Introduction

Welcome to our Season 1 Malignant Hearts Guide for Diablo 4. We are fast approaching Diablo 4’s first ever Season launch. With each new season, new content in the forms of mechanics, themes, powers and more can appear in the world of Sanctuary. The theme for Season 1 is the arrival of a curse, spreading corruption in the form of Malignance across Sanctuary. However, with a new threat comes a new form of power to obtain!

Malignant Mechanics

In Season 1, any Elite enemy has a chance of being corrupted with Malignance. As a result of killing one of these enemies, you can capture and obtain Malignant Hearts. Malignant Hearts are the key to unlocking potential stronger end-game builds to fight off the new threat. To capture a Malignant Heart, players also require a Cage of Binding to perform a ritual in order to fully secure the Heart. It is easy to identify a Malignant Elite in Season 1 through an affix tag above their head.

How to obtain Malignant Hearts

With current information, the ritual that players can start to fully capture the Malignant Heart triggers an event. This event in particular also attracts all nearby Malignance to your location. Also included in this attraction of Malignance is a stronger version of the enemy you just defeated. As a result, be very careful once the Ritual has started as you can very easily find yourself in danger. Once all the enemies are killed, you receive the Caged Heart as a reward.

Malignant Tunnels

Malignant Tunnels are end-game locations only discoverable in Season 1. There seems to be only a limited amount of Tunnels available on the map, so make sure to locate them! At the end of each Tunnel, players can find an outgrowth. To fully interact with these outgrowths, players are required to break down older or less powerful Malignant Hearts for crafting materials. These crafting materials are then used to create Invokers. Using an Invoker on an outgrowth increases your chances of finding a specific type of Malignant Heart. The outgrowth itself has a color code that decides which color Heart drops. Receiving a Malignant Heart at the end of an Outgrowth does not require a Ritual to obtain it. Overall, the Malignant Tunnels and outgrowths provide players with a much easier farming option.

Malignant Heart Types

Malignant Hearts come with their own types and color codes. These color codes match Malignant Sockets on gear. For example, a blue colored Heart can only be slotted into a blue socket on gear. Each of these Malignant Heart Types also provide their own type of power.

Vicious Heart

Vicious Hearts are the offensive powers in Season 1. These Hearts also come color-coded Orange. There is a chance for them to drop from Vicious Malignant Monsters or also crafted via Cormand’s wagon. Certain pieces of gear in Season 1 can drop with Orange sockets called “Vicious Sockets” to slot these Hearts into.

Brutal Heart

Brutal Hearts are the defensive powers in Season 1. These Hearts also come color-coded Blue. There is a chance for them to drop from Brutal Malignant Monsters or also crafted via Cormand’s wagon. Certain pieces of gear in Season 1 can drop with Blue sockets called “Brutal Sockets” to slot these Hearts into.

Devious Heart

Devious Hearts are the utility powers in Season 1. These Hearts also come color-coded White. There is a chance for them to drop from Devious Malignant Monsters or also crafted via Cormand’s wagon. Certain pieces of gear in Season 1 can drop with Purple sockets called “Devious Sockets” to slot these Hearts into.

Wrathful Heart

Wrathful Hearts are the super powers in Season 1. These Hearts also come color-coded Purple. There is a chance for them to drop from Wrathful Malignant Monsters or also crafted via Cormand’s wagon. These Hearts seem set-up to be the most powerful of all Hearts. To further prove this idea, Wrathful Hearts can slot into ANY colored socket type.

MALIGNANT HEART LIST

Below is a full list of all the known Malignant hearts available in Season 1. All 32 malignant hearts were made visible on Wowhead on 7/18/2023 and are subject to change

General

• The Picana (Vicious, Offensive): Critical Strikes electrically charge the enemy for 0.75-2.50 seconds, causing lightning to arc between them and any other charged enemies dealing 68-136 Lightning damage.
• The Dark Dance (Vicious, Offensive-World Tier III): Every 5 seconds while above 60% Life, Core Skills cost 68-51 Life instead of your Primary Resource. Skills that consume Life deal 10-20% increased damage.
• Tempting Fate (Vicious, Offensive-World Tier III): You gain 40-60% Critical Strike Damage but your Non-Critical Strikes deal 20-15% less damage.
• The Lionheart (Brutal, Defensive): You gain 10% Barrier Generation. You Heal 3-7 Life per second while you have an active Barrier.
• Revenge (Brutal, Defensive-World Tier III): 10-20% of incoming damage is instead suppressed. When you use a Defensive, Subterfuge or a Macabre skill, all suppressed damage is amplified by 250% and explodes, dealing up to 1360-2040 Fire damage to Nearby enemies.
• Prudent Heart (Brutal, Defensive-World Tier III): You become Immune for 2.0-4.0 seconds after you lose more than 20% Life in a single hit. This effect can only occur once every 110 seconds.
• Determination (Devious, Utility): Resource draining effects are 40-50% less effective. In addition, gain 3.0-8.0% increased Resource Generation.
• Retaliation (Devious, Utility-World Tier III): Deal 510-680 Fire damage to surrounding enemies whenever a Crowd Control effect is removed from you.
• The Calculated (Devious, Utility-World Tier III): After spending 150-200 of your Primary Resource, your next attack Stuns enemies hit for 2 seconds.
• The Malignant Pact (Wrathful, Super): Cycle through a Malignant bonus every 20 kills:
  • Vicious: Gain 20% Attack Speed.
  • Devious: Core and Basic Skills have a 15% chance to fully restore your Primary Resource.
  • Brutal: Every 21 seconds, gain a Barrier absorbing 85-102 damage.
• Creeping Death (Wrathful, Super): Your damage over time effects are increased by 30-40% for each different Crowd Control effect on the target. Unstoppable monsters and Staggered bosses instead take 110-130% increased damage from your damage over time effects.
• The Barber (Wrathful, Super-World Tier III): Critical Strikes and all subsequent damage within 2.0-4.0 seconds is absorbed by your target. Then, the absorbed damage erupts onto surrounding enemies. Stored damage is increased by 10% per second.

