Diablo 4 Infernal Horde Tier List & Strategies For Max Aether

[@nickwithay]

This why I appreciate Raxx, always going the extra mile by incorporating sign language for all his audience.

[@The0nlyy]

I looked at the video right when you said that and started laughing cause he was in the middle of it

[@TimoNausch]

"If you dont remeber anything from the video, just tell Blizzard to go potie" - Raxx, 2024

[@xSpeakerYT]

Potty*

[@zkoldz]

i mean they are so full of shit, that's why need to tell Blizzard to go potty.. well... it make sense... 🤣

[@assist_o.k.]

I just wish everything else that spawned before the clock ran out, stayed on regardless like the Hellborne and leftover normals do. So annoying when a Spire or Elite or Mass disappears

[@lotlizard7735]

It would absolutely be a neat change if the events persisted after round end like the mobs do! I find the way it is now does serve as a subtle reminder that i need to be on top of my game though. Overall I really like hordes, much more than pit runs for sure.

[@gnarxy]

Timer aspect is always lame.

[@VicJang]

Exactly. Spire is already garbage, disappearing when times up makes it infuriating garbage.

[@marsovac]

Yeah, this would also make Aether Lord more viable. Let us finish 10 of them past the timer. We already penalize ourselves by going past it, so there is no need to take aether out.

[@fallnfire]

Only issue I see with that being an option is the timer runs out, the spire lasts, waiting to be filled and no mor enemies spawn, bricking your run.

[@ArtIsLifeninty]

Desecrator one shots is not a fun mechanic.

[@Harrisomj]

...from off screen with no visual graphic.

[@dantevergil6437]

Yeah. Its so stupid these one shot mechanics.

[@sethsevaroth]

30k+ life, shield, and capped DR, Armor, and resistances. No issues even T8.

[@SirJWood]

@@sethsevaroth lol exactly. People with shit build dying.

[@martynas5757]

@@SirJWood nonsense, even at t7 desecrators one shot with chop or flaming attack. im playing rogue with tyrael GA dmg reduction affix and shroud, it still can one shot.

[@decomush]

That was nothing here that I haven't seen before but it always a delight to watch Raxx explain anything. Such a good teacher. "Blizzard go potty" will be my mantra from now on

[@MetalJuggler]

Man, this helped alot! I had no clue doing my usual "meh, 2+ spire beats movement" would buff the chances of em. 700+ all 7runs now vs my old 350. Good content and guides as always, Raxx!

[@zayaslaya6417]

You know it’s going to be good when rax breaks out paint

[@MadsFeierskov]

I completely agree with your comments about the invigorating hellborne. I was really surprised that all their boons were just about rewards. In successful Rogue likes, the rewards tend to be secondary and the focus is on the ways to enhance your run. It's fine to have a reward instead of an enhancement, but it should then be a significant choice, because you could risk ruining your run if you choose the big reward. I think they've painted themselves into a bit of a corner witg it being all or nothing in terms of rewards. It's super frustrating to waste 15 minutes with no rewards at all, so there is no incentive to make choices that have an actual risk.

[@snipercable]

Great video again brother! There is also some odd thing that there is a slow spawn for several seconds at times and that is also annoying.

[@ronniemiller633]

I have experienced this. I do not enjoy said experience.

[@snipercable]

@@ronniemiller633 It's so frustrating at times, but with King Rax we'll get this fixed

[@IronMikeSoS]

Was looking for this comment, sometimes it can be up to 5-6 seconds before anything spawns, really hurts a good run. Had almost all hellbourne boons in T7 run and even with 1 shottinh everything, I only had a 400 aether run. Hopefully it gets fixed 🙏

[@snipercable]

@@IronMikeSoS I couldn't agree more my friend!

[@sickofitall8486]

Raxx, you have to be my favorite gamer. If there is any content in a game that we both play that can have a guide/tier list written for it, you always come through. Add to that how clearly you explain everything... Thanks as always and keep on kicking ass.

[@Jayofteror]

I ran a few 1000+ Aether infernals with this infernal priority tier list. I can vouch it is hella good. Thanks Raxx for taking care of the crew! :)

[@lordme8417]

That should be on your "Cheat Sheet" that we use , it's so helpfull that you did all that for us. Thanks again !!

