How to replace your Diablo 4 Legacy gear (without nerfing yourself in the process)

With Diablo 4 patch 1.4.0‘s intense itemization changes, your Eternal characters have stash tabs chock full of the newly-tagged Legacy gear you can no longer upgrade. What’s a D4 player to do? Get to farming! But it’s not quite that easy.

Let’s discuss how to replace your Legacy gear with new, upgradeable gear — without nerfing yourself.

Yes, Legacy gear is (initially) better than newly-dropped items

H/t to Patron Daikaiju for originally asking this as a question for The Queue:

Q4TheQ: Any chance of a quick guide on how to re-gear our Eternal Realm mains? I hopped on my 63 sorcerer and went to a Helltide. Aside from the tempering recipes, everything that dropped was worse than my newly rebranded Legacy gear.

Welcome to the accidental consequence of the itemization changes introduced in patch 1.4.0: item drops are initially weaker than your equipped Legacy gear. This is primarily because normal affixes on items were reduced across the board — three affixes on Legendary items and two on Rare. Additionally, the old upgrading system was entirely removed from the game in favor of the new systems.

Yes, this is where the new Tempering and Masterworking systems come in, and they are stronger overall — eventually! However, they’re harder to take advantage of in the early post-patch weeks on the Eternal Realms. Unlike Seasonal play, your level 100 Eternal character is not receiving a flood of Tempering and Masterworking manuals or materials. So, what steps must we take to leverage these new and shiny systems after patch 1.4.0?

How to assemble and assess upgrades after patch 1.4.0

As you’ve seen, even freshly dropped 925 Ancestral Legendary items are weaker because you can’t take them to the Blacksmith or Jeweler to upgrade to 950. First, scrap unequipped Legacy gear at the Blacksmith to save your best Legendary Aspect stats in the Codex of Power. Do not (yet) scrap the gear you have equipped for higher aspect values — it will be more valuable near the end of this process.

Next, start farming — Helltide, Whisper Chests, the boss ladder, events, dungeons, you name it. We all know and love (or “love”) this process from years of the Diablo franchise. You’re looking for the following:

1. Gear with a) higher item power and b) high stat roles for your desired build. (see note)
2. Gear with high Legendary aspect roles to scrap at the Blacksmith for Codex upgrades.
3. Tempering Manuals (to learn recipes) and Stock Goods materials.
4. (WT4-only) Masterworking materials from the Pit for fully Tempered Ancestral Legendary items.

Note: The item power comparison works for characters with equipped Legacy gear at item powers less than 900, after which the +25 upgrades will skew the curve. If you’re fully equipped with Legacy items at 925 item power plus the 25 upgraded item power, your stat comparisons with fresh drops will universally look bad. Stick with the process.

Assess all item drops based on your World Tier or character’s level for what you want to equip based on priority. Legendary gear now has one more affix than Rare items, so applying a Legendary Aspect to a Rare item is generally less valuable than equipping a Legendary item with slightly lower affix values. On the upside, Uniques now have a chance to drop in World Tier 1 or 2.

Once you hit World Tier 4, look for Ancestral Legendary and Unique items with Greater Affixes, which are a more powerful version (1.5x multiplier on the max roll) of an affix. These have a unique icon on the minimap and in your inventory; that icon also shows up under the name once for each Greater Affix on the item.

Leverage the new crafting systems before comparing upgrades

Now, head to the Blacksmith for Tempering. Tempering applies one additional affix to Normal and sacred gear and two to ancestral gear. The type of recipe you can apply to an item is specific to certain categories. Each recipe (taught by a dropped manual) has several potential affixes; one of those affixes will be applied to the item when you Temper an item with a recipe.

Later on, in World Tier 4, you can farm Ancestral Legendaries and unlock the Pit of the Artificer for Masterworking materials. Also done at the same Blacksmith, use Masterworking to improve the quality of your gear affixes. Masterworking ranks can only be applied to Unique or fully Tempered Ancestral Legendary item.

Now is when you want to swap in your new upgrades for your equipped Legacy items. Scrap any formerly equipped gear that will upgrade your Codex of Power aspects to higher ranks. Feel free to scrap or sell the rest.

Finally, use the Occultist to apply your preferred or upgraded Aspect from the Codex of Power and enchant an affix as needed. Remember, enchanting and Greater Affixes don’t mix — “their awesome power may only be discovered.” Enchant normal affixes and expect normal rolls for those enchants.

Voila! Freshly upgraded gear, ready to help your character end the demonic hordes.

Is this weirdly complicated? Definitely. It’s not all doom and gloom, though — your farming for upgrades will go really quickly if you have Legacy items with maxed-out item power, and Masterworking will practically explode your affixes through the ranks.

Remember, you only need to do this once. Your upgrade comparison experience returns to normal once you’ve swapped out all your Legacy items. Once you put in some quality farming time, you’ll be Tempering and Masterworking gear to perfection like Seasonal players. Happy hunting!

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