Diablo 4 Tempering Guide: How It Works
Tempering is a brand-new crafting system in Diablo 4 that allows players to deterministically grant special affixes to their gear, with far less RNG than with the Occultist. This system allows players to create their own custom gear that complements their gear, which significantly boosts its power for the endgame.
Tempering provides class-specific bonuses to gear that will always remain relevant. However, this system may be confusing for new or returning players looking to fix up their builds. That’s why this guide will discuss how Tempering works and what you can do to make the most of it.
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What does Tempering do to gear?
Once you reach level 15 on any realm, you’ll unlock the Tempering feature for the Blacksmith. This mechanic is based on finding and learning Temper Manuals, which are categorized based on certain stat pools such as Weapons, Offensive, Defensive, Utility, Mobility, and Resource recipes. Items have up to two slots that can hold Tempered Affixes. Once you find and learn each Manual, they can be applied to gear on a repeatable, unlimited basis; all that is needed are the required materials. Learned Temper Manuals are stored and can be viewed in the Codex of Power. Each Manual has three tiers, with Legendary Temper Manuals providing the highest possible rolls.
Tempering allows players to slot affixes that are best suited for the class’ core gameplay mechanics. For example, Druids who want to create a leveling build around Companions can apply Tempered affixes to their gear like the Companion Finesses recipe, which grants bonus damage for Wolves, Ravens, and Poison Creepers.
Where can you get Temper Manuals?
These manuals are part of the regular drop pool for all World Tiers. Much like the loot you get in most drops, the rarity of these drops is affected by the current World Tier, with harder Tiers dropping rarer manuals. Nightmare Dungeons, World Bosses, Uber Bosses, and other types of content are more likely to drop more powerful Temper Manuals.
How do you Temper gear?
Learning a Temper Manual
When you pick up a Temper Manual, right-click on the item, and you’ll be able to learn the recipe, which can be found in your Codex. Each Temper Manual comes with several different affixes; however, the application of those affixes is randomized. Tempered Affixes are marked within the item’s tooltip via the anvil icon.
Tempering Slots on Gear
Before you start tempering your gear, be aware that item quality and sub-quality determine the number of Tempered Affixes that can be applied to a specific piece of gear. For example, Rare, Legendary, and Sacred Legendary items have one Tempering slot, while Ancestral Legendary items have two Tempering slots. Normal, Magic and Unique items cannot be tempered. Also, when Tempering both slots for your Ancestral Legendary item, the two cannot be from the same category, meaning that you cannot pick two Offensive affixes on a piece of gear.
Temper Durability
A single item without any Greater Affixes will have seven rolls at base in which Players can apply Tempered Affixes. This includes two initial rolls to set the Tempered Affixes in each slot plus five rerolls across both slots after applying said affixes. The number of rerolls an item has is called its Temper Durability. Each item’s Temper Durability is marked in the bottom right-hand corner of the item’s tooltip. The initial application of Tempered Affixes, of which there are two slots per item, does not count against the item’s Temper Durability. It is only after each slot has a Tempered Affix and players begin rerolling those affixes that the Temper Durability is affected. For every Greater Affix present on an item prior to Tempering, the more Temper Durability that item has. For example, if the Ancestral Legendary you have has 2 Greater Affixes, the overall Temper Durability is increased by 2.
Rerolling Tempers
Players can reroll each slot’s Tempered Affix up to five times before the slot itself is permanently locked out from further rerolls. In this case, players would still be able to apply a single Tempered Affix to the other slot but would be unable to reroll it. It is not recommended to do this method, but it is nonetheless important to point out how the system operates. Instead, it is best that players prioritize getting their most-needed Tempered Affix first and then slotting the second.
Unfortunately, the system can be punishing if you’re not able to get your choice Tempered Affix in the first three tries, as there’s a good chance it’ll end up severely weakening the item you Tempered. It helps to have multiple items ready to go when this inevitably happens.
It’s also recommended to Temper less until you reach the endgame since there are different rarities of the same Temper Manual to pick up. Ideally, hold off Tempering your best items until you have their Legendary versions for the highest affix values, as this will save that item’s Temper Durability for when you truly need to reroll for the right affix.
