Diablo 4 Season 5: The Theme Of Season Of The Infernal Hordes Shares Both Merits And Deficiencies

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• Diablo 4 Season 11 The Tower And Leaderboard Delayed | Reasons And Effects

  If you didn't watch Diablo 4 developer livestream or replay on December 3rd, then there's some bad news you need to know: the new dungeon, The Tower, and its accompanying leaderboard will be delayed.

  Originally, these two features were expected to be released alongside Diablo 4 Season 11 on December 11th Pacific Time, but due to various considerations, the developers ultimately decided to postpone them.

  Therefore, this article will analyze why Diablo 4 made this decision and what the consequences will be.

  

  When Will The Tower May Be Available?

  During the developer livestream, Diablo 4 team stated that the dungeon The Tower and the leaderboard are expected to be released sometime in 2026 with Patch 2.5.2, and will still be in beta form.

  This means that even after launch, The Tower and the leaderboard may be subject to temporary modifications and closures, and may even be further delayed. All of this is to ensure that the final product is more stable and enjoyable.

  Why The Delay?

  Besides ensuring the stability of The Tower and the leaderboard, there's another underlying reason for the delay: when the gameplay was introduced in 2.5.0 PTR, it was essentially an unfinished product.

  This is partly because PTR is only for testing purposes, and partly because the developers were using it to gauge player opinions on the mechanism and to determine whether to officially release it based on how the dungeon and leaderboard worked together.

  The developers stated in the livestream that they hope The Tower will be a mechanism that truly reflects your abilities through the leaderboard, but is also fun, and not just new content crammed in for the sake of a new season.

  Perhaps the less-than-ideal performance of the leaderboard during its initial release has made the developers more cautious this time. After all, the success of many games proves that the leaderboard mechanism itself is not flawed; the key is how it's implemented.

  Furthermore, if you played 2.5.0 PTR, you might have noticed that the gameplay of The Tower is quite similar to The Pit in Diablo 4, both involving progressing through a dungeon and defeating bosses to complete each level.

  This might make you feel that The Tower, besides bringing back the leaderboard, offers little in the way of new content. The developers stated in the livestream that they understand this and will work to address this in future optimizations.

  It's expected that after the initial stages, these two endgame dungeons will gradually differentiate in their mechanics as you progress through them, aiming to provide distinct and engaging gameplay experiences.

  To be honest, this is quite challenging, as both gameplay modes are initially derived from Diablo 3 Greater Rifts. Designing something innovative, based on the same source will be a key focus for D4 development team.

  Both optimization and adding new content take time, and it's only been a little over a month since 2.5.0 PTR ended, so it's impossible to complete all this work. Therefore, the delayed launch is both unexpected and understandable.

  The Tower Basic Mechanics

  The Tower is essentially a continuously progressing dungeon system that requires you to reach a specific level and complete related quests in Season Journey (this mechanism will be replaced by Season Rank in Season 11) to unlock it.

  Each round of The Tower generates 5 dungeon floors. Before entering combat, you need to bring sufficiently good Diablo 4 items, such as powerful weapons and reliable potions, to defeat the enemies and the boss, Tower Guardian, on each floor.

  Note that each floor has a 10-minute time limit; if you exceed the time limit, even if you win, the result won't count. During combat, you can collect progress orbs from defeated enemies. Once the progress bar is full, the boss will appear.

  To complete the current round of The Tower as quickly as possible, you need to defeat higher-level enemies that provide more progress and activate up to 4 Pylons in the dungeon to gain related benefits - you need to break the shields protecting them first.

  Originally, we predicted that you could farm The Tower for various rewards such as gold, items, and cosmetics, but now that its launch has been delayed, everything has become more uncertain.

  However, given its unique nature related to the leaderboard, it's expected that you will only receive a onetime reward for clearing new levels. If it were possible to farm repeatedly, the leaderboard rankings would lose their value.

  What Shortcomings Need To Be Addressed?

  Besides the points considered by the developers themselves, players have also pointed out many shortcomings based on The Tower's performance in 2.5.0 PTR.

  For example, the progress orbs dropped after killing enemies are generated too far away, making collecting them too time-consuming; the generated dungeons vary significantly, potentially preventing you from achieving the appropriate ranking on the leaderboard.

  We hope these issues will be completely resolved after The Tower and the leaderboards are officially launched, so that the final product will live up to the expectations of Diablo 4 players.

  What Other Important Information Was Revealed In The Livestream?

  This livestream announced the specific launch date for Season 11, as well as its official name, Season of Divine Intervention. In addition, it provided more details and changes to the various mechanics of the season based on existing information.

  If you want to experience this content firsthand, please download the update and log into Diablo 4 on December 11th at the specific time corresponding to your time zone! As for The Tower, waiting a little longer for a better experience is certainly worthwhile!

