Diablo 4 Season 5 has a new philosophy for Unique items, making them more powerful and easier to acquire

Diablo 4 made big changes to its itemization in Season 4, and many players who reached endgame during that season found that Legendary items were made much stronger overall — which, in turn, made Unique items far less appealing in comparison. In many cases, their power simply couldn’t compete anymore with fully-tempered, fully-masterworked Legendaries. The developers are tackling this issue by implementing a new philosophy for Unique items in the upcoming Season 5, dubbed “Season of the Infernal Hordes.”

You still won’t be able to Enchant or Temper your Unique items, but their base affixes will be buffed to compensate. For example, a Unique item that used to increase damage dealt by 40% to 80% before will be able to reach upwards of 120% in Season 5 — basically, Unique item affixes are being upgraded to catch up with the new power level that the Season 4 itemization changes established to the other items. In addition to that, affixes are being simplified in general, with many conditional affixes being removed, and some of the Affixes from Tempering will also appear on Uniques now.

Another change in philosophy is that we’ll have fewer Uniques that are good “in any situation,” being desirable by a class no matter what their build is. Instead, the developers are shifting towards Uniques that fit a certain theme, being coveted by a specific build, but not necessarily by others. This should allow those Uniques to be fine-tuned towards efficiency for players who know how to build around them, rather than being just “overpowered” in general.

Acquisition of Uniques and those items previously known as “Uber Uniques” — which are being rebranded to “Mythic Uniques” — is also being made easier. Uniques and Mythic Uniques will be acquirable from other sources such as the cache rewards from the Tree of Whispers, gambling with Obols in the Purveyor of Curiosities NPCs, and the Tortured Gift chests during Helltide events. Besides those new sources, the new Infernal Hordes event will also offer rewards called Spoils of Hell that can offer Uniques and Mythic Uniques.

New Unique Items in Season 5

The developers have stated that Season 5 will introduce “over 50 powerful new Uniques and Legendary Items,” and that they’re “here to stay, and will be attainable in both Realms beyond season’s end.” That means that these new items will be included in future Seasonal Realms and in the Eternal Realm as well.

In addition, the Diablo team has also clarified that while these new Uniques (and Legendaries) can be earned from any activity in Sanctuary, the best chance of getting them will be in the Spoils of Hell from the new Infernal Hordes event — which is the main theme of the Season.

Some of the new Unique items coming with Season 5 include:

Barbarian

• Unbroken Chain – Amulet
  • Casting Steel Grasp reduces Iron Maelstrom’s Cooldown by 5-10 seconds. Enemies damaged by Iron Maelstrom deal 15-30% less damage for 6 seconds.

Druid

• Björnfang’s Tusks – Unique Gloves
  • Cataclysm is now guaranteed to strike anything in range and you deal 40-80%[x] increased damage for the duration of the effect. While Cataclysm is active, you gain unlimited Spirit.

Necromancer

• Path of Trag’Oul – Unique Boots
  • Bone Prison traps a larger area and fires 20-35 Bone Splinters at enemies trapped within. Increase your Maximum Essence by 2 for 8 seconds each time these Bone Splinters hit an enemy.

Rogue

• Shroud of Khanduras – Unique Chest Armor
  • Dark Shroud grants Immune for 3 seconds, but your Evade Cooldown is increased by 9-3 seconds. Evading while Dark Shroud is active leaves behind an explosion that deals Shadow damage and pulls in enemies.

Sorcerer

• Axial Conduit – Unique Pants
  • Chain Lightning alternates between orbiting you and seeking up to 3 enemies. When it returns, it drains 6 Mana from you for each active Chain Lightning Chain Lightning. After draining 66 total Mana, the bolt explodes for (270%-570%) Lightning damage. Chain Lightning expires if you don’t have enough Mana for it to drain.

These changes certainly sound promising, and will hopefully make Unique items more appealing in Season 5 than they were in Season 4. We should be able to get our hands on them in just around a month: Season 5 launches August 6. We’ll see you in Sanctuary.

Originally posted July 8, 2024. Updated August 31, 2024.