Diablo 4, like its predecessors, has several classes that players can choose from to take down the hoards of Hell and remove Lilith from her throne. These range from the shapeshifting Druid to the traditional spellcasting Sorcerer.

Each class has its own unique class mechanic, skill tree, and gameplay to get to grips with. Players are guaranteed to find a character to suit their preferences and play styles; however, some classes are better than others. While seasoned Diablo players will likely know which classes are the best based on previous games, newcomers to the franchise may have more trouble.

Not to worry, here are all Diablo 4 classes ranked from best to worst, alongside everything you need to know about each class, including their basic skills and ultimate abilities.

How many classes are in Diablo 4?

There are five classes in Diablo 4, each with individual strengths and weaknesses. Each class is tailorable for players with their own unique skill tree, which can be customized to suit each individual player and their play style.

Here is a brief summary of each Diablo 4 class and what they specialize in.

  • Barbarian: melee, high damage
  • Druid: AoE and single target damage
  • Necromancer: crowd control, high damage
  • Rogue: ranged and melee, stealth, single-target attacks
  • Sorcerer: ranged weapons with AoE abilities

Diablo 4 Classes: Ranked

Necromancer

The Necromancer class is undoubtedly the strongest of the five launch classes in Diablo 4 due to their sheer versatility. Compared to other classes, they have massive AoE damage potential and are the perfect class for newcomers to Diablo.

The Necromancer's primary resource is Essence, which regenerates over time. It is used to cast various powerful spells in the Necromancer's arsenal. Basic attacks can also be used to build Essence back up.

Corpses are a Necromancer's secondary resource, where they can utilize the remains of nearby fallen enemies. Corpses serve multiple purposes for a Necromancer: they can be summoned as skeletal minions, used as traps like Corpse Explosion, or even consumed to regain Essence.

The Book of the Dead allows Necromancers to pick through various minions, unlocking more when leveling up. Like other DPS classes, Necromancers tend to be squishy regarding health, so players must keep their distance.

Necromancer Core Skills

  • Blight  - Unleash concentrated blight that deals damage, leaving behind a blighted area that deals damage over time to enemies that walk through it.
  • Corpse Explosion - Detonate a nearby corpse, damaging surrounding enemies
  • Corpse Tendrils - Veins explode out of a corpse, reeling in enemies and stunning them while also dealing damage
  • Reap - Sweet an ethereal swipe in front of you, dealing damage. Hitting an enemy with Reap increases your damage reduction for a time.

Necromancer Ultimate Skills

  • Army of the Dead - Summon the deep-buried dead, causing skeletons to emerge over the next seven seconds, which explode, dealing 45% damage.
  • Blood Wave - Conjure a tidal wave of blood that deals 120% damage and Knocks Back enemies.
  • Bone Storm - A swirling storm of bones appears, dealing 180% damage to surrounding enemies over ten seconds.

Barbarian

The Barbarian class is a series staple to the Diablo franchise. They have the most health and brute strength in Diablo 4 and previous games. They are designed to lunge headfirst into battle, smashing their opponents into bloody pieces with sheer strength.

Barbarians build Fury with each attack, allowing them to unleash a devastating Fury attack during combat. Barbarians also use the Arsenal System, where their abilities require a specific type of weapon. Barbarians now have four weapon slots to swap freely between their weapons, so they can equip one-handed and two-handed weapons in the same build.

Barbarian Basic Skills

  • Bash - Requires a bludgeoning weapon and has a 20% chance to stun enemies for 0.5 seconds. Generates nine Fury
  • Flay - Requires a slashing weapon and inflicts bleeding damage over six seconds. Generates nine Fury
  • Frenzy - Requires dual-wielding weapons. Unleash a rapid flurry of blows dealing damage with each pair of hits. Attack Speed is increased by 20% for three seconds, up to 60%. Generates five Fury.
  • Lunging Strike - Lunge forward and strike an enemy. Generates nine Fury.

