Paragon Boards in Diablo 4 are something that you have access to when you hit level 50 and start the endgame. At this point, you stop receiving skill points for leveling up. Instead, you will receive a Paragon Point once every quarter level.
Since the max level in the game is 100, it means that you will be earning 4×50 levels worth of Paragon points. You can also earn four Paragon points from Renown from each of the five zones, for a grand total of 220.
When you compare that to the 58 skill points earned from levels and Renown, you can see that Paragon is going to be a major part of your survival in Sanctuary. Just like skill points cost money to respec, paragon points also require gold before you can respec them.
So what exactly is the Diablo 4 Paragon Board? This guide will discuss the whole Paragon Board system as well as its Glyphs in detail.
What is a Paragon Board in Diablo 4
Paragon Board is a special Passive tree made out of six different types of nodes. You can access your board by simply going to the skill tree and selecting the “Paragon” tab. The nodes on the paragon board are:
- Normal/ Travel Nodes
- Magic
- Rare
- Legendary
- Gate
- Glyph Sockets
Let’s go through each type to understand what each type is all about.
Normal/ Travel Nodes
These nodes grant you a small bonus to stats and are mostly taken because they are on the way to other more powerful nodes. While at first, these might seem worthless, you will see later that getting some extra stats is never a bad thing.
Magic Nodes
These nodes grant you a slightly larger bonus to stats or provide additional small boosts. These are always found surrounding a rare node and frequently provide a similar bonus to that rare node. And that brings us to number three!
Rare Nodes
Rare nodes grant two sizeable bonuses and can provide a third if certain conditions are met. These are mostly activated by having enough of a certain stat, which can quickly turn undesirable Travel Nodes into bonus-enabling nodes.
Rare nodes can pack quite the punch and are often worth picking up especially if they are on the way to something else you want, or they are near a Glyph socket.
Do note that the cost of activating the conditional bonus increases as you unlock more boards. Hence, the deeper you go into the board, the harder it will be to unlock these bonuses.
Legendary Nodes
Each Paragon Board has only one Legendary node that grants a powerful bonus. For example, Leyrana’s Instinct states, “When Inner Sight’s gauge becomes full, you gain a 100% Dodge chance for 1.5 seconds.” This can be a rather powerful defensive tool for Rogues, as it will provide a short window of near-immunity after activating Inner Sight.
Each Legendary node is somewhere between 11 to 15 nodes away from a Gate node on their board and will require a decent investment to reach.
Gate Nodes
A Gate node allows connecting one board to the others. Most Paragon boards have four Gates, and you can rotate the board to connect to the gate node of your choice. Selecting the best node to use will require clever planning, as the travel nodes that take you to the legendary nodes or your desired glyph socket might be shorter or longer.
Glyph Sockets
Each board has one glyph socket in which you can place a glyph. You can acquire glyphs by completing Nightmare Dungeons, and these sockets provide an extra bonus if certain conditions are met.
For example, the Exploit glyph socket states, “For every 5 strength purchased within range, you deal +2% increased damage to vulnerable targets.” It also has an added bonus that states, “When an enemy is damaged by you, they become vulnerable for three seconds. This cannot happen more than once every 20 seconds per enemy”.
Glyphs have ranges that cover a certain amount of nodes around them in a diamond-like shape. Small glyphs only overlap the four closest nodes; however, large glyphs can cover an area contained within three nodes in each of the four cardinal directions.
Some glyph sockets will naturally cover more nodes, so putting the right glyph in the right socket can make all the difference.
You will be also able to upgrade or level up your Glyphs. This can be to increase their power as well as their range. So, even if a glyph doesn’t seem interesting at all at first, it can potentially be very powerful in the right spot or once it is leveled up.
Strategy to manage your Paragon Board
Your first paragon board is going to be quite smaller in size, which only has only one Gate node at the very top, and a glyph socket in the middle. You will start at the bottom of the board with a general goal to proceed to the gate note at the top of the board in an efficient manner while grabbing any powerful nodes along the way.
At the start, you are free to choose a path to the left or to the right. The left side has a defensive set of nodes, while the right side has an offensive set of nodes. We recommend taking the right path, as you will need all the damage you can inflict by choosing the offensive way of progressing in the game.
Continue proceeding up the board until you get near to the glyph socket, and then take the two Stat (Normal) nodes below the socket. At this point, you can go for the glyph socket if there is already a glyph in your possession, or you can go further up to the left to acquire another main stat node.
We have just changed sides here due to the same reason why we chose the right side at the beginning. Which is, we want to get to nodes that are offensive in nature and yield high damage. After doing all this workaround, you will likely have an S-shaped board made in front of you.
When you finally reach the end of the first Paragon Board in Diablo 4, you will see a number of board options given to you. The first thing you must consider before proceeding further is whether you will be getting any Legendary nodes ahead.
