Diablo 4 Class Picking Guide - What is the Best Class in Diablo 4

What class would you like to see in D4 and which class will you be starting with in D4 open beta? In this character selection guide about Diablo IV, we're going to go over some of the skills each class has and discuss whether they would be a great fit to your playstyle to help you choose what class to start with when Diablo 4 open beta is launched. 

Diablo 4 Class Picking Guide - What is the Best Class in Diablo 4 Open Beta

Diablo 4 had not yet been released, and thus it is not possible to determine what is the best class in D4. However, based on information available at the time, Diablo 4 is expected to have 5 playable classes: Barbarian, Sorceress, Druid, Rogue, and Paladin. Each class is expected to have unique abilities and playstyles. So we present the Diablo 4 class picking guide to help you choose the best class in your first game of Diablo 4, depending on individual preferences and playstyle. 

We give a brief overview of all Diabl IV 5 classes' skills, abilities and class mechanics. All information is subject to change as this is pre launch information.

Best Class to Play in Diablo 4 Open Beta - Necromancer 

This is a Caster Summoner class with close quarters combat options. 

- Resources: Their primary resource is Essence but they also rely on corpses for a majority of their skills like summon skeleton and corpse explosion. 

- Skill Classes: The three primary skill classes to choose from when you're playing a necromancer are bone, blood and darkness. Bone skills use a resource essence to deal large quantities of mainly physical damage scaling with the amount of essence you spent on the ability. Blood skills are defense orientated abilities that siphon life from nearby enemies to either cause AOE damage or mitigate incoming damage. For example, skills like Blood Mist can grant immunity for a short time and also siphon life from nearby enemies, a very handy skill that will be in almost every build. Darkness skills are primarily damage over time and debuff abilities, great for crowd control. Some abilities like decompose will also generate you essence and compare well with other skills in the Bone Tree.

- Class Mechanic: The unique class mechanic that Necromancer has is called the Book of the Dead, it allows full customization of your 3 summon minions, Skeletal Warriors, Skeletal Mages and Golems. There is not much information on everything you can do with it yet, but this mechanic will allow for very diverse playstyles. 

Overall, this class will be a very fun and safe class to play that will probably excel in hardcore play due to the protection your minions offer and having the ability to phase through and crowd control large groups of enemies.

What is the best Necromancer Build in Diablo 4?

- Army of the Dead Necromancer: This build focuses on summoning a large army of undead to fight for the Necromancer and provide support.

- Poison Necromancer: This build focuses on dealing poison damage and debuffing enemies with a variety of spells.

- Caster Necromancer: This build focuses on using spells to deal damage from afar and control the battlefield.

Diablo 4 Best Class to Choose - Rogue 

The next Diablo IV class we're going to go over is the Rogue. They have the ability to fight in melee or ranged with powerful abilities and even have traps to help subdue their enemies.

- Resource: The main resource used is energy, but they also build and spend combo points.

- Skill Classes: The Rogue has a lot of attack options, starting with basic skills, core skills, agility skills, subterfuge skills, imbuement skills and ultimate skills. The basic skills are mainly utility attacks used to build energy, combo points and debuff your enemies. Core skills deal large amounts of damage and spend large amounts of energy, they also utilize the combo points you have built to amplify their attacks. Agility skills allow you to reposition and move around quickly. Very useful for avoiding damage and setting up a kill on enemies. Subterfuge skills add utility to either defensive or offensive abilities depending on what you decide to enhance. Imbuement skills allow you to imbue your next 2 attacks from all the core skills with extra effects, but they have a cooldown. You can also imbue skills like dash, shadow step and your reign of arrows ultimate. These are very powerful abilities but they have a large cooldown. However, you can only choose one and you need to specifically build around them to utilize their full potential. So not every Rogue build will utilize an ultimate skill. There's also ultimate passives, Rogues may only choose one and they will vastly alter your playstyle, so choose wisely.

- Class Mechanic: The rogue's unique class mechanic is a class specialization system, this lets you choose 1 out of 3 active specializations at a time to enhance your character and change the play style. Your basic skills now generate combo points, certain skills consume combo points for additional effects. Then we have inner sight, attack marked enemies to fill up your inner sight gauge when it's full gain unlimited energy for 4 seconds. And lastly we have preparation. 

Overall, the Rogue looks like an awesome class to play with a ton of versatility on how they handle combat.

What is the best Rogue Build in D4 Beta?

- Shadow Assassin Rogue: This build focuses on dealing high burst damage and quick movement to evade attacks.

- Trap Master Rogue: This build focuses on setting up traps and controlling the battlefield.

- Bow Master Rogue: This build focuses on using ranged attacks and critical hits to deal damage from afar.

D4 Open Beta Best Class to Start with - Druid

Then let's go over the shape-shifting melee Caster Summoner - the Druid. 

- Resource: The main resource the Druid consumes is spirit. 

