Tempering Explained in Diablo 4: What It Is & Best Use

Tempering in Diablo 4 is a crafting mechanic that allows players to add a single custom affix to their gear, enhancing their build and overall combat effectiveness. This system uses Temper Manuals to unlock and apply these affixes, which can be tailored to specific needs, making it a crucial element for both leveling and endgame progression. It provides a controlled way to improve equipment beyond base stats, offering more meaningful customization and power scaling.

Players should prioritize tempering on Legendary items, as these have more base affixes and gain the most from the additional tempered affix. The system also supports rerolling tempered affixes a limited number of times per item rarity, with the option to restore rerolls using Scrolls of Restoration. This makes tempering not only a way to enhance gear but also to experiment and optimize for different builds with minimal risk.

Greater Affixes, which can appear on Ancestral Legendaries from certain difficulties onward, provide even more powerful improvements and can be combined with tempering for significant boosts. Understanding when and how to utilize tempering effectively is key to maximizing character strength and reaching higher challenges in Diablo 4.

Key Takeways

• Tempering adds one customizable affix for targeted gear improvement.
• Legendary items benefit most from tempering due to their base affix structure.
• Rerolling and restoring temper affixes allow gear optimization without permanent loss.

Understanding Tempering in Diablo 4

Tempering in Diablo 4 is a focused crafting mechanic that enables players to enhance their gear with one additional affix. This affix can be customized to improve specific stats or abilities, allowing for more personalized and powerful equipment builds. Mastery of tempering involves learning how to access the system, understanding the categories of affixes, and managing Tempering Manuals and recipes effectively.

How Tempering Works

Tempering lets players add exactly one additional affix to a Rare or Legendary item through the Blacksmith’s Tempering menu. This affix is selected from recipes registered in the player’s Codex of Power. Tempering can be applied or rerolled a limited number of times per item, depending on its rarity: Rare items have one temper roll, Legendary and Ancestral Legendaries have three, plus additional rolls per Greater Affix.

To temper, players insert the gear into the Blacksmith’s tempering interface, select the desired affix from unlocked recipes, and apply it using specific crafting materials. An important element is that tempered affixes on Ancestral items can upgrade into stronger Greater Affixes starting at Torment 1 difficulty, significantly boosting their power.

Unlocking the Tempering System

The Tempering system unlocks once the player has access to the Blacksmith and acquires their first Tempering Manual, which registers new temper recipes in the Codex of Power. Temper manuals begin to drop at Level 30 across various game content, including Nightmare Dungeons, World Bosses like Ashava and Wandering Death, and Infernal Hordes.

After unlocking, the player can use the tempering function indefinitely on eligible gear, as recipes remain accessible in the Codex. The acquisition of higher rarity Tempering Manuals, such as Legendary manuals, updates and improves the values of affixes available for tempering. This progression encourages frequent engagement with endgame content to find better recipes.

Tempering Categories and Affixes

Tempering affixes belong to six primary categories, each affecting specific gear slots and stats:

Each affix serves a purposeful role in shaping builds by enhancing offense, defense, resource management, or mobility. Affixes like Natural Finesse or Worldly Endurance can synergize with specific class abilities or seasonal mechanics such as those in Season 11 or Barbarian-focused builds.

Tempering Manuals and Recipes

Temper Manuals are the keys to tempering, providing the list of possible affixes that can be applied. These manuals come in Magic, Rare, and Legendary rarities, with Legendary manuals offering the highest affix values which automatically update the Codex of Power, improving previously unlocked recipes.

Players can acquire manuals from a wide array of sources, such as The Pit, Helltide Chests, Nightmare Dungeons, and specific World Bosses like Avarice and Varshan. Right-clicking a Tempering Manual registers it in the Codex, unlocking its recipes for permanent use.

Recipes are organized by affix category within the Codex and tailored to applicable gear slots. This system allows precise control over gear optimization by selecting tempering affixes that best complement the player’s build, whether it’s boosting Barbarian Breach mechanics or enhancing elemental effects like Elemental Surge.

Best Uses and Advanced Strategies for Tempering

Effective tempering requires selecting affixes that significantly boost a character’s strengths while managing resources efficiently. Planning the acquisition and upgrading of tempering manuals is vital, as is leveraging greater affixes and the masterworking system to maximize gear potential.

Choosing Optimal Tempered Affixes

Selecting the right tempered affix depends on the player’s build and playstyle. Prioritizing affixes such as cooldown reduction, critical strike damage, maximum life, or movement speed can provide tangible performance gains. Defensive affixes like natural resistance, barrier generation, fortify generation, and thorns enhance survivability, while offensive options like pressure point or lucky hit boost damage output.

The temper recipe available in the Codex of Power determines which affixes a player can choose. It is crucial to tailor affixes to complement core skills or compensate for weaknesses. Rerolling is an important tool here; Legendary and Ancestral items allow up to three temper rolls before locking in the affix, which can be reset repeatedly using a Scroll of Restoration, enabling optimized stat selection over time.

Farming and Upgrading Tempering Manuals

Tempering Manuals are obtained from various in-game activities such as World Bosses, Nightmare Dungeons, and Infernal Hordes. Farming these sources at higher difficulties increases the chance of acquiring Rare or Legendary manuals, which contain higher-value affix ranges.

Once a tempering manual is used to unlock its recipe in the Codex of Power, players can use it indefinitely. However, obtaining Legendary manuals is crucial as they overwrite lower-tier recipes with improved affix values. Investing in materials like Veiled Crystals, Legendary Salvage, and Forgotten Souls ensures the ability to temper high-rarity items, including Ancestral Legendaries, which require more resources but offer better enhancements.

Maximizing Value with Greater Affixes and Masterworking

At Torment 1 and above, Greater Affixes become available, offering about 1.5 times the power of normal tempered affixes. Items with greater affixes can only be found as drops or purchased via gambling; they cannot be crafted directly through tempering recipes.

Tempering an affix to upgrade it into a Greater Affix on Ancestral items multiplies its effectiveness, providing substantial power boosts. Masterworking gear further enhances this by granting ranks to tempered affixes automatically once unlocked, increasing their potency.

Using the Blacksmith’s Masterworking system in tandem with tempering allows continuous improvement. Players should consult the Masterworking Guide to understand materials and progression paths. Additionally, rerolling tempered affixes on masterworked items retains the masterwork rank, maintaining optimized upgrades over multiple iterations.