Greater Affixes in Diablo 4 are represented by asterisks, and denote much higher stats than normal. The more Greater Affixes on a piece of gear, the better it is, typically speaking. However, it’s pretty rare to find them, and there’s no sure-fire way to always find Greater Affix gear. There are places that drop more gear than normal, and if you’re going to be on the lookout for Greater Affix (GA) gear, you want those sweet loot explosions.
With time, patience, and a bit of luck, you can also roll some Greater Affixes onto gear in Diablo 4, through the crafting system. Again, it’s not a guarantee that you’ll get a GA, much less the perfect one for your gear, but there are ways to target ideal stats.
Best places to farm Greater Affix gear in Diablo 4
When trying to farm Greater Affixes in Diablo 4, it’s likely that you have specific types of gear in mind. If not, you just have a lot of gear that could use improvements, and you’ll take whatever you can get at the moment. With that in mind, I’ve divided this section into two: targeting specific gear types, and more general loot explosion areas.
I left Whispered Caches out of targeting specifics, because it’s random what Caches you get either way. They are often fixated on specific gear slots, but you can’t predict what the Tree of Whispers will give you. Given the chaotic nature of Mercenary Bartering, I also didn’t include it below. That said, it is a great way to try and find Greater Affix gear to work with, due to how frequently you pile up the Bartering Coins by simply playing Diablo 4.
1) Best locations to target specific gear types
Easily one of the best ways to farm specific gear types for Greater Affixes in Diablo 4 is by taking advantage of the Purveyor of Curiosities (gambler). By paying Murmuring Obols, you can try for a specific piece of gear. If you’re lucky, it will roll Ancestral, and/or with a Greater Affix.
With the Urn of Curiosities (Season Blessing), you can get up to a 20% chance to get a second item, which is also pretty nice. Even if you get a Blue/Yellow with a GA, you can use the crafting system (Horadric Cube) to upgrade it, and make it worth equipping.
You can farm Murmuring Obols by running The Pit, running Nightmare Dungeons with an Obol Affix, Legion Events, and by completing War Plans events that feature Obols as one of the rewards.
Lair Bosses are another great source of very specific Greater Affixes. If you’re trying to find specific Uniques, for example, you can look at the Loot Table, and target farm the boss it tells you, to try and get those gear drops with Greater Affixes. You’ll want to do this on the hardest Torment difficulty you can clear, for the best chances at better gear.
2) Best locations to pick up random Greater Affixes on gear
If you aren’t looking for anything specific in terms of Greater Affixes, and are just curious about what gear you can upgrade in Diablo 4, you want to look out for the best loot explosions the game has to offer. There are several great ways to do this now, thanks to War Plans.
One of the best ways is by defeating/completing Accursed Rituals in Helltides (Blood Maiden) on the highest Torment difficulty you can manage. You get pretty decent loot explosions this way. If you can, put down a Baneful Heart, at least 1, and this should make your loot drops higher quality.
Nightmare Dungeons are amazing speed farm opportunities, but thanks to War Plans, they can really become amazing loot explosions. Go down the right side, picking Goblinfall, Horadric Hunter, Altar of Avarice, and Greed is Good at the minimum. Cipher Maps is also nice.
What this does is gives you chance at getting Treasure Breach sigils, and transforms Horadric Altars (killing 20 Elites across Nightmare Dungeons) into Goblin Altars that spawn Treasure Goblins. In addition, killing Treasure Goblins has a chance to open a portal to a Goblin’s Retreat. You want huge piles of loot? This is how you get huge piles of loot.
Undercity is another great place to speedfarm (using Tribute of Ancestral Armaments or Tribute of Ascendance), as are Lair Bosses, especially if you go down the middle branch of War Plans upgrades. These give you chances at Nemesis Portals, where you fight multiple bosses at once. Doing this can give you some amazing loot piles in Diablo 4, where you might pick up some Greater Affix gear.
If you’re lucky, you’ll then get a Greater Nemesis Lair for even more rewards. If you do this, and have 5x Betrayer’s Husks, you can then go on to a Call of Evil fight. Then you fight the Ultimate Nemesis Lair, and can pick up 10 Hoard Chests worth of items for succeeding.
Tips to craft Greater Affixes on gear in Diablo 4
There are some ways you can manipulate Greater Affixes on your gear in Diablo 4, through the Blacksmith, Occultist, and the Horadric Cube. You can use the Blacksmith, for example, to add a specific stat onto your gear, through the Tempering Manuals. You can keep rerolling until you get it as a Greater Affix (using Scrolls of Restoration).
You can lock in a Greater Affix permanently onto your gear using the Occultist as well. Visit them and select Enchant. Pick the stat you want to keep, select the “Enchant” option, then select “No change”. This will lock that stat onto your gear, and leave it as a Greater Affix. The icon changes, but the gear still shows it as a GA item. You can only use the Occultist to lock in one Greater Affix, so choose wisely.
This lets you safely reroll other stats, if you’re looking for something different, while maintaining safety on your gear. Conversely, you can also take that piece of gear over to the Horadric Cube. If you haven’t yet, you can add an Affix, and then use Focused Roll with specific Tuning Prisms, to adjust the stat to something you want. We have heard that this can potentially produce a Greater Affix, but have not seen it happen, so we cannot confirm it. You might burn through tons of resources trying though.
Once you’ve done all the rerolling you want on a piece of gear, take it to the Blacksmith again, and Masterwork it. When you finish Masterworking a piece of gear, it will improve one of the Affixes into a Capstone Bonus, which increases the stat by 50%.
The last thing you should do when crafting gear in Diablo 4 is Transfigure it in the Horadric Cube. It’s the very last step, after all the stat adjustments, Tempering, and rerolls have been done. This can render a piece of gear unmodifiable, but it can grant Greater Affixes too. It’s your last stop, and last attempt to add another Greater Affix to your gear.
This can all feel like gambling, and feel incredibly random. Thankfully, it’s pretty easy to find tons of gear in all rarities, and if you find some that start with Greater Affixes, you can try to add one or two more through the methods above.
Check out our other Diablo 4 guides and features
Edited by Jason Parker
Author
