In Season 11, Sanctification sits at the very end of your gearing path, not as a casual bonus but as a hard lock on an item you plan to keep, almost like the last step after you decide to buy D4 items and finish your setup. Once you hit that button, that piece is frozen: no more rerolling, no more tweaking, no "I will fix it later" moments. A lot of players see a shiny drop, get hyped, and rush into a portal or slam a Heavenly Sigil right away. That is how you ruin a nearly perfect item in ten seconds. You want the piece completely done first: sockets sorted, the right Temper options locked in, Masterworking pushed as far as makes sense for your build. If any of that is still in flux, Sanctification is just going to trap an unfinished version of what could've been your best slot.

Finish The Item Before You Lock It

You will notice this system punishes impatience. If your gear still has a "maybe I will change that" affix on it, do not sanctify it yet. Get your Tempering right first, because missing a key Temper for your build is the fastest way to brick a slot for high-end pushes. Same deal with Masterworking: if you are only halfway through your upgrades and still testing different aspects or affix spreads, you are not ready. Sanctification does not care that you meant to finish later, it just preserves the state you clicked it in. Treat it like a one-way door: once you step through, that item is done, and any mistake you left on it stays.

Legendaries Versus Uniques

Legendaries and Uniques behave very differently here, and you can feel the risk with Legendaries right away. When you sanctify a Legendary, there is a chance the system overwrites an affix you actually need. Maybe it is your core damage stat, maybe it is cooldown reduction that makes your rotation work. If RNG decides to hit that, the weapon that carried your build yesterday turns into something you stash or scrap. For main weapons, it is not a bad idea to keep a backup copy around before you roll the dice. Uniques are a lot calmer to deal with. Their affixes are locked in, so you are not gambling with the core identity of the item, just improving something that is already stable. Once your build is settled and you know you are not swapping that Unique out, it usually becomes one of the safest spots to spend Sanctification resources.

Resource Management And When To Spend

Heavenly Sigils, Forgotten Souls, Obesite, Neon – you burn through all of these faster than you think, and they overlap with other systems you need. Every time you enchant or push Masterworking, you are dipping into the same pool you could be using to sanctify. That means you want regular Nightmare Dungeon runs, plus Treasure Breaches, just to keep your stash healthy. If you are still leveling or swapping gear often, it is fine to use the occasional portal you find for a short-term power bump, but do not start funneling serious mats into pieces you know will be gone in a few levels. Save your real investment for those late-game items that feel like they were rolled for your exact build, the ones you trust for high-tier content and tough boss pushes.

Treat Sanctification As A Commitment

Once you start thinking of Sanctification as a commitment instead of a fun little experiment, the system feels a lot less stressful. You slow down, you double-check your affixes, you make sure your Tempering and Masterworking are where you want them, and only then do you click. That mindset keeps you from turning great drops into "what if" stories you complain about later. When you are finally staring at that near-perfect piece, the kind you might normally grab after you decide to u4gm D4 items, that is the moment Sanctification really makes sense, because you are locking in something you actually want to live with for a long time.