Diablo 4 class tier list, best classes ranked

Diablo 4 class tier list, best classes ranked

At the time of the game’s launch, Diablo 4 comes with five basic classes. Each one has their own identity and play style which players can use as their baseline when picking one to complete the game. In general, all classes are fun to play and offer enough tools to complete the game’s main story quests and the dungeons. There are, however, minor differences between them that can make your life easier when facing endgame bosses or if this is your first time playing a Diablo game.

This tier list was made taking some points into consideration. First, we would look at how strong the class is not only in terms of DPS, or in other words the class’s capacity of dealing as much damage as possible in the shortest time, but if it takes a considerable amount of time and investment to make the class cause considerable damage. Another aspect that is important to consider is if the class offers a good variety of skills, allowing builds that meet different play styles.

The last two conditions we wanted to check with the Diablo 4 classes were how player-friendly they are and their efficiency in providing help to teammates. The former is fundamental when suggesting a class for players that aren’t experienced with the game or other Action RPGs. And the latter, considering that the game offers support for multiplayer, might be important to consider depending on how you are going to play the game.

With these four points in mind, let’s rank the classes.

All Diablo 4 classes ranked from best to worst at a glance:

1. Necromancer
2. Sorcerer
3. Rogue
4. Druid
5. Barbarian

Necromancer

At the top of this list we have the Necromancer for many good reasons. Traditionally, this class has kept a large fanbase, and in Diablo 4, not only them but new players as well, can have a great time playing this class.

Because of the ability to summon Minions to fight for them, Necromancer is the safest class to play. Less experienced players don’t need to be afraid of exploring the world of Diablo 4 while they are still figuring things out because the Minions work as a group of other players that can protect them. This gives players room to think about what they should do next or focus on escaping from the boss’s skills while their Skeletal Warriors do all the damage. On the other hand, due to the fact that the Necromancer’s kit offers a good number of different skills, seasoned players can run more complex builds that require more strategic thinking or attention.

While this is a simple class to play, the Necromancer has a good damage output when it comes to fighting one or multiple enemies. To complement the damage caused by the Minion, players can also explode corpses, place area-of-effect debuffs that negatively affect enemies, and, of course, attack using an ethereal scythe. In addition to this, the Necromancer can mitigate damage or heal and the class comes with some crowd-control abilities that can help their group.

In summary, Necromancer is a powerful class, easy to play, with good survivability and utility tools.

Sorcerer

Right after the Necromancer, we have the Sorcerer as one of the best classes in Diablo 4. Sure, magic is usually broken in fantasy games, but it’s not only the Sorcerer’s destructive power that secures the second position for this class.

Sure, when it comes to pure damage, the Sorcerer is great. It’s possible to perceive how powerful this class is compared to others since Level 1 and it becomes more explicit as you level the character up. From skeletons disappearing with a simple cast of Chain Lightning in the initial areas to a boss getting smashed by the four-head Hydra some levels after, the Sorcerer’s power scales pretty well.

At the same time, as the Sorcerer shoots Fireballs, this class offers good crowd-control tools to make the player’s life easier. Players can either slow enemies by hitting them with Ice magic or cast the Inferno Ultimate to hold enemies in place. All this power doesn’t come with a price and having to manage Sorcerer’s mana is one of the downsides new players need to work around if they want to play this class.

While the Sorcerer has good damage and utility, the class lacks survivability tools to help players. All it offers are either barriers or a teleporting skill to reposition, but these aren’t enough to guarantee players can take a hit from a boss and not be severely punished. Because of how squishy this class is, it requires players' attention and practice to keep a safe distance from enemies.

Even so, players who pick the Sorcerer will find a strong class that rewards them for sticking with it.

Rogue

The master of the shadows, the Rogue, occupies the third position in this tier list because, while it has the highest damage output among Diablo 4 classes, this is quite a challenging one to play.

The Rogue shines thanks to the class’s capacity of dealing Critical Damage and burst enemies. The Twisting Blade build, for example, is capable of dealing massive damage against a group of enemies or a boss. It’s the same if using a build focused on using long-distance weapons. In both scenarios, the Rogue’s ability to imbue their attacks to add effects that go from dealing area-of-effect damage to placing a damage-over-time stack onto enemies is an outstanding tool.

Moreover, players can structure their build to take advantage of Rogue’s adaptability since they can change from melee to ranged attacks quickly, helping players to attack enemies in different situations. So, Rogue is a class for those players that enjoy wiping enemies out quickly with cool-looking moves. But, this is a difficult class to play all the same.

Because this class is quite weak when it comes to dealing with incoming damage, the Rogue requires that players plan their moves before jumping into action as well as mechanical competence to take the most out of this class. Although players may have access to a couple of escape abilities – depending on the build they are running! – if players aren’t focused and paying attention, they might end up surrounded by enemies pretty easily.

And it’s important to take note that the Rogue doesn’t have strong crowd-control skills. The way the class’s Skill Tree was structured, one might have to abdicate the chance of increasing their damage to have a not-so-potent skill that Chill enemies. As a Rogue, one must always look for more damage.

Druid

On one hand, the Druid has one of the Skill Trees that supports more diversity in terms of builds. Do players want to fight using elemental spells and summon hurricanes to attack enemies? No problem! Would they rather transform into a werewolf or a werebear to slash demons? Also possible! This flexibility that Druid’s skills offer is great to accommodate more play styles.

Now, on the other hand, while there are many ways of playing Druid, making it perform just as well as other classes is troublesome. As a spell caster, the Druid is not as potent initially as the Sorcerer, and as a melee werewolf/werebear, the class is not as powerful as the Rogue. Another big issue the Druid has is managing the class resource, Spirit Points. These are not generated automatically and the tools available to players to improve this aspect are very limited, depending on elements such as gear, aspects, and gems that assist generating Spirit.

Once players get the hang of the Druid, encounters become easier. The Druid’s kit comes with good skills to deal with groups of enemies and a few solid ones for single-target fights. New players are going to feel immortal in some situations when playing as the Druid because of the tools the class has to mitigate damage.

So, although the Druid can shine in the endgame, in general, this class isn’t superior in any of the elements we are taking into consideration for this list.

Barbarian

In the last position of this list, we have the Barbarian. This is a well-known figure in the series and, in Diablo 4, this class fulfills its intended role. In the first place, damage dealing has never been the reason why the class has been known for, in and outside of the Diablo games. However, when compared to the Druid, Barbarian’s damage doesn’t escalate as well as the shape-shifting class does. This doesn’t mean that the class is incapable of dealing good damage though.

The Barbarian can cause a lot of passive damage, thanks to builds such as the Thorn one, which takes advantage of the class capacity of using incoming damage against enemies. The Barbarian has a kit with great tools to mitigate damage and heal the character, allowing players to progress through the game with no fear of dying easily at the hands of a foe.

Besides that, the class compensates for the lack of damage with skills simple to perform. One can simply jump into a group of enemies, use one of the Shout skills the class has, either to mitigate damage or buff their attacks, and then start spinning around with Whirlwind. Once Fury, the class’s resource ends, it just takes some time using basic attacks to have enough of it to repeat the process.

At the same time, the fact that this is basically all you can do with the Barbarian makes it one of the classes that support less variety when it comes to play styles. It doesn’t matter what players want to do, they inevitably need to beat demons in the face whether they are using an axe or their own hands. The class’s capacity of providing help to possible teammates hardly goes beyond taunting enemies and tanking damage.

And that’s our Diablo 4 tier list!