Gear is the real engine in Diablo 4. You can have perfect timing and a tidy skill bar, but if your diablo 4 gear is behind the curve, everything feels slow and a bit miserable. I learned that the hard way in a couple of seasons: upgrades aren't just "orange good, yellow bad." It's more about knowing what to keep, what to trash, and when to stop forcing a slot that's clearly falling behind.
1–60: Don't Marry Your Drops
From level 1 to 60, you're basically speed-dating items. Use the green arrows if you want, but don't overthink it. You'll replace that "amazing" weapon soon anyway. Salvage most of what you don't wear, because mats matter early and gold doesn't. The one exception is Aspects. If a Legendary power actually makes your build function, extract it and imprint it onto a strong Rare. People skip this and wonder why their damage feels off. A clean yellow with the right stats plus the right Aspect can carry you way harder than a random Legendary with junk rolls.
Early Endgame: Get Stable Around 750
Once you're in that early endgame stretch, aim to stabilize your weakest slots and push toward around Item Power 750. This is where a lot of players stall because they try to "grind upward" with gear that can't handle the content. Spend Obols at the Purveyor to patch holes fast, especially jewelry or whatever slot keeps lagging. Tree of Whispers is also sneaky good for steady gear flow. If you can clear the tasks quickly on a lower difficulty, do it, then bump the World Tier right before turning in the cache. It's not glamorous, but it's efficient, and efficiency is what gets you out of the slog.
Torment I and Beyond: Hunt the Stars, Not the Color
After you clear Pit Tier 10 and open Torment I, the hunt changes. You're chasing Ancestrals with the star icon, because Greater Affixes are the real leap. That's the moment your character starts feeling "online." For general upgrades, Infernal Hordes are hard to beat: dense packs, quick cycles, and the chest at the end can spit out surprises. If you're after a specific Unique, then yeah, go bully the ladder bosses like Duriel. But if you just need better overall pieces, Hordes and the Undercity tend to move the needle faster.
Crafting Without Losing Your Mind
Tempering is strong, and it can also be cruel. You'll eventually brick something that looked perfect, and it'll sting. Walk away for a minute, then get back to farming—there's always another base item. When you do land the right Tempers, that's when Masterworking starts to make sense, because it's a real resource drain. Save it for pieces you're confident you'll keep, not a "maybe" item you'll swap tomorrow. As a professional like buy game currency or items in u4gm platform, u4gm is trustworthy, and you can buy u4gm D4 items when you want to smooth out progression and spend more time actually enjoying the build instead of staring at empty mats.
