How (and why) to max your resistances in Diablo 4

Now that Diablo 4 has a loot system that’s way less about micromanagement and way more about customizing your gear, we’ve all run out of excuses for neglecting our defenses. Sure, “Shadow Resistance” is a lot less exciting of an affix than “+% Damage,” but when Varshan smacks your poor little health globe for all it’s worth, your damage isn’t going to matter too much.

Sources of resistance

There are several “sources” of Diablo 4’s various resistances, so let’s look at these first:

• Natural affix rolls: These come on gear “as is,” or they can be Enchanted onto gear by replacing an existing affix
• Tempering affixes: Using the “Natural Resistance” Tempering Manual, you can roll for a random elemental resistance affix at the Blacksmith
• Jewelry gem slots: Slotting any gem into a piece of jewelry is a fantastic way to score some easy resistance percentage
  • Ruby – Fire Resistance
  • Sapphire – Cold Resistance
  • Topaz – Lightning Resistance
  • Amethyst – Shadow Resistance
  • Emerald – Poison Resistance
  • Diamond – All Elemental Resistance
• The Paragon Board: Some Paragon Boards have slight resistance nodes which can be a useful tool to either “top off” a resist or save yourself needing to waste affix slots on resists
• Potions: Resistance potions not only net you a temporary boost to a resist, they also boost your resistance cap to that element for a little added juice

Now that we know where resistances come from, let’s take a look at what it takes to max them out.

Reaching resistance caps

World Tier 3 incurs a 25% resistance debuff to all elemental resistances, and World Tier 4 bumps that up to a 50% debuff. That means you’ll need, at World Tier 4, a whopping 120% resistance to any given element to reach the “cap” of 70% resistance.

The resists I would suggest focusing first are Poison, Fire, and Shadow. Poison is horribly oppressive at any level, stacking quickly and damaging your health with a stacking DoT that can be hard to out-heal. Fire is much the same, but slightly less oppressive (if not more common). Shadow damage is ubiquitous in Nightmare Dungeon affixes such as Death Pulse and is also, you guessed it, a damage-over-time effect.

Now, you may be wondering how on earth you’re supposed to reach 120% resistance on not one, not two, but five elements across your gear. Well, with the systems in Loot Reborn, it’s easier than you might think. You’ll want to keep an eye out for Enhanced Affixes when possible, as a single enhanced resistance can nearly get you over the finish line for any element. These are hugely dependent on luck, but are the biggest source of any single resistance in the game.

If your luck is similar to mine, you’ll probably want to simply modify your loot to suit your needs, as seen below. You can score some regular resistance affix rolls, or Enchant out less useful affixes for them (A). Then, use Natural Resistance for one of your two Tempering slots (B) on any armor that accepts it. You can then round out the missing resistance with gems (C) slotted into your jewelry (remember, you can add slots to your jewelry using Scattered Prisms) and, if need be, your Paragon Board.

By customizing every piece of your loot, you can quickly close the gaps on your low resistances until most, if not all, of them are capped. It’ll take time (and money), so don’t blow your resources on every niche upgrade you find – instead, bide your time and only focus on 925 item power pieces at endgame for customization. Until then, reliance on Potions and simpler forms of resistance boosts is a cheaper, and quicker, solution.

---