Legendary items are core to any Diablo 4 build. These items feature powerful Legendary affixes that grant build-enabling effects, ranging from massive damage buffs to skill functionality augments. Equipping a character with a full set of Legendary gear will make your leveling experience much less painful.
That is why the Occultist is so important. This vendor is capable of forging Legendary affixes onto your items while enchanting any affixes you dislike. Newer players will want to use the Occultist to make better gear, and veteran players will value the Occultist’s enchanting and Sigil crafting services. This guide will cover how to unlock the Occultist vendor, how to use each of their services, and give some useful tips on how to best use the Occultist.
What Is The Occultist?
The Occultist is a vendor that specializes in enchantments. An Occultist can upgrade items with Legendary affixes, reroll item affixes through enchanting, and forge Nightmare Sigils for endgame players. Out of all the Diablo 4 vendors, the Occultist is arguably the most important for improving your build. Using the Occultist is important in the early game for improving your build and unlocking core synergies. In the endgame, the Occultist is invaluable for rerolling near-perfect items and forging Legendary affixes onto perfect Rare items you find.
Unlocking The Occultist
Players unlock the Occultist by completing the Occultist’s vendor quest, available at level 25 or by unlocking the Codex of Power. The latter occurs upon completing any dungeon in Sanctuary that awards an affix your character can use. Once you’ve unlocked the Occultist’s services, you can find them in the northern portion of Kyovoshad, denoted by a triangle icon on your map. Most major Act hubs include an Occultist, not just Kyovashad.
An additional quest named “Sigil Crafting” will unlock once you’ve completed a few Nightmare Dungeons in Diablo 4’s endgame. Completing this quest will unlock the ability to dismantle and craft Nightmare Sigils at any Occultist in Sanctuary.
Aspect Imprinting
Forging a Legendary affix onto an item will make it account-bound, preventing you from trading the item to other players.
Aspect imprinting is the main service the Occultist offers, allowing you to forge a Legendary affix onto an item for a small fee. You’ll need to have the affix itself before you can imprint it onto another item. There are two ways to obtain a Legendary affix:
- Codex of Power: This is a collection of learned Legendary affixes. Fill out your collection by completing dungeons in Sanctuary. Each dungeon gives a unique affix.
- Legendary Aspects: This is the remnant of a destroyed Legendary item, granting a Legendary affix with a specific stat roll. Dismantling Legendary items at the Occultist will grant Aspects.
Bear in mind that the Codex of Power features subpar rolls compared to Legendary drops, so you’ll want to dismantle Legendary items into Legendary Aspects whenever you can. Aspects you own can be found in your inventory under the “Aspects” tab. You can hold up to 22 Aspects at a time.
With a Legendary affix at the ready, it’s time to make an item. Select your item and the Legendary affix you wish to imprint. Imprinting an affix will cost Gold and crafting materials. Doing this at lower levels will require Veiled Crystals, obtained by dismantling Rare-quality items at the Blacksmith. Items above level 50 will require Baleful Fragments instead, a resource earned by dismantling Legendary items at the Blacksmith.
A Legendary item crafted this way will showcase the “imprinted” tag beside the Legendary affix. This means that dismantling this Legendary will not grant an Aspect. If you end up replacing this item with another upgrade, you’re best off dismantling the Legendary at the Blacksmith to unlock its skin for transmog. You’ll also get Rare-quality materials for doing so, not Legendary materials since the item was crafted.
Sacred And Ancestral Imprinting
Sacred and Ancestral Legendary items you dismantle will grant Sacred and Ancestral Aspects, respectively. There doesn’t seem to be a meaningful difference between these and standard Aspects, and you can use Sacred Aspects on standard Rares and vice versa (showcased above).
Enchanting Affixes
Enchanting an item will make it account-bound, preventing you from trading the item to other players.
Item enchanting returns from Diablo 3, allowing you to change a single affix on an item of your choice. Doing so will cost a moderate Gold fee and require a few crafting materials. Rare items require Veiled Crystals to enchant, while Legendary items require Fiend Roses in addition to Veiled Crystals or Baleful Fragments. Fiend Roses can be found in Helltide zones, unlocked at World Tier 3: Nightmare difficulty and above. Unique items cannot be enchanted.
The enchanting interface will let you select a specific affix on the item you wish to reroll. You’ll be given three options:
- New Option #1
- New Option #2
- Keep your current affix
Pick the option that benefits your character the most and accept the enchantment. You can continue rerolling this affix as many times as you desire, although enchanting gets exponentially more expensive. We only recommend enchanting an item multiple times if you’re in the endgame and have a near-perfect item on your hands.
Sigil Crafting
Unlocked in World Tier 3: Nightmare difficulty, Sigil Crafting allows the Occultist to forge Sigils of a specific tier. You’ll unlock this feature after completing a few Nightmare Dungeons. Speaking to the Occultist will let you forge Sigils in a specific tier bracket, separated by five tiers per bracket. For example, your first crafting option creates a Sigil between T1-5, your second option creates a T6-10 Sigil, etc. All other Sigil properties are random, including the chosen dungeon and affix modifiers.
Crafting a Sigil this way will require Sigil Powder, a currency obtained by completing Nightmare Dungeons and dismantling unwanted Sigils. Dismantling Sigils can be done at the Occultist through a separate tab. The higher the Sigil tier, the more Sigil Powder you’ll earn when it’s dismantled. Conversely, higher-tier Sigils require more Sigil Powder to craft.
Legendary Crafting Tips
- Dismantle Legendary items at the Occultist: This will keep the Legendary item’s affix roll as an Aspect for future use.
- Dismantling Legendary gear at the Blacksmith will award crafting materials and transmog skins instead.
- Enchant Rares before making them Legendary. This lets you reroll affixes without needing Fiend Roses.
- Legendary affixes forged onto amulets are 50% stronger. Affixes forged onto two-handed weapons are 100% stronger.
- In the Codex of Power menu, you can track any affix you don’t own by selecting it. This will mark the dungeon’s location on your map.