Diablo 3: Eternal Collection is now available on the Nintendo Switch, and we've said it a few times already but here we go again: this is the best way to play Diablo, due to the portability.
And even though Diablo 3 is several years old (it originally came out in 2012), this new Switch port is a great time to rope in some new players! In fact, we've even come up with a comprehensive Beginner's Guide if you're completely new to the world of Diablo 3, so make sure to check that out as well.
Whether you're freshly level 70 (or close to it), new to Diablo 3, or just want some pointers to get the most out of your endgame loot hunt, we've rounded up some tips and tricks for you—let's get started.
- Always increase your primary stat and resistances
- Enable Elective Mode and experiment with skills
- Focus on one stat at a time in each Paragon category
- Do Greater Rift runs for best loot drops
- Max out your Blacksmith and Jeweler NPCs
- Make use of the environment
- Kill Treasure Goblins ASAP
- Buy more stash space for multiple characters
- Make use of the map and pulsating markers
- Chain lots of kills together for Massacre XP Bonuses
Always increase your primary stat and resistances
There are seven character classes in Diablo 3: Barbarian, Demon Hunter, Monk, Wizard, Witch Doctor, Crusader, and Necromancer. Each one has their own primary attribute, which you should always focus on.
For Barbarians and Crusaders, you'll always want to get as much of the Strength stat as you can. This increases the amount of damage their attacks do, and even upping their Armor means more survivability.
Demon Hunters and Monks use Dexterity. This increases their speed and damage output, making it much easier to kill things faster. Wizards, Witch Doctors, and Necromancers use magical spells, so they need Intelligence to do more damage with their abilities.
Another stat that all of the classes need is Vitality. This stat increases your health, so the more health points you have, the easier it is to survive. Armor is the last stat to worry about for most classes, as it'll reduce the amount of damage you take from enemy hits.
You should also worry about increasing resistance to various elements since a lot of Elite mobs (monsters that glow blue or yellow have various modifiers) can freeze, burn, or even poison you. Higher resistance means you take less damage from these attacks.
Enable Elective Mode and experiment with skills
For some reason, Blizzard likes to tell players that they can only use one skill from every category in each available skill slot. However, if you want to use two abilities from one category, you can! Just turn on "Elective Mode" in the Gameplay Options, and you can use whatever skills you want without restrictions.
All classes have a wide variety of offensive and defensive skills to use against enemies. When you have Elective Mode on, there's no limitation to what you can do with your own customized character build! It's a good idea to try out all of the skills at least once to see how they work, and if it suits your play style. If not, then just go back to what you like.
Focus on one stat at a time in each Paragon category
Once you reach the level 70 cap, you'll still gain experience and levels, but these are converted into Paragon levels. Paragon levels award you one Paragon point to spend, and there are four categories (each level's points rotate between these categories): Core, Offense, Defense, and Utility.
Once you start to put points into something, you should aim for maxing it out before moving onto another stat. For example, right now on my Demon Hunter, I'm putting points into Dexterity (Core), Attack Speed (Offense), Resist All (Defense), and Resource Cost Reduction (Utility). Every stat has a max of 50 points before it's maxed out, so focus on one before starting to max out another.
Do Greater Rifts for best loot drops
Diablo 3 is a loot-grinding game by nature, and the best way to get the gear you want is by doing Greater Rifts. However, to do these, you need Greater Rift Keys.
To obtain Greater Rift Keys, you'll have to do regular Nephalem Rifts and Bounties, as they award players upon completion with Greater Rift Keys. With Greater Rifts, you need to be quick with killing everything, since you're up against the clock. There are no loot drops or gold until you defeat the Rift Guardian, but you have the highest chance of getting Legendary or Set items.
Greater Rifts also award you with Legendary Gems, which can have incredibly powerful effects. These get stronger as you upgrade them through Urshi, who only appears after you've completed a Greater Rift. If you beat the rift before the timer ran out, you get a bonus chance for an upgrade.
With Greater Rifts, you also earn Blood Shards quicker than other ways in Adventure Mode. Blood Shards are spent at the merchant, Kadala, who can give you mysterious, unknown pieces of gear. You never know what you'll get from her, but she does have Legendaries and Set items too, so think of it as an endless gamble.