Barbarian Fury Skills

  • Double Swing - Requires dual-wielding weapons. Sweet your weapons from opposite directions, dealing damage from both weapons. Enemies caught in the center are hit by both.
  • Hammer of the Ancients - Requires a two-handed bludgeoning weapon. Slam your hammer down with the Fury of the ancients, dealing damage to a concentrated area.
  • Upheaval - Requires a two-handed weapon. Tear into the ground with your weapon, flinging debris forward.
  • Rend - Requires a slashing weapon. Cleave enemies in front of you, inflicting damage over five seconds.
  • Whirlwind - Rapidly attack nearby enemies for damage.

Barbarian Ultimate Skills

  • Call of the Ancients - Call three Ancients (Talic, Korlic, Madawc) to aid the Barbarian in a battle for six seconds.
  • Iron Maelstrom - Whirl the weapon around on a chain, continuously dealing Physical damage to nearby enemies.
  • Wrath of the Barbarian - Go Berserk for 15 seconds. Every 20 Fury spent increases the effect by 25%. Berserk increases damage by 25% and movement speed by 30%.

Sorcerer

The Sorcerer class is perfect for players who like to keep their distance from the action, opting for ranged attacks as a spellcaster. Wielding the might of the elemental powers based around Ice, Fire, and Lightning, the Sorcerer can decimate waves of enemies in large areas.

The Sorcerer can passively regenerate Mana, unlike other classes. Her sheer amount of damage potential means she has the least amount of health, making her a glass cannon, alongside her lack of mobility. The Enhancement system for Sorcerer is also simple to understand, providing powerful passive bonuses depending on which skills are currently equipped.

Sorcerer Basic Skills

  • Arc Lash - Unleash arcing lightning that shocks enemies before you, restoring 10 Mana.
  • Spark - Launch a Lightning bolt at an enemy that bounces to other enemies, dealing 30% less damage to each enemy hit.
  • Fire Bolt - Hurl a flaming bolt, dealing damage and burning enemies over eight seconds.
  • Frost Bolt - Throw a Frost Bolt at an enemy dealing damage and Chilling them.

Sorcerer Destructive Skills

  • Ice Shards - Launch five Ice Shards that deal damage, with extra damage to frozen enemies
  • Frozen Orb - Unleash an orb that chills and explodes, piercing shards.
  • Incinerate - Channel a beam of fire, burning enemies. Damage increases the longer the enemies stand in the path of fire.
  • Fireball - Hurl a fireball that explodes on contact, dealing AoE damage
  • Chain Lightning - Unleash a lightning bolt that jumps to nearby targets
  • Charged Bolts - Release six bolts of lightning that move along the ground in an erratic pattern

Sorcerer Ultimate Skills

  • Blizzard - Summon a damaging Blizzard that chills enemies for 18% over eight seconds while dealing damage.
  • Meteor - Summon a fiery meteor that strikes the ground at the target location, dealing 50% damage and burning the ground over three seconds.
  • Firewall - Create a wall of flames that burns enemies for 176% damage over eight seconds.
  • Ball Lightning - Release a ball of lightning that moves slowly forward, dealing continuous damage to enemies and zapping them.

Rogue

Like the Demon Hunter in previous games, the Rogue class in Diablo 4 can use both Ranged and Melee combat, making them the perfect all-rounder character. To make things even more interesting, the Rogue is the only class with class-specific quests, which can be found in the Sanctuary.

Rogues are arguably the most versatile class out of all the classes and the jack of all trades. Why? Because they have three class specializations: Combo Points, Shadow Realm, and the Exploit Weakness specialization. 

The Combo Points specialization stacks damage and attributes depending on how often you have attacked with a weapon or skills. Shadow Realm is perfect for melee Rogues to lure enemies into a void, while Exploit Weakness shows icons divulging an opponent's weakness for the player to exploit. Inner Sight, unlocked at Level 20, allows players to mark a random enemy within a group. Attacking marked enemies fills up the Inner Sight gauge, granting them unlimited Energy for four seconds.

Rogues also have imbued effects that they can use on their weapons, granting additional debuffs for enemies. The downside of Ruges is that they struggle with large groups of enemies, as all their basic attacks are single-target focused, and it can be complicated getting to grips with their different skill trees and builds.

