With the launch of Season 2 just around the corner, it is time to revisit the current situation of all classes in Diablo 4, see what they offer in-store regarding playstyle and performance, and think of the relevant updates to come in the Season of Blood. Let’s see which class will suit you the best on your journey to level 100.
New Variables in Season 2
Before starting the class reviews, we should consider new updates to the main stats and mechanics introduced in the patch notes. The players have neglected the resistance stats due to their general ineffectiveness compared to the Armor versatility. That will change with the Resist rework, making it much more viable in the endgame and greatly improving the correlation of Intelligence to resist per each point of the stat. Intellect-heavy classes like Necromancers and Sorcs will most benefit from these changes. In contrast, other classes may pay more attention to the new balance of gear affixes, such as Vulnerable, Crit, or Overpower damage.
Necromancer
Going into Season 2, the Necromancer’s toolkit remains strong and even experiences some long-awaited buffs to the minions, increasing their defenses and inheriting the thorn damage. As the minions’ build potency rises, the Bone Spear continues to be an exceptional option with powerful ranged damage. Alternate options, such as the Blood Surge Overpower, remain viable and fun to play, providing greatly increased survivability.
With the prospect of being able to target farm the uber-unique gear in Season 2, luck and dedication, you can make crazy powerful builds on the Necromancer and, as a matter of fact, on other classes too.
Still, with the rarity of such items, you should expect to put a lot of work and time into farming or getting the Diablo 4 boost to speed things up, but the value provided by some of the uniques is worth investing in.
Druid
Druid is quite a versatile class to play, with lots of survivability, CC, and powerful sustained damage. White Druids may struggle with the early gameplay; it’s well compensated upon reaching the Endgame. You have a variety of builds to choose from, featuring completely different playstyles and power fantasies. Most of these builds are great for speedrunning the dungeons with great AoE and powerful damage reduction spells and passives. With the upcoming changes to the Overpower, HP Fortify builds will become even more viable than before.
Rogue
Great performance on early levels and well into the Endgame, variability of viable builds focused on both melee (Twisting Blades) and ranged attacks (Penetrating Shot), and unprecedented crowd control make the Rogue a consistent option to consider whenever you choose to make a new character. If you love fast-paced gameplay, this class is a good choice for you, and the fact that Rogues received fewer balance changes than other classes means that they are currently in a good power spot.
Barbarian
Whirlwind and Hota Barbarian builds remain more than viable, even after a series of nerfs in the latest updates in Season 1.
Just like with Druids, it takes some time to uncover the full potential of Barbarian going from lower levels into the endgame, but with all the powerful abilities unlocked, you can wreak havoc and destruction all around you, turning into an unstoppable force with great resilience, even against most challenging enemies.
Sorcerer
While certainly powerful and with some great builds like Ice Shards remaining on the radar, the class feels less consistent compared to others due to the latest nerfs of passive traits. With some effort, you can make a very powerful build with tons of damage and damage reduction and take full advantage of the upcoming Resistance rework, which, if done correctly, can ascend some builds to the tops of tier lists.
It is worth mentioning that some abilities have received long-awaited buffs, such as Hydra’s damage boost being increased times four from 12 to 60 percent. And we hope developers keep exploring the possibilities to improve some other aspects of Sorcs.
Final Thoughts
You should choose the class for Season 2 depending on your gameplay preferences, as their relative power is quite balanced – all classes have viable, powerful builds for all types of Endgame content, so it’s only up to you how exactly to destroy the enemies of Sanctuary, in a flurry of axes and blades, or with a tornado of ice and flames.
If the leveling speed is of the essence, Sorc, Necro, and Rogue are relatively faster to level up than Druids and Barbarians. Still, with the updates to leveling in Season 2 and increasing the received XP by 40%, this is now even less of a priority than before. The accessibility of fun and powerful spells in the early game is, on the other hand, worth considering if you want to have more action-packed gameplay right from the start.
