2024 has been a busy year for gear in Diablo IV. With the “Loot Reborn” update piggybacking on Season IV, loot was greatly overhauled. While this already resulted in a more streamlined experience, more changes were called for, especially with the game’s marquee endgame loot tier - Ancestral-quality items. This page will discuss how loot has changed in Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred, with a special emphasis on Ancestral gear.
Page Breakdown¶
| Quick Search |
|---|
| Ancestral Items - Quick Look |
| Loot Reborn Changes |
| Finding Ancestral Items |
| Ancestral Items Greater Affixes |
Ancestral Items - Quick Look¶
Ancestral items are a higher-tier drop that can start appearing in Torment I difficulty. Any piece of gear can be Ancestral. Ancestral items boast higher Item Power, base stats, and a random number of Greater Affixes:
- Ancestral items can drop in Torment I difficulty and later
- Greater odds of dropping in higher difficulties
- Ancestral items can drop from any source on Torment difficulty
- Randomly has 1-3 Greater Affixes, which are mods with much higher stats than normal
- Enchanting a Greater Affix will replace it with a standard affix
With the advent of Loot Reborn, affixes have been streamlined significantly and messy old gear have been branded with the “Legacy” tag.
Loot Reborn Changes¶
Finding loot used to be a chore in Diablo IV… a bit odd of a statement considering the game’s a loot-grind ARPG. Don’t get us wrong - we love loot! But the number of junk mods that could spawn on gear was stifling, and when you got to the end of the endgame you’d have to sift through literally hundreds of bits of gear before you found something worthwhile.
With Season 4, an overhaul of the game’s loot system was announced. Dubbed “Loot Reborn”, the number of junk mods that could spawn on items were greatly reduced, as were the number of mods that could appear on a piece of gear, to compensate. Rare items now have two mods, legendary items three, while uniques continued to be… well, unique. This resulted in a more streamlined experience - no sifting through endless seas of junk to find the one drop with three or four good mods on it that might have a chance of being converted into something worthwhile for an endgame build… now you’re sifting through fewer albeit more promising items, and there’s a bigger emphasis on shaping more numerous prospects into the perfect bit of kit for your build via enchanting, tempering, masterworking and socketing.
(1 of 2) Once you reach Torment I difficulty, Ancestral gear will start to drop.
Once you reach Torment I difficulty, Ancestral gear will start to drop. (left), Ancestral items can be of any rarity, and their superior stats makes them essential for endgame progression. (right)
Finding Ancestral Items¶
Ancestral items aren’t new to Diablo IV, but the entire system of higher-tier loot has been revamped. Originally appearing in Diablo III (albeit named “Ancient” and “Primal” gear) before reappearing as “Sacred” and “Ancestral” gear in Diablo IV, these higher tiers of loot are basically just another layer of RNG added to the RNG cake that is Diablo.
On certain difficulties these higher-tier variants of gear could drop from any source, and they generally possessed higher stat ranges than their mundane counterparts, making them especially desirable for players who had serious aspirations about challenging Diablo IV’s endgame content. Ancestral gear is noted by a glowing effect the gear icons had in the inventory screen, as well as the “Ancestral” text preceding the rarity and item type (Ancestral Legendary Chest Armor, for example).
Now, in Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred Sacred gear is gone - only Ancestral remains, and it’ll start randomly spawning once you reach Torment I difficulty. Any quality of loot can be Ancestral - rare, legendary or unique, and like in older versions of the game, Ancestral gear in Vessel of Hatred boasts a higher Item Power level and superior base stats.
(1 of 2) Ancestral items can have 1-3 Greater Affixes, which boast superior stat ranges compared to non-Ancestral gear.
Ancestral items can have 1-3 Greater Affixes, which boast superior stat ranges compared to non-Ancestral gear. (left), Greater Affixes can be enchanted away, but their replacements won’t be Greater Affixes, so the base drop is very, very important. (right)
Ancestral Items Greater Affixes¶
In addition to a higher Item Power and base stats (Armor and DPS), Ancestral items now spawn with a random number of mods that are significantly higher than normal, marked by white starbursts. These are known as Greater Affixes, and how many mods are boosted this way and which specific mods are, of course, RNG. Needless to say, the difference between an Ancestral item with one greater affix you don’t really care about versus an Ancestral item with three useful greater affixes is quite significant.
This is even more pronounced by the fact that while non-unique Ancestral items can be enchanted like any other item, the mods being rerolled will not be Greater Affixes. Sometimes it may be worthwhile to reroll a junk mod even if it is a Greater Affix to ensure you at least get something useful, but a greater emphasis is put on getting a good base drop, which is somewhat rare for loot in Vessel of Hatred, which otherwise depends on post-drop RNG to temper and masterwork into something truly stupendous.
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