Diablo 4's Season of the Malignant has a new type of gem for players to chase. Malignant Hearts are powerful items dropped from Malignant Elites that, when socketed into jewelry, can offer build-enabling effects to your character. From damage modifiers to skill augments, these hearts are a major source of player power this season.
After you've completed the introductory quest, you'll be able to get your hands on this new item type during Season of the Malignant. This guide will explain what these hearts are, how they work, and we'll showcase all 32 Malignant Heart modifiers for every class in Diablo 4.
What Are Malignant Hearts?
Malignant Hearts are socketable gems that can be earned during Season of the Malignant. These hearts can be obtained by slaying and resummoning Malignant Elites scattered across Sanctuary, typically found in Malignant Tunnels. Slaying the monster, activating its heart, then slaying it again will drop its heart for you to socket into your jewelry.
Hearts come in four categories:
- Brutal (Blue): Defensive modifiers that improve survivability or defensive skills.
- Devious (Purple): Utility modifiers that add status effects or quality-of-life buffs.
- Vicious (Orange): Offensive modifiers that increase your damage output.
- Wrathful (Gray): Super modifiers that are typically build-enabling, similar to Unique items.
Socketing Hearts Into Jewelry
The color of the heart determines which socket it fits into. Jewelry in Season of the Malignant rolls with Malignant Sockets, only accepting hearts of a specific type. For example, a ring with an orange Vicious socket may only accept Vicious Hearts. If you wanted to use a Brutal Heart, you'd need to find an amulet or ring with a Brutal Socket. Should your piece of jewelry not have a socket, you can add one from a major town's jeweler vendor. Adding a socket this way gives you a random Malignant Socket color. These socket colors cannot be changed.
Where To Find Malignant Hearts
Every Elite monster in Season of the Malignant has the chance of spawning as a Malignant variant, showcased by a unique monster title and corrupt aesthetic. These enemies are tougher than your typical Elite monster and spawn a heart when they die. Interacting with the floating heart will spawn the boss, this time with stronger modifiers. Slay the Malignant Elite, and you'll get to keep its heart.
As for where to find Malignant Elites, your best spot is going to be Malignant Tunnels. These are modified variants of core dungeons in Sanctuary, denoted by a green leaf icon. These dungeons always spawn at least three Malignant Elites and an Overgrowth event, allowing you to force a specific type of Malignant Elite to spawn. Summoning an Elite this way requires an invoker. You can craft these at designated workbenches scattered across Sanctuary's major hub areas. These workbenches also allow you to dismantle unwanted hearts into reagents used for crafting new hearts and invokers.
Every Malignant Heart
Season of the Malignant has 32 Malignant Hearts in total, most of which are exclusive to certain classes. We've compiled all 32 heart effects and listed them below. Numbers encased in brackets denote stat ranges that roll on each heart. Values were taken from Blizzard's Season of the Malignant blog. The stats showcased below are for a level 20 character.
Class-Agnostic Hearts
Brutal Hearts Blue, Defensive | ||
|---|---|---|
Name | World Tier | Effect |
The Lionheart | N/A | You gain 10% Barrier generation. You heal [3-7] Life per second while you have an active Barrier. |
Revenge | WT3+ | [10-20%] of incoming damage is instead suppressed. When you use a Defensive, Subterfuge or Macabre skill, all suppressed damage is amplified by 250% and explodes, dealing up to [1,360-2,040] fire damage to nearby enemies. |
Prudent | WT3+ | 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. |
Devious Hearts Purple, Utility | ||
Determination | N/A | Resource-draining effects are [40-50%] less effective. In addition, gain [3-8%] increase Resource Generation. |
Retaliation | WT3+ | Deal [510-680] Fire damage to surrounding enemies whenever a crowd control effect is removed from you. |
The Calculated | WT3+ | After spending [150-200] of your primary resource, your next attack stuns enemies hit for 2 seconds. |
Vicious Hearts Orange, Offensive | ||
The Picana | N/A | 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 | WT3+ | 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 | WT3+ | You gain [40-60%] Critical Strike Damage but your Non-Critical Strikes deal [20-15%] less damage. |
Wrathful Hearts Gray, Super | ||
The Malignant Pact | N/A | Cycle through a Malignant bonus every 20 kills:
|
Creeping Death | N/A | 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 | WT3+ | 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 Hearts
Name | Heart Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
Focused Rage | Vicious | 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 | While below [40-60%] Life, you receive [50-60%] more Healing from all sources. |
Punishing Speed | Devious | 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, WT4 | Incoming damage has a [5-15%] chance of being ignored and instead Healing you for [17-68]. |
Druid Hearts
Name | Heart Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
The Moonrage | Vicious | 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 | When [8-13] Close enemies, automatically cast Cyclone Armor. This cannot occur more than once every [10-20] seconds. |
Inexorable Force | Devious | Up to [30-50] Distant enemies are pulled toward you while you have an Ultimate Skill active. |
The Unconstrained Beast | Wrathful, WT4 | 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 Hearts
Name | Heart Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
The Sacrilegious | Vicious | Walking near a Corpse automatically activates an equipped Corpse Skill every second, dealing [40-30%] reduced damage. |
The Decrepit Aura | Brutal | 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 | 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, WT4 | 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 Hearts
Name | Heart Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
The Moonrage | Vicious | 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 | When [8-13] Close enemies, automatically cast Cyclone Armor. This cannot occur more than once every [10-20] seconds. |
Inexorable Force | Devious | Up to [30-50] Distant enemies are pulled toward you while you have an Ultimate Skill active. |
The Unconstrained Beast | Wrathful, WT4 | 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. |
Sorcerer Hearts
Name | Heart Type | Effect |
|---|---|---|
Cluster Munitions | Vicious | 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 | 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 | 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, WT4 | Your attacks have a [5-15%] chance to apply all Imbuement effects at [40-50%] of normal potency. |