[@Kaltsuwhite]

You are always stating analysis very clearly, and your calm manner of explaining things is pleasant to listen to. Thank you

[@TheRAMBO9191]

Makes sense! I wonder who sits down and say let's add movement speed at the round table at meetings. "Like yea Todd that's great idea" 🤣

[@vectorfox4782]

Todd Howard? Wrong company but same mantra

[@BelialTnTn]

or that bonus "while you're slowed" thing, the moment you use an "unstoppable" spell it's gone. Why bother at all?

[@obergruppenfuhrersang-froi8203]

I actually thought wrongly that it was buffing my Esu's boots and in turn buffing my kill time.

[@Godric5024]

There are prob people who need mvt speed to help get around and dodge faster or cancel out the slow banes (if that's a thing?), but they def should make it a more intriguing boon

[@ill2thaongo]

Your videos are consistently among the best of streamers. Great detail and yet very accessible to us less knowledgeable and skilled players. Much appreciated, rax!

[@Witchblade7]

I'd love to see class specific boons/banes in the future, there is so much room for variety/fun/reward in this mode it could be one of the best and most fun roguelite modes in ARPGs imo

[@rick9705]

This is GOOD!!! Thank you! Confirms some things I was thinking but you are FAR more experienced than I am with it.

[@jdharvie]

Here are changes I would implement if I were in charge: 1-Masses grant 5 aether. 2-Soulspires grant 10 aether. 3-Aether lords grant 25 aether. 4-Aether fiends spawn immediately. 5-Events no longer despawn when the timer ends, giving you a chance to clear them for their aether.

[@SylonHD]

One thing I would add to this great video is if you bring up your map while doing the IH, you can see all your previously selected choices. Ran a lot of runs before I discovered that.

[@generalmeatwad]

Thank you, I have been meaning to find information on this. Now to go try it.

[@Syn442]

I just set a new personal best run using this tier list and I know I can still go much higher with better option RNG. Thanks for the info.

[@liabakar]

Blizzard go pottie, blizzard go pottie- Pottie ie Hellborne. I will remember that

[@OsatoOkazaki]

Super helpful video! Thanks so much -- I can't wait to test this later and get my efficiency up! Appreciate the breakdown 🎉

[@AlabasterFilth]

This info is really good, I knew "just go hellborne" but I didn't realize that the aether fiend mods were good too. I think the 'Dog$h!7' tier needs to be split up into at least 2 tiers - every single horde I get at least 1 or 2 rounds where I'm only offered 3 of these and I never know which one to pick.

[@feldon27]

Unstoppable Elites is D tier for me because now they ignore all crowd control you dish out. You have to have a build that one shots the screen to pick this one. Nothing else in internal hordes is difficult except Desecrator.

[@angrybeaver345]

Telling Blizzard 'to go potty,' love the analogy and so friggin true. Appreciate all your videos Raxx!

[@LeonhardPfeiffer-Friedl]

If you always take self buffs over the dogshit events, that logically elevates them above dogshit tier.

[@VicJang]

Yep, I think so too. Raxx should’ve kept that extra tier for meh choices.

[@AtomosFr]

Interesting. So it would be better to take movement speed buff instead of something with masses ?

[@maxschlie7420]

@@AtomosFr Yes he explicitly says that in the video

[@LeonhardPfeiffer-Friedl]

@AtomosFr at least that's what @Raxxanterax recommends iirc. Imho only the Spires and Aether Lords are dogshit tier. The Masses are a meh option; they don't scale but at least they die quickly and from afar. Also, the Burning Rain and the 50% more events is imho worse than some of the listed 2nd tier options. Burning rain without hellborne sucks (and can actually kill you, something the tier list doesn't consider at all) and there seems to be a cap on the number of events that can spawn, thus more events can actually be bad for you because if you reach it, it prevents monsters from spawning (at least that's what my experience tells me). That's especially true if you already stacked Hellborne which causes more mob density.

[@LandofMert76]

I'm not a min maxer, so the movement one really helps me clear it faster

[@shinestar2912]

Raxx talks to me like I'm a dog or a small child. And I appreciate that.

