Diablo 4 Season 1: Patch Notes for Malignant Hearts, Infested Sockets & more

❘ Updated: 2023-07-19T11:36:03

Blizzard Entertainment

Malignant Hearts is a game-altering mechanic coming to Diablo 4 Season 1: Season of the Malignant. Here are all the patch notes for Season 1 of Diablo 4 including Malignant Hearts and their unique effects.

Diablo 4’s launch has set it apart as an absolute monolith in the ARPG genre and beyond, with the game’s popularity propelling the hype all the way into the start of Season 1. However, players who have been grinding the game since launch are itching for new content.

Malignant Hearts are the biggest change coming to Season 1, and they promise to be an absolute game-changer. Blizzard teased that they’d be strong, but we didn’t have much information on them prior to the Season 1 patch going live.

However, now that the Season 1 patch is live just ahead of the season’s start, here’s what the notes tell us about the 32 Malignant Hearts that are coming to the game.

What are Malignant Hearts?
How to get Malignant Hearts
Universal Malignant Hearts
Class-Specific Malignant Hearts
- Barbarian
- Druid
- Necromancer
- Rogue
- Sorcerer

What are Malignant Hearts and how do I get them?

Malignant Hearts function in a way that’s similar to gems. Though gems haven’t been especially popular with players and many feel that they aren’t very effective, Malignant Hearts are an entirely different story.

In Season 1, items have a chance of coming with Infested Sockets that can seat Malignant Hearts just like gems, except they’re color-coded and can only take a specific category of hearts. The hearts are coded as follows:

Vicious: Orange, catered toward offensive playstyles
Brutal: Blue, catered toward defensive playstyles
Devious: Pink, gives the player additional utility
Wrathful: Black, unique bonuses and can socket into any of the three types of sockets

All 32 hearts fit into one of these four categories, though some are unique to certain classes.

How to get Malignant Hearts

As for how to get these items, Malignant Hearts will drop from Malignant enemies that spawn randomly. These enemies are tougher than normal elites, and they drop Malignant Hearts upon death. However, it doesn’t end there.

Players will have to use a Cage of Unbinding to initiate a combat encounter and accept a greater challenge. Only after beating the Fully Corrupted Malignant monster that spawns can players get their hands on a Caged Heart, which is what you’ll be putting into your Infested Sockets.

Infested Sockets are exclusive to Jewelry (Rings, Amulet), so players should be able to acquire up to 3 different effects.

Additionally, there are methods players can use to target specific types of hearts, as well as ways to repurpose old hearts to upgrade new ones.

Malignant Tunnels are areas entirely built for farming these hearts. They spawn Malignant Outgrowths that are color-coded to give players an idea of what type of heart they’ll drop. Additionally, even if players don’t get the hearts they want, those can be salvaged for Malignant Ichor that gives players plenty of options to craft new ones or enhance an existing heart at Cormond’s wagon.

For more information on the rest of Season 1’s features, you can read our explainer.

Universal Caged Hearts

Many of the Malignant Hearts can be used by any class and can fit into any character’s build. Here’s a full list of those hearts and what they do.

The Picana (Vicious): Critical Strikes electrically charge the enemy for 0.75-2.50 seconds, causing lightning to arc between them and any other charged enemies dealing 68-136 Lightning damage.
The Dark Dance (Vicious): Every 5 seconds while above 60% Life, Core Skills cost 68-51 Life instead of your Primary Resource. Skills that consume Life deal 10-20% increased damage.
Tempting Fate (Vicious): You gain 40-60% Critical Strike Damage but your Non-Critical Strikes deal 20-15% less damage.
The Lionheart (Brutal): You gain 10% Barrier Generation. You Heal 3-7 Life per second while you have an active Barrier.
Revenge (Brutal): 10-20% of incoming damage is instead suppressed. When you use a Defensive, Subterfuge or a Macabre skill, all suppressed damage is amplified by 250% and explodes, dealing up to 1360-2040 Fire damage to Nearby enemies.
Prudent Heart (Brutal): You become Immune for 2.0-4.0 seconds after you lose more than 20% Life in a single hit. This effect can only occur once every 110 seconds.
Determination (Devious): Resource draining effects are 40-50% less effective. In addition, gain 3.0-8.0% increased Resource Generation.
Retaliation (Devious): Deal 510-680 Fire damage to surrounding enemies whenever a Crowd Control effect is removed from you.
The Calculated (Devious): After spending 150-200 of your Primary Resource, your next attack Stuns enemies hit for 2 seconds.
The Malignant Pact (Wrathful): Cycle through a Malignant bonus every 20 kills:
- Vicious: Gain 20% Attack Speed
- Devious: Core and Basic Skills have a 15% chance to fully restore your Primary Resource
- Brutal: Every 21 seconds, gain a Barrier absorbing 85-102 damage
Creeping Death (Wrathful): Your damage over time effects are increased by 30-40% for each different Crowd Control effect on the target. Unstoppable monsters and Staggered bosses instead take 110-130% increased damage from your damage over time effects.
The Barber (Wrathful): Critical Strikes and all subsequent damage within 2.0-4.0 seconds is absorbed by your target. Then, the absorbed damage erupts onto surrounding enemies. Stored damage is increased by 10% per second.

