Guide · June 6, 2026
How to Tell If a Diablo IV Item Is Worth Keeping (Season 13)
Item Power, Greater Affixes, build relevance — the exact framework for deciding what to keep and what to salvage in Diablo IV Season 13, with no guesswork.
⚡ The Short Answer
An item is worth keeping in Diablo IV if it passes at least two of these three checks: it has a Greater Affix on a stat your build actually uses, its Item Power is near the cap for your difficulty, and the affix combination makes sense for your class. If it fails all three, salvage it immediately and move on.
📊 Check 1 — Item Power: Know Your Caps
Item Power is the first number most players look at, but the ceiling matters more than the raw number. In Patch 3.0.3 (Season 13), the caps are:
- Normal difficulty (non-Ancestral): ~850 IP cap — anything near 850 is as good as it gets at this tier
- Torment difficulty (Ancestral): ~900 IP cap — Ancestral items drop exclusively in Torment and roll higher affixes
- Mythic Uniques: Fixed 925 IP — always at cap, rarity is the limiting factor not power
A non-Ancestral item at 848 IP is near-perfect for Normal. An Ancestral at 875 IP still has room to improve. Do not compare the raw numbers across tiers — an 850 non-Ancestral and an 850 Ancestral are not equivalent items.
✨ Check 2 — Greater Affixes Change Everything
A Greater Affix (GA) is a stat that rolled 1.5× its normal maximum. In Season 13, Greater Affixes come in four tiers:
- GA I: Baseline Greater Affix — a meaningful upgrade over a normal roll
- GA II: Strong — roughly 2× the value of a GA I
- GA III: Exceptional — roughly 3.5× the value of a GA I
- GA IV: Near-perfect roll — roughly 5× the value of a GA I. Keep permanently.
The number of GAs on an item matters as much as the tier. Two GA IIIs often outperform four GA Is. If an item has zero GAs, it needs to be either Mythic/Unique or exceptionally well-rolled for your specific build to justify keeping it at Torment difficulty.
Special case — Magic and Rare items with GAs: Do not salvage these. A Magic or Rare item with even one Greater Affix is a Horadric Cube crafting candidate. See Check 3.
🔮 Check 3 — Rarity and the Horadric Cube
Season 13 changed how low-rarity items should be evaluated:
- Legendary / Ancestral Legendary: Standard evaluation — check IP, GAs, and affix fit
- Unique: Keep if it fits your build. As of Patch 3.0.3, every Unique has at least one variable affix — check if that affix rolled near its maximum
- Mythic Unique: Always keep. Fixed 925 IP, extremely rare
- Magic or Rare with ≥1 GA: Do NOT salvage — bring to the Horadric Cube. These are high-value crafting bases that can be transmuted into powerful Legendaries
⚔️ Check 4 — Build Relevance (The Most Overlooked Check)
A GA IV item with perfect Item Power is worthless if its affixes do nothing for your build. Before keeping anything, ask:
- Does this item slot make sense for my class? (e.g., Barbarians have weapon-specific restrictions)
- Are the affixes on this item stats my build actively scales? (e.g., a Lightning Storm Druid values Critical Strike Chance; a Pulverize Druid values Overpower)
- Does this replace something I currently have, or just fill a gap?
A mediocre item that fits your build perfectly is often better than a high-GA item with irrelevant stats. This is where most players make their biggest loot evaluation mistakes.
🧩 The 30-Second Checklist
Run through these in order — stop when you have your answer:
- Is it a Mythic Unique? → Keep, no further evaluation needed
- Is it Magic or Rare with at least one GA? → Horadric Cube candidate, do not salvage
- Does it have zero GAs and isn't Unique? → Salvage (at Torment difficulty)
- Is the IP near the cap for your difficulty? → If not, the affix rolls are suppressed — lower priority
- Do the affixes fit your build? → If not, salvage regardless of GA count
- Does it beat what you currently have equipped? → Keep if yes, salvage if no
🤖 Skip the Mental Math
The framework above works, but it requires knowing your build's stat priorities, the current IP caps, and the GA tier system all at once — while standing at the Blacksmith with a full inventory. That's a lot to hold in your head mid-session.
StatVerdict does all of this automatically. Upload a screenshot of any item tooltip and get an instant grade (S through D), a Keep / Salvage / Craft verdict, and a breakdown of exactly why — accounting for your class, build style, current difficulty tier, and every Season 13 mechanic. Free, no account needed.