Taking on board some Diablo 4 tips before you begin chasing down Lilith, the Daughter of Hatred, will help prepare you for the long and difficult battle ahead. There are plenty of different and complicated systems at work in Diablo 4, so if this is your main entry point into the series then it can all feel a bit overwhelming at first, especially as some areas haven’t got much of an explanation attached to them. Don’t worry though, as we’re here to provide the information you need to get started with this set of Diablo 4 tips.
1. You don’t need to hammer your main attack button
While you’re in combat, you don’t have to keep hammering your main basic attack button to keep up your fire, as by simply holding down the button you’ll automatically launch continuous attacks at the fastest rate possible. As long as you’re generally facing in the right direction, your ranged attacks will also auto-aim towards enemies to an extent, so you don’t have to keep minutely adjusting your targeting for a group. Although this also works for more powerful core attacks that consume resources, you probably want to take a more controlled approach to using those so you don’t rapidly exhaust your supply.
2. Interact with or smash everything you see
As you explore Sanctuary you’ll encounter all sorts of objects, from hollow trees to rock piles and buried urns, and you should interact with all of them as they often drop gold and sometimes new equipment as well. There will also be lots of items such a barrels, boxes, and furniture that have a red outline when approached, and those can be smashed with attacks to potentially drop rewards too. Often these will be caught in the crossfire during big fights, so make sure you sweep the area afterwards to hoover up any gold or equipment dropped.
3. Manage your inventory efficiently
There should be a steady stream of weapons, armor, and jewelry dropping during your adventure, and if you’re grabbing it all as quickly as it appears then you’ll need to stay on top of managing your inventory. Regularly check to see if what you’re carrying is better that what you’ve currently got equipped, following the Compare prompt so you always have a side-by-side view to make these decisions. Anything you’re not going to use should be marked as Junk straight away, so you don’t have to consider it again on future checks and can easily offload it all once you reach the next town. If space is getting tight then follow the Sort prompt, and then drop the least valuable Junk to free up more room.
4. Don’t solely focus on Armor and DPS ratings
When you’re deciding on what equipment you want to use, don’t just focus on the Armor and Damage Per Second ratings, as although those are the headline figures there are other factors you should consider. Take a look at any buffs or bonuses the equipment also provides, as the useful effect of those could outweigh a small drop in protection or attack power. Try not to get too attached to particular pieces of equipment, as they will likely become underpowered and easily replaceable as you continue to level up.
5. Strike a balance between selling and salvaging items
When you’re clearing out the unwanted items from your inventory in a town, you should look to find a balance between selling them to an armor or weapon vendor, or turning them into Diablo 4 salvage via a blacksmith. Selling them will provide you with more gold for making other purchases, while salvage unlocks useful crafting materials, especially from rare equipment, as well as new looks for Diablo 4 transmog where available. You don’t need to worry too much about getting gold at first as there’s not a lot worth buying, with any weapons and armor for sale quickly becoming obsolete as you level up, so you can afford to lean towards the salvage option initially to build up a solid base of crafting materials to work with.
6. Target a few specific Skills with your build
When you’re putting together a build for your character, focus on sticking to the same few Skill keywords so that your build is specialized. The effects of specific types of Skills tend to stack on top of each other, so you want to develop a complementary set of attacks that work together rather than competing with one another. Use your Skill Points to level up key abilities, rather than spreading them out thinly – you don’t want to be a jack of all trades, master of none when it comes to dungeon delving. We have advice here on the best builds for each class, and remember that you can always respec in Diablo 4 if you’re not getting on with your current set up.
7. Ensure you’re using your Skills effectively in combat
Once you’ve selected and leveled up your preferred Skills, make sure that you read up on their details in the Skill Tree so you can approach combat in a way that best suits their particular abilities. For example, if you’re firing projectiles that are upgraded to pass through multiple enemies, then try to kite them into a row first so you’re delivering maximum damage from each shot. Likewise, if your Skill launches attacks that deliver significant AoE damage, then don’t waste them on individuals and lead enemies into a group before unleashing on all of them.
8. Never leave health potions behind
While you’re fighting groups of enemies, especially those containing tougher Elites or Bosses, you’ll often see red health potions dropped on the floor during the course of combat. Although it’s tempting to leave them alone until you really need them, they will disappear if you move a certain distance away or just ignore them for too long, so they won’t stick around forever. Therefore if your potion inventory is full but your health isn’t, even if it’s only a little below the maximum, you should use a health potion then grab the one from the floor to reach full capacity again while securing a quick top up.
9. Get more health potions by exploring
You begin your adventure with a maximum capacity of four fairly weak health potions, which is enough to get you started but can make things tricky when you start taking on tougher enemies, especially if you’ve increased the difficulty. However, you can increase the number of Diablo 4 health potions you can carry by exploring each of the five regions and earning Renown by discovering new areas, completing side quests, conquering Strongholds, claiming Diablo 4 Altars of Lilith, and more. Once you’ve earned a total of 500 Renown in a region, you’ll unlock the second tier of the Region Progress Rewards which includes an additional potion slot, so you can carry more around at once. This applies to all characters you create, so they’ll have a health potion head start at level 1!
10. Check Dungeon rewards before going in
Each region is full of Dungeons, which are large self-contained areas to battle through and are procedurally generated from a section of layouts stitched together, providing a different experience each time you run them. The first time you complete each Dungeon you’ll unlock an Aspect for your Codex of Power, but these are generally tied to one of the five classes only, so you don’t want to spend your early game time fighting for an upgrade you can’t use. By hovering over the Dungeon icon on the map screen you’ll be shown the Aspect available from it and what class it’s locked to, so you can prioritize Dungeons with rewards that match your current class.
11. Stock up on side quests to reduce backtracking
As you’re traveling around Sanctuary, you should accept any and all side quests you’re presented with, which will initially appear as a blue exclamation mark on your map. Even if you don’t intend to do anything with them for the time being, it’s worth having as many as possible on the back burner, as you may find yourself gathering up required resources for them while working on something completely different or be in the right area to quickly tick off one of the requirement. This can save you having to backtrack and repeat the same areas again later, should you initiate a side quest and find it’s set in a location you’ve already been through. Note that we tested this and found that you can have a maximum of 20 active side quests at any given time, so if they’re stacking up you may need to consider clearing a couple to free up room.
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