Diablo 4 Season 1 pulses with Malignant Hearts-cursed artifacts that twist builds and shatter foes.
There are four different heart types in Diablo 4 season 1:
- Vicious Hearts – Offensive, go in red jewelry sockets
- Brutal Hearts – Defensive, go in blue jewelry sockets
- Devious Hearts – Utility, go in purple jewelry sockets
- Wrathful Hearts – Extremely powerful effects, can go in any of the three sockets
You’ll find these different colored Malignant Hearts while playing the game normally and fighting Elite enemies. Or – once you craft a special item – you can enter the new Malignant Tunnels and choose which color of Malignant Heart you’d like as a reward.
In this Diablo 4 guide, we’ve listed out all 32 Malignant Hearts and their respective effects so you can carefully plan your builds for the Barbarian, Druid, Sorcerer, Necromancer, or Rogue classes.
Vicious Malignant Hearts list
Vicious Malignant Hearts grant powerful offensive bonuses that boost raw damage output and enhance aggressive playstyles. These hearts focus on increasing critical strike potential, amplifying core skill effects, or triggering destructive secondary attacks. Each class benefits differently from their effects, allowing for deadly combinations that turn combat into a display of brutal precision and relentless offense.
Vicious Malignant Hearts are offense-based powers and fit into the Viscous red sockets in your jewelry. Like all other heart types, there are three class-agnostic Vicious Malignant Hearts and one unique Vicious Malignant Heart per class.
Offensive Malignant powers
Offensive Malignant Powers focus on amplifying a character’s damage output through aggressive effects that enhance attacks, critical hits, and area damage. These hearts often trigger additional projectiles, explosions, or debuffs on enemies, rewarding fast-paced and relentless playstyles. Choosing the right combination can turn basic skills into devastating tools, allowing players to clear groups of enemies or melt bosses with increased burst potential.
Name |
Class |
Effect |
|---|---|---|
| The Picana | All | 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 | All | 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 | All | You gain 40-60% Critical Strike Damage but your Non-Critical Strikes deal 20-15% less damage. |
| Focused Rage | Barbarian | After spending 60-100 Fury within 2 seconds, your next Non-Basic Skill’s Critical Strike Chance is increased by 20-30%. |
| The Moonrage | Druid | Kills have a 5% chance to summon a Wolf Companion to your side for 20-30 seconds. In addition, gain 3 to Wolves. |
| The Sacrilegious | Necromancer | Walking near a Corpse automatically activates an equipped Corpse Skill every second, dealing 40-30% reduced damage. |
| Cluster Munitions | Rogue | 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. |
| Tal’Rasha | Sorcerer | For each unique element you deal damage with, you deal 7-12% increased damage for 3-10 seconds. |
Brutal Malignant Hearts list
Brutal Malignant Hearts grant powerful offensive bonuses that dramatically boost a character’s damage output in Diablo 4 Season 1. These hearts can enhance builds with unique effects such as increased critical strikes, damage amplification, or retaliation mechanics. Players can socket them into Infested Jewelry to adapt their playstyle around aggressive, high-risk combat strategies that reward precise timing and relentless attacks.
Brutal Malignant Hearts are defense-based powers and fit into the Brutal blue sockets in your jewelry. Like all other heart types, there are three class-agnostic Brutal Malignant Hearts and one unique Brutal Malignant Heart per class.
Defensive Malignant powers
Defensive Malignant powers focus on improving survivability during combat by reinforcing resistances, barriers, and healing effects. These hearts help reduce incoming damage, trigger protective buffs, or restore health when struck, allowing players to withstand more intense encounters. They are valuable for builds that rely on staying in close range or sustaining prolonged fights, offering strong defensive boosts that can greatly enhance a character’s durability.
Name |
Class |
Effect |
|---|---|---|
| The Lionheart | All | You gain 10% Barrier Generation. You Heal 3-7 Life per second while you have an active Barrier. |
| Revenge | All | 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 1360-2040 Fire damage to Nearby enemies. |
| Prudent Heart | All | 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. |
| Resurgent Life | Barbarian | While below 40-60% Life, you receive 50-60% more Healing from all sources. |
| The Agitated Winds | Druid | When 8-13 Close enemies, automatically cast Cyclone Armor. This cannot occur more than once every 10-20 seconds. |
| The Decrepit Aura | Necromancer | When at least 5 enemies are near you, gain an aura that automatically curses surrounding enemies with Decrepify for 5-15 seconds. |
| Trickery | Rogue | 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. |
| Spellbreaking | Sorcerer | After taking Elemental damage, gain 20-40% Resistance to that element for 5 seconds. |
Devious Malignant Hearts list
Devious Malignant Hearts grant unique powers that alter gameplay with unpredictable effects, often twisting class abilities in dangerous and rewarding ways. These corrupted hearts can enhance damage output, trigger defensive bursts, or create chaotic battlefield conditions that challenge skill and timing. Collecting and using them strategically can turn a character into a powerhouse, but the risk of unpredictable side effects keeps every encounter tense and dynamic.
Devious Malignant Hearts are utility-based powers and fit into the Devious purple sockets in your jewelry. Like all other heart types, there are three class-agnostic Devious Malignant Hearts and one unique Devious Malignant Heart per class.
Utility Malignant powers
Utility Malignant powers provide valuable quality-of-life benefits that enhance survivability, mobility, and resource management during combat. These hearts often focus on improving cooldown reduction, healing, or energy regeneration, allowing players to maintain consistent skill usage and handle tough encounters more smoothly. While not as aggressive as offensive types, their strategic support can significantly strengthen any build.
