Shrines are supposed to empower you in Diablo 4 with powerful spells, allowing you to easily mow down enemies or gain other advantages. This works for most shrines – except for one. It is so useless that players not only skip it, it would actually weaken them.
What kind of buff is this?
- The Conduit Shrine grants you the power of lightning for a few seconds. This buff has existed similarly in Diablo 3, and it was already considered the best at that time.
- During this time, you transform into a lightning ball that can jump to enemies and shoot chain lightning in a small radius.
- In the early seasons of Diablo 4, the buff was still incredibly useful, especially for classes with little mobility like Necromancers. By the time of the current Season 4, you should definitely avoid the shrine, at least in the endgame.
This is why it weakens you: The Conduit Shrine is still theoretically strong, but only for low-level characters or those with poor equipment. Because it comes with several disadvantages for almost all builds:
- During the buff duration, you only have a lightning jump as a skill on all slots, you can’t cast anything else.
- The jump can only be cast on targets, not on the ground – like the Sorceress’s teleport or a jump from the Barbarian.
- Since you are a lightning ball, you can’t even use your horse.
Already here, a major flaw becomes apparent: You are simply slower. Most classes can move faster without the shrine, especially since they can freely decide where to use their mobility skills.
More importantly, the shrine deals significantly less damage compared to most builds. Even most mediocre builds from the Diablo 4 tier list do more damage in the endgame than the shrine itself.
Since you can acquire really good equipment much faster in Season 4, you’ll probably be stronger than the shrine in just a few hours of gameplay. This means: You can really only benefit from it while leveling – and even then, only in certain cases.
“It only harms you more”
In a thread on Reddit, a user asks if anyone is still using the Conduit Shrine. The buff just makes them slower, and many other players see it the same way.
Even though it starts off saying: Look, a Barbarian – because they are currently so absurdly strong – others quickly point out that the shrine also slows down other classes:
“Does it slow down Hunters? Yes. Does it slow down Sorcs? Yes. Does it slow down Necros? Yes. Does it help Druids? Yes. Does it slow down Barbs? Yes.
Of all five classes that I have at max level, only the Druid is slightly helped by Conduit.”
Puzzlehead-Trick76 on Reddit
Others quickly point out that even Druids suffer under the shrine. Simply because it interrupts or deactivates their transformations and related buffs, leaving them practically defenseless afterward, the Conduit Shrine cannot be used.
The discussion also touches on the fact that the shrine was once the best. With the Conduit buff, you could previously one-shot nearly everything and every build benefited from the short boost.
Today, everyone is so much stronger that the shrine, which has not been changed since, is a downgrade for all. Even other shrines, such as the Protection Shrine, are often avoided – at least by builds like the Thorn Barbarian. If you take no damage, you can’t reflect any. Whether the shrines will improve with the upcoming season is still unknown – but at least we already know one new feature: Diablo 4 is bringing a new mode in Season 5 that promises tough fights and great rewards
