If you have been playing Diablo IV nonstop since launch, Season 11 is going to hit you like a different game altogether because the whole defence system has been ripped out and rebuilt around this single Toughness stat, so instead of juggling armour caps and stacking resistances you are just watching one clean value while you tweak your diablo 4 gear to keep up. The old style of standing still and soaking every hit is gone, partly because potions now work on a short recharge and partly because Fortify behaves more like a second health bar that drains and fills instead of a weird hidden damage reduction trick, so you actually have to move, time your dodges, and sometimes just back off for a second when the screen fills with nonsense. Meaner Monsters, Faster Fights You notice pretty fast that monsters are not just lining up to die anymore, as packs split up, circle around you, and elites throw skills that force you out of your safe spot instead of politely waiting in a puddle. When you get jumped by a mix of ranged and melee, it feels more like a proper brawl than a speed farm, and you cannot just drift off while spamming your main skill. The upside is that the fights feel way better when you thread a clean dodge through a mess of projectiles, land your cooldowns at the right moment, and come out with a sliver of health left because you actually played well rather than because your numbers were absurdly high. Loot That Feels Worth Picking Up Loot got a big shake-up too, and you feel it as soon as Rares start dropping with four base affixes again instead of those half-baked three-line stat sticks that went straight into salvage. You now look at a yellow on the ground and think it might actually be an upgrade or at least a decent base for a new setup, because the ceiling on non-unique pieces shot up. Legendaries benefit from the same idea, so you end up comparing rolls and planning around them more, not just hunting for that one perfect Unique. On top of that, the salvage and crafting loop is smoother, with fewer clicks and less menu hopping, so you spend more time in dungeons and less time staring at blacksmith tabs trying to remember what you were doing. Tempering Without The Heartbreak The biggest emotional shift comes from how Tempering works now, since you are no longer praying that a random roll does not brick your best item after hours of farming, because you pick the specific affix from a list, one per item, and you can keep trying until it feels right without permanently ruining anything. It turns crafting from a weird lottery into something closer to deckbuilding, where you say “ok, I am going for crit here” or “I want more resource sustain” and just lock it in. That makes experimenting with new builds feel way less scary, as you can adjust pieces bit by bit and test ideas instead of hoarding materials for fear of wasting them on a bad attempt. Masterworking And Long-Term Progress Endgame grind now leans hard into this Masterworking system tied to item Quality, where you slowly push a piece up through 25 ranks, boosting its base stats and affixes in a steady, visible way rather than waiting for some random upgrade to drop out of nowhere. Hitting max Quality gives one affix a Capstone Bonus, turning it into a Greater Affix that really changes how strong the item feels, and the neat part is that you can reroll that bonus without wiping the whole Quality track, so you are not terrified of taking a shot on a better roll. Over time that makes your stash feel more personal, like a set of projects you have been tuning for weeks, instead of a pile of disposable loot, and it gives you a clear reason to keep pushing harder content while you look for the perfect piece to turn into your next big upgrade with some carefully chosen cheap diablo 4 gear.