What's New in Diablo 4 Equipment

The Vessel of Hatred expansion brought massive changes to Diablo 4's gear system. Runewords are back, several new Mythic Uniques have been added, the Spiritborn class arrived with a full set of class-specific Uniques, and mercenaries now help you acquire gear through bartering. If you're coming back after a break or just starting out, a lot has changed since launch. Here's a breakdown of the new equipment and how to get it.

How Runewords Work

Runewords returned with Vessel of Hatred, though the mechanics are different from Diablo 2. You can socket up to two sets of runes in your gear, each set consisting of one Ritual Rune and one Invocation Rune. The Ritual Rune sets the trigger condition and builds up Offering. Once the Offering bar is full, it automatically activates the Invocation Rune's effect:

• Ritual Rune triggers are fairly flexible. Some activate when you cast a cooldown skill, others when you stand still during combat, move a certain distance, or spend resources. Different builds favor different triggers.
• Itility ones grant temporary boosts to max life or skill ranks, and offensive ones can make your next skill a guaranteed critical strike with Overpower.
• Runes come in three rarities: Magic, Rare, and Legendary. Higher rarity means stronger effects. At the Jeweler, you can combine three identical runes to craft a new random one.
• Lair Bosses are the main source for Legendary Runes. The Kurast Undercity with Tribute of Harmony also provides steady drops, and Helltides plus Tree of Whispers bounties contribute some passive income.
• Runes are tradable between players. If you're stuck missing one specific rune, asking in trade chat is faster than grinding for it blindly.

The real strength of Runewords is how easily you can swap them around. Slot a burst-oriented Invocation for boss fights, then switch to a mobility or control rune for farming. You can adjust your playstyle without touching the gear itself.

Getting Gear Through Mercenary Bartering

Vessel of Hatred introduced four mercenaries: Raheir the shield tank, Aldkin the caster and healer, Varyana the melee berserker, and Subo the ranged archer. Besides fighting alongside you, the mercenary system includes a bartering feature that serves as a steady supplement for gear acquisition:

• Fight with your mercenaries to earn Rapport. Once Rapport reaches a certain level, a vendor named Fayira appears at the Den, your mercenary hub.
• Fayira accepts Pale Marks as currency. You earn Pale Marks by continuing to build Rapport, and since the post-max Rapport bar is repeatable, Pale Marks are an infinitely farmable resource.
• Different mercenaries unlock different shop inventory. Raheir leans toward defensive Aspects and crafting materials, Aldkin toward resource Aspects and runes, Varyana toward mobility Aspects and Masterworking materials, and Subo toward utility Aspects and boss summoning materials.
• The shop refreshes automatically each day, and you get one free manual refresh as well. Prioritize boss summoning materials. You can never have enough boss keys for farming Lair Boss uniques and Mythic Uniques.
• Aspect caches are also worth picking up. One cache drops several Legendaries and fills out your Codex of Power much more efficiently than random overworld drops.
• Occasionally the shop will stock Ancestral gear. If the affixes line up, grab it, but don't count on this as a regular source. Treat it as a lucky bonus.

Leveling mercenaries is a marathon, not a sprint. Don't grind it out deliberately. Just play normally with a mercenary equipped, and the Rapport climbs on its own. Treat Fayira's shop as something you check once a day when you log in.

Mythic Uniques from Vessel of Hatred

Vessel of Hatred added several new Mythic Uniques. Shroud of False Death is a chest piece with +1 to all Passive Skills. That single affix makes it one of the most versatile Mythic Uniques in the game right now, usable by virtually any build. Heir of Perdition is a helm that provides substantial damage bonuses and critical strike chance, with additional effects against enemies under certain conditions. Shattered Vow is a polearm focused on damage over time and an execute mechanic, best suited for builds that stack dot effects.

The older Mythic Uniques like Harlequin Crest, Andariel's Visage, The Grandfather, Ring of Starless Skies, and Tyrael's Might are still in the loot pool. They haven't been pushed out of relevance by the new additions.

All Mythic Unique crafting is handled at the Jeweler. Salvaging an unwanted Mythic Unique gives you one Resplendent Spark. With two Resplendent Sparks plus the required runes, you can craft a specific Mythic Unique at the Jeweler. Check which runes you need ahead of time and stockpile them. Don't wait until you have the Sparks but zero runes. Mythic Uniques also drop directly from Lair Bosses and high-tier Pit runs. Crafting is simply a guaranteed fallback so luck isn't the only path.

Spiritborn Class Uniques

Spiritborn, the new class from Vessel of Hatred, came with a full set of Uniques built around the four Spirit Guardians: Jaguar, Eagle, Gorilla, and Centipede. Harmony of Ebewaka is a helm that, based on your secondary Spirit Hall choice, makes all your skills gain additional Spirit tags. Each Spirit tag on a skill boosts its damage, making this helm the centerpiece of multi-spirit builds. Jacinth Shell is a chest piece that spends Vigor to heal you while also burning through your life pool to reduce active cooldowns. It's a high-risk, high-tempo piece that rewards good timing and punishes sloppy play. Scorn of the Earth replaces your Evade with Soar, giving Eagle-focused builds a big bump in both mobility and clear speed.

Spiritborn can also use certain general-purpose Uniques, like Rakanoth's Wake. These boots trigger a fire explosion whenever you cast a cooldown skill and perform well in builds with frequent cooldown usage.

Most Spiritborn Uniques drop from standard Lair Bosses, including Andariel, Duriel, and the Beast in the Ice. Check each boss's loot table before farming. Some Uniques are tied to specific bosses.

How Tempering and Masterworking Work

Tempering adds one extra affix to your gear from a specific category. The available categories depend on the slot: helms get Defensive or Utility, gloves get Offensive or Utility, boots get Mobility or Utility, and weapons get Offensive or Weapon categories. Tempering has a limited number of rolls per item. If you burn through all of them without hitting the affix you need, the item is effectively bricked. Scrolls of Restoration can restore tempering charges and drop from the Dark Citadel, Helltides, and World Bosses. One thing worth clarifying early, since it trips up a lot of players: Greater Affixes are native to the item when it drops, with values 1.5 times the normal maximum, marked by a star icon. A tempered affix can never become a Greater Affix. These are two completely separate things.

Masterworking boosts an item's overall stats. It goes up to rank 12, with each rank improving all affixes by 5% of their base value. At ranks 4, 8, and 12, you hit a major breakthrough where one random affix gets an additional 25% bonus. If that breakthrough lands on a Greater Affix, the payoff is massive. Masterworking uses Obducite as its primary material, with the Kurast Undercity and Nightmare Dungeons being the main farming sources.

The correct order is Tempering before Masterworking. The logic is straightforward: if your tempering rolls fail, the item is worthless, and there's no point having spent Masterworking materials on it beforehand. Lock in your tempered affix first, then pour Obducite into pushing ranks. Doing it backward is just burning materials for no reason.

Vessel of Hatred has deepened the gear chase considerably. Runewords add build flexibility without requiring new gear, Mythic Uniques and Spiritborn Uniques widen the endgame target pool, the mercenary shop provides a steady drip of daily resources, and Tempering plus Masterworking are what push a good base item to its ceiling. Whether you're farming casually or grinding for perfect rolls, the current gear system has enough layers to keep you busy.