News Tag: Diablo 4

Following the launch of Diablo 4's second expansion, Lord of Hatred, the developers unleashed an unprecedented celebration for fans worldwide: Hatred's Downfall Community Challenge! Launched on April 28th, in tandem with LoH, the event tasks all players with striving toward a single collective goal: accumulating a grand total of 266,600,000 Paragon Points! This epic global event transcends server boundaries, gameplay restrictions, and character build archetypes.

As of now, according to the latest official updates, this arduous expedition, once deemed nearly impossible to complete, has reached its most thrilling and decisive moment.

255 Million Points Secured: The event is well past the halfway mark

As we just mentioned, at the outset of the event, the developers set a daunting ultimate objective for Diablo fans across the globe: 266.6 million Paragon Points. The sheer grind implied by this figure caused quite a few players to break a sweat during the early stages.

However, Diablo 4 players worldwide have demonstrated astonishing unity. The latest official data reveals that the global community has collectively secured 255 million Paragon Points.

• Total Event Goal: 266,600,000 Points
• Currently Achieved: 255,000,000 Points
• Remaining Gap: Approximately 11,600,000 Points (Progress exceeds 95%)

This signifies that Hatred's Downfall Community Challenge has progressed well beyond the halfway point and has officially entered its final sprint phase. Global players are now just one step away from unlocking the ultimate glory.

How to seize this last-minute opportunity to join the fray?

With a remaining gap of approximately 11.6 million Paragon Points, now is the perfect time to join this historic event, whether you are a hardcore player who has long since reached the level cap, or a brand-new Wanderer just setting foot in Sanctuary. Thanks to the challenge's no-barrier, automatic-tracking nature, simply logging into the game and earning experience points contributes directly to the global progress meter.

To maximize your personal rewards during the final stretch, while simultaneously accelerating the community's progress toward its collective goal, consider adopting the following core strategies:

Team up for Shared XP Bonuses

During this final sprint phase, farming solo is far less efficient than playing in a group. Take advantage of the in-game Party Finder feature to locate teams that are efficiently farming Helltides or The Pit. Group play not only provides an inherent bonus to earned experience points but also drastically boosts your monster-clearing speed, leading to an explosive surge in Paragon Points.

Focus on Endgame Content

Whether you choose to tackle Echoing Hatred, the brand-new challenge introduced in Lord of Hatred expansion, by triggering time-sensitive mechanics to unleash and slaughter massive waves of monsters in rapid succession; or if you prefer maintaining a high Threat level during Helltides to frequently summon Blood Maiden, the massive amount of XP yielded by completing these endgame activities serves as an excellent source for rapidly filling your overall Paragon bar.

Contributions from Every Character across the Realm

Do not let the fact that you are a casual player deter you. The true beauty of this challenge lies in its inclusivity: whether you are a fresh newcomer pioneering Seasonal Realm or a hardcore veteran grinding away in Eternal Realm, your contributions are equally valued.

Even if you only have half an hour each day to log in, perhaps to clear a few low-tier Nightmare Dungeons or complete a few objectives for Tree of Whispers, every single Paragon Point you earn is instantly tallied toward the global progress total.

The Ultimate Reward: Crown of Hatred

The driving force behind the global player base's frenzied grinding is the ultimate reward for this event: Crown of Hatred.

This is a cosmetic helmet transmog imbued with the very power and malice of Mephisto. However, its true value lies not in any numerical stats it might possess, but in the epic commemorative significance it represents. Once the collective goal of 266.6 million Paragon Points is reached, every single player who participated in the challenge will unlock this transmog completely free of charge.

When you don Crown of Hatred in future seasons, the sense of accomplishment it evokes, serving as a visible testament to your role as a miracle-maker in this arduous global challenge, is truly unparalleled. This sense of honor transcends the value of Diablo 4 items.

Review of Hatred's Downfall

Throughout the history of Diablo series, Hatred's Downfall Community Challenge undoubtedly stands as an exceptionally successful endeavor, setting a new benchmark for event design within ARPG genre.

Traditional MMORPG events often require players to visit specific NPCs to accept quests, or force them into tedious daily routines. The true brilliance of Hatred's Downfall lies in its ability to transform players' core daily activities into a globally shared progress bar.

With every fallen monster and every accumulated point of experience, individual player interests are inextricably linked to the collective honor of the entire global player base. This design effectively eliminates event fatigue, instead serving to profoundly bolster community cohesion.

In summary, the 255 million points achieved thus far have already laid the cornerstone for victory in Diablo 4 Hatred's Downfall Community Challenge; the final 11.6 million points represent the last remaining ticket for anyone who has yet to board the ship.

If you haven't joined in yet, sharpen your weapons immediately and dive into Diablo 4 to claim Crown of Hatred, a trophy that belongs to you as much as it does to the entire fan community. The grand finale of this celebration awaits your witness!

When it comes to Diablo 4 classes focused on dealing poison damage, Spiritborn is likely the first one that comes to mind right now. While Rogue and Druid are certainly capable of doing so, Spiritborn is undeniably the true master of this craft.

Therefore, if you are looking to utilize poison-centric builds in Season 13 or Lord of Hatred expansion, building around Spiritborn remains your absolute best option.

In this guide, we will introduce you to Poison Execute Spiritborn build, a setup boasting incredibly high farming efficiency, ensuring you can charge through the newly reset game environment with unstoppable momentum!

Skill setup and related mechanics

The key to crafting this build lies primarily in Counterattack and Rushing Claw skills, as well as The Devourer Ultimate skill.

In particular, you must ensure that your Ultimate skill is available at all times, as it allows you to instantly execute any enemy whose accumulated poison damage exceeds their current remaining healthy.

This means that immediately upon entering any dungeon or event you intend to farm, you should trigger all available cooldown reset effects, and then activate Rushing Claw to dash furiously through the area.

This sequence causes all enemies in your path to instantly suffer massive amounts of poison damage, leading to their immediate execution.

From there, you simply need to keep refreshing your skill cooldowns, ensuring The Devourer remains ready to use, to clear the dungeon with ease.

A crucial point to note is that as soon as The Devourer finishes its cooldown, you must cast it again immediately; furthermore, while moving through the battlefield, ensure that its active buff effect remains uninterrupted at all times.

Additionally, Rushing Claw has the ability to extend the duration of all your other active skills. This means that whether it is your core Counterattack buff or various other beneficial effects, they will persist for a longer period as you dash through the dungeon.

Building upon the core mechanics described above, if you find yourself facing a boss encounter, simply activate The Devourer, Toxic Skin, Counterattack, and Ravager in succession, then proceed to dash back and forth across the battlefield.

The only additional adjustment required for boss fights is to switch the minor upgrade for The Devourer from Instant Kill (the execution effect) to Poisoning Duration in order to maximize your total damage output.

