PSA: Murmuring Obols are now Diablo 4's most valuable currency
Murmuring Obols have long been one of Diablo 4's worst currencies. They're a good idea in concept—you complete an event out in the world, pick up some little blue coins, and take them back to a strange vendor in the city to trade for a specific type of loot. These Purveyors of Curiosities might give you a legendary or rare piece of gear, or they might give you some absolute garbage. It's all part of the gamble.
The problem with Obols is that they don't give you much you can actually use, especially once you get to higher world tiers like Nightmare and Torment, since items you get from the purveyor don't drop at 925 power. It's no wonder that people instead use the currency to target farm certain aspects they can extract from gear, or use them to get armour and weapons they can dismantle to unlock extra cosmetic options.
That all changes with season four, though. Loot Reborn overhauls a lot of different mechanics in the game including how Obols work. Here are the key details:
Besides dropping from regular events, Nightmare Dungeons and the new Pit activity both reward you with Obols. This starts at tier 46 for the dungeons and tier 1 for The Pit.
The Purveyor of Curiosities can now drop 925 power legendary gear once you reach level 100.
The Obol cap has been increased to 2,500.
Legendary items from the Purveyor of Curiosities can roll greater affixes.
The key point here is that last one; legendary gear from the Purveyor of Curiosities can roll greater affixes. For those that don't know, this new type of affix rolls randomly on a legendary or unique item you pick up, boosting one specific stat by 1.5x. It's completely separate to tempering items, but since masterworking boosts a random affix every four levels—including the possibility of that greater affix—this is how you buff stats by an absurd amount.
Ideally, the items you'll be tempering or masterworking will have a greater affix on them that you want. If you're lucky, when you masterwork to level four, eight, and twelve, that greater affix will be randomly selected and buffed even further. Greater affixes are also important as you can't reroll them at the occultist. If you reroll a stat buffed through masterworking, the buff will remain, but if you meddle with changing a greater affix at all, you lose it.
So, rather than feeling obligated to pump your obols into the vendor for a load of trash items you immediately dismantle, some of the most powerful and investable gear in the game will now come from the Purveyor of Curiosities. Say you're looking for a helmet with an ideal greater affix—simply spend all of your obols rolling helmets in the hopes of getting some legendaries with the right stats. Just remember to look for a star above any items you get from the purveyor to tell if any have a greater affix you can cook with.
