GuideSystems

Gear Systems and Itemization Overview (Season 3)

Learn everything there is to know about Itemization in Diablo 4!

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Neviriah

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Introduction

In Diablo, looting plays an essential role in the player’s journey. Various types of gear items can be looted, equipped, improved, and modified. The equipment worn contributes to the character’s power and customization, as well as enhancing the class fantasy. Obtaining high Item Power gear is an important activity in Diablo 4. The higher the Item Power, the stronger the stats and benefits players get from equipping said gear.

In this guide, all necessary and important information for the player’s journey through Sanctuary and beyond will be covered.

Item Rarities

First of all, it is important to know that items fall into different rarity categories.
These are:

  • Common
    • No special affixes.
  • Magic
    • Can have the highest individual affixes.
  • Rare
    • Generally better than Magic items
    • Can have up to five affixes.
  • Legendary
    • Rolls with four regular affixes and one Legendary affix (randomly rolled.)
    • Legendary affixes can appear on fixed item types (e.g. certain affixes might only roll on 1-Handed Weapons, Gloves, Rings etc.)
    • Some Legendary affixes can have increased power on specific Items (e.g. 25% more powerful when rolled on an Amulet.)
    • Different Legendary types such as: generic (can be used by most builds), category-specific and skill-specific.
  • Unique
    • Completely fixed affixes.
    • Special effects cannot be altered or overwritten.
    • Usually rolls with very class-specific powers.

Equipment Slots

Every Character will be able to equip a total of 10 gear pieces. Except for Barbarians, who will be able to equip a total of 12 items because of the Arsenal System (e.g. switch between 1-Handed and 2-Handed Weapons). As well as Rogues, who can wear a total of 11 items to fit their melee or ranged playstyle. Characters will always be able to equip five Armor pieces and three Jewelry pieces (one Amulet, two Rings). Then on top of that, your character can either wear a 1-Hand Weapon and a Shield or Off-Hand, two 1-Hand Weapons, a 2-Hand Weapon, and a few other options, depending on the class.

Any gear piece can also have different sockets on it, which will allow you to put any of the various gems in the game into them. One piece of gear can have multiple gems in one single item.

Where to Get Gear

Loot can be found everywhere, whether through fighting a group of enemies in the open world or inside a Dungeon, or anywhere else. They will most likely drop some items or equipment. However, certain enemies have a higher chance of dropping certain item types than others. For example, if a Rogue needs a specific Bow, there is a higher chance to get it from enemies that use similar Weapon types.

The quality of gear that drops is directly affected by the difficulty of the World (Tier) and the progression of the Character. Items can drop in open world content, in Dungeons, or from World Bosses. Literally anywhere. Later on, however, after reaching Max Level (100), you will reach a sort of soft power cap. Afterwards, the only way to get better gear is to invest time and skill to find or craft better items, for example through completing Nightmare Dungeons. These Dungeons are much harder in their difficulty and require more skill, power, and patience to complete, but generally reward better loot drops.

Everything about Nightmare Dungeons

During End-Game, you will also have access to higher World Tiers (difficulties). These higher Tiers will unlock additional loot drop options like Sacred and Ancestral items. Certain Unique pieces will also only drop in higher Tiers. Unique items will be much harder to find than Legendary Aspects.

Legendary gear can also be obtained through the Tree of Whispers, which is an End-Game System. The Tree of Whispers is a giant tree located in the Hawezar region of Sanctuary, and will provide world objectives and bounties. If these are completed, the tree can reward you with legendary gear, experience, crafting materials, and more.

Tree of Whispers Guide

Equipment Stats

Each gear piece can roll from a certain pool of affixes. Boots, for example, give Movement Speed. Weapons can roll with damage modifiers, and Jewelry gives characters a boost to Resistance.

Generally speaking, every gear slot can have a set of stats on it. This means that certain items roll different stats depending on the slot (e.g. a Helmet can roll different stats than a Chest). Some items cannot roll with many different stats on them. Defensive stats mostly roll on Pants, for example. Because of this, it should not be too difficult to get the right combination of stats on these. This is because there are not a lot of special stats that can roll on pants, so the chance to find the right one directly, is much higher.