How to cast Rushing Claw continuously?

This skill has now been reclassified as an Eagle skill, which means it no longer requires a specific target to be cast. To further reduce this skill's cooldown beyond the base level, you must accumulate a full stack of 4 Ferocity charges.

To achieve this, you need to unlock Ravager node in your Skill Tree and level it up to rank 20 or higher.

If the skill's rank falls below 20, it can provide a maximum of only three Ferocity charges. In such cases, you also have the option to buy Diablo 4 items on IGGM to utilize gear that grants an additional +1 skill level.

How to reset skill cooldowns?

To accomplish this, you must first unlock Prodigy's Tempo Paragon node. With this node active, every time you cast the same Core or Mastery skill three consecutive times, the cooldowns of all your skills currently on cooldown will be reduced by 30%.

Subsequently, you can choose to acquire Menagerist glyph, which grants you a 4% bonus to damage whenever you use any Bat, Jaguar, Eagle, or Centipede skills.

Other glyphs and nodes worth unlocking include:

• Consumption
• Colossal
• Drive
• Canny
• Bane

Which gear pieces are the best choices?

Once you have selected Exalted Devourer upgrade for your The Devourer skill, any non-boss enemies you attack that are currently afflicted by poison will instantly die, releasing a Pestilent Swarm that deals damage to any enemies it passes through.

If you wish to have this highly beneficial effect constantly active around you, you can achieve this by acquiring Ring of the Writhing Moon, a Legendary Ring.

This piece of gear causes a Pestilent Swarm to emanate from your character every four seconds, dealing poison damage with every hit.

However, the best way to obtain this ring is to farm the boss, Lord Zir. To do so, you must first acquire Lair Keys, which are required to unlock his loot cache once the battle concludes.

Fortunately, IGGM Diablo 4 Facebook Group is currently hosting a giveaway for Lair Boss Keys! In addition to Lair Keys, you also have the chance to win three other types of keys, allowing you to unlock even more hoards and acquire even more rare gear!

Now, back to the main topic. Upon acquiring this ring, it is highly recommended to ensure it possesses affixes related to DoT, poison damage, and vulnerable damage for optimal effectiveness.

Next, your second ring should also feature the same multiplicative damage affixes found on Ring of the Writhing Moon; additionally, you must imprint Aspect of Pestilence onto it.

The effect of this Aspect is to increase the damage dealt by Pestilent Swarm by 100% and extend its duration by 50%, causing it to spiral outward.

The final key damage buff comes from imprinting Aspect of Supremacy onto your Amulet. Whenever your Ultimate Skill is active, this Aspect grants you one stack of the supremacy buff for every enemy you kill.

Each stack of this buff increases your damage by 11.7%, stacking up to a maximum of 117%. Once your Ultimate Skill's effect ends, you immediately gain 5 stacks of the buff, though you will subsequently lose one stack per second.

To fully capitalize on this aspect's effect, you must constantly ensure that your Ultimate Skill, The Devourer, remains active. In fact, this is a point we have repeatedly emphasized throughout our discussion of the skill set.

Charm setup

If you have unlocked Lord of Hatred expansion, you can further enhance your build by equipping Protean Heart Charm.

Whenever you cast a skill belonging to a different base spirit category, this charm causes your damage bonuses to shift to that new category while simultaneously boosting your core stats by 100%.

That concludes our guide for this time. If you are currently playing a character in Spiritborn class, why not give this build a try?

In Diablo 4, the legend of Secret Cow Level has always captivated players. With the release of Lord of Hatred, a hidden questline has finally been revealed. It won't be updated in the logbook; players need to carefully record it.

This article will detail the entire process from starting the quest to approaching the secret level, based on the discovered complete walkthrough. All steps have been verified. As of the time of writing, the actual Cow Level has not yet been unlocked, but the prerequisites and key clues are complete.

Phase One

The trigger point is located on the east face of Mount Hefaetrus. There, there's a strange interaction point with a strange diary and a bottle of alcohol. The inside back cover reads: "Blind are those that deny their own sins."

Burning Pride's Sin

In Kyovashad, go to the gatehouse, where Holy Cedar Tablet can be found. Choose to carve Pride and burn it. Note that the order in which you burn it is crucial.

Returning to the journal, a new text prompt appears: ... these machines make short work of even the vilest beast Hell can spawn, as though the Heavenly Father himself was hurling his mighty spears.

Obtain Amazonian Bolt

The only machine in Skovos capable of severely damaging Demon is Ballista. Go to Akarat's Bulwark, where there is a corrupted Amazon. Destroy Ballista to obtain Amazonian Bolt.

Cross the Hidden Rope

Open Skovos map. A manatee drawing is visible in the western sea. The nearby island of Philios has a partial outline resembling a bull's head. Go to Idyllic Reach on that island. Near the entrance, there is an unloaded Ballista. Use Bolt; it will launch a rope that leads to a secret area.

Defeat Jailer of Angels

At the end of the area is an Inarius statue. Interact with it to summon Jailer of Angels. Defeating them will drop Father's Chains. Head to Antia's Flame in the northern part of Philios Island and burn the chain with the brazier.

Phase Two

Collect a set of training armor and obtain new sacrificial items.

Burn Sin of Wrath

Return to the gatehouse of Kyovashad and burn Anger.

Journal Update: ... the lifeless effigy stood uncowed, but once battered by anger's relentless blows, it finally bowed its head, and Amazon earned the first piece of her panoply. Head to Temis training grounds and hit the dummies to obtain Amazon Training Helm. Equip it immediately.

Collect Armor

Return to Akarat's Bulwark and fight the corrupted Amazon. Rare Diablo 4 Items include: Amazon Training Tunic, Amazon Training Pants, Amazon Training Gauntlets, and Amazon Training Boots.

Equip each item immediately upon acquisition. After collecting all the items, find Elite Corrupted Amazon Captain southeast of the fortress and defeat him to obtain Mother's Rose. Go to Athulua and burn Temple of Courage with a brazier. You can then revert to your original equipment.

Phase Three

This involves areas where combat is not possible and the remains of key characters.

Burning Sin of Fear

Return to the gatehouse and burn Fear; the journal will update. Go to Ruins of Brocken Reason on Lycander Island. The enemies here will not attack unless provoked, but do not engage them.

There is a giant raven near the fountain in the southwest of the ruins. Interact with it, and it will fly away; follow it. If there is no raven here, it may be because you previously engaged in combat with an enemy.

This raven will cross some inaccessible terrain, so if you lose it, you can teleport back to Temis to start over. The raven will return to the starting point and drop a Skull; pick it up to obtain new clues.

Obtain the Key

Follow the new clue to Temple of Life on the same island. Interact with the brazier outside to obtain a special key.

