How to Get Balazan's Maxtlatl in Diablo 4

By Ambar Jimenez | 2025-07-10 09:22:24
Balazan's Maxtlatl is a powerful new Spiritborn Unique in Diablo 4, introduced with Season 9: Sins of the Horadrim. This item is a game-changer for players looking to push endgame content with Poison or Thorns-based Spiritborn builds, particularly those centered around the "Centipede" archetype. While it may not reach the raw power of some "Eagle" or "Jaguar" builds, it significantly enhances the viability and opens up numerous creative and strong setups for Poison/Thorns Spiritborns.If you're aiming to build a formidable Centipede Spiritborn, Balazan's Maxtlatl is a must-have item. Here’s how you can efficiently acquire this Unique.

Diablo 4 Balazan's Maxtlatl Drop Location

Balazan's Maxtlatl can technically drop from any item source that yields Unique items, but for targeted farming, you'll want to focus on specific endgame bosses.The most reliable sources for Balazan's Maxtlatl are:
  • Varshan, the Consumed: You can challenge Varshan by interacting with his altar in his boss room. To obtain valuable loot from him, you need to spend 12 Malignant Hearts to open his Treasure Hoard after defeating him. In Season 9, boss materials are no longer consumed to initiate the fight but are used to open the reward chests.
  • Urivar: Similar to Varshan, Urivar is another boss with a targeted loot pool that includes Balazan's Maxtlatl.
Important Note on Difficulty:For any hope of getting meaningful loot, including Unique items like Balazan's Maxtlatl, you should be playing on Torment 1 (World Tier 3) difficulty or higher. While it's theoretically possible to find Uniques on lower difficulties, the drop rates are exceedingly low. On Torment 1 and above, your chances significantly increase, making farming much more efficient.

Where to Farm Malignant Hearts


Since Malignant Hearts are essential for opening Varshan's Treasure Hoard, farming them efficiently is crucial.

Here are the best ways to acquire Malignant Hearts:

  • Whisper Caches from the Tree of Whispers: These caches have a solid chance of rewarding Malignant Hearts, especially when playing on Torment 1 difficulty or higher. Farming Whisper bounties set in Dungeons is highly convenient, as completingjust two of these usually provides enough Grim Favors to earn a WhisperCache.
  • Kurast Undercity: This dungeon is an excellent spot for farming boss materials, including Malignant Hearts. Its efficiency is significantly boosted if you have a Tribute of Titans in your inventory, which guarantees a shower of boss materials upon completing your run.
  • Fayira, Raheir's daughter (The Den in Kurast): This NPC occasionally sells boss material caches for Pale Marks. You can refresh her store after purchasing a cache for a chance to buyanother, making it a good vendor-based farming method if you have excess Pale Marks.
  • Nightmare Dungeons: While not explicitly for hearts, bosses within Nightmare Dungeons can also drop Malignant Hearts.
  • World Bosses & Blood Maiden: These open-world bosses also have a chance to drop Malignant Hearts.
  • Grotesque Debtors: These rare elites found in the open world (often near Whisper events or in Helltides) reliably drop Malignant Hearts.

Is Balazan's Maxtlatl Any Good?

Absolutely! Balazan's Maxtlatl is a highly potent Unique, specifically designed to empower Spiritborn Poison and Thorns builds. Its unique power transforms your Thorns damage into a significant offensive tool:


  • Reflected Damage: When equipped, your attacks against Close enemies will deal your Thorns damage.
  • Poison Application: Simultaneously, those close enemies are Poisoned for 100% of that same Thorns amount over 3 seconds.
  • Poison Amplification: The most powerful aspect is its stacking buff: each time you've retaliated with Thorns, for 5 seconds the Poisoning damage is increased by 100%, stacking up to 300%. This means your Poison damage from Thorns can be quadrupled.

This unique effect creates a synergistic feedback loop, where your defensive Thorns stat becomes a primary source of both direct and escalatingPoison damage. For players utilizing builds like the "Scourge" variantof Spiritborn or any other Thorns-focused setup, Balazan's Maxtlatlprovides a noticeable and often substantial performance improvement,even without significant changes to an existing build. It opens up a new dimension for Spiritborn players, allowing them to turn enemyaggression into devastating retaliation.

Tags: Diablo IV, action RPG, dungeon crawler, loot-driven, dark fantasy, character classes, skill trees, endgame content, worl
Platform(s): Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Microsoft Windows
Genre(s): Action role-playing, hack and slash
Developer(s): Blizzard Team 3, Blizzard Albany
Publisher(s): Blizzard Entertainment
Release date: June 6, 2023
Mode: Single-player, multiplayer
Age rating (PEGI): 18+
Video preview



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