Diablo 4 Paragon System Guide: In this Diablo 4 article, I’m going to explore the Paragon System. There are a lot of things that go into choosing which Paragon Boards and Glyphs to use regardless of what Class you are. If you’re looking for a comprehensive discussion to figure out what to do with your Paragon Boards for your Builds, then this guide is for you!

Diablo 4 Paragon System Guide

So once you reach Level 50 and unlock the Paragon Board, which is different for every Class, you’re going to only be able to head upward and toward your first glyph socket. As you keep playing from Level 50 onward, having unlocked the Paragon System, Glyphs will drop until you have acquired all of them such that there won’t ever be duplicates. You’ll always get a new one every time it drops, allowing you to slot them in a socket. 

Diablo 4 Paragon System Guide: How Glyphs Work

Now each Class has its own set of Glyphs even though some of them are named similarly and share the same bonuses. So the first thing you’ll want to do is to figure out a Glyph that benefits your playstyle. I have the Necromancer Paragon Board here with the Essence Glyph at the beginning. Essence is going to give me Critical Strike Damage with Core Skills for each Dexterity Node that I select inside the red radius. So the more Dexterity Nodes I unlock, the more Critical Strike Damage I’m going to gain. Additionally, if the amount of Dexterity adds up to at least 25, I’ll receive a secondary bonus that increases Critical Strike Damage against enemies who aren’t Healthy, so below 80% Health.

There are two parts to this. First is picking a Glyph that actually benefits me, and as a Blood Necromancer, there aren’t too many that affect Blood Skills specifically, except for Critical Strike Damage with Core Skills. And the second one is making sure that I can unlock the secondary bonus and that there are a good number of Dexterity Nodes around it in order to get as much Critical Strike Damage as I can. Had I slotted 2 more, if they were available, I would’ve further boosted my Critical Strike Damage with Core Skills.

Diablo 4 Paragon System Guide: Second Paragon Board

Once you’ve slotted the Glyph that best suits your playstyle while unlocking its additional bonus, and you don’t have Stats you can assign anymore, you should continue moving up the board. Here, I highly recommend prioritizing damage. Usually, one side of a board focuses on damage whereas the other is all about defense so you can do both if you like. Now once you get to the top, you’re going to attach and select another Paragon Board. You’ll be able to look through these and see what their Legendary and Rare Nodes do. 

A lot of new players make the mistake of selecting their next Paragon Board solely based on the Legendary Node available because the Rare Nodes inside often outshine this Legendary Node in many, many cases. What I suggest doing is previewing each and every board and looking through these Rare Nodes in terms of what they do and the magic clusters around each one to determine the bonuses they grant. Doing so will give you a really good picture of what you’re in for and if it matches your Build. As such, I highly recommend selecting a board that has 3-4 good node clusters. Four is better, of course, and then rotate the board to unlock the best nodes first. This will then be followed by mapping your route. 

You’ll essentially move from one Rare Node cluster to the next, picking up Magic Nodes around it, maybe dipping over and selecting up the Legendary Node if it’s not too far off. Avoid the ones you don’t want and head over to those you do as quickly as possible. As you’re gaining access to these Rare Nodes, one of the things you should pay attention to is the additional bonuses they provide as long as you meet their attribute requirements. Every single Rare Node in Diablo 4 has an additional secondary bonus that once you meet the Stat requirement, you unlock.

For instance, if it says 340 Willpower and your character already has this amount, you’ll gain the corresponding bonuses so you ought to be familiar with what they are to be able to target these attributes on your gear. A lot of times, you’ll unlock 2-3 bonuses at the same time because they have similar requirements. 

Now I really want to emphasize how important it is to pick a good Second Board because once you move on to your Third Board in any direction, those will cost more Stats to unlock secondary bonuses. This means that if there are bonuses you really like, you’ll want to double down and obtain them on your Second Board. It’s also worth noting that these choices will be less relevant as you progress further in Diablo IV but at the beginning, you need to pay close attention to focus on min-maxing your gear. 

Diablo 4 Paragon System Guide: Second Glyph

Next, I urge you to experiment with different Paragon Boards to see what works best for you. You don’t have to pick one and stick with it if it’s not working like with Skills. And it’s also because the Second Board is really going to be the backbone of your Diablo IV Build. So at some point, you’re going to come across another socket where you’ll place your next Glyph, meaning you need to move toward it. 

The Glyph you want to put here will based on the available Stats near it together with the additional bonus you gain that you couldn’t put on your First Board. When these Glyphs hit Level 15, and even though you’re b-lining from one node cluster to the next, you may consider changing your route to take advantage of your Glyphs’ expanded radius. Because remember that if you’re getting 6 or 7 Critical Strike Damage per Dexterity, and all of a sudden, the range has expanded, you can take more Dexterity Nodes to further amplify your Critical Strike Damage rather than unlocking the ones you don’t need. 

Other Boards

There’s also a lot of nuance that comes with picking your Third and Fourth Boards. For instance, on my Build here, I’ve dipped over into the Bone Graft Tree, which is not particularly applicable to a Blood Necromancer Build. However, it has one node cluster that I really like, which gives Maximum Essence and Essence on Kill. So I’ve taken this because my Blood D4 Necro has trouble with Essence management and one of the ways to rectify it is by making sure I have more when combat starts. I even regain some of it upon killing enemies. So you want to be on the lookout for little clusters like these, particularly if you’re encountering Essence, Spirit, or Energy management problems. 

However, here’s where things get tricky because I don’t need anything else from the Third Board. And so, I went back to the top of my Second Board to gain access to my Fourth Board. But those nodes are going to be more expensive Stat-wise to unlock the additional bonuses I want. Once I have enough Paragon points to reach the Rare Node on this Fourth Board, I’d actually be better off pulling all the node points out, detaching the board entirely, and instead, making it my Third Board. Doing so will turn my Bone Graft Tree into my Fourth Board since I’m only using one node cluster here. And this is exactly why you won’t want to do something like what I did because you would’ve made all the nodes and the Third Board more expensive. 

Final Tips

Make sure that you have the attributes around the glyph socket you’re using in order to get the secondary bonus. Once this expands, keep increasing the respective Stats to get more bonuses from it. And remember that the Second Board you pick is your primary board Stat-wise and early on in the Paragon levels. 

Now as you go higher and higher in the level scale of D4 from Level 80 to 90, it’s not going to matter much the order of Boards you pick. But if you’re between Level 50 to 75, it’ll be very important for your Build. Again, don’t choose your Second and Third Boards based on the Legendary Nodes but remember to look at the Rare and Magic Nodes as well to greatly benefit you.

So this wraps up our Paragon System Guide, I hope you found it useful. It’s not that complicated but there are a lot of different things you can do. You really have to pay attention though. I also don’t recommend sitting there trying to math it all out while you’re making your Build. Just pick a tree and see if it works. If it does, continue the route, otherwise, change the board and pick different nodes. 

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If you have further questions about the Paragon System, please let me know. Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Ultimate Beginner Guide and All Classes Overview if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!