Wiki Home Diablo 4 Guides Builds Build Planner Map Diablo 2 Guides Forums Support PureDiablo Vessel of Hatred

Malignant Hearts

From Diablo 4 Wiki

Malignant Hearts is a material used to summon Varshan, a Boss from the Boss Ladder, who can be target-farmed for Unique Items. These can be found in Whisper Caches but can also be crafted at the Alchemists.

  • Sell for 30,000 Gold
  • Can not Salvage


Name Type Description Found in
Malignant Hearts

Malignant Heart for Varshan
Summoning/Crafting
Assembled beneath the Tree of Whispers (Map) within the Malignant Burrow to summon the Echo of Varshan. Legendary Whisper Caches and Legion Events.




Archived from Season 1

The information below shows how Malignant Hearts featured in Diablo 4 during Season 1 when they were first introduced which is not accurate for the current game, on Seasonal or Eternal realms.

Malignant Hearts are new item that can be slotted into jewelry during Season 1 of Diablo 4.

Caged Hearts will function similarly to Legendary Gems, which can be inserted into only infested jewelry sockets of a matching color, and will grant the character new abilities leading to powerful and radically new builds for all classes.

How to get Malignant Hearts

In the Season of the Malignant Season 1, players will slay partially corrupted Malignant monsters which will drop a Malignant Heart.

  • Any Elite enemy will have the potential to spawn as Partly Corrupted, which will drop a Malignant Heart after being slayed.
  • Players may then attempt to collect the Heart with the Cage of Binding ritual, which will spawn an even more powerful, Fully Corrupted, version of that enemy.
  • The player will be able to collect the Caged Heart after successfully defeating the Fully Corrupted enemy.
  • Wrathful Super

    Wrathful
    Super

  • Vicious Offensive

    Vicious
    Offensive

  • Brutal Defensive

    Brutal
    Defensive

  • Devious Utility

    Devious
    Utility

Malignant Hearts Colourings

There are 32 Malignant Hearts that provide build-altering bonuses. The Hearts are broken into four categories, each with a corresponding color and unique keyword: Vicious (Orange, Offensive power), Brutal (Blue, Defensive power), Devious (Pink, Utility power), and Wrathful (Black, Super). Defeated Malignant Monsters will drop a Heart that corresponds to the monster’s color.

How to use Malignant Hearts

  • All jewelry may drop with any one of the three different color-coded infested sockets, including those items obtained from Tortured Gifts in Helltides as well as from gambling.
  • Randomly colored Infested sockets may also be added to an item at the Jeweler. Caged Hearts will be destroyed if removed from a jewelry item.
  • Players will be searching for jewelry items with sockets of a specific color depending on which Caged Heart they wish to use.
  • The strength of the Hearts will increase as the player progresses through the Season. Unsocketed Hearts that are no longer wanted can be salvaged to produce a special resource, which can then be used to craft Invokers.
  • Only one Wrathful Heart can be equipped at a time and are the most powerful Heart.
  • Seek out Wrathful Hearts by running Malignant Tunnels or crafting a Wrathful Malignant Invoker to be useed at the end of a Malignant Tunnel.
Cormond's Camp
Cormond's Camp

Crafting and Salvaging

As players encounter more powerful Malignant Creatures, so too will the strength of their Malignant Hearts grow. Any Heart that you don’t wish to keep can be salvaged at Cormond’s wagon for Ichor of a corresponding color.

Ichor is a resource that allows for the creation and upgrade of Malignant Hearts and can also be harvested from lesser Malignant Monsters. Salvaging each Vicious, Brutal, and Devious Heart will provide you with 5-15 Ichor, with Wrathful hearts providing 2-5 Ichor of all other Heart types.

Creating a random Heart of a specific type costs 35 Ichor of the other two primary-colored Hearts. For example, if you wanted to craft a Vicious heart, you would need 35 Brutal Ichor and 35 Devious Ichor. In return, you would receive a random Vicious heart that scales to the Level of your character. The random Heart you create will always either be for your specific Class or Class-agnostic.

  • Brutal, Devious and Malicious Invokers can be crafted. Wrathful Invokers cannot be crafted and are contained and randomised in Uncertain Invoker chests which can be crafted with Malignant Ichors.
  • It's worth noting that Cormond has a workbench in all major city locations so you do not need to go to his camp every time you want to craft.

