Two Diablo 4 players have achieved infinite damage so far, here's their PTR build

Modified Sep 24, 2024 15:12 IST

Diablo 4 player Rob2628 brought an infinite damage setup to the Western players in a video earlier this month. Rob credited a pair of Chinese players on Bilibili who go by 透了个明 and 咸鱼小罗 for finding this build in the first place. Nonetheless, he was one of the first to bring this to life and share it online.

What makes this Diablo 4 infinite damage record interesting is that this was on the Public Test Realm (PTR) that featured the stat squish. This made many think the squish was a complete failure. To be fair, this is due to some interactions that will likely not be possible on the live servers.

That said, there’s a pretty serious catch, and players should not expect to be able to make such a broken build in the coming season. Read on to know more.

PTR build that allowed Diablo 4 players to hit for infinite damage

There were some really interesting interactions in the D4 PTR (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Diablo 4 players could hit for infinite damage on the PTR, using a Barbarian Whirlwind build with Thorns. The game stops tracking numbers at what appears to be 40 digits (duodecillion), and instead, pulls up an infinity symbol. It appears the new Thorns Key Passive (Barbed Carapace) has infinite scaling.

For every 25 Fury they spent, they would gain 10% thorns for eight seconds, for up to 120%. Then, when one casts a Skill with a Cooldown, it grants them Unhindered for five seconds. During this time, players dealt 100% of their Thorns as Physical damage to close enemies every second, which combined with the Tough as Nails passive.

Specifically, this build needed 30+ ranks of Tough as Nails, which required some incredible luck on items and Tempering. Tough as Nails increases Thorns by 93%, and when enemies hit the player, they take an additional 15% of Thorns as Bleeding damage over five seconds. However, to get that much Tough as Nails, players needed to triple-crit each Tempered piece of gear. This allowed them to achieve an infinite damage build in Diablo 4’s PTR.

Players also need Fury per second on their gear. This, combined with their shouts, allowed Barbarians to Whirlwind forever, generating non-stop Fury, which in turn, allowed the possibility of infinite damage. Rob’s D4 builds has the full breakdown of all the equipment stats, skills, paragon boards, and more that this requires. All of this in unison allowed D4 players to spin infinitely and deal infinite damage to any target on the PTR servers.

You needed absolutely perfect gear to make this work - but it was stunning (Image via Blizzard Entertainment/Rob2628)

Speaking of gear, the build runs three Mythic Uniques: Doombringer, Ring of Starless Skies, and Harlequin Crest. It also runs a pair of Runewords: Yul+Xal, which grants 20% Maximum Life for four seconds each time you cast a Skill with a Cooldown, and Lith+Tec, which Evokes Barbarians’ Earthquake, when you stand still for 0.3 seconds.

The health Runeword generates more Thorns so that the damage can be increased further, while the Earthquake just feels like a pleasant bonus. Unfortunately, this isn’t something that can be achieved anymore. There’s no telling if the Diablo 4 developers will open up the PTR servers again, and even if they do, it’s unknown whether this infinite damage setup will be fixed.

Nonetheless, for a very limited time, clever D4 players were able to trigger infinite damage to obliterate anything in the game, no matter how powerful it was. Interestingly, we cannot say for certain that this cannot be done on the live servers. In fact, we have no idea what will be patched, and what won't. That said, it will still take a tremendous amount of luck and nearly infinite resources to, if at all possible, recreate this on the live servers.

Check out our other Diablo 4 features and guides

Edited by Shraman Mitra