If you have been running into fully geared, high-level players in Normal difficulty lately, you are not imagining things. A lot of them are there for one specific reason: leveling Azmodan’s Divine Gift as fast as possible.
Right now, farming Azmodan on Normal is simply faster, even for players who could easily handle Torment 4. This topic has been popping up a lot lately, especially on social media and Reddit.
So, here is why Normal Azmodan farming has become such a big deal this season.
How Azmodan Gift Progression Works
Azmodan kills grant Divine Gift progress at a flat rate. Each kill awards five points, and fully maxing the gift takes 1,500 points, which means around 300 kills total.
The important detail is that difficulty does not affect this progress at all. A kill on Normal grants the same gift XP as a kill on Torment 4.
Because of that, Normal difficulty ends up being far faster. Azmodan goes down in about a minute there, compared to several minutes on higher difficulties due to boss durability. Over time, that difference adds up fast.
Keep in mind, this is about the summoned version of Azmodan, not the World Boss.
Why Max-Level Players Are Farming Azmodan on Normal
Since the Essence of Sin takes so many kills to max out, a lot of players see the process as busywork rather than engaging gameplay. Normal Azmodan farming lets you progress the Divine Gift passively while doing something else, like watching a show or working.
As a result, it has turned into a very passive grind, which explains why Normal mode suddenly feels crowded with fully geared characters.
Why the Azmodan Gift Is So Important This Season
Leveling Essence of Sin to Rank 4, or ideally Rank 5, is not just about completion. Higher ranks increase drop chances for several valuable items, including Nightmare Dungeon keys, Tributes of Ascendance, and extremely rare Mythic Prankster sigils. That alone makes it one of the more important Divine Gifts this season.
There is also an even bigger reason players want this gift maxed early: total reward volume.
Season 11 includes eight Divine Gifts in total, but only four Purified slots. If you only use those, you are basically leaving half of your potential rewards unused. Filling Corrupted slots activates the remaining gifts, even if their rewards are not doubled and come with downsides.
In short, that means:
- Using Corrupted slots lets you benefit from all eight Divine Gifts at once instead of just four
- Some activities can be stacked, like getting both extra Masterworking upgrades and extra Gold from Belial gift slots in the same run
- Certain Corrupted effects can even increase enemy spawns, which can be helpful for farming Runes, Gems, and other drops if your build can handle the penalty
Once players realize this, pushing Azmodan early to unlock more flexible and rewarding setups becomes an obvious priority. Since this progression also carries over to alts, many players want to get it done early, even if the method itself is not particularly fun.
What Players Are Saying About the Azmodan Grind
Most players are not exactly happy with how this plays out. The system strongly encourages repetitive farming instead of normal gameplay, and many feel the time-to-reward balance is off compared to other Divine Gifts.
For now, the grind is mostly being tolerated as part of the season. Nevertheless, some players are still hoping Blizzard adjusts Divine Gift XP scaling in a future update, so higher difficulties feel worth running again.
Until then, that is why Normal Azmodan remains packed with players farming Essence of Sin ranks as efficiently as possible.
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