Diablo 4 Season 11 Masterwork changes: Boon or bust?

The Masterwork system in Diablo 4 is always criticized, and it’s receiving some major changes in Season 11. However, I’m not really 100% sure Blizzard heard what people complain about, and made changes that they’re going to like. Most of the responses I’ve seen to the system are incredibly negative. While I try to be pretty positive about changes made in D4, because I enjoy the game, I’m torn here.

Sure, Diablo 4 Season 11’s Masterwork changes remove almost all of the randomness from the system, it also eliminates what makes the system fun to use in the first place: Getting lots of powerful bonuses for your gear. Here’s what we know about the system, and what I think about it so far.

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Diablo 4 Season 11 Masterwork changes: What’s new?

In Diablo 4 Season 11, the Masterwork system will undergo a huge change. Instead of boosting the various stats on your gear, you will just have a Quality Stat that goes up, each time you Masterwork. Each piece of gear will have 20 levels, and with each Masterwork boost, that piece of gear will receive a specific boost:

Say goodbye to stat improvements like this in Season 11 (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

• Normal Armor slots: Armor stat
• Jewelry: Resistances
• Weapons: Base damage

Once you max out a piece of gear in D4 Season 11, you’ll be able to get the Capstone Bonus. This upgrades a random non-greater affix on the item, transforming it into a Greater Affix. You can also reroll the Masterworked Greater Affix, without resetting quality, but it will apparently be very expensive. Right now, we don’t know if you can improve Tempered Stats at all, but, given what we’ve heard, it doesn’t sound like it.

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Are the Masterwork changes good for Diablo 4 Season 11?

How much lower will our stats be in Diablo 4 Season 11? Only time will tell (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

The whole point of Masterworking in Diablo 4 Season 11 is going to change. In earlier seasons, Masterworking was to improve the stats on your gear: All affixes on your gear could be improved via Masterworking. Sure, the big bonuses were random, and it could get expensive, but it still gave you some pretty great bonuses.

We, as Diablo 4 players, are losing a lot in offensive stats in Season 11, since we can’t upgrade all the affixes at once. Sure, we’re getting better defenses, but I didn’t need greater defenses. I wasn’t upset if I didn’t reach Armor cap, and there were plenty of ways to increase elemental resistances. All of those cool effects like “Chance to Cast Twice” are going to go down too.

It feels like characters are going to get significantly weaker in D4 Season 11, and that’s not what players are looking for. When you combine this with smarter, stronger enemies, it doesn’t sound like Season 11 is off to a very good start, and it is still several months away. There’s still time for this system to change, but I’m not going to hold my breath.

This genuinely sounds like a terrible idea, unless they’re going to have other ways to increase power on gear in Season 11. Sure, everyone’s going to be better defended, but we’re losing out on a lot of power as a result. I’m not thrilled about this change, but we’ll see how it is in action when Season 11 kicks off in December 2025.

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Check out our other Diablo 4 guides and features

• Diablo 4’s next expansion is at least six more months away, developer confirms
• Diablo 4 Season 10 review
• Diablo 4: Bartuc Lord of Chaos walkthrough (Season 10)

Edited by Jason Parker