• Diablo 4 Season 11 Season Of Divine Intervention Release Date & Full Update | Item Upgrade Overhaul, New Azmodan Boss, Class Changes And More

  Diablo 4 will receive a new season update on December 11, 2025, at 8:30 PM (UTC). The season is called Season of Divine Intervention. This is expected to be the largest update for Diablo 4 to date, bringing a wealth of new content.

  Season 11 will see the return of Lesser Evils. Azmodan, one of Lesser Evils of Hell, will become the game's first new World Boss. The item system will also be completely revamped. A new Toughness stat improves the defense mechanics, and the more challenging Seasonal Rank system replaces Seasonal Renown.

  

  Enemies and monsters have been updated, and due to the changes to items and various mechanics, the different character classes will be significantly reshuffled.

  The enemies and monsters in the game have been updated, and due to the changes to items and various mechanics, the different character classes in the game will also be reshuffled. This update includes a lot of content, so I will summarize the important updates for you. The following is the main content of this 2.5.0 patch update.

  Item Upgrade Paths

  In Season of Divine Intervention, item upgrade paths have changed, and the enhancement system has been redesigned.

  Tempering

  Players no longer randomly obtain Affix from the required Temper Manual; instead, they can choose any Temper Affix they have acquired and add it to their items. This eliminates the previous randomness and makes enhancement more targeted.

  The item Tempering Charges have also been changed, as follows:

  • Rare: 1 Temper
  • Legendary and above: 3 Tempers, plus one per Greater Affix.

  Note that Scrolls of Restoration have also been redesigned; they now only restore one temper charge, but there is no limit to the number of times they can be used.

  The materials required for Tempering have also been updated:

  • Rare: 25 Common Salvage and 5 Veiled Crystals
  • Legendary: 15 Veiled Crystals and 5 Legendary Salvage
  • Ancestral Legendary: 25 Legendary Salvage and Forgotten Souls

  Masterworking

  Masterworking has been redesigned. A new attribute, Refinement, has been added to items. Each time a player Masterworks an item, its refinement value randomly increases by 1-3%. The maximum refinement threshold is 20%. Once this threshold is reached, the item is considered Masterworked.

  Items can now be Masterworked without tempering. The item quality cap has been increased from 20 to 25. Each Masterwork increases the quality level by 1-3 levels.

  Each quality level increases the item's affix stats by 1%, resulting in a 50% increase in random affix stats after full enhancement.

  When an item reaches its highest quality, you gain a final affix upgrade opportunity, allowing you to upgrade a random affix to a higher-level one. You can re-upgrade this Masterworked affix using Obducite and Neathiron without resetting the quality.

  Neathiron can be obtained in Sanctuary, while Infernal Horde is the best place to farm Obducite.

  Sanctification

  This season update introduces a new item upgrade stage-Sanctification. It infuses items with angelic power, granting them the following abilities:

  • Add an additional Legendary ability;
  • Upgrade an Affix to a Greater Affix;
  • Add an additional Affix to a set of special Sanctification Affixes;
  • Replace an existing Affix with a random Sanctification Affix;
  • Make the item extremely tough, preventing it from losing durability.

  Sanctification renders your item unchangeable, it is the final upgrade.

  Defense Mechanism Changes

  Toughness

  This update introduces a new defense concept called Toughness, a new attribute in Attack Power that represents how much raw damage you can withstand after all damage reduction measures are in effect. Details are as follows:

  • When comparing items, Armor or Resistance difference between items will be displayed as a uniform percentage of Toughness difference, instead of just a fixed Armor difference;
  • Toughness will be displayed in Character Stats window;
  • Toughness tooltip will differentiate Damage Resistance by damage type;
  • Torment difficulty will display a recommended Toughness value when the player selects a difficulty level.

  Armor & Resistances

  Armor and Resistance will both be part of a rating system. Higher ratings result in decreasing benefits, and Armor now reduces all types of damage, both physical and non-physical.

  Below Torment Tiers, the previous penalties for Armor and Resistance have been removed. Damage reduction effects from Skills and Paragon Nodes will now be multiplicatively added to Armor and Resistance.

  Healing Potion

  Potions offer the best healing in the game, but their acquisition is limited. All players start with only 4 potions. However, players can obtain Renown by exploring map areas and completing various quests. Reaching certain Renown levels will then unlock Potion replenishment.

  This update includes significant changes to Healing Potion:

  • Potion now instantly restores 35% of maximum Life and no longer provides continuous healing;
  • Potion regeneration time is now 30 seconds per potion, down from 12 seconds previously;
  • Healing Affixes have been changed; they can now be found on leg armor as Potion Count Affixes;
  • Since healing is now percentage-based, Potion level upgrades have been removed.

  Fortify

  Fortify effect has been reworked. To align with Healing Potion changes, Fortify will now consume additional Life storage instead of Damage Reduction to heal the player.