Obtain Neyrelle's Hand

Go to Creaking Hulls, north of Hawezaar. Its ship's hull resembles a bull's head. At the end, where the original coffin was, is now a fishpond. Fish for the coffin. Use the key to open it and enter Rathma's Temple. Run to the altar where Elias's finger is located; find Neyrelle's Hand nearby. Pick it up to complete the questline.

Final Step

This requires combining the two prerequisite quests: Stamina Potion obtained from Cow Level quest in the main game, and Rusted Bardiche obtained from Lord of Hatred.

Crafting the Item

Place Stamina Potion, Rusted Bardiche, and Neyrelle's Hand into Horadric Cube. The recipe will display three question marks. Craft to obtain a Bull Skull Treasure Chest, namely the Trophy of the Faithful.

Rewards and Uses

Open the treasure chest to obtain Torn Page and complete the challenge for the title "MOO" and MOO emote.

Travel to Hidden Island and Unfinished Cow Level

Follow Torn Page's clues to the cow-head terrain area on Philios Island. Find Outcast's Boat and sail to the hidden island. The island features a Skeleton Horse, statues of humanoid cows, a dilapidated hut with a sign saying "Do not feed the animals," and a desolate cellar.

Inside the cellar, many seated human skeletons look at the altar at the end of the room which depicts a large cow, and twelve cows are arranged in a circle staring at a symbol.

The final room provides the biggest clue: a map of Skovos Highlands and Gonnagal's Guide to the Hecatomb, which depicts seven portal images, presumably the entrance to Cow Level. These are all the clues discovered so far.

Through this hidden questline, players can obtain rewards such as Hand of Neyrelle, Minotaur Skull Chest, MOO title, and emotes, which are not only symbols of status but also contain key clues to the true Cow Level.

With only two weeks remaining until Diablo 4 Season 13, you might be tempted to look ahead to the new season and its upcoming expansion, foregoing the completion of Season 12.

However, building a powerful Season 12 character, and doing so without any regrets, is a rewarding endeavor in its own right.

To achieve this, continuously upgrading your gear is paramount. Once you reach the maximum level, gear, alongside your Paragon Board configuration, becomes the core factor determining your character's overall strength.

Diablo 4 offers numerous methods for enhancing your gear; among them, socketing gems into your equipment stands out as a relatively low-difficulty option that yields excellent returns.

In this guide, we will introduce you to the specific functions of these gems and the most effective ways to farm them.

What are Diablo 4 gems?

While gems are a common feature in the item systems of many ARPGs, in Diablo 4, they function specifically as magical artifacts that can be socketed directly into your gear.

There are seven distinct types of Diablo 4 gems, each type is further subdivided into five different tiers. Naturally, the higher the tier, the greater the statistical bonuses provided.

Each type of gem provides specific bonus effects depending on whether it is socketed into a weapon, armor, or jewelry slot:

(Chipped/Base/Flawless/Royal/Grand) Amethyst:

• Weapon: + Damage Over Time
• Armor: + Barrier Generation
• Jewelry: + Shadow Resistance

(Chipped/Base/Flawless/Royal/Grand) Diamond:

• Weapon: + Ultimate Damage
• Armor: + All Stats
• Jewelry: + Resistance to All Elements

(Chipped/Base/Flawless/Royal/Grand) Emerald:

• Weapon: + Critical Strike Damage
• Armor: + Dexterity
• Jewelry: + Poison Resistance

(Chipped/Base/Flawless/Royal/Grand) Ruby:

• Weapon: + Overpower Damage
• Armor: + Strength
• Jewelry: + Fire Resistance

(Chipped/Base/Flawless/Royal/Grand) Sapphire:

• Weapon: + Vulnerable Damage
• Armor: + Willpower
• Jewelry: + Cold Resistance

(Chipped/Base/Flawless/Royal/Grand) Topaz:

• Weapon: + Basic Damage
• Armor: + Intelligence
• Jewelry: + Lightning Resistance

(Chipped/Base/Flawless/Royal/Grand) Skull:

• Weapon: + Life on Kill
• Armor: + Healing Received
• Jewelry: + Armor

How to obtain gems?

Generally speaking, gems in Diablo 4 do not drop as complete, single units. Instead, you will primarily farm gem fragments and then visit Jeweler to craft them into the final finished gems.

However, if you don't want to consume extra time farming and would prefer to acquire the gems you desire instantly, the best option is to buy Diablo 4 gems at IGGM!

How to farm gem fragments?

There are many sources for gem fragments in Diablo 4; however, not all of them are equally reliable.

Therefore, we recommend prioritizing the farming of Infernal Hordes Chests, Augment Caches, specific Whispers Caches, and Gem Caches that may be awarded from side quests.

The specific methods for obtaining each type of chest/cache are as follows:

• Infernal Hordes Chest: Collect a sufficient amount of Burning Aether during combat encounters to exchange for the chest.
• Augment Cache: Unlock Bartering System at The Den by reaching Affinity Level 8 with the mercenary Aldkin, then exchange for the cache.
• Greater Cache of Gem Fragments and Greater Collection of Materials: Complete the bounty quests issued by Tree of Whispers, then redeem them using Grim Favors you have earned.
• Gem Cache: Complete various side quests.

In addition to being used to craft gems, fragments can, in certain seasons, also be used to craft specific Jewelry Caches, Incense, or other consumables.

How to craft gems?

Once you have obtained enough fragments, and paired them with a sufficient amount of gold or Forgotten Souls, you can craft gems at Jeweler. The material requirements for crafting each tier of gem are as follows:

• Chipped: 10 gem fragments and 1,000 Gold
• Base: 100 gem fragments and 10,000 Gold
• Flawless: 1,000 gem fragments and 100,000 Gold
• Royal: 10,000 gem fragments and 1,000,000 Gold
• Grand: 100,000 gem fragments, 30 Forgotten Souls, and 10,000,000 Gold

Gold can be obtained from most events or dungeons in Diablo 4. As for Forgotten Souls, their drop sources include (specifically on Torment difficulty settings):

• Salvaging Ancestral items
• Legion Events
• Helltides
• Tree of Whispers
• Infernal Hordes
• Undercity of Kurast

It is worth noting that, aside from standard crafting, you can also exchange 100 fragments each of three different gem types for 200 fragments of a fourth type. This is particularly useful when your inventory of gem fragments is unbalanced.

Gems can be replaced/removed/salvaged

Since gear sockets are limited, once you have crafted higher-tier gems, you will naturally want to use them to replace your lower-tier ones. You can do this simply by performing a direct swap; the gem being replaced will be returned to your inventory.

If you decide you no longer wish to have any gems socketed, you can simply unsocket them from the gear slot, and the embedded gem will be removed. Furthermore, neither replacing nor removing gems requires the consumption of any additional materials.