Name |
Class |
Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Determination | All | Resource draining effects are 40-50% less effective. In addition, gain 3-8% increased Resource Generation. |
| Retaliation | All | Deal 510-680 Fire damage to surrounding enemies whenever a Crowd Control effect is removed from you. |
| The Calculated | All | After spending 150-200 of your Primary Resource, your next attack Stuns enemies hit for 2 seconds. |
| Punishing Speed | Barbarian | 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%. |
| Inexorable Force | Druid | Up to 30-50 Distant enemies are pulled toward you while you have an Ultimate Skill active. |
| Frozen Terror | Necromancer | Lucky Hit: Up to a 10-20% chance of inflicting Fear for 2.5 seconds. Feared enemies are Chilled for 20% every second. |
| The Clipshot | Rogue | 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. |
| Spite | Sorcerer | 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. |
Wrathful Malignant Hearts list
Wrathful Malignant Hearts provide powerful and unpredictable effects that can benefit any class in Diablo 4’s first season. These hearts combine offensive and defensive traits, offering strong boosts such as amplified damage, life-stealing abilities, or reactive counterattacks. Their chaotic nature means they can replace multiple specialized hearts, making them a versatile choice for players aiming to push through difficult encounters or maximize performance in endgame builds.
Wrathful Malignant Hearts are “super” powers and fit into any colored socket in your jewelry. Like all other heart types, there are three class-agnostic Wrathful Malignant Hearts and one unique Wrathful Malignant Heart per class.
‘Super’ Malignant powers
Super Malignant Powers grant players access to enhanced abilities that modify gameplay in dramatic ways. These powers draw from the corruption of Malignant Hearts, turning standard skills into explosive or defensive upgrades that reshape how classes perform in battle. Each heart offers unique modifiers, allowing builds to become far more unpredictable and deadly across various encounters in Sanctuary.
Name |
Class |
Effect |
|---|---|---|
| The Malignant Pact | All | 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 | All | 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 | All | 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. |
| Ignoring Pain | Barbarian | Incoming damage has a 5-15% chance of being ignored and instead Healing you for 17-68. |
| The Unconstrained Beast | Druid | 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. |
| The Great Feast | Necromancer | Each Minion drains 1-2 Essence per second but deals 50-75% increased damage. With no Minions, this bonus applies to you and drains 5 Essence per second. |
| The Vile Apothecary | Rogue | Your attacks have a 5-15% chance to apply all Imbuement effects at 40-50% of normal potency. |
| Omnipower | Sorcerer | 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 3-5%. |
Which Malignant Hearts are best for my class
Malignant Heart recommendations depend on your Diablo 4 class, as 12 hearts are universal while 20 are class-specific (4 per class), with viability tied to popular endgame builds like those emphasizing crits, DoTs, or survivability in Season 1. Without your specific class specified, general top picks include universal standouts like Revenge (Brutal, suppresses 10-20% damage then explodes it outward), Tempting Fate (Vicious, non-crits deal less but crits deal up to 30-40% more), and Ravenous (Wrathful, 30-50% amp to DoTs per unique Curse). Farm these via color-specific Invokers in Malignant Burrows.
Universal Best Picks
These work across all classes and shine in most builds:
-
Revenge (Brutal): Top defensive choice; damage suppression turns into AoE fire bursts on defensive skill use-essential for Pit clears.
-
Tempting Fate (Vicious): Elite for 100% crit builds (e.g., Rogue, Sorc); boosts crit damage massively at low non-crit cost.
-
Creeping Death (Wrathful): Stacks 30-40% damage per CC type applied-meta for Necro/Druid DoT spam.
Class-Specific Recommendations
Tailor to your class’s strengths (based on Season 1 tier lists and guides):
| Class | Top Hearts (Type) | Why It Excels |
|---|---|---|
| Barbarian | Focused Rage (Vicious), Walking Arsenal (Wrathful) | Fury spend crit amp; weapon swap bonuses for Bash/Blitz. |
| Druid | Moorditch (Brutal), The Dark Dance (Vicious) | Blood Howl synergy; Life-cost cores for Werebear rampage. |
| Necromancer | Sacrilegious (Devious), Creeping Death (Wrathful, universal) | Auto Corpse Explosion; CC stacking for Bone Spirit. |
| Rogue | Cutthroat (Vicious), The Malignant Pact (Wrathful, universal) | Imbue crits; rotating buffs for Twisting Blades. |
| Sorcerer | Frigid Fate (Devious), Tal’Rasha (Vicious, if multi-element) | Freeze procs; elemental stack damage for Chain Lightning. |
Prioritize Wrathful slots for “super” effects, matching colors to jewelry sockets. Test in the Codex of P
What class are you playing in Diablo 4
The conversation hasn’t specified your Diablo 4 class yet. Please share which one you’re playing (e.g., Barbarian, Druid, Necro, Rogue, Sorcerer, or Spiritborn) for tailored Malignant Heart recommendations from Season 1.
Quick Universal Advice
Without your class, prioritize these top universal Malignant Hearts that fit most builds: Revenge (Brutal: Suppresses damage for AoE explosions), Tempting Fate (Vicious: Boosts crit damage in high-crit setups), and Creeping Death (Wrathful: Amplifies DoT per CC type).
Next Steps
Reply with your class and build focus (e.g., “Rogue Twisting Blades”) for optimized picks like class-specific ones such as Cutthroat for Rogues or Focused Rage for Barbs. Farm via Invokers matching heart colors.
