Itemization has been a balancing act that Diablo 4 has attempted to manage since its release over two years ago. While Diablo 4 Season 4 addressed many of the criticisms players had about how loot drops felt less meaningful the further players got into the endgame, there was still room for improvement. Luckily, Diablo 4 Season 10 is set to continue the work the Loot Reborn season paved the way for by increasing the drop rate for Uniques across the board and reducing the drop rates for Magic and Rare items on Torment difficulty tiers.
While this itemization change is sure to help make loot feel more meaningful, Diablo 4 risks devaluing certain endgame activities if they are not adjusted to account for the overall increase to Unique drop rates. As it stands, farming Diablo 4's Lair Bosses is the most popular way for obtaining Uniques since players can target their desired Unique from specific bosses. However, players need materials to open the boss's cache after defeating them, which remain elusive the higher players climb on the boss ladder.
Diablo 4 Season 10's Increased Unique Drops Should Just Be the Tip of the Iceberg
Lair Boss Materials Are Half of Diablo 4's Unique Equation
Players can find Diablo 4's Unique gear from numerous sources, but have historically had to farm some of those sources for longer than others. As such, the ability to target farm Uniques from Lair Bosses has made them the ideal source compared to alternative options.
|
Source |
Required Material to Unlock |
|---|---|
|
Helltide Chests |
Aberrant Cinders |
|
Nightmare Dungeons |
Nightmare Sigils |
|
Tree of Whispers Caches |
Grim Favors |
|
Purveyor of Curiosities |
Murmuring Obols |
|
Infernal Hordes |
Burning Aether |
|
Lair Bosses |
Specific Lair Boss Materials |
Each of these sources requires players to use a certain material as a key to unlock, but some of these keys are easier to obtain than others. For example, players can find plenty of Aberrant Cinders in Helltides simply by slaying demons, trivializing the often high requirement for unlocking a Helltide Chest. Conversely, obtaining enough of a specific Lair Boss material can be an exercise in frustration since players will need to farm Initiate-tier bosses to gain the materials needed to open the chests for Greater bosses, but the limited drop rates on these materials make them more of a headache to get the further players make it up the ladder.
Diablo 4 does include Stygian Stones that can replace any Lair Boss material in a pinch, but they are also a somewhat rare drop.
The Rarity of Betrayer's Husks Risks Making Them Obsolete in Season 10
Betrayer's Husks are the rarest of the Lair Boss materials, as they only drop from Belial ambushes that have a chance to occur after defeating another Lair Boss. Since these ambushes are random, it can be hard to reliably farm Betrayer's Husks, thus making the Exalted Lair Boss, Belial, Lord of Lies, the most complicated and tedious to farm for Uniques and Mythics. To remedy this situation, Diablo 4 could give boss materials—in particular, Betrayer's Husks—an increased drop rate or drop amount alongside Uniques to make farming Lair Bosses for Uniques more appealing in Season 10.
With the overall rate for Unique drops increasing in Diablo 4 Season 10, while the chances of a Belial ambush and Betrayer's Husk drops remain the same, the preferred method for farming Uniques may no longer be from Lair Bosses. Instead, Helltide Chests, Nightmare Dungeons, and the Tree of Whispers seem like the go-to sources for Uniques in Diablo 4 once the Season 10 update drops. It's possible that Blizzard may adjust the drop rates for Lair Boss materials if the pendulum swings too far in the other direction, but the stocks for alternative Unique farming methods have definitely gone up in Season 10.
Diablo 4
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 88 /100 Critics Rec: 93%
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Proprietary Engine
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG, Hack and Slash
