This means you'll need to have defeated at least Wave 10 of Torment 4 before you can fight Bartuc.

In most cases, the difficulty starts around Wave 6 or 8. These enemies deliver Void-like attacks like a barrage, and the traps within them change quickly, making them incredibly deadly. So, perhaps we'll finally get a proper Pinnacle boss fight in Season 10!

Chaos Armor

While these fights are incredibly difficult, the rewards they drop are definitely worth it, as they drop the new Chaos Armor in addition to Diablo 4 gold and materials.

Chaos Armor, also known as Chaos Uniques, is a beefed-up version of the unique armor introduced in Diablo 4 Season 10. These Chaos Uniques can be placed in the following item slots, giving players more build possibilities: Helm, Chest Armor, Gloves, Pants, and Boots.

Chaos Armor includes new and existing unique armor pieces that have enhanced Unique Powers and can only be used in armor slots where vanilla unique armor cannot be equipped. For example, Flickerstep Unique Boots can be placed in any piece of gear except Boots. However, you cannot equip both Unique and Chaos Unique versions of the same item at the same time.

These Chaos Armor pieces are more powerful than vanilla armor and always have a random maximum value, rather than scaling based on a modifier range. Their damage bonus increases as their attribute cap increases, making this a great addition. This means their Unique Powers are 20% higher than regular armor, with the multiplier displayed in green text.

Notably, these Chaos Armors always come with at least one Greater Affix, allowing you to use unique items that previously occupied the same slot, resulting in even more powerful builds.

Overall, I'm very excited for these new Chaos Uniques, as they'll change how you play and create many excellent builds that haven't even been discovered yet. The only downside is that they're currently exclusive to Season 10, but I still hope they'll consider returning to this system in the future.

Chaos Perks

Now, let's talk about Chaos Perks, which are class-specific perks.

Chaos Perks are a brand new power to collect during this season. They come in four rarities: Magic, Rare, Legendary, and Unique, and combine universal and class-specific abilities. Each rarity includes three universal perks and one class-specific perk, meaning there are nearly a thousand perk combinations available for each class!

These perks affect how your class skills work and provide you with significant benefits, but they will certainly have some cost.

For example, Necromancer's Defile the Dead perk now consumes each corpse twice, and after consuming a corpse, it creates a Chaotic Burst, dealing significant Shadow damage.

Each class has four unique perks, and the developers will probably change this in the future, tweaking your perks and how they work in different ways. This is great, as the skill system in Season 9 is pretty bland right now.

New Unique Items

Finally, let's take a quick look at the new unique items for each class introduced in Season 10. As with previous seasonal updates, these items will serve as the foundation for our builds in the new season.
- Barbarian: Sabre of Tsasgral
- Druid: Kilt of Blackwing
- Necromancer: Gospel of the Devotee
- Rogue: Orphan Maker
- Sorcerer: Galvanic Azurite
- Spiritborn: Hesha e Kesungi
That's all for Diablo 4 2.4.0 PTR update. What are your thoughts on the upcoming Season 10 content? Do you think these changes will truly make it stand out in the competitive September? Regardless, Season 10 PTR, which runs from August 19-26, is about to open, and all the unknowns will soon be revealed!