May 10th, 2023

Exploring Legendaries in Diablo IV

When building your character, legendary items will define your character and give you access to massive power spikes and sources of power. These items are going to roll with 5 affixes. Affixes are stats that can range from offensive to defensive, and utility. Some examples include buffs to primary stats, boosts to resistances, increased damage toward vulnerable enemies, stun chance, etc.

The fifth affix of legendary items is dedicated to the aspect, which gives your character a variety of buffs. Some of these will be class specific while others will be available to any class. In this overview, we will dive into some specific examples and how you can utilize legendaries to customize your character to fit your playstyle.

Are Legendary Items of the Highest Rarity?

Legendary items are actually not the highest rarity. The highest rarity items in the game are classified as uniques. These will be the most powerful items that players are going to be chasing throughout the game. But, there are different tiers of legendary items that you will find when progressing through the difficulties.

Legendary Items: This is the base tier that you will find in both World Tier 1 and 2. Although they may not be too hard to come by, finding the perfect item with the stats for your build is what may take some time. There are ways to upgrade rare items to legendaries and also ways to reroll affixes, but we will discuss this later in the article.
Sacred Legendary Items: The next tier will unlock in World Tier 3. These are much stronger than the base legendaries and have much more powerful affixes. When going into the next tier, you are going to want to start replacing your Legendaries with Sacred items as you find them.
Ancestral Legendary Items: These are the final tier of legendary items that you will find in World Tier 4. These are extremely powerful and will be found in very high levels in the end game. Just like how you replaced your legendaries with sacred legendaries, you are going to want to switch to sacred legendaries as soon as you can in order to conquer the Diablo 4 endgame.

What are Legendary Aspects?

Legendary aspects are a new feature that will help you customize your character without having to farm for that one specific item that never seems to drop. Aspects can be unlocked in a variety of ways. Many of these will be unlocked through dungeons and will be added to your Codex of Power.

From your codex, you can go to an Occultist to change aspects on legendaries, upgrade rare items to legendaries with the aspect you want, as well as remove aspects, destroying the item, but giving you a way to transfer the aspect over to another item. There are some limitations of what aspects you can put in each gear slot. If you match certain aspects to certain slots, the power will be increased.

Can you Trade Legendary Items?

You will not be able to trade legendary items in Diablo 4. But, you will be able to trade rare items. Remember, you are able to upgrade a rare item to legendary at the Occultist. So, keeping an eye out for rare items with stats that synergize well together could make you a decent bit of extra cash.

Can I put Legendary Aspects on Any Rare Item?

The answer to this question is no. Each slot will have specific types of aspects that can be used, some with an increased power effect. The table below shows what slots can equip which type of aspect:

Gear Slots	Aspect Category
Helm	Defensive \| Utility
Chest	Defensive \| Utility (50% Power Increase)
Gloves	Utility \| Offensive (100% Power increase)
Pants	Defenseive
Boots	Utility Mobility \| (50% Power increase)
Weapon	Offensive
Amulet	Defensive \| Utility \| Mobility \| Offensive \| Resource
Ring	Offensive(50% power increase) \| Resource

General Aspect List:

General aspects are available to all classes. The ones labeled with an ‘*’ will most likely be very popular for many builds.

Defensive

Aspect Name	Aspect Power
Aspect of Might Source: Dark Ravine, Dry Steppes	Basic Skills grant 25% Damage Reduction for [[4 – 8]\|1\|] seconds
Aspect of the Protector Source: Lost Archives, Fractured Peaks	Damaging an Elite enemy grants you a Barrier absorbing up to [0.75 – 1.5]*825 damage for 10 seconds. This effect can only happen once every [0.75 – 1.5] seconds.
Aspect of Disobedience Source: Halls of the Damned, Kehjistan	You gain [[0.25 – 0.5]\|2%x\|] increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to [[25 – 50]\|2%x\|].
Aspect of the Deflecting Barrier Source: Lost Keep, Hawezar	While you have a Barrier active, there is a [[20 – 30]\|%\|] chance to ignore incoming direct damage from Distant enemies.

Utility

Aspect Name	Aspect Power
Aspect of Shared Misery Source: Oblivion, Hawezar	Lucky Hit: When you hit a Crowd Controlled enemy, there is up to a [[30 – 50]\|%\|] chance for that Crowd Control effect to spread to another unaffected enemy.
Eluding Aspect Source: Caldera Gate, Fractured Peaks	Becoming Injured while Crowd Controlled grants you Unstoppable for 4 seconds. This effect has a [20 – 40] second Cooldown.

Mobility

Aspect Name	Aspect Power
Wind Striker Aspect Source: Shivta Ruins, Kehjistan	Critical Strikes grant [[8 – 16]\|1%+\|] Movement Speed for 1 second, up to [1*6] seconds.
Ghostwalker Aspect Source: Unknown Dungeon, Scosglen	While Unstoppable and for 2 seconds after, you gain [[10 – 25]\|%+\|] increased Movement Speed and can move freely through enemies.

Offensive

Aspect Name	Aspect Power
Aspect of Inner Calm Source: Unknown Dungeon, Scosglen	Deal [[3 – 10]\|1%x\|] increased damage for each second you stand still, up to 30%.
Aspect of Retribution Source: Drop	Distant enemies have a 15% chance to be Stunned for 2 seconds when they hit you. You deal [[30 – 50]\|%x\|] increased damage to Stunned enemies.
Rapid Aspect Source: Unknown Dungeon, Dry Steppes	Basic Skills gain [[23 – 33]\|%+\|] Attack Speed.
Edgemaster’s Aspect Source: Oldstones, Scosglen	Skills deal up to [[24 – 34]\|%x\|] increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource
Aspect of the Expectant Source: Underroot, Scosglen	Attacking enemies with a Basic Skill increases the damage of your next Core Skill cast by [[5 – 10]\|%x\|], up to 50%.
Needleflare Aspect Source: Unknown Dungeon, Kehjistan	Thorns damage dealt has a [[20 – 40]\|%\|] chance to deal damage to all enemies around you.

Resource

Aspect Name	Aspect Power
Aspect of the Umbral Source: Champion's Demise, Dry Steppes	Restore [1 – 4] of your Primary Resource when you Crowd Control an enemy.