  While a player has Fortify, they will remain in Fortified state, and Fortify stacks will add to the player's Maximum Life. Fortify-related skills, passives, and items have also been updated accordingly.

  Enemy And Monster Difficulty Updates

  Elites

  To accommodate the newly added Champion and Rare Elites, the elite density in Dungeon and Overworld has been adjusted. Undercity Afflicted Monsters have also adopted a new rarity system, reducing the locations where players can gain extra time and increasing the game's challenge.

  Meanwhile, the developers have integrated Lesser Evils into the endgame system during Season of Divine Intervention, with these demons joining different events.

  Azmodan

  Azmodan will be a permanent World Boss during the season and a key dungeon. Players must defeat him in Season Rank V Capstone Dungeon to progress.

  Azmodan's resilience has been increased, making it more balanced with other World Bosses, and Shrines will no longer disappear during combat. Defeating Azmodan will reward players with a chest in the summoning area, which can be opened with Corrupted Essence.

  Duriel

  Duriel will replace Blood Maiden as the main summoned monster in Helltide. Pangs of Duriel will appear instead of Hellborne at the highest threat level, after which you can summon Duriel using Baneful Hearts.

  Belial

  It will appear in Pit as Lord of Lies. Belial Eyes will randomly appear in limited-time dungeons. Defeating them will stun nearby enemies but also summon a group of Belial Apparitions.

  When you destroy enough eyes, Belial will appear. Defeating Belial is a worthwhile challenge; if you encounter it in a dungeon, don't let it go. Defeating Belial will grant additional rewards and an extra Glyph upgrade.

  Andariel

  Andariel may appear in the limited-time dungeon mode of Kurast Undercity. It corrupts Spirit Beacon, making it quite dangerous but also granting players more Attunement.

  Beware of Shades of Andariel and enemies that may appear at any time in the dungeon. If Andariel himself appears as the final boss of Undercity, try to defeat him for even greater rewards.

  Divine Gifts And Essences

  This season's progression will revolve around Divine Gifts bestowed by the angel Hadriel.

  Divine Gifts

  Each gift contains the following rewards:

  • A Reward (Base Buff)
  • A Corrupted Gift (Increased difficulty but same reward)
  • A Purified Gift (No negative effects, additional buff and double reward)

  Players can socket gifts into special inventory panels. A Corrupted Gift in an outer slot increases the challenge before the reward is granted, while a Purified Gift in an inner slot removes the challenge and doubles the reward.

  Essences

  Players will receive a Corrupted Essence upon their first kill of each Lesser Evil in the game. Giving these Essences to Hadriel for purification will grant Divine Gifts. The specific Essences are as follows:

  • Essence of Pain (Duriel): Socketables in Pangs of Duriel
  • Essence of Lies (Belial): Additional upgrade chances in Pit
  • Essence of Sin (Azmodan): Activity Keys and more Dungeon Keys
  • Essence of Anguish (Andariel): Obols and movement speed bonus

  Season Rank System

  Season Journey + Seasonal Renown is about to be upgraded to a more challenging and rewarding Season Rank system. Players will need to complete a Capstone Dungeon to advance to the next rank. Renown is currently only effective in Eternal Realms.

  The good news is that the difficulty of Capstone Dungeons is fixed and will not increase with rank. Renown is currently only effective in Eternal Realms.

  Class-Unique Item Updates

  Season 11 also introduces several new class-specific Diablo 4 items, including:

  • Chainscourged Mail (Barbarian Pants): Disables damaging Brawling Skills and greatly increases attack power;
  • Khamsin Steppewalkers (Druid Boots): Damaging 100-150 enemies with Nature Magic Skills grants maximum movement speed, and enemies you charge at are immobilized for one second;
  • Death's Pavane (Rogue Pants): Dance of Knives drops daggers upon hitting enemies; picking them up grants 1 Charge and significantly increases damage;
  • Gravebloom (Necromancer Mace): Summons three smaller Golems with faster attack and respawn rates;
  • Orsivane (Sorcerer Mace): Provides increased damage and a free Enchantment effect to unused Defensive Skills in the skill bar;
  • Path of the Emissary (Spiritborn Boots): Core Skills are automatically triggered when the player moves.

  In addition, Necromancers' shields have gained an offensive attribute, unlocking new tanky offense builds. Many players predict that Necromancers will become one of the hottest classes in the new season.

  Besides these major updates, Season 11 also addresses many player feedback issues, fixing numerous gameplay problems and other bugs. Stay tuned for the upcoming Diablo 4 Season of Divine Intervention!

• Diablo 4 Season 11 Monster Power Rework Explained: How To Survive In More Challenging Encounters?

  For Diablo 4 Season 11, the developers seem genuinely trying to reverse the previous player stereotype that seasonal content was too simplistic and boring. Therefore, in this season update, besides a series of new events, items, and quality-of-life changes, the most noteworthy changes are the alterations to elite monsters and regular monsters, and the brand-new Toughness system.

