After more than 10 years of waiting, the gates of hell have finally opened up and we can all play Diablo IV. Activision Blizzard’s action RPG is truly a gaming marvel, capturing the joy of endless loot grinding while allowing anyone to fulfill their monster-squashing fantasies.
But before you even get the chance to enter Sanctuary, you need to choose one of five classes in Diablo IV. There’s the weapon master Barbarian, the skeleton-summoning Necromancer, the shape-shifting Druid, the sneaky Rogue, and the elemental Sorceror. Naturally, you may want to know which class is the strongest so you don’t waste your time leveling up a weak end-game warrior.
Of course, which class is better is entirely subjective, since each option has access to dozens of different abilities and configurations, offering a nearly endless amount of customization. Still, after dozens of hours of play, we’re come up with a tier list of the best classes in Diablo IV.
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5. Barbarian
When Diablo 4 was in Beta, the Barbarian was one of the most consistent and powerful classes you could pick. Using your Shout ability to keep your resources high, you could essentially use your Whirlwind nearly non-stop and destroy any shambling beast in your path. But after a post-launch nerf that severely hindered the strength of your yell, the Barbarian is looking a little less overpowered.
Still, even with that change, the Barbarian still has some bite. The ability to master weapons, gaining stats as you level up, grants the beefy builder just a bit more power and stats. As long as you balance keeping your Shout up before big fights, you should be able to still do a lot of slaughtering.
4. Necromancer
The DLC character of Diablo 3 was brought back for the sequel, raising an army of undead along the way. The Necromancer relies heavily on his ghoulish buddies to tank enemies and keep him company. You’ll basically never be alone! They also have access to a wide array of macabre weapons, including your Grim Scythe and Blood Siphon.
The Necromancer has access to a tool that no other class does: the corpse. One of my favorite things to do is use Corpse Explosion once one enemy is dead to cause a chain reaction that eliminates everything on the screen. Though it’s a strong class, it does suffer against single targets and needs a very precise build to be useful.
3. Rogue
The Rogue is a sneaky little devil that utilizes traps and daggers to eliminate the competition. It’s a versatile class that can attack from afar with high DPS crossbow attacks or goes for the jugular with a well-placed stealthy dagger. The Rogue is considered to be one of the better classes in the game, especially since they can lace their weapons with poison or use their expert mobility to run circles around enemies.
They are also the only class to have access to the Combo Points specialization, which stacks damage and certain attributes depending on how many times you attacked with a weapon, up to a maximum of three. Some abilities can get insane amounts of damage just by repeating them over and over.
2. Druid
The most unique class is the Druid, utilizing the elements and nature to deal tons of damage. Utilizing the Spirit Boons, you get an extra buff mid-game that helps make you just a tad bit stronger. Add that to the Druid’s elemental affinity, and it allows for multiple different viable builds that all pack their own punch.
Shapeshifting offers a unique path to damage, either using the werewolf’s Shred or werebear’s Pulverize to eliminate whole swarms of enemies with just a few button presses. Or you can go with the popular storm build, using Cyclone Armor and Tornado to stay healthy while you deal tons of damage. With such a wide variety of popular builds, all with their own unique strengths and weaknesses, the Druid truly is one of Diablo IV’s most remarkable classes.
1. Sorceror
Now, the Sorceror might not be as tanky or have as much build versatility as its competitors, but it makes up for it with pure damage. You can build straight into the fire and flames, dropping lots of Firewalls to burn all your enemies to a crisp. Then there’s more of a frosty approach, becoming a rapid-fire spell slinger with Ice Shards. Sorcerers can clear entire rooms of enemies with just a few spells and then wait around for their cooldowns to come back to deal even more.
It’s a simple character that is a blast to play and I highly recommended giving it a shot on your next playthrough. Just remember that your mana will deplete quickly no matter what you do so keep an eye on your resources.
Diablo IV is available on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation
I’d definitely pick Druid given my interest in animals and such.