Diablo III

Legendary: An Ancient & Primal Guide

Legendary: An Ancient & Primal Guide

Ancient items truly shine in Season 17: so long as you have no Set bonuses equipped, each Ancient you equip will provide you with a massive 750% boost to damage dealt and 4% reduction in damage taken. For those of you who may have taken a break from gathering loot recently, we thought a quick refresher was in order to clear up any confusion about the differences between Legendary, Ancient, and Primal Ancient items.

In general, Ancient and Primal Ancient items are more powerful versions of Legendary items. They are identical to Legendary items except that their base attributes (damage or armor) and all non-percentile affixes roll higher values for both minimum and maximum possible rolls.

Ancient & Primal Ancient Items

  • The stats on these items will (generally) be tailored to the character class you are playing when the item drops
  • Set items are also able to roll as both Ancient and Primal Ancient
  • You can’t equip more than one item with the same name, even if one is Ancient and the other isn’t
  • Any percentage-based affix will not be boosted (such as Attack Speed, bonus % to skills or % Critical Hit Chance/Damage)

Ancient Items

  • Only drop for characters who have reached level 70, and only on Torment level difficulties
  • When dropped, Ancient items share the same orange glow as regular Legendaries
    • You must identify the item to see if it’s an Ancient
    • Once identified, Ancient items have an orange border (or green for Set items) around the item tooltip and say "Ancient" in the item description.
  • They drop from all sources including monsters, chests, Kadala, Horadric Caches, Kanai's Cube, and even crafting at the Blacksmith or Jeweler


Primal Ancient Items

  • When dropped, Primal Ancient items have a red beam and glow
  • Drops from any source of Legendary item in the game, including Horadric Caches, Kadala, and Kanai's Cube, but only after having successfully completed at least a level 70 Greater Rift solo
  • These items are much rarer than Ancient items and have perfect Ancient-level stats on all affixes, including the item’s Legendary Power


Primal Ancients & Developer Philosophy

Primal Ancients are for players who have largely completed gearing for their build or finished their Season Journey but want to continue playing. They’re also for non-Seasonal players who have great gear and spend most of their time gaining Paragon Levels and upgrading Legendary Gems. We wanted to extend the excitement of seeing gear drop or spending Blood Shards at Kadala beyond obtaining Ancients in every slot. Primals provide an avenue for dedicated players to complete a build, without feeling like required upgrades.

We hope that answers any questions you may have about Ancients and Primal Ancients. Now go get ‘em!

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