  The goal of this update is to make monster encounters more challenging, allowing them to catch up with the players' frenzied power spikes of the past two years.

  Especially since the release of Vessel of Hatred DLC, we've clearly seen many monsters become less threatening. Coupled with the addition of new seasonal powers and unique items, players are basically filling every gear slot with damage, completely abandoning defense. In most cases, with a few tweaks, we can easily create an incredibly tanky character, completely unstoppable.

  But in Season 11, this is about to change, especially when we're getting one-shotted by elite monsters while pushing through the Pits with Stinger-focused Spiritborn build that was quite strong in previous seasons.

  Obviously, you can build your character to be tanky enough to fight these elite monsters and then challenge 100-tier Towers, but now you'll definitely need to seriously consider which defensive attributes your character build should include, rather than just blindly stacking damage as before.

  So, here we want to talk about the changes the developers have made to revamp and strengthen the enemies in Diablo 4 Season 11, and how you can better deal with them.

  

  What Factors Affect Monster Strength?

  First, the enemies in D4S11 are stronger, thanks to improved AI, new affixes, and the completely new design of elite enemies, making their behavior more diverse, complex, and unpredictable.

  Smarter AI

  The development team has made the enemies' appearance and behavior more distinct by updating their AI and behavior, rather than changing their visual design. Therefore, in Season 11, monster attack patterns are more dynamic and unpredictable. Their movements are more intelligent, and they will take different actions based on difficulty, no longer following simple, repetitive attack patterns.

  Notably, the tracking ability and reaction speed of some enemies have also been significantly improved. Players can no longer immediately detect the movements of some monsters, adding more tension and rhythm to exploration. Furthermore, the probability of large-scale monster clusters has decreased, meaning it's more difficult to eliminate all monsters at once with effective AOE attacks.

  Affix Changes

  Diablo 4 also added over 20 new monster affixes, making encounters more threatening and meaningful. Now, elite enemies will summon minions that inherit their abilities, creating new and more dangerous multi-stage encounters.

  Moreover, the reduced probability of monster clusters forces players to focus more on strategic tactics; the era of easily crushing all enemies may be over.

  These changes force players to pay more attention to their position, timing, and target selection, creating a more engaging and challenging combat experience. You can no longer rely on past combat habits; you must adapt to new enemy tactics and affixes.

  The New Toughness System's Impact

  Besides the increased monster strength in Season 11, the addition of the new Toughness stat is a major reason why encounters are now more challenging.

  In D4S11, Toughness is a new stat that summarizes a character's overall survivability by calculating their effective health against different types of damage. Toughness is displayed below Attack Power, providing a more intuitive view of defensive capabilities.

  This system integrates and modifies the way armor and resistances work, resulting in diminishing returns for both. This means that endlessly stacking a single attribute is no longer the optimal strategy.

  Also, because there is no longer a clear damage reduction cap in the game, you need to choose defensive gear and skills more carefully, investing more resources to build a strong defensive system. More importantly, you must adjust your playstyle to deal with stronger enemies; you can no longer rely on auto-battle but need to actively participate in the system to survive and achieve victory.

  Another more direct point is that the addition of character attributes means you'll need to manage another type of stat to improve your character's overall survivability against all damage types, further increasing the overall complexity of combat.

  How To Deal With It?

  So, what should you do now to deal with these significantly enhanced enemies?

  Stack Defense

  First, proactively choosing defensive gear will probably be a priority for many players. Items such as Harlequin Crest, Shroud of False Death, and Tassets of the Dawning Sky are excellent choices for improving survivability. I can easily imagine some people choosing Harlequin Crest over the higher-damage Doombringer.

  Then, you need to prioritize improving defensive attributes such as armor and resistances, which are crucial for mitigating damage taken. You can buy Diablo 4 items with high armor and resistance values, especially since armor now mitigates all types of damage.

  At the same time, increasing maximum health through equipment affixes for a larger survivability buffer is also a wise choice, essentially adding an extra layer of defense.

  Utilize Movement Skills

  In fast-paced encounters, skills like Shadow Step or Blood Mist can help you reposition and dodge damage, crucial when enemies are more aggressive. Additionally, crowd control abilities like Chilled, Slowed, Frozen, and Stunned can buy you more reaction time and space to escape danger.

  Adjust Build Specializations

  Avoid relying solely on old builds focused on damage output. You need to adjust your build to balance offense and defense, especially in high-level endgame content such as Capstone Dungeons and The Tower.

  Prioritize skills that provide damage reduction and explore less obvious but defensive specializations that directly improve your survivability.

  Divine Gifts

  Divine Gifts is a new passive power system introduced in Diablo 4 Season 11. They provide continuous buffs both in and out of combat and synergize perfectly with any build. Therefore, before starting a fight, be sure to understand and fully utilize the available Divine Gifts to explore new synergies and build possibilities.