In the late stages of a season, once your character is sufficiently advanced, those removed or replaced lower-tier gems will probably no longer serve any purpose for you.

At this point, you can choose to salvage them to avoid cluttering your inventory space. However, salvaging a gem will only refund the fragments you originally used to craft it; gold and Forgotten Souls are not included in the return.

Which gems should you prioritize obtaining?

Regardless of the type, Grand-tier gems are undoubtedly the best choice, as they provide the highest stat bonuses. And now, nearing the end of the season, you should have ample materials on hand to craft Grand gems.

Therefore, the best strategy is to take a gradual approach: as you progress through the game, make sure to timely salvage your old gems and craft new ones to equip.

With this in mind, Grand Ruby and Grand Emerald are particularly popular choices in Season 12, as their stat bonuses are highly effective at countering most bosses.

The above covers all the essential information you need to know regarding gem acquisition in S12. Barring any major class-specific reworks, these guidelines are expected to remain just as valid for Season 13!

Although Diablo 4 Season 12 is still currently underway, we are sure you've already started looking forward to Season 13! This is because its projected release date is expected to coincide with the launch of the new expansion, Lord of Hatred!

This means that in Season 13, you can expect to experience a wealth of new content, far more than in a standard season, much like Season 6 in 2024, which launched alongside the game's very first DLC.

In this article, drawing upon the information currently available regarding Lord of Hatred, we will speculate on exactly what content Season 13 might ultimately contain.

Season 13 release date

Based on current estimates, it can be tentatively confirmed that the season will kick off on Tuesday, April 28, 2026, at 10:00 AM PDT. At that same time, the second DLC, Lord of Hatred, will also go live.

As of now, the official title for Season 13 has yet to be revealed. However, following the precedent set by Season 6 and the first DLC, it is unlikely that the season will simply adopt the title Lord of Hatred, though it may very well still be thematically linked to Hatred.

Will Season 13 have PTR?

Typically, prior to the start of a new season, Diablo 4 launches PTR lasting about a week to allow for testing of the upcoming season's content.

Season 6, which shares a similar launch context to Season 13, saw its PTR go live a full month before the season itself launched.

However, with only two weeks remaining until the projected launch of Season 13, there has still been no news regarding the opening of a PTR. All you can do now is wait!

Potential new content for Season 13

In addition to the mechanics introduced by the new expansion, Season 13 itself is expected to bring a new questline, seasonal mechanics and events, as well as optimizations and upgrades to the game's overall gear system.

This content is expected to launch alongside the new DLC, ensuring that you have a rich and engaging gaming experience over the subsequent 2-3 months.

New mechanics in Lord of Hatred

As a brand-new DLC that Diablo 4 has consumed nearly two years developing, much of Lord of Hatred's core content has already been unveiled.

Crucially, however, this content will also serve as an integral part of Season 13; therefore, we have compiled a comprehensive overview of these features for you here.

Two new classes

While the first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, introduced Spiritborn class, Lord of Hatred will offer you even more diverse options by introducing two brand-new classes: Warlock and Paladin.

However, Paladin class was already made available for early access to all players who pre-ordered Lord of Hatred at the start of Season 11.

Furthermore, it has undergone multiple balance adjustments since then; therefore, if you are looking for a smoother gameplay experience in Season 13, Paladin is the superior choice.

This class is melee-oriented and is renowned for its exclusive Oaths mechanic. This mechanic unlocks once your character reaches Level 15, allowing you to switch between four distinct Oaths to suit your specific needs.

As for Warlock, judging by the trailers and content released so far, it is a class centered around dark magic, primarily utilizing two distinct resources, Dominance and Wrath, to unleash its power.

Much like Paladin, Warlock's exclusive mechanics offer a variety of playstyles to choose from, giving you the opportunity to take on the role of a summoner, a melee combatant, or a spellcaster.

War Plans

You can think of this mechanic as an upgraded version of Tree of Whispers system. It issues a series of bounty-style quests tied to various other endgame activities in Diablo 4, which you can complete to earn rewards.

Even better, the selection of quests is not rigid; you are free to choose tasks that align with your specific combat style or loot requirements, allowing you to customize your own unique War Plans with a high degree of freedom.

If you wish to start preparing for the new season right now, War Plans is the perfect place to begin. Since most of the upcoming quests will be linked to existing game mechanics, you can effectively get a head start by practicing them in advance.

Echoing Hatred

This is a brand-new, wave-based endgame event, similar in concept to the existing Infernal Hordes.

However, what sets Echoing Hatred apart is that with each new attempt, the terrain, enemy types, and even the difficulty level you encounter will vary. Consequently, every single challenge promises to be both highly engaging and intensely demanding.

Horadric Cube

This iconic feature has appeared in previous Diablo titles, most notably making a spectacular return in the recent expansion for Diablo 2 Resurrected, and now, it is finally making its debut in Diablo 4.

Horadric Cube is primarily used for the modification and crafting of items. Once available, you can farm specific materials and then utilize the cube to customize your gear for Season 13 and the new expansion.

New Talisman System

Do you remember Runes introduced in VoH? This time around, Lord of Hatred introduces Talisman mechanic, allowing you to acquire charms as loot drops during various in-game events.

By socketing charms into your personal Talisman, you can activate powerful corresponding set bonuses, such as boosts to damage output or defensive attributes.

Casual gameplay: fishing

Diablo 4 has long been renowned for its heavy emphasis on combat elements; however, this time around, we are introducing a rare casual feature: fishing! Moreover, the fish you catch might just serve some unexpected purposes!

System-wide optimizations

To comprehensively enhance the overall quality of the game, beyond just adding new content, upgrading existing systems is essential. To this end, the first major undertaking will be a complete rework of the skill tree.

Compared to previous iterations, the new skill tree offers much more than just the ability to unlock skills; it features significantly greater depth, even allowing you to fine-tune specific details such as skill duration or casting speed.

Building upon this foundation, if you own LoH expansion, you will gain access to over 20 additional skill variant options, regardless of which class you choose to play.

Another new feature designed to optimize your gameplay experience is the loot filter.

It allows you to customize the display rules for dropped items, thereby transforming the currently cluttered post-combat battlefields and allowing you to more efficiently identify and select the specific items you truly need.

That wraps up everything we have to share with you for now. Let's look forward to the new round of adventures in Sanctuary, kicking off in late April with Diablo 4!

Once Season 13 and the new DLC go live, if you want to get a head start and pull ahead of the competition, acquiring Diablo 4 items for sale on IGGM will prove incredibly useful!

Our services cover every angle, whether you are looking to acquire specific gear directly or need other enhancement materials, we have everything you need to help you succeed!

While you might currently be looking forward to the second Diablo 4 expansion, which set to launch in a month, the first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, introduced many new mechanics that remain highly valuable and relevant today.