Class-specific Caged Hearts

Each class has one heart of each type (Vicious, Brutal, Devious, Wrathful) that is entirely exclusive to that class. When paired with hearts that are usable by every class, there’s potential for incredibly strong builds.

Barbarian Caged Hearts

Focused Rage (Vicious): After spending 100-60 Fury within 2 seconds, your next Non-Basic Skill’s Critical Strike Chance is increased by 20-30%.
Resurgent Life (Brutal): While below 40-60% Life, you receive 50-60% more Healing from all sources.
Punishing Speed (Devious): Your Skills have a 20-30% chance to Knock Down all enemies for 1.25 seconds when that Skill’s Attack Speed is higher than 35-20%.
Ignoring Pain (Wrathful): Incoming damage has a 5-15% chance of being ignored and instead Healing you for 17-68.

Druid Caged Hearts

The Moonrage (Vicious): Kills have a 5% chance to summon a Wolf Companion to your side for 20-30 seconds. In addition, gain +3 to Wolves.
The Agitated Winds (Brutal): When 8-13 Close enemies, automatically cast Cyclone Armor. This cannot occur more than once every 10-20 seconds.
Inexorable Force (Devious): Up to 30-50 Distant enemies are pulled toward you while you have an Ultimate Skill active.
The Unconstrained Beast (Wrathful): When you are hit with a Stun, Freeze or Knock Down effect, there is a 40-60% chance to automatically activate Grizzly Rage for 3 seconds.

Necromancer Caged Hearts

The Sacrilegious (Vicious): Walking near a Corpse automatically activates an equipped Corpse Skill every second, dealing 40-30% reduced damage.
The Decrepit Aura (Brutal): When at least 5 enemies are near you, gain an aura that automatically curses surrounding enemies with Decrepify for 5-15 seconds.
Frozen Terror (Devious): Lucky Hit: Up to a 10-20% chance of inflicting Fear for 2.5 seconds. Feared enemies are Chilled for 20% every second.
The Great Feast (Wrathful): Each Minion drains 1.0-2.0 Essence per second but deals 50-75% increased damage. With no Minions, this bonus applies to you and drains 5 Essence per second.

Rogue Caged Hearts

Cluster Munitions (Vicious): Lucky Hit: You have up to a 20% chance to launch 3 Stun Grenades that deal 26-32 Physical damage and Stun enemies for 0.50 seconds.
Trickery (Brutal): When you use a Subterfuge Skill, leave behind an unstable Shadow Decoy Trap that Taunts enemies. The Shadow Decoy Trap will explode after 6.0 seconds dealing 680-1020 Shadow damage. Cannot occur more than once every 5 seconds.
The Clipshot (Devious): Lucky Hit: Up to a 20-40% chance for your Cutthroat Skills to Slow by 40% for 3 seconds and your Marksman Skills to Knock Back enemies.
The Vile Apothecary (Wrathful): Your attacks have a 5-15% chance to apply all Imbuement effects at 40-50% of normal potency.

Sorcerer Caged Hearts

Tal’Rasha (Vicious): For each unique element you deal damage with, you deal 7-12% increased damage for 3-10 seconds.
Spellbreaking (Brutal): After taking Elemental damage, gain 20-40% Resistance to that element for 5 seconds.
Spite (Devious): When you are afflicted with a Crowd Control effect, there is a 20-40% chance that the same enemy and enemies around you are also afflicted with the same effect for 3 seconds.
Omnipower (Wrathful): Core Skills that launch a projectile consume all of your Mana. For every 45-35 extra Mana consumed, you launch an additional projectile, and the damage is increased by 3.0-5.0%.

There you have it, every Malignant Heart coming to Diablo 4 as well as their abilities. For information on the best builds for each class as they develop and other Diablo 4 news, check out our coverage over the course of Season 1.