The higher difficulty Greater Rifts you do, the more Blood Shards storage you'll end up with. And when equipping gear, always go for ones that increase (green triangles) your damage output first, and then increase health.
Max out your Blacksmith and Jeweler NPCs
You can find Legendary or Set crafting plans from Horadric Caches (obtained from Bounties), or as random drops. You should train your Blacksmith so that you can craft some Legendaries or Sets once you hit 70 and need some better gear. These may not be the best pieces of equipment, but they'll do the job and hold you over until you start to find the gear you need for your class build.
The Jeweler is also very important. You'll need to train the Jeweler so that he can combine lesser gems into higher quality ones (plans for higher level gems are drops), which can provide a huge stat boost by endgame. You'll always want gear with sockets for high-quality gems and Legendary Gems once you find the ones you need.
The Mystic is another NPC who can Transmogrify and Enchant (re-roll a single property on a magical item for you), but it's easier to train and max her out than the Blacksmith and Jeweler.
Make use of the environment
As you play through the game, you'll discover what each area is like. There may be chandeliers that can fall from the ceiling, barrels of oil that can explode, and plenty of other traps. But you should use these to your advantage as well because enemies aren't immune to them.
You'll also find shrines, experience pools, and health pools scattered around. Always go up to them and use them for temporary boosts, such as increased attack speed, shields that protect you from all damage, and a personal favorite, Conduit, which zaps and instantly kills pretty much everything for a very limited amount of time.
Kill Treasure Goblins ASAP
Every so often as you're playing through the story, doing bounties, or even rifts, you'll hear the mischievous cackle of a goblin nearby. When you hear that, I'd recommend stopping what you're doing and go find that little guy ASAP!
Focus all of your attacks on it, and chase it around while ignoring other mobs at the moment. These shiny little goblins can drop a lot of good loot, gold, gems, or tons blood shards (depending on their type), and they'll always try to escape through a magic portal once they're spotted.
You can interrupt their portal a few times to prevent their escape, so take them down as fast as you can! The loot you get is always going to be worth the trouble, and you can always just go back to the other enemies right after—they aren't going anywhere.
Buy more stash space for multiple characters
Players are able to create up to about 12 characters total in Diablo 3, and it's always a good idea to use an existing character to farm items for your other characters. I mean, if you find an item that's useless to your existing character, the best thing to do is to store it away in your Stash chest (always located in town) so another character you create can use it.
When you start out, your Stash only has so many slots to store items in. However, as long as you have enough gold, you can simply click the right joystick to buy more empty slots.
Since the Stash is shared across all of your characters, you only need to worry about upgrading it with one character, rather than all of them.
Make use of the map and pulsating markers
When you do bounties, sometimes you need a bit of guidance, especially in larger areas. You can always bring up the full map with the down button, but usually, the on-screen mini-map should suffice (unless you get lost like I do at times).
After you're running around a bit, a yellow arrow shows up on the mini-map, and a pulsating circle appears on the full map. That tells you where you need to go for the objective.
For Nephalem and Greater Rifts, the map indicates where the Rift Guardian is. This may not be as useful since it usually spawns on top of you, but sometimes the Guardian appears in another room or is a few yards away.
Chain lots of kills together for Massacre XP Bonuses
If you want to gain levels fast, then you'll want to strive for chain kills. When you kill at least five enemies or more in a row you'll begin a "Massacre XP Bonus." The more kills you can rack up before the little clock runs out, the more bonus XP you earn.
Earning this can be fairly easy when you have a build that attacks a lot of enemies at once quickly, such as a Multishot Demon Hunter.
Enter hell to save Sanctuary
Now that you have these tips and tricks imbued into your knowledge, it's time to begin the never-ending loot grind! Even though the campaign and story of Diablo 3 are fairly short, you'll spend dozens or even hundreds (at least I have) of hours to find the perfect Primal Ancient Gear for your preferred characters.
Now hurry, Nephalem! Sanctuary needs you to put a stop to the Prime Evil, Diablo, while collecting some awesome gear along the way.
