Diablo 4 Tips & Tricks - Improve Your Damage Massively With Any Class

Today, we will discuss the most effective ways to fully upgrade your character in the endgame, without resorting to buying Diablo 4 gold. There are several hidden mechanics that the game doesn't explain, which can provide significant boosts in both damage and survivability. Let's delve into these mechanics and explore how you can optimize your character without relying on external resources like purchasing cheap Diablo 4 gold.

Firstly, let's talk about evaluating items when they drop. The first aspect to consider is the item's affixes, especially since many of them are commonly found in top-tier builds. For instance, in Diablo 4, damage against vulnerable enemies is a prevalent affix. Vulnerability already grants a 20% damage increase against affected enemies, and most classes have a means to apply it easily. Therefore, this becomes a logical upgrade to prioritize.

For example, in my previous trap build for the Rogue, I had around 200% additional damage against vulnerable enemies. This boost mainly came from my two-handed crossbow, although other items can provide it to a lesser extent. Critical strike chance and critical damage are also crucial for most builds. Increasing these stats allows you to land more critical hits and deal higher amounts of damage. By default, critical hits provide a 100% damage bonus, but with high critical damage, you can surpass this value significantly.

Other effective affixes are the additive non-conditional buffs, such as those affecting core skill damage or close/long-range damage. The choice depends on your specific build. For instance, with the Rogue, both core skill damage (for penetrating shots or twisting blades) and close-range damage are highly beneficial, considering the playstyle of constantly engaging enemies at close range.

Another less obvious factor is the attack power displayed under the main stat. While it's important to pay attention to it, it doesn't provide a complete picture of your build's strength. A high attack power build might lack critical chance or bonus damage, making it significantly weaker compared to a build with 20% or even 30% lower attack power but with 100% or 200% increased damage against vulnerable enemies or crowd-controlled enemies, or with massive critical damage.

The attack power tooltip states that it's based on your offensive stats scaled with your wielded weapon damage and speed. These offensive stats encompass all the factors we just discussed, including critical chance, damage to vulnerable enemies, and close-range damage. However, it doesn't consider which stats benefit your build the most. For instance, if your build doesn't involve any form of crowd control but you have a lot of bonus damage against crowd-controlled enemies, your attack power may appear high, but in reality, your build will suffer because you don't benefit from that particular affix.

This brings us to stat caps, also known as stat breakpoints. You might have heard of them by now. In Diablo 4, there are approximately six breakpoint tiers, and each tier provides additional stats and even skill points, resulting in a more substantial boost compared to normal upgrades. As you level up, you might have noticed that items drop with increasing bonuses or higher values. The final two breakpoints are at item levels 625 and 725. Once you find or upgrade an item past these thresholds, the maximum amounts of affixes or stats on them will jump to the next tier, granting you even greater power.

Next, let's move on to method number four: exceeding the skill points on your primary skill for the current build. In my case, I use the penetrating shot skill, and I have invested nine total points in it. This is because my gear provides an additional four skill points on top of the base amount. I've observed that this bonus often appears on various gear pieces, with the head slot being the most common, although gloves, amulets, and other slots can also have it. These additional skill points further enhance the chosen skill's damage and any secondary effects it may possess, resulting in a significant boost. For example, obtaining a 30% damage increase due to these extra skill points is remarkable since it synergizes with all other damage buffs from other effects. The maximum number of extra skill points on a single ability can reach around 20 or more.

Let's move on to tip number five, which is an important strategy to avoid a costly mistake when upgrading gear in Diablo 4. Always enchant or reroll the affixes on your gear before making it legendary. If you upgrade an item to legendary first, the cost of enchanting or rerolling the affixes becomes exorbitantly high, making it difficult to afford. Instead, focus on enchanting the affixes while the item is still in its rare quality state. Identify the affix that is the least important for your build and change it. By doing this, you have a chance to roll a more desirable affix such as increased grid damage, vulnerability damage, or extra skill points.

Keep in mind that once you select a specific affix slot to reroll, you can only modify that slot going forward. For example, if you reroll the first slot for damage over time, you'll be limited to changing the stats in that slot only. Additionally, each time you reroll an item, the cost in terms of gold and resources will increase. So it's important to consider your choices carefully.

If you're searching for a specific legendary power that is crucial for your build but haven't found it yet, there are a couple of things you can do to make the process easier. First, always keep the legendaries you find with desirable affixes on the items they dropped with in your stash. This allows you to accumulate a collection of potential aspects that you may need for different builds, rather than having to discard them periodically due to limited inventory space.

Secondly, pay attention to the types of aspects you're hunting for and the slots they can go in. This can give you an indication of where to find them. For example, offensive aspects can be added to amulets, weapons, gloves, and rings. Knowing this, you can focus your efforts on obtaining these specific items from vendors, completing activities like the Tree of Whispers, or engaging in other relevant activities that offer a chance to acquire them.

Once you have obtained the desired item with good affixes and the legendary power you need, it's time to focus on upgrades. Upgrading your gear is one of the most significant contributors to your damage output and defensive capabilities. Each upgrade improves all the stats on the item, including the main attributes and affixes, even if it's within a 1% to 2% range. Considering that each item can have up to five upgrades, and taking into account the gear pieces that are upgraded simultaneously, you can potentially double or quadruple your damage output, depending on your build and stats. Moreover, if you're close to reaching a breakpoint tier, which we discussed earlier, the upgrades become even more impactful, as they can provide a substantial boost to the powers held by the item.

After upgrading your gear, it's essential to consider the gems and the slots you place them in, as they offer different bonuses depending on the slot. For weapons, Emeralds are often the top choice, providing a significant boost to critical damage against vulnerable enemies. If you rely more on crowd control mechanics, you can opt for Sapphires, which are more focused on crowd-controlling damage. For jewelry, Skulls are highly recommended as they provide extra armor, enhancing physical and non-physical damage reduction, particularly useful for Nightmare Dungeons. While focusing on high HP is important, reducing incoming damage is equally crucial.

When it comes to armor, the choice may vary. Topaz was previously favored for its damage reduction while crowd-controlled, but some players have transitioned to Rubies due to low HP levels, aiming to improve survivability. This decision depends on your balance between damage and survivability.

Lastly, maximizing the potential of your build involves paying attention to glyphs and their extra bonuses. As you upgrade glyphs by completing Nightmare Dungeons and unlocking additional radius, their bonuses become more significant. For example, the Closer Glyph initially provided marginal damage to the Twisting Blade skill but, at higher levels, offers a substantial 45% additional damage to all Cutthroat skills for every five dexterity nodes within its range. This creates a self-feeding loop where the upgraded nodes benefit from each other, amplifying the effect. Rare nodes, represented by yellow glyphs, do not require a radius check and consider all nodes and extra stats towards their bonus buffs, including those from other paragon boards.

To fully utilize glyphs, it's crucial to meet the requirements for their effects, as this doubles the respective bonuses for damage, defenses, or other aspects. Additionally, by extending the range on a glyph near a rare node, you can add another 60% bonus, resulting in a significantly higher effect. Taking advantage of both the double and 60% bonuses can provide a massive boost to the corresponding aspect.

These upgrade methods, including enchanting, rerolling, upgrading, gem selection, and glyph optimization, can greatly enhance your character's power and effectiveness in Diablo 4.