Diablo 4 End-Game Progression Guide for Level 70 after Lord of Hatred

Diablo 4 End-Game at Level 70 after Lord of Hatred

So, you just hit level 70 in Diablo 4. Congratulations, but the real grind, and often the real frustration, begins now. With the launch of the Lord of Hatred expansion, everything has shifted: how you approach your skills, the way gear drops, where you find crucial aspects – it’s all different. Many veteran players are finding themselves recalibrating their entire end-game strategy.

This guide will walk you through the essential steps after hitting level 70, focusing on practical priorities to get your character raid-ready and optimized. Forget the old ways; this season, progression requires a fresh perspective and a willingness to adapt to some costly, time-consuming new systems.

Choosing Your End-Game Build

The very first thing you need to lock down is your end-game build. While it’s always fun to experiment, especially with the revamped skill tree offering more customization than ever, having a clear direction saves a massive amount of time and resources. This season, getting solid build planners online has taken a bit longer than usual due to all the changes, but finding one is crucial. A good planner will detail everything from skill point allocation and Paragon board paths to specific gear affixes and unique items.

Even if you enjoy theorycrafting your own setup, having a baseline to compare against can help avoid wasting hours on an inefficient path. The customization options are extensive, but so are the ways to build a character that simply can’t clear the content you need it to.

Unlocking Key End-Game Content

Before you dive into the true grind, you need to unlock the content that actually matters for progression. Missing a single step here can lead to hours of confusion, something many new players, and even some veterans, stumble upon.

Completing Campaign and Deeds of a Champion

First, ensure you’ve completed the campaign at least once. If you have the Lord of Hatred expansion, you’ll also need to finish the “Deeds of a Champion” questline in Nahantu. If you chose to skip the campaign on your current character, most of this should already be completed for you, saving some hassle.

The Crucial Capstone Dungeon 2

This step is incredibly important and often overlooked. You need to complete Capstone Dungeon number two. This isn’t the one you did around level 60 for World Tier 3. Many players get a vague message about needing to complete something on an eternal character or a “warlock” when trying to unlock The Pits. This almost always means you need to clear the *second* Capstone Dungeon, which leads to the Hellish Descent. Completing this dungeon is the gateway to unlocking The Pits.

Pushing Pits and Torment Tiers

Once The Pits are unlocked, your immediate goal should be to push to Pit Level 10. This specific threshold is what unlocks Torment One. Think of Torment One as your initial stepping stone into the real end-game. It’s where your character starts seeing significantly better returns on time invested, though it’s far from the final destination.

Understanding Torment Tier Benefits

Why bother with higher Torment tiers? The benefits are substantial and quickly become non-negotiable for efficient progression. Moving from lower difficulties up to Torment One provides:

While pushing Torment One is just the start, the ultimate goal for most players will be farming on Torment 10. Beyond that, the increases in experience and drops become marginal, mainly catering to the absolute top-tier players and those pushing for leaderboards. For the vast majority, Torment 10 farming is where you’ll maximize your returns without burning out.

How do you know if you’re ready? For Hardcore players, slow and steady wins the race—one tier at a time. For Softcore, jump into a Pit, and if you die, you know you need to farm some gear. It’s a blunt approach, but effective. Clearing higher Pits quickly on a higher Torment tier means better drops and XP, so pushing as far as comfortable is always the play.

End-Game Activities in Diablo 4

Diablo 4’s end-game is packed with activities, some new, some familiar, but all with renewed importance this season. You’ll be spending a lot of time in these if you plan to get your character maxed out:

This wide array of activities can feel overwhelming. Many players get stuck trying to do everything at once. Focusing on a prioritized list, especially early on, is key to avoiding burnout.

The New War Plans System

This season, War Plans are an absolute game-changer, especially for anyone with the Lord of Hatred expansion. If you don’t have the expansion, you’ll simply skip this, but for everyone else, this is going to dictate a significant portion of your end-game progression. It provides highly focused objectives and incredible rewards, guiding you on where to go, what to do, and when.

War Plans Customization and Rewards

Your War Plan table doesn’t start with all options. You begin with three choices, pick one, then another. The beauty is you can reroll your plan up to three times if the initial options or rewards aren’t what you’re looking for. This flexibility is crucial for tailoring your activities to your current needs, whether it’s specific gear, materials, or XP.

One of the best benefits of War Plans is that they often provide keys for boss dungeons or Infernal Hordes, removing a common roadblock for many players. As you complete activities and level up your “skill tree” within the War Plans, you’ll unlock increasingly powerful combinations and rewards. This system is too beneficial to ignore; it’s practically mandatory for efficient progression this season. Some players have reported significant Paragon level gains from just a 15-minute War Plan session, highlighting its value.

Your Priority List at Level 70

Once you hit level 70, a clear priority list prevents feeling overwhelmed. Many players jump straight into challenging content only to get hard-stuck. Start with the foundational elements.

Securing 850 Item Power Gear

Your first real priority is acquiring a full set of 850 Item Power gear. This effectively acts like a 750 item power from previous seasons but is a raw strength boost. The good news is that after level 70, any monster can drop 850 Item Power gear. You can often farm this relatively easily in Penitent difficulty. Get these pieces equipped, as anything 800+ Item Power will be significantly stronger than gear you picked up while leveling. Don’t worry about perfect rolls just yet; the raw Item Power boost is your immediate goal.

Glyph Leveling & Its Importance

Glyphs are paramount for scaling your character. They drop from almost everywhere: Nightmare Dungeons (often 2-3 per run, sometimes none), The Pits (one guaranteed per run until you have them all), open world, Helltides, and Whisper Caches. While you can work on them through War Plans, focusing on them directly is often more efficient.