Chief among these are the rune and Runeword systems. By socketing these into your weapons and armor, you can gain exclusive buffs and benefits that are simply unobtainable through any other game mechanic!

However, the amount of gear you can equip and the number of runes or Runewords you can socket into that gear is limited. Consequently, you might be unsure which runes are the most worthwhile choices for Season 12.

With this in mind, we will focus this guide on recommending Bac and Ohm runes, detailing their specific effects and explaining how to farm them.

Rune system overview

This feature was introduced alongside the launch of Vessel of Hatred DLC and Season 6; therefore, if you wish to utilize runes today, you must first own this DLC.

All runes fall into one of three rarity tiers and belong to one of two categories: Runes of Ritual or Runes of Invocation. The former features a yellow icon, while the latter features a purple one; combining one of each type allows you to form a Runeword.

It is important to note that individual runes are inert on their own; they only become active and trigger their synergistic effects when combined in pairs and socketed into a piece of gear that possesses two sockets.

In essence, runes only become functional once they have been assembled into a Runeword.

More specifically, a Rune of Ritual generates offerings during combat. These offerings serve to empower the corresponding Rune of Invocation and trigger the combined effect of the Runewords. Your objective is simply to fulfill the specific requirements needed to generate these offerings.

What is Bac rune?

In Diablo 4, Bac rune is classified as a yellow Rune of Ritual. It generates 50 offerings, and its activation condition requires you to move a distance of 5 meters from your current location.

The most common application for this rune is to pair it with a Rune of Invocation, such as Ohm or Vex, to leverage their combined synergy and significantly boost your character's mobility.

Additionally, Diablo 4 Bac rune is one of the essential crafting materials required to create Mythic item known as Shroud of False Death.

How to craft Shroud of False Death?

Once you have unlocked Torment I difficulty or higher, you can acquire Mythic items by farming lair bosses or participating in other endgame events within the game; however, the specific rewards obtained through these methods are entirely random.

Therefore, if you wish to specifically obtain Shroud of False Death, crafting is your best option. To do so, you will need to gather the following materials:

• 2 Resplendent Sparks
• 6 Bac runes
• 6 Kry runes
• 6 Moni runes

We will cover the general methods for acquiring runes shortly; however, since Resplendent Spark is a rare item, its primary acquisition methods are as follows:

• Salvaging unwanted or duplicate Mythic items
• Progressing through Seasonal Journey and Reputation tracks to earn rewards
• Defeating Echo of Lilith (drops one upon defeat - one time only)

What is Ohm rune?

As a rune designed exclusively for Barbarian players, Diablo 4 Ohm rune requires its paired Rune of Ritual to provide 600 offerings to activate; it has a cooldown of two seconds.

The rune's sole bonus effect is to evoke Barbarian's War Cry, thereby boosting your damage output by 15% for 6 seconds.

Much like Bac rune, Ohm rune is also one of the materials required to craft Mythic Ring of Starless Skies:

• 2 Resplendent Sparks
• 6 Ohm runes
• 6 Tzic runes
• 6 Cem runes

It is worth noting that the crafting recipe for all Mythic items follows this same pattern: 2 Resplendent Sparks, plus six runes each of legendary, rare, and magic rarity.

How to farm runes?

Broadly speaking, there are two methods for obtaining runes in Diablo 4: farming and crafting. Neither method allows you to specifically target and acquire a particular rune; however, crafting does allow you to influence the rarity of the rune you ultimately receive.

Clearing Kurast Undercity

This dungeon was added to the game via VoH expansion. To unlock it, you must first complete the campaign quest Reunion within this DLC and ensure your character has reached at least level 15.

Afterward, a new quest chain titled The Kurast Undercity will guide you through the dungeon step-by-step until you are fully familiar with the area.

The unique feature of Kurast Undercity is its time-limited mechanic: you must defeat enemies within a specific time limit. However, defeating higher-level Afflicted Monsters will restore a greater amount of your remaining event time.

Defeating enemies does not grant immediate rewards; instead, you earn Attunement Points. Once the dungeon run concludes, your final rewards will be calculated based on the total points you accumulated.

Additionally, you may encounter special beacons within the dungeon. Activating these beacons triggers optional events for you to complete, providing you with extra Attunement Points and combat buffs.

If you wish to engage in more targeted farming within Kurast Undercity, you can first collect Tributes by completing other world events. Submitting these Tributes prior to your run will grant you specific bonuses based on the type of Tribute submitted.

Among these, Tribute of Harmony is the one relevant to runes. If you submit this Tribute before clearing Kurast Undercity, the total number of runes you obtain at the end will be doubled.

Defeating lair bosses

Theoretically, all lair bosses in Season 12 have a chance to drop runes; however, the highest rarity boss Belial is undoubtedly the best choice for farming.

Regardless of which boss you ultimately decide to farm, you must first acquire the corresponding lair keys. These keys are required to unlock the boss's hoard after it has been defeated, allowing you to claim all the rewards contained within, including runes.

Crafting at Jeweler

Jeweler is a vendor in Diablo 4 that allows you to perform various crafting operations. To craft a new, randomized rune, you must consume three unused runes of the same rarity, along with 4,000 gold.

The type of rune produced is independent of the specific runes used as materials; however, the rarity of the resulting rune is directly determined by the materials used. The resulting probabilities are as follows:

• Three magic runes: 85% chance for 1 magic rune; 15% chance for 1 rare rune.
• Three rare runes: 85% chance for 1 rare rune; 15% chance for 1 legendary rune.
• Three legendary runes: 100% chance for 1 legendary rune.

That wraps up everything we have to share with you this time. Although Bac and Ohm are highly sought-after, as long as you combine them effectively, acquiring other runes can be just as rewarding!

It has been over a week since the launch of Diablo 4 Season 12, how has your experience been so far? While our current impressions may not be entirely comprehensive, they offer a genuine, real-time perspective.

This season centers around themes of blood and slaughter, with its seasonal gameplay revolving primarily around The Butcher and various Bloodied activities.

Given that the second DLC is slated to launch in just a month, Season 12 clearly serves as a transitional phase; however, this does not excuse the development team from delivering a quality experience.

Below, we present a comprehensive, real-time review of Season 12, evaluating its various gameplay features and their performance over the past week.

Are Slaughterhouses worth playing?

This newly added dungeon serves as one of the primary battlegrounds where you get to play as The Butcher. Once you have obtained a Slaughterhouse Key by clearing Helltides, simply select the key from your inventory and interact with the dungeon entrance on the map to enter.

While inside the dungeon, you can go on a rampage as The Butcher to earn loot. Other players can also enter the dungeon while it is active, which may lead to issues regarding loot distribution and competition.

First, it must be admitted that the ability to transform into The Butcher is genuinely fun, the experience is particularly enjoyable when using this method to level up your alternate characters.

