Every Big Rework in Diablo 4 Season 11

Diablo 4 got some major system reworks together with the release of Season 11, aiming to improve the game based on community feedback. These changes drastically affect how the game is played and how players progress through it, so if you’re a returning Diablo 4 player, you may want to look into what stuff got changed.

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Diablo 4: Stats Explained

There are four major stats and several minor stats in Diablo 4, and players will want to know what each of them does to level with a plan.

Diablo 4 Season 11 Combat and Difficulty Changes

While the game is still an ARPG power fantasy, Blizzard reworked some of the core elements of combat that have made Diablo 4 a bit harder than it used to. Affected systems and elements include:

• Monster AI behavior
• Monster Damage
• Player Armor and Resistances
• Healing
• Fortify

Monster Changes

Enemies in Diablo 4 have become a little smarter and much more dangerous as of Season 11. Monsters now focus more on doing their role when fighting instead of just globbing up together with everything else — ranged enemies will try to keep their distance, large units will do their best to disrupt you, and swarmers will swarm you (though nothing much has changed about that). Some of the more disruptive attacks from larger enemies now also have a much clearer telegraph.

Additionally, overall monster damage has been increased, and new Elite affixes were added too. Expect to see a lot more variety with Elite packs and named monsters.

Defense Rework

Armor and elemental resistances have been completely reworked. Previously, both of these had hard caps. As of Season 11, they now work on a rating system that gives diminishing returns the higher their values are. Every point of Armor and elemental resistance you get builds this rating, and you get a percentage reduction on damage taken based on how much Armor/ER you have.

Additionally, the game now has a Physical Resistance stat, which works much like the Elemental Resistance stats.

Healing and Fortify Changes

First, big changes were made with how Potions work. Before, players could chug Healing Potions without any real consequences thanks to just how many Potions there were. In Season 11, limitations were implemented:

• Healing Potions can no longer be upgraded; they will always heal 35% of your max health instantly.
• You can only carry 4 Healing Potions at a time.
• A Potion is refilled once every 30 seconds.

To compensate for this change, healing-related item affixes (Life on Kill, Life on Hit, Healing Received) were buffed and made more readily available, which is great if you’re playing a melee class or if you find yourself taking a lot of damage often.

Second, the entire Fortify mechanic in Diablo 4 was reworked. Previously, it made players more resilient when they had a Fortify value greater than or equal to their current health. After the rework, Fortify no longer gives damage reduction. Instead, it acts as a pool of back-up health that gets used whenever the player takes damage. When you get hit by an attack while Fortified, your Fortified health will get drained and converted into actual Life. Naturally, this means that skills and effects related to Fortify have also been reworked.

Diablo 4 Season 11 Tempering and Masterworking Changes

The Tempering and Masterworking systems received a substantial update that significantly improved both of them. The most frustrating parts of these systems were removed entirely, but some things were shuffled around to make sure item modification isn’t too overpowered.

Tempering Changes

You no longer need to rely on luck to get the stats you want. Players can now choose exactly which affix they want to add to their weapon. However, you can only have one tempered affix on an item at any time, so you’ll have to be wise when picking which stat to add.

Scrolls of Restoration still exist, though, and you can use those to re-temper your gear as many times as you’d like.

Masterworking Changes

Masterworking gear has remained more or less the same in terms of the actual benefit it provides. Your items still get better stats once you pay your local blacksmith for the service. The major change here is that Masterworking now uses a Quality-based system.

Every piece of gear in Diablo 4 can be Masterworked until it reaches 25 Quality. When you Masterwork something, it will gain up to 5 Quality. If you rework a max Quality item, one of its stats gets a Capstone Bonus, increasing its value by 50%. Only one stat can receive a Capstone Bonus, though you can spend Obducite and Neathiron to re-roll which stat receives that bonus.

Player Progression and Seasonal Journey Reworks

Quite a few things got reworked here, and some of them are quite apparent. The start of every season is going to be much slower moving forward, but completing seasonal challenges will be more rewarding to compensate.

Renown Reworks

The Renown system that previously gave players bonus Potion Capacity and Skill Points was removed for the Seasonal Realm (though it’s still present in the Eternal Realm). This was replaced by Season Rank, which is essentially a checklist of stuff that players can do.

Completing Season Rank objectives grants a variety of rewards, from bonus Skill Points and Paragon Points to Titles, Smouldering Ashes, and item caches. Thankfully, Season Rank progress affects all seasonal characters in your account, which means you can start your second or third characters with bonus Skill Points under their belt at level 1 to accelerate the leveling experience.

Capstone Dungeons

Capstone Dungeons make a return as part of the Season Rank system. If you want to access the next Season Rank tier, you need to complete one of these dungeons.

Unlike the ones in the launch version of the game, Season 11 Capstone Dungeons will not prevent you from increasing your difficulty level. They are simply here to gate your Season Rank progress. These dungeons do not scale with your level, which means you can challenge them at any time so long as you’re confident in your build.