[@jamesharris5156]

For me playing LS Sorc, I’ve found Invigorating Hellborn to be the absolute best by far. Faster you kill mobs, faster more mobs spawn. It essentially removes the CD from everything, giving 100% uptime of ice/fire sheild and unstable current. Making me essentially invincible with insane dps on top of it.

[@Lucky_Laugi]

I love when Raxx does Paint

[@spagzs]

They need to patch “aiming at the totem”

[@Advantageplayy]

thanks rax. was looking for one after patch.

[@KonaSTie]

I’m in loveee with the hordes now I was just about almost halfway with the mothers event at lvl 88 and I’m just 3/4 runs I hit 92 and maxed out the event for my first mythic!! 😂🎉

[@Mister_MasterworkerTTV]

I have had a blast picking fun ones like lords n stuff. I have a Andy rogue with perfect MW12. I just need GA tyreals and helm. Highest run was 1410 in horde.

[@MightyGreedo]

I'm going to use this list and try not to even read the text on the boons. I'll just read the title of each boon and look for these keywords : Hellborne, Elite, Hordes, Rain. Any title that doesn't have one of those keywords isn't worth considering. Thanks, Raxx!

[@GTeaO]

I think The Bursting Masses combined with Exalted Hordes is very good because it will spawn events way faster at the start of the round

[@realdac7899]

I just hate the runs that have spiral, mass, spiral 2x for two rounds. Might as well restart.

[@danieldeschenes6166]

I wished that the butcher upgrade since it is supposed to be the rarest would make it so the butcher would spawn on each subsequent wave and not just the 1 wave. The council upgrades should be reward multipliers instead of a static +15 aether.

[@porschecarrera3684]

I just took a screenshot of it thanks Raxx

[@ItsFisk]

U made all the choices and decitions i've been doing, but its awesome to get a confirmation that I've been doing it correctly! Great and efficient vid!

[@user-jk1ie3sb7r]

This is great! Can you put the list on Maxroll so we can see the options and your rankings?

[@markaustin2474]

I have been waiting for this!

[@Rikevis10]

Thanks so much for this video. The first time I used this guide I increased my aether collection by about 75% - and seemed to get lucky with Hellborne options. Could the "tier list" be posted somewhere on Maxroll. My tiny screenshot is tough!

[@lasellepigford3649]

Finally! I needed this. Thx Raxx

[@JPEaglesandKatz]

Nice video Raxx.. Very helpful!

[@VicJang]

Some boons that could be interesting are like +50% chance to freeze / stun / cc enemies, chance to auto cast ultimate skill, +20k Thorn, or summon holy light from heaven. Heck, why not let Butcher fight for us for once? The current Infernal Hordes is already great, but they definitely have room to make it crazier and more fun.

[@StarRightStarTight]

9:38 I feel like it says something about our expectations for tier lists when something is A tier but it is still considered “really bad” 🤣🤣🤣

[@Ben-gm9lo]

Thanks Rax. Still can't figure out how to max out crit on my lightning spear sorc. You make it sound easy to do but Reddit has plenty of folk like me who can't achieve it.

[@Radjehuty]

Look for Esu's that has 40% as the legendary effect. Then look at what your crit is when you dash. You want at least 85% because the Enhanced lightning spear node supplies the other 15%. It's pretty easy to max crit with a high roll Esu.

[@Ben-gm9lo]

@@Radjehuty Thanks so much for that Radjehuty. Kind of you to make the effort. My best Esu's so far is 31% so I guess I need to keep grinding Beast and Varshan. At least they are going down easily now Tormented solo.

[@scylla019]

invigorating hellborne is god tier. its like equiping 2 shakos. If you have a build like lightning spear where the skill seeks out and autoattacks, then you generate so many event spawns. Aether rush on characters with Esu's Heirloom is good as it gives you more damage. Killing smaller creeps faster = more aether events spawning.

[@JohnPoster]

Outstanding Video as usual Raxx. I have a post-it some previous suggestions on it. Any chance your going to toss this into a tab on your spreadsheet or otherwise post this somewhere?

[@andreychetvertakov4574]

When Raxx shakes from side-to-side like at 8:07 ish, I feel really persuaded.

[@ErraticEclipse]

Listen I'll take -1 Ather, But Remove All Desecrators. Please and Thank You

[@curveofsound]

I'd take -5 aether, reflect desecrator grape shot back to desecrator. See how they like it.

