Diablo 4 Malignant Hearts explained: the season’s big new upgrade item detailed
Malignant Hearts are one of Diablo 4 Season 1’s main additions, so it’s worth knowing how to find them and what they actually do.
Diablo 4 Season 1 officially kicks off later today at 6pm BST / 1pm EDT / 10am PDT, bringing with it all-new reasons to explore the world of Sanctuary as an entirely fresh character class build. Chief amongst them is what’s called Malignant Hearts, serving as Season of the Malignant’s primary source of insertable upgrades that have the potential to improve your gear exponentially. Diablo 4 Malignant Hearts being so key to this debut season makes knowing how they function absolutely vital.
Fortunately, we’ve put together the following explainer, detailing everything you need to know about Malignant Hearts, better described as Diablo 4 Season 1’s big new upgrade item. Here we’ll detail how you can acquire them as part of the new Seasonal Journey, which Malignant Hearts are best for your preferred class, as well as how you go about inserting them into your gear. Let’s get into it…
Diablo 4 Malignant Hearts: how to get them
First things first, in order to even have access to the Diablo 4 Malignant Hearts you’ll need to make sure you’ve entered the new season. This means beating the campaign on at least World Tier 1 or 2 at least once, which will then let you enter what’s known as the Seasonal Realm. From here, you’ll be able to make your way through Sanctuary, where a corruption is spreading causing unique creature types known as Malignant Monsters to appear.
It's after defeating these Malignant Monsters when Malignant Hearts have a chance to drop. The best area to find Malignant Hearts are in what’s called Malignant Tunnels, which are a new type of dungeon exclusive to Season of the Malignant. So far, so standard. However, before you jump into Season of the Malignant and attempt to start farming Hearts instantly, bear in mind that you’ll need to progress enough into the new season’s questline.
Why Star Wars Jedi: Survivor's six week delay is a good thing
The new season’s questline is called Burning From Within. It’s accessible by visiting an area in the Fractured Peaks, where you’ll be encouraged to speak to a character Vyrtan. This will eventually lead you down a path to acquire an item called the Cage of Binding, which is what allows you to pick up Malignant Hearts after defeating Malignant Hearts.
Diablo 4 Malignant Hearts: how to insert them
Malignant Hearts in Diablo 4 can only be inserted into a types of jewellery that are classified as Infested. That’s why it’s worth checking the status of any Amulet, Ring or Necklace you pick up as part of the new season. The more Infested Sockets an Infested item of jewellery has, the more powerful it can become. It’s anticipated that once caged in your Cage of Binding, players can insert up to three up to three Malignant Hearts at once – one slot in your Amulet and then one in either ring.
Activision Blizzard has confirmed that once a Malignant Heart as been inserted into an Infested Socket within an Infested jewellery item, it cannot be taken out. Fear not, however, because that doesn’t mean you have to entirely break down the jewellery item to get the Heart out, just that you’ll need to swap it with another one you’ve picked up.
Diablo 4 Malignant Hearts: full list
There’s a total of 32 different Malignant Heart types waiting to be found in Diablo 4 Season 1, with each broken up into four categories: Vicious, Brutal, Devious and Wrathful. Here’s what each of the four Malignant Heart categories bring to each class:
- Vicious Heart – offensive power, insertable into red Infested jewellery sockets.
- Brutal Heart – defensive power, insertable into blue Infested jewellery sockets.
- Devious Heart – utility power, insertable into purple Infested jewellery sockets.
- Wrathful Heart – super power, insertable into any Infested jewellery sockets.
Activision Blizzard has been smart in that you can technically choose which type of Malignant Heart you can acquire. When running a Malignant Tunnel, making it to the end will see you able to choose which colour you’d like as a reward. This should make it easier to achieve your ideal Malignant Heart loadout in theory.
Activision Blizzard has also been kind enough to reveal the full list of 32 Malignant Hearts, which we’ve segmented according to which of the four categories they relate to. Here’s the full list below, helping you to carefully plan your character class build in time for when the season arrives:
Vicious Malignant Hearts
The Picana (all classes) – Critical Strikes electrically charge the enemy for 0.75-2.50 seconds, causing lightning to arc between them and any other charged enemies dealing 68-136 Lightning damage.
The Dark Dance (all classes) – Every 5 seconds while above 60% Life, Core Skills cost 68-51 Life instead of your Primary Resource. Skills that consume Life deal 10-20% increased damage.
Tempting Fate (all classes) – You gain 40-60% Critical Strike Damage but your Non-Critical Strikes deal 20-15% less damage.
Focused Rage (Barbarian) – After spending 60-100 Fury within 2 seconds, your next Non-Basic Skill's Critical Strike Chance is increased by 20-30%.
Overwatch 2 season 3 patch notes reveal new maps and full tank hero overhaul
The Moonrage (Druid) – Kills have a 5% chance to summon a Wolf Companion to your side for 20-30 seconds. In addition, gain +3 to Wolves.
The Sacrilegious (Necromancer) – Walking near a Corpse automatically activates an equipped Corpse Skill every second, dealing 40-30% reduced damage.
