With Diablo 4 Season 4 just around the corner, we wanted to talk about the crafting system introduced in the new season to help you get a head start. In this guide, we’ll focus on the powers of Tempering and Masterworking, and look at how to enhance your Rare and Legendary Gear with additional affixes to maximize your character’s potential.

This guide covers all the essentials about this Tempering system, from finding Temper Manuals to applying affixes options in Blacksmith. Plus, we’ll delve into the new Masterworking system, which replaces the old Blacksmith upgrade system, and learn how to obtain and use Obducites, Ingoliths, and Neathirons to enhance your gear up to 12x!

Not only that, at the end we will also discuss the basic tips and variations of Player Test Realm. So don’t miss the chance to optimize your gear for the ultimate Diablo 4 experience. Good luck and happy gaming!

Tempering

Tempering is a new gear system in Diablo 4 Season 4. Rare and Legendary Gear will drop fewer affixes, 2 for rare and 3 for legendary. Tempering allows you to add 2 more affixes to your gear, for a total of 5 affixes.

For example, you could add more movement speed to your boots, some extra armor or elemental resistance to your weapons, or even some new skill augmenting affixes.

Next, let’s take a look at how it works. First you need to find Temper Manuals from various events, such as Helltides, Legion Events, and even events like endgame bosses.

These Manuals provide specific options for different categories. You need to go to a Blacksmith and use these Manuals to randomly apply an affix option to your gear.

Each gear slot has its own restrictions on which categories can work on that slot. Each Temper or Temper re-roll costs some crafting materials. If you don’t get what you want, you can re-roll up to 5 times. Except for unique equipment, legendary equipment must complete Tempering before Masterworking.

Masterworking

Another thing worth noting is that Blacksmith upgrade system is changing and being replaced by Masterworking.

In the old system, you could simply upgrade your gear up to 5 times to increase all affixes by 25%. Here’s how the new Masterworking system works.

First, you’ll need to unlock the new Pit feature by completing Nightmare Dungeon at tier 46 or higher, then traveling to Cerrigar. Cerrigar has a new object that can enter the pit, but it requires a Runeshard to enter.

You can earn Runeshard by completing or participating in various endgames or activities, such as Whispers or opening Helltide Chests. Over time, though, you’ll accumulate Runeshard naturally.

For anyone who has played Diablo 3, Pit is similar to Greater Rifts. When starting Pit, you will start in Tier 1. When you enter, you need to defeat enemies quickly to fill up the progress bar before the timer runs out.

Pit of Artificers will be completed on multiple tile sets connected together through portals. Maximizing the progress bar creates a portal to the boss stage. Eventually, you need to defeat the boss to stop the timer and complete Pit run. I need to remind you that if you want to defeat all bosses as quickly as possible, it is very necessary to spend Diablo 4 Gold to upgrade your gear.

You’ll get some loot for completing Pit, but more importantly, you’ll get 3 different Masterworking Materials, depending on which Tier of Pit you completed.

• Tiers 1 to 20: Obducites
• Tiers 21 to 40: Ingoliths
• Tier 41+: Neathirons

You’ll work with these new materials using the new Masterworking system at Blacksmith. You can Masterwork a piece of equipment a total of 12 times. Upgrades 1 to 4 cost Obducites, 5 to 8 cost Ingoliths, and upgrades 9 to 12 cost Neathirons.

Every 3rd level up, you will get a 5% increase in all affixes, and every 4th level up, you will get a 25% increase, but only 1 randomly chosen affix. These percentage increases are additive in nature, not compounding.

All in all, I tested and found that 76 Intelligence Masterworked 12 times without random selection increased by 25%, for a total increase of 45%. Under the same circumstances, the attack speed changes from 13% to 18.9%, an increase of 45%.

If you’re lucky and hit the same affix on levels 4, 8, and 12, you’ll see a 120% increase for that particular affix.

Changes

Some Masterworks have changed since Player Test Realm. The success rate is no longer guaranteed, every piece of Masterwork will be 100%. Because this comes at the cost of spending more crafting materials.

Additionally, some Tempered affixes will be subject to a 100% cap. There is no longer a 5% scaling Masterworking animation, only a 25% scaling animation.

The above is all the information we need to know about the newly added Tempering and Masterworking in Diablo 4 Season 4 this time. Good luck and have fun.