  In short, the significant increase in monster strength in Season 11 means that encounters are no longer just a tedious and monotonous part of grinding. You must adapt to smarter and more diverse enemy tactics, dynamic combat, and more deadly elite monsters to survive in the new season. This is perhaps more than just increased challenge; more importantly, it finally brings back the sense of accomplishment that D4 fans have been craving!

• Diablo 4 Season 11 Infinite Leap Barbarian Build Guide | Best Gear, Skills, Glyphs & Gameplay Tips

  Each class in Diablo 4 Season 11 has new unique items, often leading to entirely new builds or playstyles. Barbarian's new unique item, Chainscourged Mail, allows for a continuous jumping playstyle.

  Infinite Leap Barbarian build is more like a speed farming build. It's not particularly powerful, but it's very fun. it allows you for quick completion of content like Helltide, Dungeon, and Infernal Hordes through endless jumping.

  

  Leap Barbarian Gameplay

  The core of Infinite Leap Barbarian build relies on the unique effect of Chainscourged Mail. Its effect is that when you cast a damaging melee skill, that skill is disabled. Once all melee skills in your skill bar are disabled, they are reactivated, and their cooldowns are refreshed. For each skill disabled, your melee skill damage increases by 50-100%[x].

  This means that if you only have one high-damage melee skill, you can use it infinitely. These pants make leapquake builds a breeze, and among all the new unique items in Season 11, it's definitely one of the top-tier items.

  Leap Barbarian Gear

  • Helm: Harlequin Crest (Ruby+Ruby)
  • Chest Armor: Aspect of Bul-Kathos (Ruby+Ruby)
  • Gloves: Vehement Brawler's Aspect
  • Pants: Chainscourged Mail (Ruby+Ruby)
  • Boots: Wildbolt Aspect
  • Amulet: Melted Heart of Selig (Diamond)
  • Ring 1: Bold Chieftain's Aspect (Diamond)
  • Ring 2: Ring of Starless Skies (Diamond)
  • Bludgeoning Weapon: Brawler's Aspect (Igni+Tec)
  • Slashing Weapon: Aspect of Earthquakes (Neo+Ohm)
  • Dual-Wield Weapon 1: Ramaladni's Magnum Opus (Ruby)
  • Dual-Wield Weapon 2: Sabre of Tsasgal (Ruby)

  Chainscourged Mail is the core starting gear for this build. To effectively utilize its unique effect, you cannot have other Brawling skills in your skill bar.

  Harlequin Crest provides all skill levels and attributes, offering a significant damage boost. Melted Heart of Selig is one of the best mythic items in Season 11, providing abundant resources and survivability, making it ideal for Barbarians.

  Wildbolt Aspect increases Leap Ranks, perfectly complementing this build, while Aspect of the Earthquake is the core of its damage output. It causes Barbarian's Leap to trigger Earthquakes, dealing high damage and providing substantial damage reduction.

  Vehement Brawler's Aspect increases the area of effect of your Leap, which is crucial for fast farming.

  Other Diablo 4 items, such as Ramaladni's Magnum Opus and Sabre of Tsasgal, provide damage amplification for Leap and Earthquake, enhancing your gameplay experience. Finally, since Leap is affected by attack speed, remember to stack it as much as possible when crafting equipment.

  Leap Barbarian Skills

  Active skills

  • Leap: Enhanced Leap and Power Leap
  • War Cry: Enhanced War Cry and Power War Cry
  • Challenging Shout: Enhanced Challenging Shout and Tactical Challenging Shout
  • Rallying Cry: Enhanced Rallying Cry and Tactical Rallying Cry
  • Wrath of the Berserker: Prime Wrath of the Berserker and Supreme Wrath of the Berserker:
  • Ground Stomp: Enhanced Ground Stomp And Strategic Ground Stomp

  Talents

  • Pressure Point
  • Warpath (Vessel of Hatred)
  • Tempered Fury
  • Martial Vigor
  • Outburst
  • Tough as Nails
  • Booming Voice
  • Aggressive Resistance
  • Battle Fervor
  • Prolific Fury
  • Pit Fighter
  • No Mercy
  • Slaying Strike
  • Hamstring
  • Thick Skin
  • Defensive Stance
  • Counteroffensive
  • Heavy Handed
  • Wallop
  • Brute Force
  • Unbridled Rage

  Leap is the primary movement and damage skill. If you have a 100% Lucky Hit Chance, you can efficiently trigger its effects. As long as you can hold down Leap skill, you can perform consecutive jumps. Combined with or using dodge to adjust your position, you can achieve high-speed movement and clearing mobs.

  With only one Brawling skill, all three Shouts skills - War Cry, Challenging Shout, and Rallying Cry - can be used. They provide damage amplification, rage generation, and reduced damage taken.

