Many great changes have graced Diablo 4 with Season 4, and they’re an integral part of the game now, even outside of this season. Loot is much easier to sort, leveling is considerably faster and no longer feels at all like a grind, and new systems like Tempering combined with changes to your Codex of Power make customizing your character easier and more fun than ever — and you’ll feel considerably more overpowered by fine-tuning your gear to give you the exact powers you want, even while leveling.
There are a lot of positive changes you’ll want to know about, so let’s get started.
Starting the game at World Tier 2 is more efficient than World Tier 1 now
Unlike in the previous seasons, World Tier 2 is more efficient to level in than World Tier 1 now. What happened before was that the XP increase you’d get from each monster you killed wasn’t enough to offset the health increase that same monster got — so, on average, you’d take more time killing them than that extra XP would be worth.
Starting from Season 4, things have changed: the math has been redone, and the experts all agree that World Tier 2 is, overall, faster than World Tier 1 now. And with the increased power your characters will have, there’s little to fear from the increased difficulty this tier adds.
Abuse the Tempering system at the Blacksmith, even while leveling
The new Tempering system which you’ll unlock at the Blacksmith allows you to add extra affixes to your items. This is actually one of the biggest changes that this season — adequately called “Loot Reborn” — brings. Items have fewer affixes by default, but you get to add the affixes you actually want on them via Tempering, meaning that your items end up tailored to whatever you want them to be. Are you a Barbarian running Dust Devils? Temper all your items with effects that improve your Dust Devils!
This is, in my opinion, the key change that makes leveling in Season 4 much faster, and much more fun. Customizing your build like this is something you should absolutely abuse as soon as you’re able to, without fear: Tempering has no gold cost, and the cost in materials is almost negligible.
The Codex of Power has been made much easier to use
You no longer need to keep extracting powers and keeping them as items that you then insert into other items: once you salvage an item at the Blacksmith, any Legendary power that item had is added to your collection, and it’s yours to keep forever. Next time you want to add that power to an item, you’ll simply pick it from there.
And what’s more: the Codex of Power also records the best version of that power you’ve ever extracted. So you get to keep all of your favorite Legendary powers at their max level to add to any item you want, at any point in the future. Infinitely better than the previous system!
You can try the capstone dungeons much earlier now
With the gearing and leveling improvements making your characters so much more powerful, Capstone Dungeons are considerably easier now than they were in previous seasons. You can probably try the capstone dungeon that unlocks World Tier 3, Cathedral of Light, much earlier than level 50 — I was able to finish it at level 34 — and the Fallen Temple, which unlocks WT 4 much earlier than level 70 — I succeeded at level 53. My colleagues have reported similar success.
Of course, the difficulty of the content will ultimately vary from player to player, and what works for me might not work for you — not to mention that different classes, different builds, and varying luck obtaining items are all factors that will make a difference. But the overall point we’re making is just that you should at least give those dungeons a try sooner than you might have done before: you might be surprised with how doable they’ve become.
Helltide, now available immediately, is the fastest way to level — but don’t neglect Nightmare Dungeons
Helltide events are now available right at the beginning of your leveling process, even at World Tier 1, and they’re up almost indefinitely. They’ve essentially become an integrated part of the game now, not only on endgame, but also for leveling — and they’re actually the fastest way to level. You can tackle those events while also completing your Tree of Whispers missions, which ends up being a faster way to gain XP than anything else in the game.
But once you unlock nightmare dungeons (at level 50 and World Tier 3), make sure to do them as well, as they’re still the only way to level up the Glyphs from your Paragon Boards. If you focus solely on leveling your character, you’ll regret all the catching up you’ll have to do for your Glyphs later.
As soon as you hit World Tier 4, kill the World Boss for a chance at 925 gear
Do you want to get a chance at really great gear quick? As you get to World Tier 4, look up the timer for the current World Boss, and make sure to kill it. These bosses die in a matter of seconds, as the area is guaranteed to be full of high level players, and the items you’ll get from them at least once a week can roll with an item level as high as the cap of 925! I was able to nab a few 925 weapons really quickly, so definitely don’t let that opportunity pass.
We hope this information will help you. Season 4 has absolutely revolutionized Diablo 4, making the game considerably more fun than it was in the previous seasons, so now is the perfect time to pick it back up.
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Filed Under: Diablo 4 Season 4, Diablo 4 Tips
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