With Season 5, some changes came to Diablo 4. Some of these were known beforehand, while others were not. To ensure you don’t waste materials because of this, we’ve put together some tips for you.
Season 5 in Diablo 4 recently started and brought new endgame content to the game, a new reputation system, but also new bottlenecks. These are primarily related to changes that were not known beforehand and were not described in the patch notes for Patch 1.5.0.
What resources are scarce? As players switch to World Tier 4 and want to upgrade and enchant their equipment, they currently notice various shortages of materials:
- Rune shards to open the pit
- certain materials for crafting
- Seal powder / seals for Nightmare dungeons at World Tier 4
The shortage of materials is due to the fact that they simply drop less frequently than before – or not at all. To avoid wasting your materials and manage them well, we have compiled some tips for you below.
No rune shards in Nightmare dungeons
In a YouTube video, Diablo expert wudijo explains that Nightmare dungeons currently do not drop rune shards, as they should. You need rune shards to open the pit in Diablo 4. And in the pit, you get important materials for the crafting system ‘Masterworking’ (Completion). wudijo says: The pit is currently essentially not in the game.
Tip: You can also get rune shards from other sources, but the amount is limited. So if you plan to do some runs in the pit, keep this in mind. Otherwise, wait until there is a hotfix for this.
Shortage of Nightmare seals at World Tier 4
With the switch to World Tier 4, many players use Nightmare dungeons to level up quickly and improve their glyphs. However, there seems to be a shortage of seals for this. Previously, you also got them from chests at the Tree of Whispers, but that does not seem to be the case with many chests currently.
Tip: If you want to open a Nightmare dungeon, you may have to craft a seal yourself. For that, you need seal powder, which you get, among other things, when you dismantle seals. Currently, it is advisable to farm seals for Nightmare dungeons and seal powder at World Tier 3 to create seals for World Tier 4. wudijo even advises to currently avoid Nightmare dungeons unless absolutely necessary until this is fixed.
New Bottleneck: Legendary Crafting Materials
While players suffered from a gold shortage in Season 4, there seems to be a new bottleneck now: crafting materials. Players notice this especially at World Tier 4, when they want to improve and enchant their gear.
With Season 5, the developers tweaked the crafting systems: You no longer need Angel’s Breath for enchanting. Still, it hits hard when you want to enchant affixes on items: While this previously cost gold, now your material supplies are primarily suffering.
Tip: Don’t waste your materials by constantly rerolling affixes. Wait, if in doubt, until you find an item that fits your build. Initially, you won’t notice the shortage too much if you collect and dismantle a lot of loot. But later it will become increasingly evident, especially if you frequently change, upgrade, and enchant your gear.
Are there positive changes as well? There are not only bugs or negative changes that were not known beforehand but also positive ones:
- With the hell hordes, an option has been added in Diablo 4 that allows you to farm gold effectively. If you’re short on gold, spend your “Burning Ether” only on the gold chests after the run.
- In addition, World bosses can sustain more damage, making the battles feel better and not finishing in a few seconds.
- Season 5 also introduced a fresh reputation system in Diablo 4. It has 20 levels – but you can also continue grinding and earn rewards afterward.
What does Blizzard say about this? Currently, it is not known when and if Blizzard will change anything about the bottlenecks. Especially the missing rune shards pose a problem for many players. Without them, you simply cannot enter the pit. Usually, they drop in Nightmare dungeons, which is currently not the case. On X, Community Manager Adam Fletcher wrote on August 12: “The rune shards don’t impact too much, as materials for masterworking in the hell hordes are still available.”
Whether something will change about the drops in the hell hordes when the pit can be visited again is unclear. Currently, the new endgame activity is a good way to farm loot, gold, and materials. You can read more about it here: Diablo 4: New content in Season 5 makes the toughest dungeons unnecessary, drops everything you need
