Likely the last post on this topic for a bit, the rest still needs sorting. Lord of Hatred restructured the end game, where we had 4 Torment levels and now have 12. This was meant to ‘ease the curve’ between the prior levels, and increase the overall difficulty level to map to the addition of set talismans. And in that regard, it certainly does. The difference between individual torment levels is much easier, where prior something like T3 you would be a walking blender and in T4 you would be the puree. So good on that.

What wasn’t clear however was the number of systems that are gated behind these levels. In general, you level in normal, and then get enough gear to hit Torment 1, which is all legendary gear without any passives, no glyphs, and no real investment in the paragon system. Not exactly a huge hurdle, but you’ll need to craft the legendaries to get there most likely.

You should spend a grand total of zero time on Hard, Expert, or Penitent unless you are trying to unlock a season goal.

Monster Power

Every rank of this is like +1 Torment. Some War Plans add this. Lair bosses naturally have +3. Greater Lair bosses are +6. You will see this marker next to their hit point bar. I would suggest lowering the difficulty before taking on Greater Lair bosses so that the Torment levels match – this won’t impact War Plans. Generally, if the battle takes less than 5 seconds, you’re good to move up one difficulty. At 10 seconds, you will hit boss mechanics and some are 1-hit-kills, for very little additional reward. Lilith, Belial, and Mephisto are on another level, you’ll figure that part out.

Gains Per Level

Every Torment level increases monster difficulty, gives more XP, more gold, and more items that drop. The % of an item being legendary stays the same, but the number of chances for items increases. Loot filters are all but required for your sanity. Note when I say ‘starts dropping’ there are chances you see it before, but those are so small they effectively don’t.

If you want a comparison, the (#) is the equivalent in the Pit, which remains the measuring stick for difficulty.

• Torment 1 (10): Ancestral items (level 900) start dropping.
• Torment 2 (15): Legendary Temper Manuals start dropping… to get more legendary passives. This is much lower than you’d think. Pretty much when you start farming Lair Bosses.
• Torment 3 (20): You’ll notice a big boost on set charm drop rates, and you’ll get a penalty on armor/resistances.
• Torment 4 (25): Neathiron starts dropping. You need this for end-game rerolls.
• Torment 5 (30): Legendary Runes start dropping. Very few builds actually need these, but hey.
• Torment 6 (40): Greater Lair Keys start dropping. Considering these bosses drop the best uniques, you want this.
• Torment 7 (50): Primordial Dust starts dropping. Big deal for late game re-rolls.
• Torment 8 (60): Unique Charms start dropping. There is 1 per build, and it does make a difference. You can now fight Echo of Lilith… I wouldn’t.
• Torment 9 (70): Kullean Tuning Prisms start dropping. For cube recipes where you target specific outcomes, very useful.
• Torment 10 (80): Mythic Seals start dropping. There are god-rolls here and then head scratchers. Odds are you’ll never see one. Echo of Mephisto here, and that is a hard fight!
• Torment 11 (90): Resplendent Spark for Mythic Uniques starts dropping.
• Torment 12 (100): Everything unlocked, 1400% xp, and you need near perfect rolls to survive.

If you’re wondering how this maps to the prior difficulty, the Pit tiers help. T4 in season 12 was tier 55 in the Pit, which is now between T7 and T8. It’s not a perfect mapping, but having twice as many steps certainly smooths out progression. And with 4 more tiers to come after that, that’s a significant boost for those looking for more challenge.

Now, in my own personal opinion that I use this blog to share, I would consider your season journey done when you can clear your first Greater Boss, as everything past that point is just more numbers and not more content. This was not the case in season 12, as you’re going to spend a ton of time getting to T6 now. I’m not a fan of gating that content as those bosses are essential to get specific uniques which are absolutely build-defining, but hey, Diablo be Diablo.

Is it better than Season 12’s Torment model? Yes in that the scaling is much more appreciated. Meh in terms of the sheer amount of gating at each step.