Cluster Munitions (Rogue) – Lucky Hit: You have up to a 20% chance to launch 3 Stun Grenades that deal 26-32 Physical damage and Stun enemies for 0.50 seconds.
Tal ’Rasha (Sorcerer) – For each unique element you deal damage with, you deal 7-12% increased damage for 3-10 seconds.
Brutal Malignant Hearts
The Lionheart (all classes) – You gain 10% Barrier Generation. You Heal 3-7 Life per second while you have an active Barrier.
Revenge (all classes) – 10-20% of incoming damage is instead suppressed. When you use a Defensive, Subterfuge, or Macabre skill, all suppressed damage is amplified by 250% and explodes, dealing up to 1360-2040 Fire damage to Nearby enemies.
Prudent Heart (all classes) – You become Immune for 2.0-4.0 seconds after you lose more than 20% Life in a single hit. This effect can only occur once every 110 seconds.
Resurgent Life (Barbarian) – While below 40-60% Life, you receive 50-60% more Healing from all sources.
The Agitated Winds (Druid) – When 8-13 Close enemies, automatically cast Cyclone Armor. This cannot occur more than once every 10-20 seconds.
The Decrepit Aura (Necromancer) – When at least 5 enemies are near you, gain an aura that automatically curses surrounding enemies with Decrepify for 5-15 seconds.
Trickery (Rogue) – When you use a Subterfuge Skill, leave behind an unstable Shadow Decoy Trap that Taunts enemies. The Shadow Decoy Trap will explode after 6.0 seconds dealing 680-1020 Shadow damage. Cannot occur more than once every 5 seconds.
Spellbreaking (Sorcerer) – After taking Elemental damage, gain 20-40% Resistance to that element for 5 seconds.
Devious Malignant Hearts
Determination (all classes) – Resource draining effects are 40-50% less effective. In addition, gain 3-8% increased Resource Generation.
Retaliation (all classes) – Deal 510-680 Fire damage to surrounding enemies whenever a Crowd Control effect is removed from you.
The Calculated (all classes) – After spending 150-200 of your Primary Resource, your next attack Stuns enemies hit for 2 seconds.
Punishing Speed (Barbarian) – Your Skills have a 20-30% chance to Knock Down all enemies for 1.25 seconds when that Skill's Attack Speed is higher than 35-20%.
Inexorable Force (Druid) – Up to 30-50 Distant enemies are pulled toward you while you have an Ultimate Skill active.
Frozen Terror (Necromancer) – Lucky Hit: Up to a 10-20% chance of inflicting Fear for 2.5 seconds. Feared enemies are Chilled for 20% every second.
The Clipshot (Rogue) – Lucky Hit: Up to a 20-40% chance for your Cutthroat Skills to Slow by 40% for 3 seconds and your Marksman Skills to Knock Back enemies.
Spite (Sorcerer) – When you are afflicted with a Crowd Control effect, there is a 20-40% chance that the same enemy and enemies around you are also afflicted with the same effect for 3 seconds.
Wrathful Malignant Hearts
The Malignant Pact (all classes) – Cycle through a Malignant bonus every 20 kills: • Vicious: Gain 20% Attack Speed. • Devious: Core and Basic Skills have a 15% chance to fully restore your Primary Resource. • Brutal: Every 21 seconds, gain a Barrier absorbing 85-102 damage.
Creeping Death (all classes) – Your damage over time effects are increased by 30-40% for each different Crowd Control effect on the target. Unstoppable monsters and Staggered bosses instead take 110-130% increased damage from your damage over time effects.
The Barber (all classes) – Critical Strikes and all subsequent damage within 2.0-4.0 seconds is absorbed by your target. Then, the absorbed damage erupts onto surrounding enemies. Stored damage is increased by 10% per second.
Ignoring Pain (Barbarian) – Incoming damage has a 5-15% chance of being ignored and instead Healing you for 17-68.
The Unconstrained Beast (Druid) – When you are hit with a Stun, Freeze, or Knock Down effect, there is a 40-60% chance to automatically activate Grizzly Rage for 3 seconds.
The Great Feast (Necromancer) – Each Minion drains 1-2 Essence per second but deals 50-75% increased damage. With no Minions, this bonus applies to you and drains 5 Essence per second.
The Vile Apothecary (Rogue) – Your attacks have a 5-15% chance to apply all Imbuement effects at 40-50% of normal potency.
Omnipower (Sorcerer) – Core Skills that launch a projectile consume all of your Mana. For every 45-35 extra Mana consumed, you launch an additional projectile, and the damage is increased by 3-5%.
As you can see, within the full list of 32 Malignant Hearts, there are plenty of unique buffs and tweaks that could drastically change the way your chosen character class handles. In a way it’s a shame that none of these will carry over into the inevitable Diablo 4 Season 2, when progress will be wiped and Diablo 4 Season 1 characters will transfer from the Seasonal Realm into the Eternal Realm.
Read more similar news:
Comments:
comments powered by Disqus