Barbarian

• Focused Rage (Vicious, Offensive): After spending 100-60 Fury within 2 seconds, your next Non-Basic Skill’s Critical Strike Chance is increased by 20-30%.
• Resurgent Life (Brutal, Defensive): While below 40-60% Life, you receive 50-60% more Healing from all sources.
• Punishing Speed (Devious, Utility): Your Skills have a 20-30% chance to Knock Down all enemies for 1.25 seconds when that Skill’s Attack Speed is higher than 35-20%.
• Ignoring Pain (Wrathful, Super-World Tier IV): Incoming damage has a 5-15% chance of being ignored and instead Healing you for 17-68.

Druid

• The Moonrage (Vicious, Offensive): Kills have a 5% chance to summon a Wolf Companion to your side for 20-30 seconds. In addition, gain +3 to Wolves.
• The Agitated Winds (Brutal, Defensive): When 8-13 Close enemies, automatically cast Cyclone Armor. This cannot occur more than once every 10-20 seconds.
• Inexorable Force (Devious, Utility): Up to 30-50 Distant enemies are pulled toward you while you have an Ultimate Skill active.
• The Unconstrained Beast (Wrathful, Super-World Tier IV): When you are hit with a Stun, Freeze or Knock Down effect, there is a 40-60% chance to automatically activate Grizzly Rage for 3 seconds.

Necromancer

• The Sacrilegious (Vicious, Offensive): Walking near a Corpse automatically activates an equipped Corpse Skill every second, dealing 40-30% reduced damage.
• The Decrepit Aura (Brutal, Defensive): When at least 5 enemies are near you, gain an aura that automatically curses surrounding enemies with Decrepify for 5-15 seconds.
• Frozen Terror (Devious, Utility): Lucky Hit: Up to a 10-20% chance of inflicting Fear for 2.5 seconds. Feared enemies are Chilled for 20% every second.
• The Great Feast (Wrathful, Super-World Tier IV): Each Minion drains 1.0-2.0 Essence per second but deals 50-75% increased damage. With no Minions, this bonus applies to you and drains 5 Essence per second.

Rogue

• Cluster Munitions (Vicious, Offensive): Lucky Hit: You have up to a 20% chance to launch 3 Stun Grenades that deal 26-32 Physical damage and Stun enemies for 0.50 seconds.
• Trickery (Brutal, Defensive): When you use a Subterfuge Skill, leave behind an unstable Shadow Decoy Trap that Taunts enemies. The Shadow Decoy Trap will explode after 6.0 seconds dealing 680-1020 Shadow damage. Cannot occur more than once every 5 seconds.
• The Clipshot (Devious, Utility): Lucky Hit: Up to a 20-40% chance for your Cutthroat Skills to Slow by 40% for 3 seconds and your Marksman Skills to Knock Back enemies.
• The Vile Apothecary (Wrathful, Super-World Tier IV): Your attacks have a 5-15% chance to apply all Imbuement effects at 40-50% of normal potency.

Sorcerer

• Tal’Rasha (Vicious, Offensive): For each unique element you deal damage with, you deal 7-12% increased damage for 3-10 seconds.
• Spellbreaking (Brutal, Defensive): After taking Elemental damage, gain 20-40% Resistance to that element for 5 seconds.
• Spite (Devious, Utility): When you are afflicted with a Crowd Control effect, there is a 20-40% chance that the same enemy and enemies around you are also afflicted with the same effect for 3 seconds.
• Omnipower (Wrathful, Super-World Tier IV): Core Skills that launch a projectile consume all of your Mana. For every 45-35 extra Mana consumed, you launch an additional projectile, and the damage is increased by 3.0-5.0%.

Conclusion

That concludes our Diablo 4 Season 1 Malignant Hearts Guide! For more information on Diablo 4, including Class Builds and Guides, be sure to check out our Diablo 4 home page!