  Wrath of the Berserker grants Barbarian Berserking and Unstoppable status and increased damage. Ground Stomp is used to refresh ultimate skill cooldowns and manage rage issues. You also need to use Dominate Glyph in conjunction with Ground Stomp to ensure the Overpower effect on enemies is always up.

  The ideal choice for Technique is Polearm, as it provides Lucky Hit chance and extra damage to wounded enemies. A Two-Handed Mace is also a strong alternative, offering slightly higher damage and faster animation speed.

  Glyphs

  Here are some recommended glyphs:

  • Marshal: Provides cooldown reduction for non-Shout abilities.
  • Blood Rage: Increases damage after killing a bleeding enemy.
  • Challenger: Amplifies other glyph nodes, increasing damage against elite enemies.
  • Carnage: Provides attack speed.
  • Weapons Master: Restores Fury.
  • Warbringer: Consuming Fury grants Fortify effect.

  Divine Gift

  Divine Gifts are a Season 11 mechanic. Corrupted Divine Gifts increase the game's difficulty, while Purified Divine Gifts provide some buffs, but overall, they don't offer the same significant improvement as Chaos Perks.

  Corrupted Divine Gift:

  • Essence of Sin
  • Essence of Shadows
  • Essence of Squalor
  • Essence of Hellfire

  Purified Divine Gift:

  • Essence of Screams
  • Essence of Pain
  • Essence of Sin
  • Essence of Lies

  Other Items

  • Elixir of Resourcefulness: Saves resource consumption.
  • Ancient Times: Increases Strength by 25.
  • Reddamine Buzz: Increases maximum health.
  • Soothing Spices: Increases all elemental resistances and armor.

  Infinite Leap Barbarian build is quite fun, but it might not perform very well in high-difficulty content like The Pit. On T4 difficulty, you can farm all content comfortably - especially if you enjoy a fast, spam-heavy farming playstyle

• Diablo 4 Season 11 Divine Gifts Guide | How Do Corrupted And Purified Stats Work?

  It's a tradition in Diablo 4 to equip each new season with its own unique seasonal power. While not every new power is fun or useful enough, they do reflect the season's theme to some extent.

  In Season 10, Chaos Perks were a hit with players due to their powerful abilities, which puts even more pressure on the upcoming Divine Gifts mechanic - if it doesn't perform as well as Chaos Perks, it could ruin Season 11.

  Therefore, this article will focus on this mechanic, explaining its operation to analyze whether it's worth paying attention to and experiencing.

  

  What Are Divine Gifts?

  As the seasonal power for Season 11, Divine Gifts actually has two systems: Corrupted and Purified. Equipping Corrupted increases both the difficulty and rewards of subsequent games, while Purified only provides additional buffs.

  Defeating the four bosses - Duriel, Andariel, Azmodan, and Andariel - in this season will reward you with two Corrupted Essences from each. Find Angel Hadriel, who will purify these essences, transforming them into equipable Divine Gifts.

  Corrupted slots corresponding to these Corrupted Essences will unlock immediately after defeating the boss. However, to unlock their Purified slots, you must unlock higher ranks in Season Reputation system. The required ranks are as follows:

  • Duriel: Rank II
  • Andariel: Rank IV
  • Azmodan: Rank VI
  • Belial: Rank VIII

  In addition to Corrupted and Purified slots, Divine Gifts can also be placed in the slots corresponding to each boss to unlock exclusive rewards. You can then earn XP by repeatedly farming these bosses or other related enemies to upgrade existing Divine Gifts.

  How To Obtain Divine Gifts?

  Four key bosses will appear in different game events or dungeons. Defeating them, converting them through Hadriel, and ensuring your reputation level meets the requirements will allow you to equip a full Divine Gift.

  Therefore, to enjoy this seasonal mechanic, you must be strong enough to defeat all four bosses. Some are easier, while others may require you to equip better Diablo 4 items to beat them.

  Each boss can provide up to two Divine Gifts (before conversion, they are Corrupted Essences). Each Divine Gift consists of three parts: boss reward, Corrupted effect, and Purified effect.

  It's worth noting that if you obtain the boss reward after unlocking Purified stat, its contents will be doubled. The rewards will continue to increase as Divine Gifts are upgraded.

  Duriel

  This boss will appear in Helltides. The corresponding essence and specific buffs are as follows:

  Essence of Pain:

  • Boss Reward: Can drop socketable items.
  • Corrupted Effect: The boss will ambush you more frequently and has a 100% chance of breaking your barrier or empower itself.
  • Purified Effect: If you take damage, you will briefly gain maximum barrier value every 20 seconds.

  Essence of Squalor:

  • Boss Reward: You can encounter Maggots while farming Helltide; killing them will drop Experience Globes.
  • Corrupted Effect: Maggots spawn from falling meteorites, consuming 1 Health Potion per attack.
  • Purified Effect: Gain 1 Health Potion every 20 seconds.

