Diablo 4 Season 4 is the start of a whole new Diablo 4 endgame for both Seasonal and Eternal Realms. Based on community feedback, the huge itemization update in Patch 1.4.0 brings two new endgame crafting systems. Tempering and Masterworking.
Whether you are playing the new Season, Loot Reborn, or playing on the Eternal Realm, you'll come across Tempering first as it's available as soon as you have access to the Blacksmith. Here's everything you need to know about this new crafting system.
What is Tempering in Diablo 4?
Tempering is a way to add meaningful and fun affixes to your (non-Unique) items. It was bought in as part of a huge itemization overhaul that simplified Diablo 4 loot and gave the player more control over their gear and build. Tempering will replace the previous Blacksmith'Upgrade' system in Diablo 4.
Common loot will now fall with only core and basic stats, for example Strength and Attack Speed, so you can immediately see if an item is good for you or not at a glance. Overly specific conditional modifiers have been removed, for example 'Damage to Injured Enemies." You'll only see affixes that impact your build positively and with a higher uptime. Tempering is a system that you will use to add complexity to your items yourself, giving you more control and more possibilities with your build.
For example, if you are a Necromancer, you can use Tempering to add Skeletal Mage Damage or increase the area of effect for Corpse Explosion.
How do I Temper an item in Diablo 4
With Tempering you can add two affixes to a piece of gear, and you can do this at the Blacksmith in town, but first you'll need some Temper Manuals and you will need to have the right category of manual for the affix you are looking to work on. If you combine a certain Temper Manual with an item, it will add one of 4 affixes randomly.
What is a Temper Manual?
These are little books that drop naturally from most in-game content like killing bosses, completing Nightmare Dungeons and taking on the World Bosses. Temper Manuals contain a small collection of different 'recipes' for you to use at the Blacksmith.
Using Corpse Explosion as an example, if you want to increase the power of this you'll need to acquire a Profane Innovation Manual and take this to the Blacksmith with the item of gear you wish to use in your recipe. Profane Innovation is a Utility manual (so same as the Codex of Power categories for Legendary affixes). Utility means it can only be applied to Armor and not a Weapon.
In this example, the Profane Innovation Manual has the chance to apply 1 of 5 affixes to your armor, increasing the size of Corpse Explosion, Corpse Tendrils, Iron Maiden or Decrepify, or the duration of a Curse. If you don't like what you got, you can pray to the gods of RNGesus and roll again.
Each Tempering Manual only affects a small handful of spells, so getting the stat or affix you want is much easier than it used to be. The Temper Manuals you find will last until the end of the season you are in, or in the case of the Eternal Realm, forever — so use them, don't hoard them!
Tempering Durability
You cannot Temper an item indefinitely. You can only Temper an item until you are out of charges on an item, but don't worry you can always find new items or trade with friends. Players won't be able to add Tempered Affixes to Unique and Uber Unique Items.
How to unlock Tempering
Tempering is available to all players, in all all World Tiers as soon as they have the Blacksmith unlocked.
All Tempering Manuals
What is the difference between Tempering and Masterworking?
Tempering and Masterworking are two distinct mechanics introduced in Season 4 to enhance itemization and gear upgrading. Tempering lets you add up to two new affixes to your items. Masterworking is a very late game system that lets you increase the value of affixes on your gear, and that includes any affixes you have added with the Tempering system.
Diablo 4 is available on Xbox, Windows PC and Playstation consoles. It's one of the best Xbox games for fans of dungeon crawlers and hack-and-slash combat, and also available on Xbox Game Pass.
