What does it mean if your item “has been blocklisted”?

Rarely, Diablo 4 players will find they can’t equip specific pieces of gear, due to being “blocklisted”. The way to tell if a gear has been blocklisted is pretty easy: Check for a red x over it’s art, and at the bottom of the tooltip, you’ll see “This item has been blocklisted”. Ultimately, it just means you can’t equip it right now, but that’s something that, in every case so far, has been remedied eventually.

Typically, it’s because there was something wrong with that particular piece of gear. The most recent example of being blocklisted in Diablo 4 was May 2, 2025 when the Crown of Lucion had a damage-scaling issue, and is being worked on, according to Blizzard’s Community Manager filthierich. Here’s what blocklisted means for you.

What having a piece of blocklisted gear means in Diablo 4

If an item is blocklisted in Diablo 4, it cannot be equipped due to unintended power scaling or other issues. It could be anything from a piece of gear needing to be adjusted, or a bug that’s causing incredible amounts of damage to trigger — or even that it’s not doing what it was supposed to in the first place. We’ve had a few instances of blocklisting in the game over the past few years.

For example, when Vessel of Hatred launched, three Uniques were blocklisted: Shroud of False Death, Azurewrath, and Frostburn. Now, it doesn’t stop you from looting these pieces of gear. You can still farm them just fine from wherever they would normally drop. However, until Blizzard removes the blocklist tag in D4, that piece of gear cannot be equipped.

This can also happen to Legendary Aspects, too. Aspect of the Agile Wolf is one that was officially blocklisted at the start of the Vessel of Hatred expansion as well. Don’t panic if you see a piece of gear that’s been blocklisted, though. It just means something is wrong with it, and that Blizzard has seen it, and is working on it.

Once the blocklist has been removed, you can equip it as normal. Just don’t panic, and salvage the unique for spare parts, if you see the blocklisted tag in Diablo 4. It’s only a matter of time before you can use it again.

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