However, the awkward reality sets in once the battle is over: compared to other endgame activities, the loot drops in Slaughterhouses are generally underwhelming. For instance, you must complete the dungeon six times just to earn a single skill point.

On the other hand, as you progress through the season, you can earn Slaughterhouse Keys more quickly by increasing your Reputation level; yet, the inherent lack of value in the dungeon itself ultimately renders this accelerated access somewhat pointless.

The Broiler lair boss battle

During Season 12, you can view The Broiler as a variant of The Butcher, specifically, a unique Lair Boss encounter or a distinct challenge phase related to him.

The primary drop obtained after defeating The Broiler is Fresh Meat, which can be exchanged at vendors for powerful Bloodied items. This special gear improves itself by acquiring unique affixes based on the tier of your current Killstreak.

From a visual standpoint, the arena design for this Lair Boss battle is excellent. Furthermore, beyond just Bloodied items, trading your Fresh Meat offers a chance to gamble for even rarer Mythic items.

While Slaughterhouses can indeed drop Fresh Meat, The Butcher lair boss battle surpasses them in every respect, both in terms of the quantity of drops and the sheer fun and value of the gameplay experience itself.

Bloodied and Blood-Soaked Sigils

The primary function of these two items is to allow you to earn greater rewards upon victory by increasing the difficulty of the enemies or the dungeon itself.

Specifically, Bloodied Sigils utilize exclusive affixes to guarantee that The Butcher will appear during the modified event; furthermore, the difficulty of all other enemies will be raised one tier higher than your current global difficulty setting.

Blood-Soaked Sigils operate similarly to Bloodied Sigils, with the key difference being that they elevate enemy difficulty to a level approaching Tier 100 of The Pit, provided, of course, that you have already unlocked that specific tier.

If you are keen on dedicating a significant amount of time to playing Season 12, the challenges presented by Bloodied Sigils will undoubtedly satisfy your appetite.

However, it is precisely this combination of high rewards and extreme difficulty that makes things a bit tricky, as some of the content appears to be designed specifically for builds centered around the powerhouse Paladin class or other high-tier characters.

This comes as unwelcome news for players who wish to challenge themselves but find their options limited by their choice of class or available gear. While Paladin is certainly fun to play, the experience loses its luster if you feel forced to choose it just to keep up.

Analysis of the current loot landscape

First off, Bloodied items, a signature feature of Season 12, are quite interesting in their own right. They become particularly appealing if you manage to roll additional boosts to various core attributes, as this allows for even deeper levels of optimization within your gear enhancement system.

In terms of gear drop rates, Season 12 is actually quite generous; provided you actively engage with the various gameplay activities, you stand a good chance of acquiring gear pieces featuring double, triple, or even more Greater Affixes.

However, an awkward issue arises when you attempt to further enhance this gear. For instance, when imprinting an Aspect onto a standard piece of gear that lacks Greater Affixes, the resulting numerical values consistently default to the lowest possible tier.

While this issue does not affect Mythics or gear pieces that already possess GAs, standard gear currently constitutes the backbone of most players' build-crafting efforts.

Consequently, this bug prevents players from making progress according to their plans during the early stages of the season.

Furthermore, if you attempt to claim Paragon points awarded as seasonal progression rewards, you will discover that they simply fail to register in your character's inventory.

Furthermore, this applies even if you managed to secure the Resplendent Sparks reward chest on the very first day of the season.

While some of these bugs were subsequently resolved, the launch day of Season 12 was indeed plagued by numerous issues, problems significant enough to have wasted your time and effort.

More importantly, as of now, the drop rates for various crafting materials, particularly items like Obducite, remain consistently low. This scarcity prevents you from further enhancing your acquired gear through mechanics such as Masterworking.

Summary

In terms of new gameplay mechanics, specifically the various design elements centered around The Butcher, Season 12 offers some rather innovative concepts.

However, regarding the ultimate rewards and overall balance, it falls short of expectations; consequently, content like Slaughterhouses is almost certain to be forgotten as the season progresses.

Additionally, the loot system suffers from unbalanced drop rates, and the early days of the season, were rife with bugs, a combination of issues that has severely dampened players' enthusiasm for the seasonal grind.

Most notably, Paladin class currently offers a far superior gameplay experience compared to the others, leading one to suspect that Diablo 4 is deliberately attempting to entice players into pre-ordering Lord of Hatred expansion. This sensation of being coerced into making a trade is truly unpleasant.

As a concise and focused transitional season, Season 12 should have aimed to delight players and build anticipation for the upcoming DLC; instead, it has erected various obstacles in their path.

The above constitutes our preliminary review of Diablo 4: Season 12, based on the current state of the game. Whether you choose to invest your time in playing remains entirely a matter of your personal preference. Regardless, we wish you the best of luck in the new season!

Although Diablo 4 Season 12 offers a wealth of playable content, The Pit remains the top favorite among many veteran players. It not only provides valuable rewards but also delivers a unique, fast-paced pushing experience.

However, maximizing both the rewards and the enjoyment of The Pit hinges on one crucial factor: utilizing builds that excel at clearing enemies quickly and efficiently within the current season's meta.

Without such builds, reaching the higher tiers of The Pit becomes an incredibly difficult challenge.

In this guide, based on the current state of Season 12, we will recommend several builds designed to help you rapidly conquer more than 100 tiers of The Pit, even during the early stages of the season!

The Pit Overview

This Diablo 4 endgame activity is officially known as The Pit of Artificers. Once you reach level 60, you can initiate a run by consuming 3 Artificer's Stones.

Each entry into The Pit offers up to 150 tiers to unlock, subject to a 15-minute time limit. The faster you clear each individual tier, the more new tiers you will unlock for subsequent runs.

If your character unfortunately dies during combat, 30 seconds will be added to your timer; this time penalty doubles and stacks cumulatively with every subsequent death.

Regardless of how many tiers you ultimately complete, once the timer runs out, you will be able to claim your rewards, typically consisting of Legendary or Unique gear, as well as various crafting materials.

Non-Mythic Speed Paladin

As the name suggests, the greatest advantage of our first recommended build for pushing The Pit is immediately apparent: it allows for rapid progression without the need for Mythic items! After all, while Mythics are undeniably powerful, they can be quite difficult to acquire during the early stages of a season.

To craft this build, you must first equip Godslayer Crown and pair it with the appropriate runes. By utilizing Runes that help supplement your critical hit chance, specifically GAR Rune, you can synergize with the helm to pull all nearby monsters directly toward you.

This setup ensures that whenever you apply crowd control effects to enemies, the effect of the runes is triggered. By layering other complementary runes on top of this foundation, you can trigger these effects even more frequently, allowing you to execute multiple consecutive evasions.