  Andariel

  This boss will appear in Kurast Undercity. The corresponding essence and specific buffs are as follows:

  Essence of Anguish:

  • Boss Reward: Obtain more Obols by clearing dungeons.
  • Corrupted Effect: You may encounter Manifestations of Anguish in dungeons; they will reduce your movement speed by 70% when they get close.
  • Purified Effect: Grants a 30% movement speed increase.

  Essence of Screams:

  • Boss Reward: Obtain more Salvage materials by clearing dungeons.
  • Corrupted Effect: May encounter Agonized Souls, causing you to lose 12% of your maximum health per second.
  • Purified Effect: Grants a 20% increase in resistances.

  Azmodan

  This boss will appear as a World Boss. The corresponding essences and specific buffs are as follows:

  Essence of Sin:

  • Boss Reward: Obtain more keys to play other events.
  • Corrupted Effect: You will be in a Vulnerable state when fighting all World Boss enemies.
  • Purified Effect: Armor effectiveness increased by 20%.

  Essence of Hellfire:

  • Boss Reward: Obtain more lair boss keys.
  • Corrupted Effect: Triggers a meteor shower attack when fighting all World Boss enemies.
  • Purified Effect: Your direct damage has a 10% chance to stun the enemy for 1 second.

  Belial

  This boss will appear in The Pit. The corresponding essences and specific buffs are as follows:

  Essence of Lies:

  • Boss Reward: Gain additional upgrade opportunities in The Pit.
  • Corrupted Effect: The boss will fire beams at you, causing you to lose 10% of your maximum health per second.
  • Purified Effect: You can recover 1% of your maximum health per second.

  Essence of Shadows:

  • Boss Reward: Gain more gold by clearing The Pit.
  • Corrupted Effect: The boss's phantom attacks can stun you for 3 seconds or knock you back.
  • Purified Effect: Enter an Unstoppable state once every 12 seconds of being affected by crowd control effects.

  How To Maximize The Effect Of Divine Gifts?

  As you can see, Divine Gifts buffs or rewards corresponding to different bosses, have highly limited effects, usually only suitable for use in specific events.

  Therefore, we recommend that you prioritize defeating the bosses corresponding to the buffs you want to unlock their Divine Gifts, based on your needs or playstyle. Then, while farming other bosses, acquire enough XP to upgrade existing gifts.

  What Is The Relationship Between Divine Gifts And Sanctification?

  If you've been following Season 11, you should know that Sanctification is the final mechanism for upgrading gear - once completed, the gear cannot be modified.

  The relationship between this mechanism and Divine Gifts is that when you fight the relevant boss for the latter, if you win, you may receive an invitation to travel to Heavenly Forge to begin Sanctification. Unlocking this forge requires completing Season 11 main quest.

  Afterward, to complete Sanctification, you need to consume Heavenly Sigils, which can be farmed by completing various endgame events.

  While completing Sanctification isn't difficult, especially for players already in the endgame, the reward - a gear upgrade - is randomized and cannot be changed afterward, making this mechanism less appealing to players.

  That concludes our introduction. We would be honored if you found it helpful in preparing for Season 11!

• Diablo 4 Season 11 Torment System Rework Speculation: Why Are More Difficulty Tiers Needed?

  Diablo 4 fans are undoubtedly familiar with Torment difficulty system in the open world. From Torment 1 to Torment 4, each tier represents a significant increase in your character's power.

  The difficulty difference between each tier is substantial; with each increase, enemy strength nearly tenfold. Therefore, by the time you reach T4, the monsters are exponentially more difficult than your initial encounters, creating a rather steep progression curve.

  

  What's Wrong With The Current Torment Difficulty System?

  If Diablo 4 continued to provide highly challenging content, it would be fine. However, the problem is that there are currently only four Torment difficulty levels. T4 is the final difficulty level in the open world, with no higher challenges to overcome.

  Once you adapt to T4, the game becomes increasingly easier because your power increases, but enemy strength no longer increases. Ultimately, experienced players with superior builds can easily wipe out all enemies.

  This situation creates two main problems.

  First, the vast difference in Torment levels requires players to acquire gear that provides dozens of times the damage boost just to barely handle the current enemies. This is why current Paragon boards and glyph nodes increasingly focus on pure damage increases rather than interesting support nodes.

  Second, once we reach Torment 4, everything becomes incredibly easy; the only thing we can continuously pursue is faster map clearing speed and faster movement speed. So, since the current dominant farming builds can instantly kill all enemies and loot all Diablo 4 items, why would we need to play other builds? The existence of slower builds is also meaningless, as there's no higher level of challenge to challenge them, and their sustained damage output has no chance to be realized.

