Diablo 4 Willpower explained: Best classes, effects, more

❘ Published: 2024-04-04T05:01:46

Blizzard Entertainment

Diablo 4 has a bunch of keywords to get your head around including the four core stats. This guide will get you up to speed on Willpower and why it’s important (or not) for your build.

Diablo 4 has just come to Game Pass and that means that a whole bunch of people will be trying the game for the first time. The advent of the Season 4 PTR and the overwhelmingly positive feedback may also draw some new citizens of Sanctuary.

So, with all these new players coming in and testing the waters, we thought it would be a good idea to give a couple of crash courses. That way you can start your journey off on the right foot and optimize that build from the get-go.

This guide will go over Willpower in Diablo 4 and what its importance is. That includes what it does, which classes will benefit from it, and how to increase your Willpower.

Willpower can drastically increase your effectiveness in Diablo 4 depending on your build.

What does Willpower do in Diablo 4?

Willpower is one of Diablo 4’s four core stats and it has varying effects depending on what class you play. It offers bonuses to attack and defense for certain classes but provides a boost to healing and Overpower damage for all classes.

For that reason, if you’re building a character around the Overpower mechanic, Willpower is a handy stat to prioritize. For the uninitiated, Overpower functions similarly to a critical hit and deals bonus damage based on the amount of health and Fortify your character has.

The druid in particular has certain skills and Legendary Aspects that can guarantee an Overpower hit. Fortunately, Druid has another reason to stack Willpower outside of Overpower.

Willpower class effects for Diablo 4

For Druid’s, Willpower is their core damage stat so taking every opportunity to maximize it is always advised. Particularly because a number of Druid’s skills and augments also synergize with WIllpower’s boost to Overpower damage as well.

Of course, it’s not just Druid that can benefit from some extra Willpower. The following is a list of all the impacts Willpower has on each of Diablo 4’s five classes:

Druid: Gain Skill damage per every point of Willpower
Barbarian: Gain additional Fury generation per every point of Willpower.
Necromancer: Gain additional Essence generation per every point of Willpower.
Sorcerer: Gain Mana generation for every point of Willpower.
Rogue: No additional bonuses from Willpower.

Sorry Rogues, now Willpower bonus for you but fortunately, there’s not a whole lot of Fortify or Overpower reliance in any builds for that particular class. Best to allocate your stats elsewhere.

When someone hit 1.8 billion damage with their Druid, you can bet they had a bunch of Willpower.

How to increase Willpower in Diablo 4

For everyone who’s not playing a Rogue, you might want to know how to build that Willpower stat a little higher. Here are the best ways to increase Willpower in Diablo 4:

Leveling up: Every time you level up you’ll get a +1 increase to all four core stats including Willpower.
Gear Affixes: Use equipment that has the +X Willpower Affix or the +X to all stats Affix to massively bolster your willpower.
Paragon Boards: There are certain nodes on the Paragon Board that will increase your Willpower stat. Follow a careful path with Willpower in mind for endgame increases.
Altars of Lilith: Collecting ALtars of Lilith will provide boosts to all core stats. If you collect all 160 Altars of Lilith, you can get a +68 boost to every stat including Willpower.

Focus on those things and you’ll have a surplus of Willpower for increasing your damage and resource generation.

Check out our other Diablo 4 guides to get yourself up to speed or to refresh your fundamentals.