Juggernaut Oath skill is an absolute essential, as it grants you increased damage against crowd-controlled enemies. Additionally, do not forget to select Aspect of Glynn's Anvil for your boots to ensure you can quickly stack your Resolve to its maximum capacity.

Finally, you must ensure that your gear includes affixes that reduce your evade cooldown whenever you deal damage; without this specific stat, the entire build will fail to function correctly.

The core damage rotation for this build involves first using Arbiter of Justice to perform an evade, immediately followed by an attack, then another evade, and another attack. As long as you maintain this rhythm, virtually all skill effects will trigger automatically.

Consequently, not only does this build have low requirements regarding gear rarity, but it also features a very low operational difficulty. Aside from The Pit, it is highly suitable for tackling most standard seasonal content.

Zealspin Paladin

It must be said that, even after undergoing several nerfs, Paladin continues to hold a dominant position in the current state of Diablo 4.

This build leverages a variety of synergistic effects to deal massive damage; furthermore, when paired with Arbiter, it allows you to cast spells and inflict damage upon enemies while simultaneously evading attacks.

In terms of combat style, it actually bears similarities to the previous Paladin build; however, Zealspin Paladin relies more heavily on Mythic gear.

First and foremost, Heir of Perdition provides a multiplicative damage bonus of up to 60%. Moreover, if you are tackling The Pit in a party, and other teammates are also wearing this specific piece of gear, this effect can stack even further.

As for the chest armor, we recommend Shroud of False Death; its exceptional affix, granting +1 to the ranks of all passive skills, is simply perfect. Amulet of Jacques' Fervor grants you an additional strike damage bonus of up to 20% for every stack of Fervor you accumulate.

Additionally, you should prioritize stacking cooldown reduction attributes on your gear to ensure that Arbiter remains active at all times.

If you feel this level of reduction is unnecessary for your playstyle, you are free to swap out these attributes to better suit your specific needs.

Evade Spiritborn

Historically, most Spiritborn builds have been renowned for their wide-area damage coverage and excellent movement speed, qualities that are immensely beneficial for clearing The Pit.

Building upon this foundation, Evade Spiritborn build stands out as a particularly exceptional performer in this regard. Therefore, if you plan to continue playing Spiritborn class in Season 12, this build is undoubtedly your top choice for all manner of speed farming activities.

Regarding Mythic gear requirements, this build calls for Shroud of False Death. For Spiritborn class specifically, this item's greatest benefit is that if you have not dealt any damage within the past 2 seconds, you gain Stealth and a 40% increase in movement speed.

The choice of Spirit Hall is a crucial element in enhancing the effectiveness of your class and its associated builds; specifically, Double Eagle Spirit Hall is the ideal choice for Evade Spiritborn.

With this setup, in addition to activating Evade, your Primary Spirit Hall allows you to simultaneously unleash a volley of storm feathers every time you cast Evade or Seeker.

Meanwhile, your Secondary Spirit Hall ensures critical hit triggers and provides buffs specifically tailored to capitalize on Vulnerable effects.

If possible, we recommend acquiring Loyalty's Mantle unique item to further boost the overall potency of your Double Eagle Spirit Hall setup.

The above represents our recommendations for several builds that strike an excellent balance between speed and damage while farming The Pit.

Feel free to further optimize these builds based on your own preferences, or experiment with other playstyles to discover new possibilities!

In every new season of Diablo 4, the most sought-after boss is typically the one newly introduced; however, high-level lair bosses, such as Belial, consistently remain the premier source for top-tier gear and loot.

Starting with Season 8, ladder bosses were reclassified as lair bosses, and the materials previously used for summoning them were repurposed into keys used to unlock the boss's hoard after a battle. Specifically, the key corresponding to Belial is Betrayer's Husk.

Given Belial's enduring status as a high-tier challenge in the current Season 12, this guide will outline how to acquire Betrayer's Husk and detail exactly what rewards you can expect to reap from it.

What is Betrayer's Husk?

This item serves as the exclusive lair key for Exalted lair boss Belial, the Lord of Lies, in Diablo 4. Upon defeating this boss, you can use the key to unlock Belial's Hoard and claim your ultimate rewards.

In other words, without this key, you cannot access the loot even if you successfully defeat the boss, rendering the entire encounter a complete waste of time.

How to farm Betrayer's Husk?

You have the chance to acquire Diablo 4 Betrayer's Husk by defeating the special boss known as Mini Belial, or by unlocking and opening caches obtained through Season Journey or reputation rewards.

When will you encounter Mini Belial?

This special variant of Belial spawns randomly, and with a relatively low probability, only after you have defeated other lair bosses. Defeating this Mini Belial then offers a chance for Betrayer's Husk to drop as loot.

Currently, all lair bosses in Diablo 4 are categorized into three tiers: Exalted, Greater, and Initiate. Each boss tier requires its own specific, corresponding lair key.

Among these, Exalted tier consists solely of Belial, Lord of Lies. The remaining lair bosses, along with the specific keys required to unlock their respective hoards, are as follows:

Greater:

• The Butcher: 3x Pounds of Flesh
• Duriel: 3x Shards of Agony
• Andariel: 3x Pincushioned Dolls
• Harbinger of Hatred: 3x Hatred Hearts

Initiate:

• Varshan: 12x Malignant Hearts
• Grigoire: 12x Living Steel
• Lord Zir: 12x Exquisite Blood
• The Beast in the Ice: 12x Distilled Fear
• Urivar: 12x Judicator's Masks

The primary sources for obtaining Greater lair keys are defeating Initiate tier bosses or completing various designated endgame activities.

The one exception is the newly introduced Pounds of Flesh item: you must use a Bloodied Sigil to transform a standard encounter into a Bloodied variant and successfully complete the challenge to obtain this specific drop.

Initiate keys drop during various endgame events and can also be found within the associated reward caches. Additionally, all Initiate tier lair bosses have a chance to drop Stygian Stones upon defeat; these stones can be exchanged for any Greater lair key, with the exception of Hatred Hearts.

How to obtain reputation caches?

Each season in Diablo 4 features a corresponding Season Journey and reputation system. By following the specific instructions and requirements outlined within these systems, you can complete tasks in a linear progression to advance your standing and claim your rewards.

These tasks typically tie into the season's main storyline or require you to defeat enemies, or achieve specific objectives and accolades, during designated in-game events. You can access the menu at any time to view your current progress and complete pending tasks.

How to use Betrayer's Husk?

First, you must unlock Torment difficulty setting. Next, travel to Amber Sand in northern Kehjistan to locate Palace of the Deceiver, the entrance to the encounter with Belial, Lord of Lies, at which point you may initiate the battle.

Two Betrayer's Husks are required to unlock Belial's Hoard for a single attempt. To maximize efficiency, you may wish to farm a larger quantity of this material in advance so that you can complete multiple battles consecutively.

