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War Plans are a new system added to end game in Lord of Hatred, offering players a diverse way to customize their experience in end game with various selectable modifications to activates and customizable rewards.
This article breaks down the following information:
War Plans consist of two parts -
On the left players will be given a choice of paths to plan out on their War Plans consisting of different actives and rewards that will be given at the end of their War Plan.
On the right players will be given a 7 different skill trees with each one corresponding to their own respective activates which modifies the types of rewards you can get as well as add extra bonuses or challenges to overcome.
Once you've decided to start a War Plan, players are given a branching set of activities and rewards to pick from. Each activity links to another set of activities, giving players a set amount of choices to pick from, and once locked in your War Plan cannot be changed, so its vital to know how to pick your War Path effectively.
Unfortunately in Diablo 4, not every activity and reward is made equal. The general strategy is to pick activates that give the best base rewards as possible with the best War Plan reward in the least amount of time possible.
Each activity will have its own dedicated guide below, so this section will touch more on which rewards you should path into to help plan your route.
each reward can be one of the following, ranked by importance:
And each reward are broken up into 6 different tiers of quantity:
So your plan is to route for the best of these rewards in the highest tier possible, while picking the best activates you can do the fastest with the best base rewards from that activity as possible.
Ranking: Helltide are an S tier activity to pick during your War Plans and are a top priority to path into.
Explanation: When properly set up, Helltide offer the best way to gain experience, Lair Keys, and Forgotten Souls all at once. These 3 are the most important resources in Season 13 so its an easy pick as the top spot despite the length of time it takes to complete.
Left Path:
The left side of the skill tree offers players increased rewards and Profane Mindcages, similar to those found in Season 7, that increases your the difficulty and rewards of Helltide by increases monster level in return for more cinders, XP, and drops.
Middle Path (Recommended):
The middle part of the Skill Tree will cause Maggots and a Pang of Duriel to spawn from Hellwyrm ambushes. Maggots drop considerable amounts of experience and Boss Trophies which can be turned in at the Horadric Cube for Uniques. The Pang of Duriel will also drop Lair Keys, making this upgrade path the best way to farm Lair Keys, experience, and trophies in the game.
The other set of upgrades from the middle tree offer far worse rewards and generally should be skipped.
Right Path:
The right path has more versatility, offering players the choice between making Helltide easier by not losing Cinders on death, making Helltide faster by giving 10 Cinders every 100 collected, or creating a Hells Prize chest that costs 666 Cinders for extra loot.
Ranking: Infernal Hordes are a D tier activity to pick during your War Plans and are a bottom priority to path into.
Reasoning: Hordes are consistently the worst performing activity to pick due to their length of time to complete and the lack of relevant rewards for completing them. Players can expect to do an entire War Plan in the time it takes to do a 10 wave Horde. Unless specifically farming for a Bertuc unique drop, this activity should be skipped when possible.
Left Path (Recommended):
The left side of the tree offers a greater reward at the end with more Unique items from Bertuc, Talisman drops, and your choice between either more Obducite, Gem Fragments, or a Greater Hoard of Collection after defeating Bertuc (recommended).
Middle Path:
The middle path is focused around gaining more Ather, with the first set up upgrades augmenting Chaos Rounds. Either making them more common or by getting rid of them for an extra infernal offering choice. They both lead into the final upgrade which offers a bonus Infernal Offering which matches your choice.
Right Path:
Right path is straight forward, offering a slightly harder experience for a little bit of extra guaranteed Aether.
Ranking: Kurast Undercity are an S tier activity to pick during your War Plans and are a top priority to path into.
Explanation: Kurast Undercity are extremely fast to run which is ideal for War Plans, and the base rewards that you get are extremely customizable with very sought after rewards thanks to the Tribute system. All 3 skill tree paths are worth taking, so its up to the player to decide what's best.
Left Path (Recommended):
The left path is focused on the end of run rewards, offering better look after killing Goblins and more resources like Forgotten souls on completion.
Middle Path (Recommended:
The main draw to the middle skill tree path is the end node that allows Ancestral Armament tributes have the ability to drop. Between this upgrade and the left path there is no clear winner, so pick the one you find most worth while to you.
Right Path:
The right path is extremely competitive with the other 2 upgrade paths, offering a large amount of Experience and more Tributes as rewards. If players are looking for Experience then this can be a very worthwhile upgrade path to take.
Ranking: Lair Bosses are an A tier activity to pick during your War Plans and are a high priority to path into.
Reasoning: Lair bosses offer a the fastest time to complete activity, normally taking a matter of seconds to complete. This makes it an extreme easy to justify path to grab if the rewards are worth pathing for.
Mixed Pathing:
The Lair Boss skill tree is unique in that the best approach is either going down the middle path, or dipping into into the first nodes on both the left and right sides of the tree to spawn Lair Bosses during other activates. If there is a boss your class is trying to farm, it can be extremely beneficial to path into adding that specific boss into your other activities.
The only stand out node from the left or right paths is Dog of Astaroth, which will have a chance for bosses in Nightmare Dungeons to drop Uniques from the Astaroth loot table. This can be extremely benefice as Astaroth is the hardest boss in the game to get materials to farm his uniques.
Middle Path:
Middle path is the most lucrative upgrade, offering a chain of bosses that when completed reward the players with an extreme amount of Hoard Chest from every Lair Boss. This is the upgrade to take when you're strong, but a mixed approach is better if you're not fully geared in end game.
Ranking: Nightmare Dungeons are an A tier activity to pick during your War Plans and are a high priority to path into.
Explanation: Nightmare Dungeons offer a quick and easy task that are no problem for any account. They also have the highest potential out of any activity thanks to the right side of the skill tree.
Left Path:
The left path is all about increasing the loot dropped during the Nightmare Dungeons.
Middle Path:
The middle path is the primary way to unlock the Astaroth loot table, with the node Recurring Nightmare unlocking the ability for Escalating Nightmare Sigils to drop after completing a Nightmare Dungeon.
Right Path (Recommended):
The right side is all about Treasure Goblins, offering rare chances at extremely rare loot like Mythic Uniques. If you want to have a highlight of the season, this is the upgrade to go for.
Ranking: Pits are a B tier activity to pick during your War Plans and are a medium priority to path into.
Explanation: Pits have been heavily nerfed compared to previous seasons. Glyph XP is great and they can be fast if players pick a lower difficulty to quickly run, but all Pit are good for in this season is the Glyph XP.
Mixed Pathing (Best):
The best approach to the Pit Skill tree is maximizing the Glyph upgrades by taking the Chrono's Blessing node for an extra Glyph upgrade chance, and then going down the left side of the tree for more Glyph upgrade chances with Damned Thieves for faster progression.
Tree of Whispers are a special case as they cannot be picked during your War Plans and are passively earned.
Left Path:
This offers a unique system where Whisper Cache's can hold Corrupted Roots, which when planted, attract enemies that can be killed for loot and extra reward Cache
Middle Path (recommended):
The middle path has two paths that lead down to the final node which grants a chance for Whisper Cache to grant a spark.
The left side of the middle section offers players bonus choices, better rewards, and an upgrade to the Collection of Chaos, whereas the right side of the middle path offers much more materials in place of loot. Either approach is fine as long as you make it to the Spark at the end
Right Path:
This path is focused on Collection of Chaos, allowing ambushes to some times show up after completing Whispers that drop Collection of Chaos rewards. The final node in this path makes Varshan some times appear in these ambushes for Ancestral Cache of Chaos for incredible loot.