Optimal Glyph Leveling Strategy

Your primary goal for glyphs should be:

Many players debate stopping at 51, but the damage difference between Level 51 and the current max of 150 (it used to be 100) is substantial. Don’t stop at 51 if you can help it, but prioritize getting all important glyphs to 51 first before pushing any further. This sequential approach ensures a consistent power curve without over-investing early.

Seasonal Ranks and Rewards

While this particular season might not feature a traditional “seasonal reputation” grind, the Seasonal Ranks are still incredibly important. Progressing through these ranks will award you vital resources like skill points (which many players, even veterans, forget to fully acquire), Paragon points, and sparks. These directly translate into character power. You don’t need to binge them all at once; taking your time and picking up a few ranks here and there is perfectly fine.

The chests rewarded from Seasonal Ranks are also worth noting, as they often provide guaranteed items with Greater Affixes, which are significantly rarer this season. This is a subtle but very powerful reward that shouldn’t be overlooked.

Infernal Hordes and Target Farming Aspects

Infernal Hordes typically offer guaranteed Ancestral gear, or at least they did in previous seasons – this needs testing to confirm this season, but if it holds true, it’s a fantastic source. Prioritize the equipment chests from Hordes, then materials. To access Hordes, you’ll need keys, which can often be acquired through War Plans or specific activities.

A huge change this season is that aspects no longer drop from dungeons. They’ve been removed. If you’re targeting a specific aspect, you’ll now primarily rely on the Purveyor of Curiosity (gambling with Obols). Spend your Obols on the gear slot that typically holds the aspect you need. When you get a legendary drop, salvaging it at the blacksmith will upgrade that aspect in your Codex of Power. This means your Codex will start very empty, and you’ll need to actively farm legendary drops to populate it with higher-tier aspects. This makes Obols and Infernal Hordes even more valuable.

Rune Crafting and The Horadric Cube

Rune crafting has also seen some tweaks. The traditional method at the Jeweler still exists, allowing you to trade up runes for random ones, usually at the same tier or higher. However, a significant new addition is the Horadric Cube. You can now craft every single legendary rune directly from its recipes. While these recipes are pricey, they offer a reliable way to get specific runes, removing the frustration of pure RNG. This is a welcome change for targeted progression, though the cost means you’ll still need to put in the time to gather materials.

Optimizing Your Paragon Boards

Paragon boards are where a huge chunk of your character’s power lies, and it’s where many new players make critical mistakes. Simply filling out every node isn’t efficient. There are other boards, and strategically adding and rotating them is key. Most reliable build planners will show you optimized paths, ensuring you get the most out of every Paragon point for both damage and survivability.

Defenses First: A Common Mistake

A very common, and frustrating, mistake for new players is to prioritize all the extra damage nodes on their Paragon board right away. This sounds logical on paper, but in practice, you need to be able to stay alive to do damage. Many players learn this the hard way after hitting a wall in higher Pits or Torment tiers. Focus on unlocking defensive nodes first. You’ll do plenty of damage to move up in Torment tiers just from your gear and aspects; the Paragon board should reinforce your survivability before it becomes a pure damage amplifier.

Masterworking: The Expensive Reality

Masterworking is incredibly expensive this season, arguably more so than ever. This means you need to be very selective about which pieces of gear you commit to. Don’t masterwork everything; save your precious resources for pieces you know you’ll be using for a significant amount of time. Many high-level players are still masterworking their gear incrementally, understanding that the costs are too high for casual upgrades.

Masterworking does provide a massive increase to all stats on your gear, making it crucial for pushing very high-end content. This is why following a build planner that highlights the most important affixes to masterwork is essential. Unlike previous seasons, you can’t just dive in. The sheer cost, particularly in Forgotten Souls, Tempering, and Enchanting, demands careful planning.

Forgotten Souls and Other Crafting Costs

Forgotten Souls are the big bottleneck. Masterworking a single item can cost 10 Forgotten Souls up to quality 20. Enchanting can cost upwards of 50. Tempering also demands them. This quickly depletes your reserves. While you can refine materials into Forgotten Souls, this in turn consumes Veiled Crystals, creating a constant struggle for crafting materials. You have to make very informed decisions on what to craft and upgrade, or you’ll run out of materials faster than you can farm them. The entire crafting ecosystem this season emphasizes strategic resource management, punishing impulse upgrades.

Current Seasonal Content Focus

If you’re looking for a new, separate seasonal questline this season, you’ll find there isn’t one. This season is heavily focused around the Lord of Hatred expansion pack and its associated content. Blizzard has expanded the Seasonal Ranks, now offering up to 14 sparks among other rewards, which is where your “seasonal” progression energy should be directed. The emphasis is squarely on the expansion’s new systems and challenges, not a standalone narrative.

Final Takeaways

Navigating the end-game in Diablo 4 after the Lord of Hatred expansion is less about speed-running and more about methodical progression and resource management. Hitting level 70 is just the beginning; the real test is in efficiently unlocking content, prioritizing gear, and carefully allocating your scarce crafting materials.

Always start by choosing a solid build, then diligently unlock Capstone 2 and Pit 10. Prioritize 850 Item Power gear, and then focus on getting your crucial Glyphs to at least Level 51. The new War Plans system is a must-use for focused rewards and aspect farming. Remember to build defenses first on your Paragon boards to avoid frustrating wipes. And finally, be incredibly selective with Masterworking, as the costs, particularly Forgotten Souls, are punishing. This season punishes hasty decisions and rewards thoughtful, experienced play. Don’t expect to sail through without some serious dedication and planning.