New Diablo 4 change makes it easier to share endgame gear in Season 1

The itemization and gear management in Diablo 4 has been a hot topic among fans of the game, especially those currently farming the endgame. Luckily, a new change coming to Season 1 that adds lower-level caps to endgame gear means less farming across multiple characters.

Diablo 4’s Season of the Malignant is just days away from launch and that means players are gearing up to start seasonal characters from scratch. For many, the prospect of running multiple endgame grinds on separate characters is a daunting one.

Of course, some players will only run one seasonal character but the new seasonal mechanic of Caged Hearts gives a good incentive for multiple runs. New powers that devs have said are comparable to Legendary affixes will warrant testing on different classes.

Thankfully Diablo 4’s Associate Game Director Joseph Piepiora has revealed that more forgiving level caps for Sacred and Ancestral gear will be added in Season 1. In a reply to a story from Icy Veins on Twitter, Piepiora gave clear details of the change.

For clarity: Starting in season one Sacred items have a level requirement CAP of 60 and Ancestral items have a level requirement CAP of 80.

So items you find at level 100 will only require a level 80 character in order to equip! https://t.co/dXx29SyZDG

— Joseph Piepiora (@JPiepiora) July 17, 2023

In the current build of Diablo 4, level 100 players will find gear with a level requirement of 100 which gives little incentive to save items for other classes on your account. By the time they’ve been maxed out, they’ll have their own level 100 gear.

Originally reported in an interview with Gamestar, Piepiora said that fixing the level caps for Sacred gear to 60 and Ancestral to 80 were meant to “improve the experience”. The change will mean gear players find at higher levels can safely be stashed and shared to alt accounts.

It’s particularly useful for Sacred gear which drops commonly in the late-to-end game and can be given to characters up to 40 levels lower to speed their progress. The item power has not been capped meaning level 60 characters can potentially have access to max-level Affix rolls.

An easy farming strategy would be to max out a Barbarian that has access to the most weapon types in the game. Their access to One-Handed and Two-Handed Clubs, Swords, and Axes means they can collect gear for three of the game’s other classes.

This change is sure to make it easier to give alt characters earlier access to Diablo 4’s 13 pieces of Unique gear. The ability to affix Legendary Aspects to Sacred and Ancestral gear should also streamline build optimization when using shared gear.

These changes will go live during the launch of Season of the Malignant beginning on July 20. The pre-patch comes to the base game on July 18 meaning players will be able to test this new feature ahead of time.