Blizzard expanded upon Diablo 4's combat system by adding some interesting new mechanics for players to mess around with. One such addition is Fortify, a defensive mechanic to revolves around mitigating damage based on the player's health. It's a welcome feature, but its practical effect can be a little hard to grasp at first.
It's easy to get lost in a trance while battling the minions of Hell in Diablo 4, so players may not always notice what Fortify actually does to help them during a fight. Many builds can safely ignore this mechanic, but it can become an important part of a player's arsenal once they know how to harness its full potential. Here's how it works.
What does Fortify do in Diablo 4?
Fortify protects players by reducing all incoming damage by 10% when their current Life is less than or equal to their Fortify Life. The Fortified state is visually represented by a metallic ring that appears around the player's health globe whenever the effect is active. Barbarians, Druids, and Necromancers have abilities that generate Fortify.
Fortify Life degrades naturally over time, and it will only take damage if players are actively Fortified. In a practical combat scenario, the damage reduction bonus gained from this mechanic should almost always be active as long as players can generate enough Fortify without dying.
Keep in mind that Fortify does not absorb damage the way Barrier does. However, if the player has Barrier active, then they will not lose any normal or Fortify Life. As of writing, it's unclear if the Fortified state reduces damage dealt to barriers as well.
Fortify is also directly tied to Overpower, an offensive combat mechanic that combines both normal and Fortify health pools and adds them to the player's next hit. Druids, Barbarians, and Necromancers also have Overpower built into their kits, opening up different build paths that revolve around staying healthy and meeting the right conditions to trigger big bursts of damage. Players don't have to be Fortified to trigger Overpower.
The damage reduction bonus granted by the Fortified state can be increased by slotting Sapphires into gear sockets or by using specific passive skills like the Barbarian's Defensive Stance. Meanwhile, the actual amount of Fortify that players can generate with their abilities can be increased by equipping Helmets and Amulets that have relevant Fortify generation stats on them.
Diablo 4 is available on June 6 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.