[@NovusGM]

I'd say the surging elite is not god tier because not every elite is an aether fiend, and regular elites don't drop aether, so it doesn't help as much as hellborne summon choices. Other than that, it is perfect and helped me understand a few things better. Potty was good btw 😂

[@AlexandrosV88]

My sentiments exactly!

[@solitude7566]

Professor Raxx on his not white board educating us on how to send Blizzard to go potty. I want to see weekly paint lessons but you got to get in character a bit more. I was thinking a professor cap with tassel (of course on top of the hoodie). That way we know we're about to get schooled.

[@marcosromero3328]

There are some classifications that I disagree with. 1. I think there should be a neutral category- some of his dogshit items aren't really dogshit because they aren't really the same as the others. If you've already gotten 2 Hellbornes and you're faced with 2 spire boons or an Aether rush. The Aether rush should be your choice every single time because it's a Neutral. I'd also keep choosing Exalted Hordes even if it didn't "really" help me if it kept me from having to choose Spires or Masses. 2. There should be a worse than Dogshit category. For instance anything with Lords completely stalls your waves. It's not that I'm worried about killing them, it's that they stall out any other events spawning which kills my aether gathering. So worse than dogshit should be IMHO- Teeming Masses, Summoned Lords, and maybe Insatiable Spires. I hate anything that is going to stall out the waves.

[@marcosromero3328]

I know he explains about the spires and rush. But I'd put the rush in a Neutral category and I'd put the Lords in a Toxic Category- avoid at all costs.

[@Radjehuty]

Yeah I agree. Exalted Hordes being rated this low (Even though it is high) is sort of misleading. It makes everything you chose worth more. At some point, its value just increases at a faster rate than others. I hate spires for the same reason as Lords because I feel like whenever I choose spires, it adds weight for spires to spawn and it just slows things down.

[@VicJang]

I wish the they would just remove the mob spawn halt when Aether Lord is alive. I would love Aether Lord to spawn if mobs were spawning like normal.

[@VasudevaTheFerryman]

God masterclass. Raxx is always the best.

[@MikeysAMVPicks]

Found out a possible broken sorc combo. Ice armor. Spend mana. Reduce cool down, gain mana. Repeat. Almost no down time with ice armor. Only got youtube.

[@Purrrfect264]

Been waiting for that :)

[@edwardbailey1743]

I really like the invigorating Hellborne one. My gear for my lightning spear sorcerer still isn’t that good and this boon makes a night and day difference

[@erickp4781]

Thanks Raxx

[@supremeboy]

Great video sadly its not in our control what we get. I had runs where i didnt get single hellbourne choice. If i dont get any of them at wave 4 i just reset and start over, its pointless to waste time as even elites and random other choices are really bad still. Example if you get 2 soulspire and 1 boss picks. Thats horrible. So its faster to reset and hope better than wasting time getting 500 or so aether in the end.

[@jasonbrumwell2188]

Waiting for this list!!! Ty

[@VeX1138]

This was the funniest of your videos ever Raxx ... "Tell Blizzard to go Potty!"

[@SlakOffs]

Nice list. I think elites should be A tier and hellborne S, and anything that tells Blizzard to go potty B tier or C

[@visitor55555]

That's EXACTLY how I run mine. 👍

[@kyywii]

Spires and fiends spawn way more than anything else even if you don’t pick those events at all. It’s pretty annoying at this point

[@VicJang]

My only problem with fiend is the spawning animation. If they shorten the animation to 0.5 seconds, I’m okay with it. Spire is absolute trash.

[@xXPhanillaXx]

Another informative video! Are you gonna add this to the D4 magic sheet of everything?

[@Krysdavar]

Had bad luck with these most of the day. Getting Hellborne like on very last wave, and Elites as well only once or twice. Very crappy choices, but only did 4 runs.

[@dlau707]

Raxx, I need a tier list just of the dogsh1t tier. What do I do if I get 3 of the dogsh1t choices? Like 2 spires and 1 mass, for example.

