Unlike past seasons, the theme for Loot Reborn is more so about engaging with the new mechanics and systems for Diablo 4. Itemization has been reworked, experience is through the roof, and build diversity is looking healthy. It isn’t completely void of new content, though. There is the Iron Wolves season questline as well as The Pit. For new and returning players, it’s a lot to take in. With this Diablo 4 Season 4 quick start guide, you’ll get a crash course in everything you need to know about Loot Reborn.
D4: Everything You Need to Know about Season 4 Loot Reborn
What Class Should You Play?
Unlike past seasons, Loot Reborn puts all the classes relatively close to one another in terms of power. More importantly, build diversity is looking good across the board. No matter what class you play, you’re going to have plenty of options. With that said, Necromancers are without a doubt coming out on top this season, especially if you’re running a minion build. It’s so easy to play you can practically fold laundry while your minions beat demons to a pulp.
If you want something more active, my personal suggestion is a Pulverize Druid. I had a lot of fun with that build during the Season of Blood. It boils down to you running around as a bear (all the time) and slapping the ground with your big, meaty bear paws.
Leveling Up From 1 to 100 Has Never Been Easier
Pretty much every source of experience has been juiced, especially Helltides. For that reason, running Helltides is arguably the best way to reach max level. With player power being in a really good place this season, start on World Tier 2 for an immediate 50% boost to experience. For the uninitiated, demons will invade areas of Sanctuary every hour, aside from a 5-minute break, so you can just keep running it over and over. Stick to World Tier 2 until about level 35 to 40, then bump up the difficulty. Once you’re level 55 to 60, increase it again to World Tier 4.
Keep Your Gear Up-to-date With Tortured Gifts and Tree of Whispers
Since you’ll be leveling consistently, your gear needs to keep up, too. When demons are slayed within Helltides, they can drop Aberrant Cinders. Those are used to open Tortured Gift chests, which contain loot for your level, among other things like resources.
In addition to slaying demons, you can also complete Tree of Whispers tasks. If you open the map, you’ll see small events going on in the area, each of which gives a specific amount of points. Once you have 10 points, return to the Tree of Whispers, and you’ll be awarded a loot cache and experience. You’re essentially double-dipping in EXP and keeping your gear up-to-date.
Improve Your Gear With Tempering and Masterworking
For the returning player, Masterworking may sound familiar, but it’s been slightly reworked. As for Tempering, that’s a totally new crafting system introduced in Loot Reborn. Both mechanics will be integral to tweaking your build as you grind your way to max level and can be done by speaking to any blacksmith.
Essentially, Tempering adds a desired affix via Tempering Manuals, which you’ll loot as you play. I usually walk away from Helltides with a couple in my inventory. The manuals can add all sorts of bonuses like increasing the AoE of abilities, extra damage, and so on. They’re basically Aspects of Power in a different form.
Related:
Diablo 4: Legacy Items ExplainedWhile Tempering should be done whenever you get a nice upgrade, Masterworking is now, more or less, an endgame mechanic. It can only be applied to unique items and tempered ancestral gear; unique items can drop on any World Tier, but Ancestral items are World Tier 4 only.
Season Journey and Season Rewards
As if loot and experience weren’t enough, slaying demons during a Helltide also grants you reputation with the Iron Wolves. The main theme of Diablo 4 Season 4 is “Loot Reborn,” but there’s also a small questline involving the Iron Wolves. You can start the quest after the campaign.
As you gain more Wolf’s Honor, you’ll unlock tiers, each of which can reward crafting materials, loot, and cosmetics. I highly recommend you spend some time with it, if only for the rare crafting materials it rewards. Speak with Soudeh the Anvil at the Iron Wolves Encampment to see how much Wolf’s Honor you’ve gained and to collect loot caches.
We aren’t done with season rewards yet! Everything you do from killing demons to completing quests will net you Favor towards your season battle pass. This is its own board and awards its own loot, mostly in the form of cosmetics. You can push through the battle pass much quicker by completing chapters of your Season Journey. Each chapter has a list of objectives to complete to unlock the next chapter. You don’t have to complete all of them, just all but two. Oh, and completing chapters nets you even more rewards. It looks like Christmas came to Sanctuary!
Endgame Content: Nightmare Dungeons and The Pit
Last but not least, we have endgame content. What you’ll be working towards around level 55 are Nightmare dungeons and The Pit. Nightmare dungeons are much harder versions of already existing dungeons. Whenever you complete a normal dungeon (or just play) on World Tier 3, you’ll almost always get a Nightmare Sigil. Using it will turn a normal dungeon into a Nightmare variant. Completing a Nightmare dungeon awards experience, better loot, and experience towards your Glyphs for the Paragon Board.
Nightmare Sigils have a tier attached to them: for example, a Tier 20 Nightmare dungeon. Now, once you’ve cleared your first Tier 46 Nightmare dungeon, you’ll unlock The Pit. It’s the hardest content in the game and is essentially what you’re working towards as you hone and craft the best version of your build.
The Pit is located in Cerrigar and like Nightmare dungeons, it has gradually increasing tiers with the highest being Tier 200. The goal is to slay as many demons as possible within 15 minutes. Items won’t drop during this event, which means all you have to worry about is slaying demons. If you’ve played Diablo 3, you’ll notice The Pit is basically Nephalem Rifts!
Diablo 4 is available for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
