A practical guide to the big changes: tempering, masterworking, Sanctification, toughness, and class buffs
Season 11 is the best quality-of-life and power season Diablo 4 has had so far. The devs removed the worst RNG walls, made crafting predictable, and pushed player power back up. If you want to hit the ground running, here’s what actually matters and how to use these systems without wasting time or materials.
1. Tempering: Your biggest power spike
What changed
• You choose the temper category you want. No more fishing through random junk.
• Any tempered affix can now upgrade into a Greater Affix.
• If you don’t hit a greater affix, you can reset tempering indefinitely with Scrolls of Restoration.
Why it matters
This turns tempering into a deterministic min-max system. You keep rolling until the tempered affix becomes a Greater affix, no exceptions.
How to play smarter
Your goal is 100 percent Greater Affixes on every Diablo 4 item.
Your routine becomes:
- Temper the affix you actually want.
- If it doesn’t hit Greater, reset.
- Repeat until it does.
What this means for gameplay
• Every top-end item will eventually reach “perfect” status.
• Cooldown reduction on rings is back, which revives several cooldown-dependent builds such as Bone Spirit and Druid Grizzly Rage.
• Resource-per-second tempering added to pants gives sustain to builds that used to struggle.
2. Masterworking: Your endgame multiplier
What changed
• Upgrades increased from 20 to 25 tiers.
• Each tier adds +1 percent to all affixes on the item (not just one).
• The final upgrade gives +50 percent to one random affix, and you can reroll that final bonus.
Why it matters
Masterworking turns any good piece into a monster. A Greater affix that gets hit by the +50 percent tier becomes insane.
Example
• 25 percent cooldown reduction becomes 31.25 percent with quality.
• If the final 50 percent hits the same affix, it jumps to 46.875 percent.
• Combine this with Greater tempering, and it stacks.
How to use this system
Do not masterwork before finishing tempering.
You only masterwork after you lock in your Greater affixes.
Then push all 25 levels.
Then reroll the final 50 percent upgrade until it hits your key stat.
3. Sanctification: High risk, now high reward
From the image and transcript, Sanctification replaces an affix with a special “Sanctified affix” or adds quality, or adds legendary power.
What changed
• No more Indestructible, the worst outcome.
• It cannot override stats on Ancestral Uniques or Mythic Uniques.
• It can add:
- Legendary power
- A Greater affix
- Bonus quality
- A special pool affix
- Or still replace an existing affix (the bad roll)
Why this matters
Sanctification is now a chase system instead of a fear system.
Big takeaway
The best possible outcome is rolling mythic effects like Havarian stats or Starless Skies onto a non-mythic item. This is extremely rare but game-changing.
How to use it
Use Sanctification only after your item is fully tempered and masterworked.
Your dream scenario is:
- Perfect Greater affixes
- Fully masterworked
- Sanctified bonus quality or mythic effect
That’s BIS.
4. Toughness: Finally understandable
Season 11 adds recommended numbers per Torment tier.
• Torment 1: roughly 2,000
• Torment 2: roughly 10,000
• Torment 3: roughly 50,000
• Torment 4: displayed in-game
How to use it
Instead of guessing or stacking random defenses, simply gear toward the listed toughness value before pushing higher Torment or Pit tiers.
5. Pit Changes: Faster and smoother
• Eyes auto-activate when you walk near them.
• No more random ambush delays.
• Overall flow is smoother and faster for speed farming.
Takeaway
You can now run speed builds without getting punished by slow mechanics.
6. Undercity Tribute Rework (image & transcript)
• Tribute of Pride drops better legendary items.
• Tribute of Mystique drops better magic runes.
• Tribute of Growth gives much stronger XP below level 60.
• Tribute rarity increased.
How to use it
During leveling (1 to 60), prioritize Tribute of Growth for quick power leveling.
Save the others for gear progression.
7. Class-Specific Improvements
Barbarian
Big winners:
• Strength scaling 10 percent higher
• Hammerage, Carnage, and Decimator all Diablo 4 boosted
• Most paragon legendary nodes buffed
Takeaway: Barb is stronger across the entire kit. Great season for leveling and Whirlwind/HOTA/Hammer builds.
Druid
Grizzly Rage finally works.
• Rank 5 brings cooldown down by 10 seconds.
• With ring CDR, tempering, and masterworking, Grizzly Rage can reach a 5 to 10 second downtime.
• Rampaging Werebeast now lasts 60 seconds instead of 5.
You effectively have permanent mega crits.
Takeaway: Druid is smooth and consistent instead of burst-downtime-burst.
Necromancer
Necro is huge this season because the minion builds are now reliable.
• Hellbend Commander works with any number of minions. No more “must have 7.”
• Its value boosted to 50 percent.
• Bloodmoon Breeches can roll Greater affixes to Golem Mastery and Hellbend Commander.
• Triple golem setups return.
Takeaway: Golem Necro is back and very strong.
8. How to Approach Season 11 Efficiently
Day 1 leveling
- Use Tribute of Growth for easy XP.
- Take early CDR on rings if you find one.
- Secure your first Greater temper on a weapon.
Your gear plan
- Level with anything decent.
- At 60 to 70, start serious tempering.
- At 75+, start masterworking only your best drops.
- Only sanctify after an item hits “near perfect.”
Your endgame routine
• Farm Pit for Diablo 4 gold, masterwork mats, and consistent loot.
• Use scrolls freely. Don’t accept bad temper rolls.
• Keep rerolling the final masterwork tier until you hit your core stat.
• Sanctify once the item is maxed.
Final Advice
Season 11 rewards people who interact with crafting. If you learn to do your tempering and masterworking in the right order, you’ll end the season with gear that feels godlike.
The flow is simple:
Temper → Greater affix → Masterwork to 25 → Reroll final upgrade → Sanctify → Chase mythic outcome
If you follow that workflow, you’ll build some of the strongest characters Diablo 4 has ever allowed.