How to Farm Malignant Hearts

  • Upon completion of the Seasonal Questline, players may enter Malignant Tunnels, which are new areas throughout Sanctuary with a higher chance for Malignant Elites to spawn and the most efficient method of farming Caged Hearts.
  • Malignant Growths will spawn in a few different colors at the end of a Malignant Tunnel. Players will choose to interact with one of these Growths, depending on which color Heart they wish to obtain.
  • Interacting with a Malignant Growth using a crafted Invoker (crafted at Cormond's camp) will spawn a Malignant enemy. In this situation, the player can obtain the Caged Heart immediately after slaying the enemy and will not need to perform the Cage of Binding ritual.

Invoker of Valshan

  • This can only be crafted with the Invoker of Valshan recipe which is acquired at the end of the Seasonal questline and dropped by the final boss.
  • The invoker of Varshan spawns the Echo of Varshan.
  • Defeating the Echo of Vatshan in World Tier 2 will provide loot and the Foul Invoker of Varashan and its recipe. This summons the Echo of Vatshan in World Tier 3 and World Tier 4.

All Malignant Hearts

The stats on the listing below are based on a level 20 character when they drop. Players can acquire a Heart in any World Tier on the Seasonal Realm.

All Classes

Name Category Desciption Class
The Picana
Malignant Heart Offense.png
Vicious
Offensive
Critical Strikes electrically charge the enemy for 0.75-2.50 seconds, causing lightning to arc between them and any other charged enemies dealing 68-136 Lightning damage. Generic
The Dark Dance
Malignant Heart Offense.png
Vicious
Offensive
(World Tier III): Every 5 seconds while above 60% Life, Core Skills cost 68-51 Life instead of your Primary Resource. Skills that consume Life deal 10-20% increased damage. Generic
Tempting Fate
Malignant Heart Offense.png
Vicious
Offensive
(World Tier III): You gain 40-60% Critical Strike Damage but your Non-Critical Strikes deal 20-15% less damage. Generic
The Lionheart
Malignant Heart Defense.png
Brutal
Defensive
You gain 10% Barrier Generation. You Heal 3-7 Life per second while you have an active Barrier. Generic
Revenge
Malignant Heart Defense.png
Brutal
Defensive
10-20% of incoming damage is instead suppressed. When you use a Defensive, Subterfuge (Rogue) or a Macabre (Necromancer) skill, all suppressed damage is amplified by 250% and explodes, dealing up to 1360-2040 Fire damage to nearby enemies. Generic
Prudent Heart
Malignant Heart Defense.png
Brutal
Defensive
(World Tier III): You become Immune for 2.0-4.0 seconds after you lose more than 20% Life in a single hit. This effect can only occur once every 110 seconds. Generic
Prudent Heart
Malignant Heart Utility.png
Devious
Utility
Resource draining effects are 40-50% less effective. In addition, gain 3.0-8.0% increased Resource Generation. Generic
Retaliation
Malignant Heart Utility.png
Devious
Utility
(World Tier III): Deal 510-680 Fire damage to surrounding enemies whenever a Crowd Control effect is removed from you. Generic
The Calculated
Malignant Heart Utility.png
Devious
Utility
(World Tier III): After spending 150-200 of your Primary Resource, your next attack Stuns enemies hit for 2 seconds. Generic
The Malignant Pact
Malignant Heart Wrathful.png
Wrathful
Super
Cycle through a Malignant bonus every 20 kills:
  • Vicious: Gain 20% Attack Speed.
  • Devious: Core and Basic Skills have a 15% chance to fully restore your Primary Resource.
  • Brutal: Every 21 seconds, gain a Barrier absorbing 85 - 102 damage.
Generic
Creeping Death
Malignant Heart Wrathful.png
Wrathful
Super
Your damage over time effects are increased by 30-40% for each different Crowd Control effect on the target. Unstoppable monsters and Staggered bosses instead take 110-130% increased damage from your damage over time effects. Generic
The Barber
Malignant Heart Wrathful.png
Wrathful
Super
Critical Strikes and all subsequent damage within 2.0 - 4.0 seconds is absorbed by your target. Then, the absorbed damage erupts onto surrounding enemies. Stored damage is increased by 10% per second. Generic