- Skill Classes: The Druid has an abundance of skill groups to choose from and they include basic skills, spirit skills, defensive skills, wrath skills, companion skills and ultimate skills. Basic skills consist of spear generators and have a variety of damage types including physical enlightening. Spirit skills consume spirit to do attacks that have powerful effects for single target or AOE situations. Defensive skills are pretty self-explanatory, they aid heavily in the ability to mitigate incoming damage heal and dash around to avoid incoming attacks or set up your own. Wrath skills are mid to long cooldown abilities such as hurricane and boulder that deal good amounts of damage without costing any spirit. Companion skills summon a variety of pets to help you in combat, they also have debuffs that can be applied to enemies they attack increasing your total damage output. Ultimate skills are large cooldown abilities that deal heavy damage or give you a strong utility buff. For example, when you are using grizzly rage, you generate spirit 28 faster for its entire duration.

- Class Mechanic: The unique class mechanic of the Druid is currently unknown. However, it is speculated that it may be the ability to have crushing blow when using earth skills, but none of that has been truly confirmed by Blizzard yet. 

Overall, the Druid is truly an unique character, they have the ability to summon and to shape-shift while also sporting strong AOE options and very good defensives.

What is the Best Druid Build in Diablo IV?

- Balance Druid: This build focuses on balancing the Druid's abilities between shapeshifting and spellcasting.

- Feral Druid: This build focuses on using the Druid's shapeshifting abilities to deal high melee damage and gain additional survivability.

- Summoner Druid: This build focuses on summoning creatures to fight alongside the Druid and deal damage from a distance.

Best D4 Class to Play First - Sorcerer

This is a Caster class specializing using fire, cold and lightning attacks.

- Resource: The main resource they generate and use is called mana.

- Skill Classes: The Sorcerer has six skill classes to choose from and they are minor destruction skills, major destruction skills, defensive skills, conjuration skills, mastery skills and ultimate skills. Minor destruction skills are your basic skills that generate mana or put debuffs on the target major. Destruction skills spend mana and offer stronger damage to kill enemies. Defensive skills offer damage mitigation and positioning such as ice armor or teleport. Conjuration skills are strong AOE skills like Frost Nova, Hydra or Lightning Spear, great to take out large groups of enemies. Mastery skills cost large amounts of mana and deal large amounts of damage like Blizzard or Meteor. Ultimate skills are large cooldown abilities that offer immunity or strong damage.

- Class Mechanic: The unique class mechanic is you can play skills in two locations, an active skill slot and an enchantment skill slot. Skills placed in an enchantment skill slot can no longer be used as an active skill, but the character gains a secondary bonus instead the secondary powers are passive effects. So for an example, if you put blizzard in your enchantment slot, every 15 seconds of lizard reform around you and follow you for 4 seconds. There are up to 2 enchantment slots the Sorcerer has access to.

Overall, the Sorcerer is an excellent hyper mobile class with an outstanding ability to crowd control and AOE large groups while also having very strong survivability options.

What is the Best Sorceress Build in Diablo IV Open Beta?

- Elemental Mage: This build focuses on dealing elemental damage and controlling the battlefield with area-of-effect spells.

- Summoner Sorcerer: This build focuses on summoning creatures to fight alongside the Sorcerer and provide additional damage and support.

- Necromancer Sorcerer: This build focuses on raising the dead to fight for the Sorcerer and control the battlefield.

Best Class You Should Be Starting with in D4 Open Beta - Barbarian

The Barbarian is primarily a melee Close Quarters character that specializes in dealing physical damage.

- Resource: The class resource of Barbarian generates and spends is called fury.

- Skill Classes: The Barbarian has 6 skill classes to choose from and they are basic skills, core skills, defensive skills, brawling skills, weapon mastery skills and ultimate skills. Basic skills are what generate the fury for the Barbarian. Core skills spend that Fury to use abilities that deal heavy amounts of damage. Defensive skills include damage mitigation passives, shouts to buff yourself and your allies and stun abilities like ground stomp. Brawling skills offer a variety of utility skills like war cry, leap, charge and kick, changing the play style of your Barbarian. Weapon mastery skills are strong cooldown abilities that don't cost Fury but deal tons of damage or help set up kills. Ultimate skills are large cooldown abilities that deal immense amounts of damage. 

- Class Mechanic: The unique class mechanic of the Barbarian is called the Arsenal System, it allows you to assign a specific weapon for every attack skill and grants additional bonuses based on the weapon you choose. Note if you primarily use one skill to DPS, all other equipped weapons will become a stat stick to boost your main weapons power.

Overall, the Barbarian is an excellent tank class that deals incredible amounts of damage and with the right gear can become exceptionally powerful due to the class mechanic.

What is the Best Barbarian Build in D4 Open Beta?

- Whirlwind Barbarian: This build focuses on dealing damage to multiple enemies at once and moving quickly around the battlefield.

- Tank Barbarian: This build focuses on being a durable frontline fighter and drawing enemy attention away from allies.

- Ranged Barbarian: This build focuses on using ranged attacks and area-of-effect spells to deal damage from afar.