[@UnityTheorem]

Great list Raxx! I've been solo farming tier 7 and 8 heavily since the patch. When the RNG gives decent choices, 1000+ in tier 8 is easy to hit. In tier 7 you have 1 fewer rounds so 900 would be a high count. I have to say that given a choice between the movement speed buff and spires give +1 but drain health, IF you don't have very high movement speed on your character, pick the move speed. It helps you get between the nodes quickly. Lightning spear sorcerer gets up to 200% move pretty quickly so that option is pointless if you're playing that build. If you already have >50% move speed then I'd say pick the spires +1 if there's no masses give aether +1 option. The invigorate buff from hellborne is essentially a channeling shrine buff that lowers cooldowns and increases move speed as well. If you get a butcher spawn option early in the round, skip it unless the options given are for spires or masses. As you approach the last wave, you have to consider how many aether events are going to occur from the point where you are and weigh the value of the node. Honestly, masses +1 is better than the other trash nodes early on because you can shoot the masses down from across the map while triggering the elites to come out of their fleshy cocoons, assuming you have some form of ranged damage. The class and build you're playing plays a big role in this list though. If you are a single target DPS machine, you can do quite well with aether lords and the butcher On my druid I find I can burn the aether lords down about as fast as a fiend, and you can get the lords up to +12 per kill if you push for it early on and are lucky with RNG. If you can't kill lords very quickly, which is a big problem in T8, I agree that you should definitely avoid those options, especially early on in the run.

[@chrisparker1267]

Agree with everything except Invigorate. should be in the god tier in my opinion ( or maybe with the *caveat - for special occasions* .. On LS sorc its not needed for solo t7-t8 but for carrying lower geared players.. that invigorate buff cuts way down on boss clear times and overall more aether per hour.

[@andrewmcdonald5108]

I genuinely think Aetheric Masses and Spires do not spawn more frequently if you pick them. Maybe its copium, but putting five juices on Aetheric Mass and seeing 1 spawn in a late wave is like, yeah ok this is working at intended. I swear we're just beta testing features for the expansion.

[@AntonioGo]

This is what we needed

[@zitokeratin2643]

My religion is Raxxism and RAX is my god.

[@Pixelsoep]

What a coincidence. All the community has said since launch is: "Blizzard, go pottie". We've got this.

[@taz4548]

Please add this as a tier list on Maxroll. Thank you.

[@Tinywars]

That Council battle is sooooo tedious. Why is it needed?

[@lathamtk]

The teleporting cuck of hellfire is the worst one. The ones that charge at you or stay in the middle are OK.

[@fedord01]

Amen. The waves take long enough as is, why add a boss fight with 3 cunts that have a quadrillion HP and constantly move around / teleport.

[@BruceGagneaux]

it’s pretty annoying. Easy fights but they have ridiculous amount of hp so takes too long to kill them.

[@The0nlyy]

Because if not any single target build would be dog shi7, so a boss battle keeps the game balanced just like bosses at the end of The Pit and Nightmares back when they were actually tough.

[@BruceGagneaux]

@@The0nlyy they aren’t even hard in the slightest though. Just sponges.

[@2lusa]

Hi Raxx, very helpful thanks! I gained so much aether, I have a question : if I have an Elite run, like one or two Elite buffs already, and I have the choice between buffing Elite again or buffing Hellborne, should I all in on Elite or should I just click on Hellborn because it's broken ?

[@sethsevaroth]

Objection! Movement speed on aether pickup buff scales with Esu's Heirloom. If youre not at max crit hit chance or movement speed cap it can increase your DPS for sorcs. I wouldn't pick it if there was a better option but because of that I'd give it at least a B tier.

[@justinhuntr682]

If you're running lightning spear, which is like 90 percent of sorcs right now, you always have capped movement speed either way. Just a heads up for anyone that reads this.

[@altairezgame9222]

agreed conjuration mastery already pumps ur movespeed

[@cjm261]

Best is when your random takes exalted council 5 times in one run and everyone proceeds to get one tapped at the end

[@jaldinsicon]

i think Aether Rush should be higher, especially if your lighting spear. i also think the butcher spawn should be lower since it can stall a round out

[@MadsFeierskov]

Are the elites and the Aether Fiends the same thing? I think it's very unclear. I think of elites as the random elite mobs that spawn along the normal monsters. I think they should really clear this up and stick to a single phrase if they actually mean aether fiends.