Barbarian

Name Category Desciption Class
Focused Rage
Malignant Heart Offense.png
Vicious
Offensive
After spending 100-60 Fury within 2 seconds, your next Non-Basic Skill's Critical Strike Chance is increased by 20-30%. Barbarian
Resurgent Life
Malignant Heart Defense.png
Brutal
Defensive
While below 40-60% Life, you receive 50-60% more Healing from all sources. Barbarian
Punishing Speed
Malignant Heart Utility.png
Devious
Utility
Your Skills have a 20-30% chance to Knock Down all enemies for 1.25 seconds when that Skill's Attack Speed is higher than 35-20%. Barbarian
Ignoring Pain
Malignant Heart Wrathful.png
Wrathful
Super
(Wrathful, Super-World Tier IV): Incoming damage has a 5-15% chance of being ignored and instead Healing you for 17-68. Barbarian

Druid

Name Category Desciption Class
The Moonrage
Malignant Heart Offense.png
Vicious
Offensive
Kills have a 5% chance to summon a Wolf Companion to your side for 20-30 seconds. In addition, gain +3 to Wolves. Druid
The Agitated Winds
Malignant Heart Defense.png
Brutal
Defensive
When 8-13 Close enemies, automatically cast Cyclone Armor. This cannot occur more than once every 10 - 20 seconds. Druid
Inexorable Force
Malignant Heart Utility.png
Devious
Utility
Up to 30-50 Distant enemies are pulled toward you while you have an Ultimate Skill active. Druid
The Unconstrained Beast
Malignant Heart Wrathful.png
Wrathful
Super
(World Tier IV): When you are hit with a Stun, Freeze or Knock Down effect, there is a 40-60% chance to automatically activate Grizzly Rage for 3 seconds. Druid

Necromancer

Name Category Desciption Class
The Sacrilegious
Malignant Heart Offense.png
Vicious
Offensive
Walking near a Corpse automatically activates an equipped Corpse Skill every second, dealing 40-30% reduced damage. Necromancer
The Decrepit Aura
Malignant Heart Defense.png
Brutal
Defensive
When at least 5 enemies are near you, gain an aura that automatically curses surrounding enemies with Decrepify for 5-15 seconds. Necromancer
Frozen Terror
Malignant Heart Utility.png
Devious
Utility
Lucky Hit: Up to a 10-20% chance of inflicting Fear for 2.5 seconds. Feared enemies are Chilled for 20% every second. Necromancer
The Great Feast
Malignant Heart Wrathful.png
Wrathful
Super
(World Tier IV): Each Minion drains 1 - 2 Essence per second but deals 50 - 75% increased damage. With no Minions, this bonus applies to you and drains 5 Essence per second. Necromancer

Rogue

Name Category Desciption Class
Cluster Munitions
Malignant Heart Offense.png
Vicious
Offensive
Lucky Hit: You have up to a 20% chance to launch 3 Stun Grenades that deal 26 - 32 Physical damage and Stun enemies for 0.50 seconds. Rogue
Trickery
Malignant Heart Defense.png
Brutal
Defensive
When you use a Subterfuge skill, leave behind an unstable Shadow Decoy Trap that Taunts enemies. The Shadow Decoy Trap will explode after 6 seconds dealing 680 - 1020 Shadow damage. It cannot occur more than once every 5 seconds. Rogue
The Clipshot
Malignant Heart Utility.png
Devious
Utility
Lucky Hit: Up to a 20 - 40% chance for your Cutthroat Skills to Slow by 40% for 3 seconds and your Marksman Skills to Knock Back enemies. Rogue
The Great Feast
Malignant Heart Wrathful.png
Wrathful
Super
(World Tier IV): Your attacks have a 5-15% chance to apply all Imbuement effects at 40-50% of normal potency. Rogue

Sorcerer

Name Category Desciption Class
Tal Rasha
Malignant Heart Offense.png
Vicious
Offensive
For each unique element you deal damage with, you deal 7-12% increased damage for 3-10 seconds. Sorcerer
Spellbreaking
Malignant Heart Defense.png
Brutal
Defensive
After taking Elemental damage, gain 20-40% Resistance to that element for 5 seconds. Sorcerer
Spite
Malignant Heart Utility.png
Devious
Utility
When you are afflicted with a Crowd Control effect, there is a 20-40% chance that the same enemy and enemies around you are also afflicted with the same effect for 3 seconds. Sorcerer
Omnipower
Malignant Heart Wrathful.png
Wrathful
Super
(World Tier IV): Core Skills that launch a projectile consume all of your Mana. For every 45-35 extra Mana consumed, you launch an additional projectile, and the damage is increased by 3.0-5.0%. Sorcerer