This is a returning item featured in the franchise. The specifications and bonuses provided have been modified to better fit Diablo 4 over its predecessor, Diablo 2.
The flavor text for the item reads as follows, “This headdress was once worn by an assassin disguised as a court mage. Her treachery was unveiled, but not before she used its magic to curse the king's entire lineage." with the quote credited to The Fall of House Aston.
Updated by Chad Thesen on 26 June 2023: This guide has been updated to add some useful builds to make use of this piece of gear. It has also provided embedded links to some build guides from the talented writers here at Dualshockers, as well as links for easier navigation to other articles.
What Is The Harlequin Crest
This is one piece of gear you won't want to salvage until you find a better one of the same kind. The Harlequin Crest is a Helm Item. It is available to all classes and can fit into many builds for its universally favored bonuses. These bonuses include an increase in the wearer’s maximum Life and reductions to the wearer's ability cooldowns. Lastly, it features increases to its wearer’s stats. What is most desirable about it is that it is a Unique Armour, meaning it comes with a unique effect. The effect in question reads as follows “Gain 10% Damage Reduction. In addition, gain +4 Ranks to all Skills.” This percentage of 10 can reach a total value of up to 20%.
How To Get The Harlequin Crest
This piece of gear is a random drop. However, it will only start to drop at World Tier III with a higher chance of dropping at World Tier IV. So, you will need to raise your World Tier if it is too low. To have a chance at getting it, you will need to do one of the following. Defeat an enemy, though the chance of the drop will increase when facing off against more powerful enemies such as Elites, as well as setting the world tier to a higher value. Another option for finding this piece of gear is simply to open chests and hope one of them pops out. This piece of gear is also able to drop simply by breaking things in the game world. The best approach to acquiring The Harlequin Crest is to set the World Tier to IV and slay every single enemy you come across, break every single object, and open every single chest. This will give you the highest probability of acquiring The Harlequin Crest.
Best Builds For This Item
By far, the build that gets the most from this item is that of a sorcerer. The Fire Sorcerer build, to be precise. The increased life is nice to make you survive and extra hit, but the +2 ranks in skills and cooldown reduction just make this DPS monster of a build even more effective. This item may work with a lot of different builds, but it takes this build to a whole other level. Other class builds that receive a sizable up from this item are the Druid Companion build, Barbarian Double Swing Shouter, and Barbarian Whirlwind Frenzy. Some Necromancer builds that focus on sacrificing their summons have seen some good numbers too, but not as much as Sorcerer builds and Barbarian builds using this piece of gear.