Diablo 4 Overpower damage explained

What is Overpower in Diablo 4? The latest game in the Diablo series introduced quite a few new combat mechanics, with Overpower being one of them. That being said, they’re not necessarily explained very well in game if you don’t know where to look. So we’re going to go over exactly what Overpower is, and who can take advantage of it.

While you’re here, check out some of our Diablo 4 Season 2 guides, such as our Diablo 4 Season 2 start date guide, as well as a our Diablo 4 season 2 level cap guide. Also check out our guide on how to get one of the most powerful items in Diablo 4, the Harlequin Crest.

What is Overpower in Diablo 4?

Overpower is a new damage type that was introduced in Diablo 4. Overpower is a damage bonus mechanic that has a flat three percent chance to happen and it cannot be changed. You can boost the damage that the Overpowered hit can deal though through gear. This damage can be applied to attack hits, but not with passive damage, damage over time or channeled skills.

There are three classes that can utilize Overpower damage the most which are the Barbarian, the Druid and the Necromancer. Why are these the classes to best use this mechanic? It’s because Overpower is based on your life and Fortify values, and the other classes in the game don’t have access to Fortify.

How to maximize Overpower

In order to maximize your Overpower damage, there’s a few things that you can do. Obviously first off, having more health and Fortify is going to be the baseline for scaling your Overpower damage. This scales with the Willpower stat. Then, you can have Overpower damage affixes on your gear, as well as socketing a Ruby into your weapon. On top of that, there are skills, glyphs and aspects that can guarantee an Overpowered hit after meeting some specific criteria.

Class	Type / Name
Barbarian	Skills: Bash (Combat modifier) Aspects: Earthstriker’s Aspect Glyphs: Dominate
Druid	Skills: Pulverize (Enhanced), Provocation
Necromancer	Skills: Blood Surge (Paranormal), Blood Lance (Supernatural), Rathma’s Vigor

Additionally, there are skills, glyphs and aspects that will increase the damage of your Overpower hits.

Class	Type / Name
Barbarian	Skills: Hammer of the Ancients (Violent), Brute Force, Gushing Wounds Aspects: Earthstriker’s Aspect Glyphs: Crusher, Dominate, Overwhelm
Druid	Skills: Pulverize (Raging), Boulder (Enhanced) Glyphs: Dominate, Overwhelm
Necromancer	Skills: Blood Mist, Tides of Blood Aspects: Aspect of Rathma’s Chosen, Aspect of Untimely Death Glyphs: Dominate, Overwhelm

Is Overpower good in Diablo 4?

In terms of whether or not Overpower damage is good, well it’s unfortunately been overshadowed by Vulnerable. Considering that you can’t increase the baseline chance of getting Overpowered hits for all of your skills, and Overpower being an additive damage increase, it’s very difficult to get enough damage to feel good in higher end content. Vulnerable on the other hand is a multiplicative damage mechanic and is significantly easier to utilize, so the ceiling is higher, and thus pushes Overpower down in usefulness.

Blizzard has hinted in the past during various developer live streams that they would be reworking how some of these additional damage mechanics function in the game to bring everything more in line. So hopefully that will allow for Overpower to come up into the spotlight.

But that’s all that you need to know about Overpower in Diablo 4. For more, check out our Diablo 4 Paragon Glyphs guide, as well as our guide on how fast you’ll be able to reach level 100 in Diablo 4 season 2.