[@hiddenxalpha7053]

All elites are not Aether fiends, but i think Aether fiends are elites. If that makes sense. Anything that makes 'Elite do damage', buffs Aether fiends' damage, but 'Aether fiends drop more aether' doesnt make elites drop aether.

[@lathamtk]

Not all elites are aether fiends, but all aether fiends are elites.

[@MeltedFace707]

Anyone else want the Infernal Horde stuff to be more like Torghast from WoW? It seems like they were kinda going that way but not quite enough

[@adriaandj28]

First of all, thank you for your explanation, this helps me a lot. I just don't understand one thing, maybe it's just me, but I get almost all waves of Dogsh!t tier that I can choose from, so every time I want to choose they are all three tier dogsh!t. Am I doing something wrong or not because I have never had more than 500 eather in 50 runs or so ;-(

[@marsovac]

It is not strange for them to buff elites. In this type of content you don't want every run to be balanced, but you want ups and down with more than one good option. If there are bad runs, good runs are more exciting. The current problem was that the only exciting run was with hellborne with low possibility of other stacking mechanics. Now if you get 4 times surging elite instead of hellborne you're golden, can get another elite buff, and almost every event will be elite and you will make more than 10 aether per event, and elite events are fast, you just activate it and go onward, and can make 600 aether just from that from the the 5th turn to the 10th with no other upgrades taken into consideration. So I'm sure we will see >1000 aether elite runs.

[@danielsecara]

The spires are awful by default, but are even worse for melee characters. Also, did anyone else notice a significant reduction in stygian drop rates for T7? T8 seems fine, just like before. But after the latest patch, T7 drops way less.

[@lonelongboarder27]

I dont think I have ever seen 2 hellborn options at the same time to choose from.

[@stevenborchert6551]

"get unlucky by getting 10 spires" I legit had 13 spires in a ROW

[@M_i_X]

you always helper thx a lot

[@Djuntas]

I did not like having screenshot of his tier list open with a imgur link. So I made a doc dox and crlt + f or whatever you wanna use. Better like this with 2nd screen: Thanks raxx --------------------------------------------G 1. Summoned Hellborne 2. Burning Hellborne 3. Surging Elite 4. Surging Hellborne ---------------------------------------------S 5. Unstoppable Elite 6. Exalted Hellborne 7. Exalted Elite 8. Invigorating Hellborne 9. Exalted Hordes 10. Burning Rain ---------------------------------------------A 11. Stalking Devil 12. Wanderer Exhausted 13. Exalted Council 14. Wanderer Withered 15. Wanderer Enfeebled 16. Bursting Fiends ----------------------------------------------D 17. Corrupting Spires 18. Draining Spires 19. Teeming Masses 20. Exalted Masses 21. Insatiable Spires 22. Bursting Masses 23. Aether Rush 24. Gorging Masses 25. Summoned Lords

[@sloppystudios_art]

I play on ps5 and 40% of IH bug out and dont advance the rounds, driving me insane.

[@mattr2431]

Hey Rax, what's the best way to farm gear with greater affixes? I assume tormented bosses that drop the unique you use is the best strat for those pieces. What is the next best method other than tormented bosses? Is it infernal hordes and just spend everything on the chest that drops gear?

[@iiNeKii]

thanks Rax

[@_ElisDTrailz]

I have done well over 100 of these events at t7 and have never seen the hellborne spawn with hellfire. Blizzard also needs to readjust the weighting. I have purposely been taking hellfire as early as possible, but have yet to see it.

[@PhoenixBlacke]

Wierd, it's the main way I start getting Hellborn

[@justinsurpless4137]

Love the "gotta tell Blizzard to go potty" 😀

[@matheusmterra]

One caveat: NEVER take Hellfire BEFORE getting Hellborne to normally spawn. Once you take Hellfire, the game will never offer you to spawn Hellborne regularly and only upgrades to their yield, and the only time they'll spawn is when rains fire. So Hellfire is godly, however you should never take it if you have yet to pick "Hellborne are hunting you".

[@chrisrichard1531]

good vid thx for the info

[@sherlockholms1018]

Lord are good for mother currency. But that s an edge use (farming spark for solo player)