Rogue Imbue Skills

  • Cold - Imbues the Rogue's attacks and skills with the Chill/Frost effect, dealing Cold damage and chilling enemies for 25% per hit.
  • Poison - Imbues the Rogue's attacks and skills with the Poison effect, dealing Poison damage and applying 100% of their base damage as additional Poisoning damage over five seconds.
  • Shadow - Imbues the Rogue's attacks and skills with the Shadow effect, infecting enemies for six seconds. Infected enemies explode on death, dealing 40% damage to surrounding enemies.

Rogue Core Skills

  • Barrage - Shoot out five arrows that expand in a 'V' pattern before you. Requires Combo Points to use.
  • Penetrating Shot - Penetrating Shot always pierces through enemies, damaging any enemies in the way.
  • Twisting Blades - Impale enemies with your blade, dealing 45% more damage and making them take 8x% increased damage while impaled. After 1.5 seconds, the blades return to you, piercing enemies for 72% more damage. Combo Points increase movement speed and damage.
  • Dark Shroud - Surround yourself with five protective shadows, and grant damage reduction per active shadow.
  • Dash - Dash in the direction you are facing.
  • Shadow Step - Teleport behind a target.
  • Smoke Grenade - Throw a smoke bomb at enemies and Daze them for four seconds.

Rogue Ultimate Skills

  • Death Trap - A trap that activates when an enemy moves within range, pulling in nearby enemies and dealing significant burst damage to everything in a large area.
  • Rain of Arrows - The Rogue shoots arrows into the sky that rain down two times over a large area, dealing tons of damage. The second wave knocks enemies down for three seconds.
  • Shadow Clone - Shadow Clone creates a Shadow Clone of the Rogue, miming your actions for 15 seconds and dealing 60% of your damage.

Druid Class

Druids are a hybrid class with high-damage magic abilities and their unique class mechanic, the Spirit Animal system. This allows them to shapeshift into various spirit animals, from a werewolf to a werebear. Druids will always have two wolf companions by their side, helping them with their attacks.

While also being a shapeshifter, Druids are also the master of nature in their human form, able to call upon the power of the earth or storms to smite their foes. Their basic attacks are fueled by Spirit, generated by using basic skills and attacks.

With their lack of mobility, Druids will often need to rely on defensive skills and positioning to survive combat. The Druid class is also very cooldown-heavy, sometimes challenging to manage and not recommended for newer players.

Druid Basic Skills

  • Claw - Morph into a werewolf and shred an enemy, dealing damage. This attack also has a 30% chance of striking twice. Generates eight Spirit.
  • Earth Spike - Sunder the earth and impale the first enemy hit. Generates 12 Spirit
  • Maul - Shapeshift into a werebear and maul an enemy, dealing damage and fortifying yourself. Generates 18 Spirit.
  • Storm Strike - Electricity gathers around the Druids weapon, dealing damage split between the chosen target and multiple enemies. Generates 12 Spirit.
  • Wind Shear - Conjure a blade of wind which deals damage and increases the Druid's movement speed by 5% for three seconds, up to 30%. Generates 12 Spirit.

Druid Spirit Skills

  • Pulverize - Shapeshift into a werebear and slam the ground, dealing AoE damage to nearby enemies
  • Tornado - Conjure a vortex that moves outwards and curves in a random direction, dealing damage to enemies caught inside every second
  • Lightning Storm - Conjure a growing lightning storm that deals 40% damage per strike and increases the number of strikes the longer it is channelled.
  • Landslide - Crush enemies beneath pillars of earth. This attack has a 10% additional chance of dealing a Crushing Blow.

Druid Ultimate Skills

  • Cataclysm - A massive storm follows the Druid for 8 seconds. Twisters knock back enemies, and lightning strikes deal 52% damage
  • Grizzly Rage - Shapeshift into a werebear for ten seconds, gaming x20% bonus damage and 20% damage reduction. Casting Grizzly Rage causes enemies in the area to take 50% damage and be slowed for six seconds.
  • Petrify - Encase all nearby enemies in Stone, stunning them for three seconds. Damage to affected enemies deals x25% more damage.

Final Thoughts

Those were all five classes in Diablo 4, ranked from best to worst! The Necromancer is strong in the early game due to its crowd control options and ability to switch between single-target and AoE damage, making it one of the best end-game classes. Stay tuned to see if Diablo 4 adds any new classes in future patches and updates.

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