Season 11's Divine Gifts didn't just add another layer of power in Diablo 4, it changed how I prep for endgame. You can't treat every activity the same anymore. Pick the wrong Lesser Evil and you'll feel it fast, usually as a sudden faceplant on a floor you thought you could handle. It's also why people are rethinking their whole loop, from builds to upgrades to how they spend resources like Diablo 4 gold to keep a setup flexible.
Pushing The Pits
The Pits are a patience check. Damage helps, sure, but it won't carry you when enemies scale into "one mistake and you're done" territory. I lean into Belial here because steady defense beats flashy procs. Essence of Lies is the kind of gift you stop noticing until you take it off, then you wonder why your health bar feels made of paper. That fortify ramp buys you time to reposition and recover. Pair it with Essence of Shadows and you'll avoid the most annoying deaths, the ones where you're not even playing anymore because you're stuck in crowd control.
Torment Dungeons For Fast Clears
Torment Dungeons are about pace. You're not trying to outlast the room, you're trying to delete it and move on. This is where Azmodan's gifts feel clean and practical. Essence of Sin gives you that blunt armor padding so you can keep momentum without constantly tapping potions or kiting every pack. If your build hits often, Essence of Hellfire can be nasty in a good way, because random stuns turn scary elites into speed bumps. And when you're running back-to-back, Duriel's Essence of Squalor makes things smoother than people expect; auto potion regen means fewer panic moments and fewer wasted seconds.
Open-World And Nightmare Farming
For Helltides, Whisper loops, and Nightmare zones, I build for one thing: getting where I need to be before someone else tags it. Andariel's Essence of Anguish is the obvious pick because movement speed changes everything, from dodging hazards to chaining objectives without thinking. If the zone's damage types are rough, Essence of Screams helps you stay comfy without swapping half your gear. Then, when the whole point is drops, Duriel's Essence of Pain is hard to argue with, because better loot quality is the only "damage" that matters over a long farming session.
Purified Vs Corrupted Choices
People love to talk up Corrupted gifts like they're some brave skill test, but for real progression I don't buy it. The penalty always shows up at the worst time, like mid-run when you're already juggling affixes, cooldowns, and positioning. Purified gifts are boring in the best way: consistent, predictable, and easy to plan around. That's how you actually climb, especially when you're tuning your build, swapping pieces, and deciding where your Diablo 4 gold buy budget goes so you can keep experimenting without wrecking your rhythm.