Finding the best gear in Diablo 4 requires extensive knowledge of the game's various systems. You need to know which affixes to chase, what Legendary or Unique items are worth using, and what item bases you should be using.
Related: Diablo 4: Build Tier List
All of those things are affected by Item Level, referred to as Item Power in-game. This system determines how powerful your items are, directly influencing affixes like cooldown reduction, lucky hit chance, and much more. This guide will cover how Item Level affects items, its various stat breakpoints, and how you can increase your Item Power score through vendor upgrades.
Every weapon, armor piece, and jewelry item in Diablo 4 rolls with an item level (ilvl for short), known in-game as item power. Item Power determines the item's base armor rating or attack value, and it influences the stat ranges on affixes. In other words, the higher your Item Power, the stronger the item will be. It's easiest to see these differences by comparing affix ranges with the advanced tooltips setting enabled.
For example, a standard pair of Legendary Boots at Item Power 600 can roll with up to 10% movement speed. An Ancestral variant at Item Power 760 can roll with up to 17.5% movement speed-increased to 26.2% when fully upgraded. This is a massive difference and leads to massive power spikes in the endgame. This is why it's important to focus on Item Power over level requirements when inspecting gear.
Item Power does not increase the affix values of Legendary Aspects or Unique-exclusive modifiers.
While the Item Power of items will continue to climb as you reach higher levels and World Tiers, their affix magnitudes increase at certain intervals called breakpoints. These breakpoints occur at the following Item Power values:
Breakpoint Tier
Item Power Requirement
1
1-149
2
150-339
3
340-459
4
460-624
5
625-724
6
725+
In essence, the highest affix rolls are found on Item Power 725+ Ancestral items. You'll notice large affix spikes once you start getting Sacred gear in World Tier 3 and Ancestral gear in World Tier 4, as these items tend to drop around the last three breakpoint thresholds. Do note that Ancestral items have better affix ranges than Normal and Sacred gear.
Nearly every affix in Diablo 4 abides by this breakpoint system, but there are some exceptions. An item's base DPS or Armor rating scales linearly with Item Power; they don't follow the breakpoint system. For example, an Item Power 800 weapon will deal less base damage than an Item Power 750 item despite the lack of a breakpoint. This also applies to HP and Thorn affixes on items. All other affixes abide by item level breakpoints.
The best way to find gear with higher Item Power ratings is to play on higher World Tiers. World Tier 4 drops Ancestral gear, the best items in Diablo 4. These items tend to roll with at least Item Power 725 or higher.
Beyond farming items, there is a way to increase your Item Power: upgrade your gear at a Blacksmith or Jeweler. Each upgrade to the item increases its Item Power score by 5, scaling up to +25 with maximum upgrades. These upgrades increase the magnitude of all affixes as well, making upgrades a great way to increase your character's DPS and general survivability.
You can actually hit gear breakpoints by doing this. If you upgrade an item and it hits a breakpoint, all of its affixes will be rerolled. This will almost always result in a massive boost to that affix's stat values. Keep any items at Item Power 700 with perfect affixes, as you can raise them to the final affix breakpoint through upgrades.
Next: Diablo 4: Complete Beginner Guide