The War Plan system in Diablo 4 lets you target-farm resources such as Obducite, Gold, crafting materials, and gear across various activities. However, each War Path activity has a skill tree that provides new difficulty and reward modifiers to increase your loot yields upon completion. Since leveling the War Plan can take a while, this guide will show you the best War Plan upgrades to gear up for the true endgame.
Helltides
The right path, starting from Fall of the Fell, Ashes to Ashes, and Undying Embers, is a great start for speedrunning a Helltide run as the nodes make Cinder drops much more frequent and prevent Cinder loss on death, letting you open Helltide chests faster. Afterward, take the Writhe and Rot node that spawns Maggots and Pangs of Duriel for extra Lair Boss keys to fund your gearing.
Nightmare Dungeons
Some nodes in the Nightmare Dungeon upgrade tree focus on making Treasure Goblins appear more often while augmenting their rewards with a chance to spawn a portal into a hidden level.
The path leading to Greed is Good is the best starting path to make Nightmare Dungeons extremely rewarding, as it increases the spawn rate of Treasure Goblins and helps reach the secret Goblin’s Retreat map. Afterward, take the nodes Waking Spoils, Gauntlet, and Nemesis for more Elite spawns.
Tree of Whispers
Rush the nodes: Tree of Plenty, Fortune or Famine, Grim Mysteries, and Resplendent Favor to maximize your chances of receiving Resplendent Sparks from Whisper Caches and improving Ancestral loot drop chances.
Next, go down the path from Grim Retribution to Malignant Invasion to make Whisper missions more rewarding to actually play, as these drop Collection of Chaos loot.
Kurast Undercity
The left path, starting from Endless Swarm to Trials and Tributes, is extremely important for running Mythic Tributes. Whenever you finish a Mythic Tribute, you are guaranteed a Mythic Unique, but with the Trials and Tributes node active, you can double or even triple the amount of Mythic drops.
For a better quality of life in the Undercity, the right path from Jade Epiphany to Initiative will make Undercity runs finish far more quickly than doing the game mode normally.
Lair Bosses
Take the nodes Lair of Runes, Lair of Plenty, and Golden Hoard to maximize your Hoard Chest drops with more Runes, Uniques, and Mythics while cutting down on trash yellow gear. Afterward, take the middle path from Two by Two to Ultimate Nemesis to keep challenging Lair Bosses without having to port to a different lair. This also gives you a chance to get 10 Hoard Chests' worth of loot.
Infernal Hordes
To start, go through the middle path from Method and Madness and The Black Pact to stack Infernal Offerings and speed up your Aether gains during an Infernal Horde run. Get Total Chaos and Bedlam for a higher chance of Chaos Waves, earning even more Aether. Lastly, get the Exalted Council and Council Coffers for better end-boss reward drops.
The Pit
The PIt is all about clearing out hordes as fast as possible, which is why this build focuses on rewarding fast clear times. Start with Choron’s Haste, Heart of Stone and Damned Thieves for massive Progress Orb drops that fill the Pit bar faster.
Get Choron’s Blessing, Pit Butcher, Choron’s Favor, and Choron’s Soul for some extra speedrunning potential, as Choron’s Favor increases the Butcher's spawn chance and the Progress Orbs dropped by Choron’s Soul.
