How to get & use Vampiric Powers in Diablo 4

If you hope to defeat the bloodthirsty vampires preying on Sanctuary in Diablo 4's Season of Blood, you must learn to wield their Vampiric Powers.

Vampiric Powers are a core aspect of Season of Blood, so understanding how these abilities function is of the utmost importance to any adventurers who want to participate in the new Diablo 4 content.

This primer details how to get and use Vampiric Powers in the classic action role-playing game from Blizzard Entertainment.

How to get Vampiric Powers

There are a few different ways to get Vampiric Powers in Diablo 4:

Spend Potent Blood

You can use Potent Blood to unlock and upgrade Vampiric Powers. Potent Blood drops naturally drop from Shadow Vampires, but you can also use Blood Lures to summon Blood Seekers, collect Seeker Keys, and open Seeker Caches for additional Potent Blood.

Completing the Seasonal Questline 

Progressing through the Seasonal Questline, titled Hunter's Acclaim, will unlock Vampiric Powers. You can increase your Hunter's Acclaim by partaking in different varieties of Season 2: Season of Blood content.

Participating in the Blood Harvest Seasonal Event

Participating in the Blood Harvest Seasonal Event is probably the best way to get Vampiric Powers in Diablo 4. Enter Blood Harvest zones around Sanctuary and complete various tasks to acquire loads of Potent Blood and unlock Vampiric Powers.

What are Vampiric Powers?

Vampiric Powers are the primary draw of Season 2: Season of Blood, like Malignant Hearts in Season 1: Season of the Malignant. Vampiric Powers allow you to strengthen your Seasonal Character to a level beyond what an Eternal Character could ever be capable of.

All Classes can wield any Vampiric Power, but how you apply and use Vampiric Powers defines your Character! Vampiric Powers can be upgraded to a maximum of Level 3, and your Character can equip up to five Vampiric Powers.

How to use Vampiric Powers

To use Vampiric Powers, you need Pact Armour. Chest Armour, Pants, Gloves, Boots, and Helms that drop during Season of Blood have a chance to contain Pacts. 

To activate your Vampiric Powers, you need Pacts that match the activation cost listed on the Vampiric Power. There are three types of Pacts: Ferocity, Divinity, and Eternity. Regular Armour from World Tiers I and II can feature a random assortment of up to three Pacts, Sacred Armour can have up to four Pacts, and Ancestral Armour has a chance to roll five Pacts.

Sporting a complete set of Sacred Armour allows you a max of 25 Pacts. Mix and match your Pact Armour to activate all your favourite Vampiric Powers!

If you find an appealing piece of Pact Armour that lacks the Pacts you desire, you can use Cleansing Acids and standalone Pacts to customise it! Standalone Pacts are a type of consumable that lets you add specific Pacts to Pact Armour. Cleansing Acids will remove Pacts from Pact Armour, allowing you to apply different Pacts.

All Vampiric Powers you can get in Diablo 4

Altogether, there are 22 Vampiric Powers available in Season 2: Season of Blood. Vampiric Powers are categorised as either Minor or Major and all require different assortments of Pacts. Below are all the Vampiric Powers in Diablo 4 and what they do at Level 3:

Minor Vampiric Powers (Require 1-3 Pacts)

• Anticipation (1 Divinity): Your Ultimate Skills gain 20% Cooldown Reduction. Your Ultimate Skills gain 12% increased damage for each nearby enemy affected by your Damage Over Time effects.

• Coven’s Fangs (2 Divinity): Your Conjuration, Companion, Minion, and Bat Familiar attacks deal 52% increased damage to Crowd-Controlled enemies. Lucky Hit: Your Conjuration, Companion, Minion, and Bat Familiar have up to a 30% chance to inflict Vampiric Curse when hitting enemies.

• Domination (1 Ferocity): You deal 24% increased damage to enemies who are Stunned, Immobilized, Frozen, or Feared. If they're also Injured and not an Elite, they're instantly killed.