  These problems not only reduce the original customizability of mechanics like Paragon, because all the difficulty-increasing mechanisms require players to blindly pursue damage, but also stifle build diversity.

  Therefore, for various reasons, the developers recently hinted that they plan to add more Torment difficulties in Diablo 4 Season 11 and subsequent season updates, potentially increasing the number from the current four to ten.

  But will these changes really solve the problem? Why is increasing the difficulty levels reasonable in the current situation? What impact will it have on endgame content? Let's discuss this together.

  What Are The Benefits Of Increasing Torment Levels?

  First, if implemented correctly, increasing Torment difficulty levels can solve both problems simultaneously.

  Because instead of setting four vastly different difficulty levels, it's better to adjust to ten smaller levels, reducing the damage multiplier of each level from ten times to two times. This makes the leveling curve smoother, meaning you can steadily improve even without gear that provides a significant damage boost.

  At the same time, Paragon nodes can return to their role as practical support characters, rather than purely damage dealers, making the entire Diablo 4 gear system healthier.

  The bigger benefit, however, is that more Torment tiers make sense for slower builds. They were designed to trade speed for higher damage bonuses, so the Torment difficulty adjustment will give them a greater advantage.

  This is the right way to create build diversity, allowing different builds to find the most suitable development method and tier based on their own strengths and weaknesses, rather than forcing all builds to desperately chase movement speed.

  New Torment System Predictions

  Next, let's propose some ideas on how the new difficulty system will actually work. These are just preliminary ideas, but I think they show potential.

  Let's assume they add a total of 10 Torment tiers in Season 11, from T1 to T10. For clarity, we'll associate them with The Pit tiers. T1 unlocks at The Pit tier 10, T2 at tier 20, T3 at tier 30, and so on, up to T10 at tier 100.

  This would create a smoother difficulty curve and make it easier to control. You won't encounter insurmountable obstacles, but rather a steady climb.

  What's even more interesting is that content and rewards will gradually unlock as you progress through your Torment level; not everything is available in Torment 1. These tangible progress milestones provide players with a greater sense of accomplishment as they advance.

  We've also made some predictions about the content unlocks for each level, for reference only:

  • T1: The starting point at level 60. The Pit unlocks at this stage. You can also find common unique items, low-level boss materials, and standard items suitable for beginners, but not enough to build a core gameplay mechanic.
  • T2: Dark Citadel unlocks at this stage to help players adapt to the endgame system.
  • T3: Nightmare Dungeon Escalation unlocks at this stage. It guides them to try higher difficulties and understand the game mechanics.
  • T4: Higher-ranking bosses will unlock, such as Andariel, Duriel, and Lord Zir. These bosses drop powerful and unique gear that can define a build.
  • T5: The Tower will unlock. The Tower is competitive endgame content with leaderboards. By Torment 5 difficulty, players will have enough experience to understand the mechanics and its importance.
  • T6: Belial unlocks here. This is currently the last boss in Diablo 4 and one of the most difficult fights in the game, but it drops top-tier unique items.
  • T7: Expansion content may unlock here, including new systems, new events, and legendary Temper Manuals, creating another progression stage.
  • T8: Special elite monsters spawn here. These elite monsters are enhanced, possess auras and special affixes, and drop legendary gems based on previous season abilities. This gives you new build options to pursue.
  • T9 & 10: Represent even higher difficulty challenges. Not all builds can reach these difficulties, but if you do, you'll receive season-exclusive rewards, allowing players to still have something to strive for at the peak.

  Item Power And Rewards Scaling

  In addition, here's a suggestion related to Torment difficulty: incrementally increase item power in the late game.

  Currently, all Ancestral Unique Items drop the same strength at Torment difficulty. This setting was intended to make it easier for players to select loot in the early stages of the game, but it also resulted in loot drops being too mixed and random. If players wanted to obtain specific items, they could only rely on RNG or buy safe Diablo 4 items from the online store.

  What if item strength increased with Torment difficulty? The increase wouldn't need to be huge; a natural progression mechanism for loot strength would suffice. Challenging higher difficulties would yield better base items. This would make item farming more interesting.

  Furthermore, the current reward increase from challenging higher Torments is negligible. A 10x increase in difficulty only yields a 10% to 20% increase in rewards, which is clearly disproportionate.

  Therefore, increasing Torment levels and smoothing the difficulty curve would significantly improve the chances of obtaining gold, XP, Greater Affix, and material drops with each Torment challenge. While the increase may not be substantial, it is stable and significant.

  In short, the current Torment difficulty system has obvious flaws. The four levels with drastically increased difficulty, the bottleneck at T4 difficulty, and the stifling of build diversity all negatively impact the player experience. Therefore, adjusting the Torment difficulty levels in Season 11 might truly solve these problems, allowing different builds to find their optimal level with a reasonable difficulty curve and reward scaling, thus enhancing player enjoyment.