Shrine

Are you looking for shrines in Diablo I Shrines or Diablo II Shrines?

Shrines are structures that players can click to receive temporary buffs. The following are available:

• Desecrated Shrine - Reduces damage taken by 25%.
• Enlightened Shrine - +25% Experience. This does not spawn in Inferno difficulty as players need to be level 60 to enter that and that is the max level. *
• Fortune Shrine - +25% Magic and Gold Find.
• Frenzied Shrine - Increases attack speed and critical damage bonus by 25%.

* With the introduction of the Paragon leveling system for players level 60 and above Blizzard revealed that they are considering allowing the Enlightened Shrine to buff players in Inferno difficulty.

We actually talked about introducing additional Shrine types in the future during a meeting we had earlier today. We’re also currently discussing the possibility of adding the Enlightenment Shrine into Inferno mode since the +XP bonus would be particularly appealing to players working towards their Paragon levels.

A Demon Hunter with a shrine buff.

Shrines do not appear on the mini map or main map. They are labelled when moused over. Once they are clicked a message will appear on screen notifying the player of the buff. Party members within the vicinity will also receive the buff and message. An animated wisp will appear above the affected players' heads and they look the same for each type of Shrine.

An icon will sit on screen above the experience bar and will indicate when the buff will expire. It has a tooltip which provides details of the shrine's effects. All shrine buffs last for 2 minutes. Multiple shrine buffs can be active at the same time.

Shrines are randomly generated. Although there are specific points at which a shrine may appear one won't always appear and the type is also random, chosen from the four available. They do not replenish. Unlike Wells.

Wells are fonts of health that replenish all health of the player that clicks the Well and party members within the vicinity. They replenish in a minute.

Diablo Shrines Through the Ages

In Diablo I, shrines appeared as black wooden constructions with white crosses on them, candles burning on both sides. When the player clicked on them, the shrine would become disfigured and slightly demonic with a sword appearing near the base.

In Diablo II, shrines came in a large variety but were a bit more primal and not as tied to the real-life imagery of religion. In the early game, the player would stumble upon a shrine that consisted of skulls and bones sitting upon the top of a pike, with stones gathered around the base on the ground. When the player clicked on it, they effectively "desecrated" the shrine, destroyed it, giving the bonus.

However, in Diablo III, shrines were natively "desecrated" and the player purified them by interacting with them. The character classes of Diablo III were attempting to undo the damage done by the carelessness of the Diablo II characters. The "desecrated" lable was dropped from all shrines during development.

Previous Development

Information on shrines before release has been preserved in the Shrine archive page.