• Feed the Coven (1 Eternity): Lucky Hit: Conjuration, Companion, Minion and Bat Familiar attacks have up to a 60% chance to restore ten of your Primary Resource and increase your Damage by 10% for four seconds.

• Hectic (3 Divinity): For every five Basic Skills you cast, one of your active Cooldowns is reduced by two seconds.

• Hemomancy (3 Eternity): Your attacks deal 80% of your Maximum Life as Physical damage to nearby enemies. This can only occur once every four seconds. You heal for 1% of your Maximum Life for each enemy damaged this way.

• Infection (1 Ferocity): Hitting enemies with direct damage infects them with Pox. Inflicting Pox eight times on an enemy expunges their infection, dealing 70% Poison damage.

• Jagged Spikes (1 Ferocity, 1 Divinity): Thorns have a 10% chance to deal 300% increased damage and Chill enemies for 8%.

• Prey on the Weak (2 Ferocity): You deal 16% increased damage to Vulnerable enemies. Enemies are Vulnerable while affected by a Vampiric Curse from your other Vampiric Powers.

• Rampart (1 Divinity, 1 Eternity): After not moving for three seconds, you gain a Barrier for 40% of your Maximum Life for six seconds. This effect can occur once every 20 seconds.

• Ravenous (3 Ferocity): Lucky Hit: Up to a 20% chance to increase your Attack Speed by 40% of your Total Movement Speed for six seconds.

• Resilience (2 Eternity): You gain 1% Damage Reduction for each 2% Life you are missing.

• Sanguine Brace (1 Divinity, 1 Eternity): When you kill an enemy, Fortify for 6% of your Base Life. While you have more Fortify than half of your Maximum Life, you gain 8% Critical Strike Chance.

• Terror (1 Ferocity, 1 Divinity, 1 Eternity): When struck, you have a 14% chance to Fear nearby enemies and Slow them by 80% for two seconds. You are guaranteed to Critically Strike enemies who are Feared.

• Undying (1 Eternity): Casting Skills heals you for 3% Life. Double this bonus while below 50% Life.

Major Vampiric Powers (Require 6 Pacts)

• Accursed Touch (6 Divinity): Lucky Hit: Up to a 44% chance to inflict Vampiric Curse on enemies. Enemies with the Vampiric Curse have a 15% chance to spread it to other surrounding enemies. Accursed Souls deal 200% increased damage.

• Bathe in Blood (3 Divinity, 3 Eternity): While Channelling a Skill, you form a pool of blood beneath you. While channelling a skill in a pool, your Channelled Skills deal 40% increased damage and you gain 30% Damage Reduction. A pool can only form once every eight seconds.

• Blood Boil (6 Eternity): When your Core Skills Overpower an enemy, you spawn three Volatile Blood Drops. Collecting a Volatile Blood Drop causes it to explode, dealing 60% Physical damage around you. Every 20 seconds, your next Skill is guaranteed to Overpower.

• Call Familiar (3 Ferocity, 3 Divinity): Casting a Mastery, Weapon Mastery, Macabre, Wrath, or Imbuement Skill calls a bat ally to attack nearby enemies, dealing 80% Physical damage with a 30% chance to Stun.

• Flowing Veins (2 Ferocity, 2 Divinity, 2 Eternity): You deal 60% increased Damage Over Time to enemies that are moving or affected by a Vampiric Curse.

• Metamorphosis (2 Ferocity, 2 Divinity, 2 Eternity): When you Evade you turn into a cloud of bats, becoming Unstoppable for four seconds. Enemies along your path take 160% Physical damage and are inflicted with Vampiric Curse.
  
  
• Moonrise (6 Ferocity): Hitting an enemy with a Basic Skill grants you 4% Attack Speed for ten seconds, stacking up to five times. Upon reaching maximum stacks, you enter a Vampiric Bloodrage, gaining 160% Basic Skill damage and 15% Movement Speed for ten seconds.

Don't dive into Season of Blood unprepared! Get familiar with how to get and use Vampiric Powers in Diablo 4 and prepare to slay the Dark Master’s army of fanged foes.