The key to defeating this boss lies in boosting your poison resistance beforehand, as poison damage constitutes Belial's primary source of damage output.

Additionally, Belial possesses a special ability that allows him to summon seven eyeballs during the fight. If the eyes open, they will unleash massive AoE damage directly in front of them. Therefore, you must constantly monitor the status of the eyes and dodge promptly.

It is worth noting that, starting from Season 10, Belial cannot enter his invulnerable phase during the first 10 seconds of the encounter. Furthermore, if you deal sufficient damage at specific junctures, you can interrupt and completely bypass his invulnerable phases.

What are the rewards?

After defeating Belial, simply consume your Betrayer's Husk to claim your loot. The quantity of rewards depends on the current difficulty level and the number of players in your party at the time the challenge is completed:

• Torment 1: 3x Uniques and 1x Rune
• Torment 2: 4x Uniques and 1x Rune
• Torment 3: 5x Uniques and 1x Rune
• Torment 4: 7x Uniques and 1x Rune
• At any Torment difficulty level, the chance of obtaining an additional unique item increases by 33% for every extra player in the party (up to a maximum of 4 players).

As for the specific gear rewards you will receive, given the vast array of items and the randomized loot system in Diablo 4, the exact outcome is unpredictable; however, obtaining any Mythic Unique is always an excellent result.

That covers everything you need to know about obtaining and using Betrayer's Husk in Diablo 4 Season 12. We hope this guide helps you progress through the new season!

After much anticipation, the official name and release date for Diablo 4 Season 12 have finally been announced: Season of Slaughter will launch at 10:00 AM PDT on Wednesday, March 11, 2026, succeeding Season 11!

While you might be more excited for Lord of Hatred DLC a month later, leveling up your characters is also important during Season 12, which serves as a transitional season. Therefore, the primary question is which class to choose.

Based on the content from 2.6.0 PTR and subsequent leaks of more details about Season of Slaughter, we'll provide a class ranking for this season.

1. Paladin

As the newest class, Paladin remains strong despite several nerfs since its release. At least in Season 11, its stats were near perfect, making it almost omnipotent, with a maximum clear level of 144.

Therefore, while the release of Warlock might challenge Paladin's dominant position, the latter will remain one of the best class choices in Season 12.

Based on this, Blessed Shield-centric build is the main reason Paladin is expected to maintain its advantage. It allows you to throw your shield, bouncing it between targets while providing excellent survivability.

Furthermore, Arbiter of Justice can reflect all damage received through thorns, increasing your damage output, and can stack thorns for various purposes.

The shield Ward of the White Dove increases the damage of Blessed Shield itself and reduces consumption for sustained casting. Interestingly, you can modify this skill with Shield of Retribution, turning it into a heavy warrior skill.

This not only allows your thorn damage to be released from the shield before bursting, doubling the buff, but also allows you to use Mantle of the Grey to increase the shield's range by 25%, making it easier to hit and increasing damage.

While maximizing all the above effects needs you to buy Diablo 4 items if you don't have them, they will definitely boost your character's damage output and survivability, allowing you to dominate the new season faster.

2. Druid

Druid's effectiveness in Season 12 primarily relies on Pulverize - in short, the classic Bear Druid is back. It boasts inherent tankiness, and Pulverize's AoE capabilities are simply phenomenal.

There are various ways to increase damage on top of this, but the most classic are poison and overpower, thanks to Rotting Lightbringer. This gear allows Pulverize to generate poison pools, ensuring a suppressive effect.

Subsequently, Pulverize will trigger splash effects on nearby poison pools, expanding their area. This means that as long as you continuously use Pulverize, you can generate more poison pools; the larger the area of ​​the poison pool, the higher the damage, and so on.

Other related damage multipliers will also be added gradually. For example, Aspect of the Rabid Beast can increase poison damage, while Aspect of the Ursine Horror can effectively control skill cooldowns.

3. Spiritborn

While the novelty has worn off, this class remains formidable. Under Season of Slaughter mechanics, there are two options for gaining more combat buffs by playing Spiritborn, depending on your goals.

Generally, the best choice is likely Rake-related builds, which can handle all enemies at an extremely high speed and quickly clear large-scale AoE mobs.

Jaguar will also drop in and cast Rake, granting you a significant amount of Rake with each press. Rod of Kepeleke staff helps increase your attack range, ensures critical hits, and boosts your attack power based on your resources.

However, if you want to improve your performance in The Pits or leaderboards in the new season, Payback build is a better choice for Spiritborn, but it's slower than Rake.

4. Necromancer

This class also has two options, but if you only look at the stats, Golem builds are superior, especially Gravebloom-related builds, which allow you to summon three golems - very fun. So if you haven't tried it yet, definitely give it a shot.

Another popular Necromancer choice is the familiar Shadowblight. Playing this build requires consistently triggering key passive abilities, stacking shadow damage sources and dark skills, and unleashing burst damage when key passive abilities are triggered.

Both builds are helpful for clearing Season 12, as they offer strong single-target damage and mob clearing capabilities, and their performance on the leaderboards is comparable (based on Season 11 performance).

5. Barbarian

Earthquake has long been the primary source of damage and damage multipliers for this class. Create earthquakes, then stand in the earthquake zone to trigger them, gaining a significant damage bonus.

Additionally, Mantle of the Mountain's Fury allows you to trigger your own created earthquakes while also triggering Ground Stomp, provided you are within Ground Stomp's range.

Alternatively, you could consider Lunging Strike, whose inherent mobility and fast mob clearing capabilities are also highly attractive.

This playstyle, by maintaining a high fury trigger rate, allows Hooves of the Mountain God to no longer be limited to single targets, but instead deal more AoE damage through cleave.

6. Sorcerer

The strength and gameplay of this class haven't changed much. It's mainly the classic Crackling Energy build, using Ball Lightning for single-target and AoE damage. Movement speed is also quite good.

Crackling Energy relies on the gear Ring of Power and Esadora's Overflowing Cameo amulet , with damage increasing with skill level. By weaving Ice Shards between Ball Lightning attacks, you can significantly increase damage.

7. Rogue

Rogue's strongest build seems to still be Death Trap. It allows you to easily gather all enemies and leave them behind, using dashes to create distance and dodge their damage.

However, while this build is both fun and effective, based on PTR performance, its potential is significantly lower than other builds, such as Twisting Blades, common at the beginning of the season, but you might already be tired of the latter.

Therefore, some in the community speculate that Heartseeker Rogue build might return in Season of Slaughter, rejoining the ranks of mainstream Rogue builds. Let's wait and see.

That concludes this introduction. With the new season about to begin, if you want to gain an advantage faster, choosing the top class and its powerful builds will be better!