Diablo 4 Paragon board: How it works explained

One of the major novelties of Diablo IV is the introduction of a vast system of distribution of its points on several grids to connect, with tiles, glyphs and legendary powers. We present it to you in this discovery guide.

Diablo 4 wants to stand out from previous games, but also from the competition. If the Paragon Board system does not fail to make you think of the famous Path of Exile talent tree at first glance, and if they do have points in common, they have a very distinct functioning in practice. There is no doubt that this is the aspect of the game on which optimization will prove to be the most difficult and complex. Many players will probably prefer to follow a guide, so as not to get lost in its almost endless amount of possibilities, but it will also be a fantastic way to experiment, to create exotic builds.

How to unlock Paragon Boards?

The "good" news is that you don't have to mess around with this ultra-complex system right from the start of the game. There's already the skill tree and the basics of the game like the equipment to grab. Paragon Boards are automatically unlocked at level 50, which is roughly the end of the main story. At this point, Blizzard thinks you should be good enough with the game, so it's introducing high-level content, like Nightmare Dungeons, World Tier 3, and the notorious Paragon Boards.

How do I get Paragon Points?

From level 50, you will unlock a Paragon Point to place on the boards for every 25% progress in your experience bar. This gives a total of 200 points to place at level 100, which is the maximum. Add to that 20 points obtained via the Renown system (4 points per region).

This gives a grand total of 220 points to place, and no more, at least for now. It will therefore be necessary to seek to place them in the best possible way, and not just to be satisfied with filling everything by farming thousands of levels, as in Diablo 3. This had encouraged players to have an absurd playing time, and therefore to do using bots to farm, which completely corrupted the online ranking system.

How Paragon Boards Work

Each class has its own base Paragon Board, with a starting point in the center. The player can then freely invest his points, to unlock adjacent squares, which can be of different types: Slab, Glyph socket, and Gateway slab, which we will detail.

Slab

This is the most common space type on the board, but it comes in 4 levels of rarity, which will give a significantly different bonus.

Normal

Grants a +5 bonus to a base stat: Strength, Intelligence, Willpower, or Dexterity. This is by far the most common and least interesting square, but it has a role to play in addition to serving as a simple waypoint. If it is in its area of influence, this box will reinforce the effect of a Glyph.

Magic

Less common, these tiles give more specific and varied bonuses, such as +10% resistance to an element, or +7% damage to basic skills.

Rare

It gets more interesting here, since these slabs have two important bonuses that you're usually going to want. The third bonus has a condition to be activated, one must reach a certain threshold in a given main stat. This may therefore justify some adjustments in your equipment, or in your choices of normal tiles on the board, if you are missing a few points. There are only 6 rare tiles per board.

Legendary

The defining element of each board is its unique legendary tile, which provides a unique bonus, similar to that found on items of that rarity level. However, the goal is clearly to make it something that will shape your build. This effect scales with a specific stat. You will often choose a specific Paragon Board, in order to fetch that specific slab.

Glyph Socket

Things get really complicated here, so we dedicated an explanatory guide specific to glyphs. But in summary, these special tiles allow you to insert a Glyph, as you would with a Gem in the equipment. Each Glyph has its own bonuses, as well as an area of influence. Active Tiles with the correct stat type in this area will enhance its effect. In other words, this will influence the Tiles you choose, and the path you take on the board, to strengthen your Glyphs. Glyphs can be found and upgraded in Nightmare Dungeons, which will enhance their effect and increase the size of their area of influence. Even if you have no more Paragon points to place, the growth of your Glyphs may cause you to change their layout on the Boards. Glyphs can be freely removed and moved.

Walkway slab

If we talk about Boards, and not just one Board, it's because there are several. Once you have reached the edge, you will be able to unlock a special slab offering +5 in all basic statistics (Strength, Intelligence, Willpower and Dexterity). And above all, it allows you to choose a new Paragon Board to attach, in order to continue your progress. It is at this point that the possibilities increase again exponentially.

Each Paragon Board has 4 Gateway Tiles, it's up to you if you prefer to progress in one direction, in order to have as many boards as possible, or if you will go in all directions in order to have more special tiles .

Choice of Paragon Board

Once a Gateway Slab is unlocked, you will have the choice between several predetermined Paragon Boards, depending on your class. Each Board has a specific theme. To take a simple example, there are some for Ice, Fire, Lightning, or Summon Sorcerers. But it's not always so thematic. The Thief has a tray dedicated to Imbues, and another to attacks on enemies who are victims of control effects. There are a total of 9 Paragon Boards per class currently, including the base one. Seasons, patches and DLCs may introduce new ones.