Diablo 4 is all about builds. Builds for leveling, builds for endgame, builds for boss fights, builds for group and solo play, and builds for running Nightmare dungeons. Each class has a variety of different builds that promote a different kind of playstyle, from the popular Twisting Blades Rogue to Bone Spear Necromancer.
This guide covers our interpretation of the most popular builds in the game going into pre-season of Diablo 4.
We updated this tier list on June 6 with more information on other fun and powerful builds that have been discovered since launch. This build tier list is subject to more changes as balance patches are rolled out. This guide also makes mention of the recent nerfs to Pulverize Druid and Whirlwind Barbarian, and the buffs to Necromancer.
S-Tier Builds For Leveling
These are the best builds for your first run through the campaign, 1-50 until you access the Paragon board and can begin to customize your build for endgame.
S-Tier Leveling Builds |
|---|
Bone Spear Necromancer |
Twisting Blades Rogue |
Trample Landslide Druid |
Whirlwind Barbarian |
Bone Spear Necromancer
While the Necromancer typically falls quite low on overall endgame tier lists, the Bone Spear Necromancer has proven to be one of the most efficient classes for leveling.
This build focuses on the core skill Bone Spear:
- This conjures a Bone Spear from the ground, which deals 85% damage and importantly pierces through multiple enemies.
Bone Spear is an excellent AoE clear. Combined with Corpse Explosion, Corpse Tendrils, and Ossified Essence you've got a very straightforward build that will scale well into the endgame as well.
In terms of downsides, the Necromancer currently has basically zero mobility skills, which means you're going to feel a bit sluggish as you traverse the world. This should be fine considering you're blasting everything to pieces, mind.
Twisting Blades Rogue
This build is one of the fastest, most mobile builds in the game, making use of the Rogue's excellent movement skills Dash and Shadowstep combined with the mass AoE and Vulnerable-inducing Twisting Blades.
This build focuses on the Twisting Blades skill:
- You impale an enemy with your blades, which deals damage, causes them to take extra damage, and the blades then return to your character to deal more damage, piercing through any enemies in its path.
Combined with Dash, Shadow Step, and either Poison or Shadow Imbuement (and Insight for major Energy Regeneration), the Rogue is an excellent leveling class and build.
You can check out our full Rogue leveling build guide here.
There are some concerns that Rogue will be quite squishy when it comes to endgame content as they really lack the sort of sustainability skills and passive that will keep you alive in difficult content.
Trample Druid
Trample Landslide Druid is one of the most powerful leveling classes because it's pretty easy to get online, even if starts a little slower.
This build makes use of Storm Strike as an efficient Spirit generator, Landslide for AoE screen-clear, Earthen Bulwark for defense, and Poison Creeper for AoE.
The main aim of this build is to use Poison Creeper straight into Landslide. This will deal massive damage to crowd-controlled enemies. Focus on picking up Damage To Vulnerable as your main stat-line on your gear while leveling.
Whirlwind Barbarian
Whirlwind Barbarian is still one of the fastest and most efficient leveling builds in the game - for leveling, we will be focusing largely on Bleed damage as well as the almost constant uptime of your Whirlwind to deal with large groups of mobs.
For skills, we take Flay, Rend for Bleed damage, Rallying Cry and Challenging Shout with priority on Rallying Cry for defense, then War Cry and Steel Grasp.
The main of this build is to consistenly generate Fury, the Barbarian's resource. Some key Aspects for this build are Bold Chieftain's Aspect as this reduces shout cooldowns, as well as Slaking Aspect which will help you generate more Fury via your Rend.
You can read more about this build in our Barbarian leveling guide.
A-Tier Builds For Leveling
These are still very powerful leveling builds.
Ice Shard Sorcerer
The Ice Shard Sorcerer/Sorceress build makes use of the Ice Shards that deal massive AoE damage and pierce multiple enemies.
This combines well with Frozen synergy, as well as other elemental powers like Fireball and the powerful Hydra summon that consistently deals damage while you rotate through your other skills.
This is a strong, glass-cannon build that will also scale well into the late-game.
The Sorcerer/Sorceress is a great class for solo players due to its massive damage output, although it will also pair well in terms of group play because of the various debuffs (Frozen, Burning, etc) that your spells can inflict.
Tornado Druid
While this build is straightforward, the power of Tornado to deal lots of crowd control and damage is invaluable for leveling up a Druid quickly - even though the class is considered one of the weaker classes to level overall, mostly due to its slow start.
Skill priority focuses on Tornado, then other skills like Storm Strike for more AoE and Trample, which is necessary to get any kind of mobility from the Druid.
This build makes use of other skills like Wind Shear and Debilitating Roar.
S-Tier Builds For Endgame
These builds are designed for going for endgame activities, like Helltide, World Bosses, and PvP. Obviously, there are nuances to these builds that are applicable for different situations, and these builds are provided as an overview of the best builds in the game right now.
S-tier Endgame Builds |
|---|
Whirlwind Barbarian |
Ice Shards Sorcerer |
Pulverize Druid |
Whirlwind Barbarian
This is one of the most impressive builds in the game as it stands (subject to future potential nerfs), with unbelievable AoE damage, sustainability, CC, and group buffs with a variety of the Barbarian's Shouts.
This build focuses primarily on Whirlwind:
- You spin around and attack enemies - it really is as simple as that.
However straightforward this may seem, it's the Barbarian's utility in group play with War Cry, Rallying Cry, etc. that really make this standout for the endgame. Group buffs make clearing content that much easier for everyone involved, but you're not sacrificing any of your own damage output in the meantime.
A really straightforward and beginner-friendly build that scales excellently into the late-game.
Pulverize Druid
Another hit for the Druid, the Pulverize build is explosively fun. You get a lot of AoE damage, loads of sustainability and Fortify from skills like Trample and Earthen Might passive.
You will find this build tanky and able to burst its way through Nightmare dungeons with a very high survivability, which puts it above other builds like Twisting Blades Rogue.
The only potential downside for this build is that it takes a bit to get going, but if you prioritize your Aspects via the Codex of Power and get online with a few powerful Legendaries, you'll quickly catch up to other classes.
You can read our Pulverize Druid guide here.
A-Tier Builds For Endgame
These A-tier builds offer other options for a successful endgame build.
Penetrating Shot Rogue
This is just about the only ranged build that we've seen have any major success - Penetrating Shot is your main focus here, dealing lots of AoE damage and chaos that covers your entire screen. That's really what Diablo is all about, after all.
Much like other Rogue builds, mobility and positioning shouldn't be ignored - you still get to make the most of the Rogue's movement, but you won't feel quite as quick around the map as with Twisting Blades.
This build also introduces Caltrops and Poison Imbuement to deal more AoE damage. A really consistent, fun and explosive build that is decent for leveling and eventually becomes an excellent build for clearing Nightmare dungeons.
Arc Lash Sorcerer
This is the unlikely power of the Arc Lash Sorcerer, which means you're going to be doing a lot of damage in melee range - obviously this has its issue with how squishy the Sorcerer can be, but thankfully the class has some excellent defensive capabilities with Frost Nova and other defensive abilities. An endgame sorcerer has plenty of survivability, once you get rolling.
Arc Lash is your basic skill that you have right from the start, so you can begin getting used to this way before you reach Nightmare dungeon level.
You really prioritize defense in this build, with Arc Lash almost the only source of damage - skills like Frost Nova, Flame Shield, and Teleport for Unstoppable and mobility, you can start to feel pretty tanky - although definitely not as much as Barbarian or Druid.