As you explore the more tanky options across a few classes, you may encounter a stat called Fortify. Fortify in Diablo 4 is an important tank stat which will help scale some of your skills, Overpower damage and more. So, let’s take a closer look at what it does.

Diablo 4 Fortify Explained¶

View Full-size

1

2

(1 of 2) Here’s an example of what Fortified looks like in Diablo 4.

View Full-size

View Full-size

Here’s an example of what Fortified looks like in Diablo 4. (left), Look at the green arrows to see where the fortified meter is compared to your actual life. (right)

The Diablo 4 Fortify stat operates like a shield over your health bar, reducing the damage taken while it remains, making it a compelling shield-like feature. You can tell how much Fortify your character has by the thinner red bar. When your Fortify percentage reaches the same percentage as your current health, you will become Fortified, reducing the damage taken by 10%. When hit, it will reduce your Life and Fortify values. You can tell when you’re Fortified, as your health pool on your UI will gain a visual shield above the life pool, as you can see on the screenshot above. You may also notice the writing, Fortified to pop up on screen.

The general rule of thumb is that Fortify comes from select passives in your class’s skill tree, with some classes having much more skills then others. Take the Druid, for example, plenty of its Werebear-themed skills, and its earth skills grant Fortify. Meanwhile, the Barbarian has a few ways to generate Fortify, as does the Necromancer through its minions and blood themes skills.

There’s also an important stat that Fortify bleeds into: the Overpower stat. Overpower is a damage modification with a 3% base chance to proc on any form of damage. One of the main ways this stat deals damage is by adding on your current Life and your Fortify value. So, play a tanky build that generates many Life and Fortify. Overpower’s damage formula will add any additional values from your Fortify and Life as damage bonus damage. Therefore, tanks can convert their Fortify farm into damage and burst targets, especially tank builds that get guarantees to inflict Overpower.

For more information on overpower, feel free to look into our Overpower stat page.

What classes and skills generate Fortify¶

There’s quite a lot of skills that generate Fortify in Diablo 4. As alluded to, your main Fortify classes are Barbarian, Druid and Necromancer. Rogue and Sorcerer don’t get Fortify buffs; they are designed to be glass cannons with high-damage ceilings instead.

For the Druid, most of the Werebear skills grant Fortify, with Maul granting small amount of Fortify from your basic skill. The general idea is to generate lots of Fortify via the bear skills, add that value, and preserve it for your guaranteed Overpower damages via your Pulverize. Meanwhile, the earth build grants Fortify too, and convert that Fortify into damage naturally through crits and passives. That’s two different playstyles and ways of interacting with Fortify. If you’re interested, we recommend looking at this Diablo 4 calculator, as there’s over 24 instances of Fortify within the Druid’s skill tree and legendary affixes. Too many to list off here.

As for the Necromancer, you only get a very small amount of Fortify via the blood skills. These skills typically only give around 1% when Fortify does proc, but there’s one passive that can give 100% max life as Fortify at a very low percentages. For the Necromancer, this is just some added defense, rather than a mechanic you go deep in to get Overpower, as the Necro’s tanky stats are largely keeping you at max HP, rather than well-protected.

And now for the Barbarian. Fortify is a stat that comes from your cries, certain skills, and passives. The general idea is that you generate Fortify to keep you tanky as you stay in melee combat. You can opt for the Bash basic skill, which can get Overpower guarantees, but you also need a critical strike to make that work. So, you can either use Fortify passive buffs in your main skills to make you more durable in combat, or add in Bash and crit to convert all the sources of Fortify into Overpower bonus damage.

This about sums up the Diablo 4 Fortify mechanic. You should now have a better idea of defensive and tanky damage bonuses.