With the crafting system “Tempering,” you will deal with it at the latest in the endgame of Diablo 4. So far, the process has been quite time-consuming due to an annoying mechanic – but Blizzard is changing exactly that with Season 8.
This is “Tempering: With Tempering, you add new affixes to your items. In Diablo 4, you will find Tempering guides as drops in several activities. Once you have learned a guide, you can use it at the blacksmith to upgrade your gear and adapt it to your build. Uniques are excluded, as they have fixed affixes and aspects.
Once you have unlocked Tempering, you can basically improve all your gear with it. If you swap out an item, you have to temper it again – and that’s where it becomes tedious. Because you have to choose the appropriate guide every time, which contains the desired affix. And for each tempering guide, there are 3-5 affixes. This takes time, a lot of clicks, and can be frustrating if you accidentally pick the wrong guide and waste an attempt.
What is Blizzard now making easier? From March 11 to March 18, 2025, the PTR for Season 8 in Diablo 4 ran – and during that time, players discovered a small but significant change: The last used guide is saved. This means you no longer have to select it again every time, but can start right away. So you save a few clicks and valuable time.
Blizzard removes the “most annoying part of upgrading”
Here’s what players say about it: In a Reddit post, heartbroken_nerd reports that the last used guide stays saved, which significantly improves the crafting process. The re-rolling of an affix from a tempering guide is now smoother and faster – a good quality-of-life change, he finds.
In the comments, CubicalChicken agrees and calls the change a “very positive improvement.” In his opinion, constantly re-selecting the tempering guide was “definitely the most annoying part when upgrading new items.”
And ISOlatedGeek jokes: “Yay, we will be able to brick items even faster.” In the community, an item is referred to as “bricked” when it does not receive the desired affixes when tempered. Some players are therefore truly despairing over the crafting system.
Other players, however, note that the system also has its quirks. Apprehensive_Room_71 reports: “It’s good, except when [the guide] stays saved even if you try to change the items. Then you first have to leave the tempering tab […].” This makes switching to another tempering guide more cumbersome than before.
Thanks to the small change, tempering is now a bit more pleasant. Nevertheless, the crafting system remains a topic in the community that is widely discussed – especially when players consider their items as “bricked.” This happens when the tempered items ultimately provide no improvement for their build. Although Blizzard has introduced a feature to save such items, fans claim it leads to even more frustration.