Upgrading and Enchanting

You will be able to upgrade the equipment of your character. Upgrading gear at the Blacksmith and Jeweler increases the Item Power and the stats that characters can have on those pieces. Every piece of gear can be upgraded a certain amount of times, up to a maximum of five times, based on its rarity. Upgrades will cost Gold and Materials, which will increase each time a piece is upgraded. With each upgrade, it will gain +5 Item Power.

In Diablo 4, there are three NPCs that can be visited in order to upgrade gear.

The Blacksmith lets you repair, salvage, or upgrade items to increase their Item Power and stats. Each time you upgrade an item, the values of its affixes are re-rolled.

Blacksmith Guide

The Jeweler lets you craft powerful Gems and socket them into gear in order to boost your character’s stats. The Jeweler also lets you upgrade Jewelry items (Rings and Amulets), add sockets to items, and remove Gems that are socketed into pieces of gear.

Jeweler Guide

The Occultist lets you extract Legendary Powers from items and add the Legendary affix to another piece of gear of your choice (which has to be of Rare or Legendary rarity).

Occultist Guide

Item Power

Is Item Power a reliable way to compare items? In many ways, yes. But it depends!

Higher Item Power allows for better rolls on gear. For example: there is a threshold around 340 Item Power. If you have a 330 Item Power item, it can roll between 2% to 5% Attack Speed (just an example!). But here is the exciting part – if said item is upgraded twice (+5 per upgrade at the Blacksmith), reaching 340 Item Power, the stats that roll on it (which also refresh every time the Item is upgraded) can now range from 4% to 7% (with a minimum of 4%, in this example). This applies not only to items that are found, but also to those that are acquired through various means.

Generally, focusing on Item Power is a smart approach, especially for Weapons, because Weapon Damage holds significant importance, as it often outweighs other effects unless an Item with best-in-slot (BiS) stats is found, such as +1 to an important Skill rank. However, it is important to keep in mind that for certain builds, the affix that is rolled on an item may still be more important than the Item Power itself. Always check first, before switching gear.

Item Power Ranges

Sacred 625 – 750

Level Scaling Examples:

  • Level 55: 625 – 700
  • Level 56: 627 – 702
  • Level 70: 655 – 730

Bosses in WT3 (Level 55):

  • Unique Items: 675 – 750
  • Rare/Legendary: 650 – 725

Ancestral 780 – 925

Level Scaling Examples:

  • Level 75: 780 – 855
  • Level 76: 782 – 857
  • Level 100: 830 – 925

Bosses in WT4 (Level 75+):

  • Unique Items: 850 – 925
  • Rare/Legendary: 800 – 925
  • Duriel will always drop Item Power Level 925

Post Level 100:

  • Level 101: 831 – 925
  • Level 102: 832 – 925

Nightmare Dungeons:

  • Monsters Level 100: 845 – 925
  • Monsters Level 120: 910 – 925
  • Monsters Level 144+: 925

Legendaries

Legendaries are harder to find than Common, Magic or Rare gear pieces. Legendary items drop with powerful affixes, called Aspects, that can alter and empower the characters abilities in many different ways.

You can also go to the Occultist to extract the Aspect (legendary affix) from a legendary item, and then add the extracted Legendary Power to another piece of gear (e.g. Rare item that rolled with amazing stats and to which you would like to add a specific Legendary Power, or a Legendary Item with the right stats on it but the wrong Legendary affix, so you can switch it out with the Aspect that was extracted). However, this will destroy the item from which the Aspect was extracted in the process.

Most of the Aspects you will have collected throughout your journey will be registered in the Codex of Power. Later on, any Aspect can then be picked to imprint onto a new Rare or Legendary item. Adding a specific Legendary Power through the Codex, however, comes at a cost.

Legendary Aspect and Codex of Power Guide
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