Which class should you play in Diablo 4 Season 2?

Diablo 4 Season 2, Season of Blood, is upon us, and its associated patch 1.2.0 contains a slew of class balance changes — which may mean you’ll want to play a different class than you were before. Beyond basic class changes, Blizzard has also majorly reworked the math behind critical strike damage (CSD), overpower, and vulnerable (i.e. — “status math”) and how the three interact. Gameplay could feel very different after patch 1.2.0 — and more so if you’re playing on the seasonal realms, where Season of Blood’s Vampiric Powers will certainly shake things up.

But what do the changes in the Season of Blood mean for your favorite class, and will it change what you play in Season 2? Let’s review Diablo 4’s five classes and talk about how they look for Season of Blood. Here’s what you need to know to pick your class in Diablo 4 patch 1.2.0.

Barbarians in patch 1.2.0

Barbarian is your pure melee class, wielding a literal Arsenal to blast through baddies. If you love tanky gameplay, the Barbarian is the first of your two options, with multiple options to leverage Fortify and its shift to using Maximum life to calculate the amount. Additionally, patch 1.2.0’s Barbarian class tuning increases Rupture’s healing, Imposing Presence’s maximum life, and Martial Vigor’s damage reduction. The Barbarian’s survivability translates to opportunity to push higher Nightmare Dungeon tiers without burning through Ancestral’s four rebirths.

Blizzard’s changes to status math mean DOTs (which don’t benefit from crit) are more valuable, so leverage Bleed skills (Flay, Rend, Rupture) during big fights to take advantage of the foundational changes to damage math. Additionally, the Fortify improvements mean continuing a multi-Shout playstyle to maximize the benefits, so half of your skill slots are already occupied. Be patient while leveling; yes, it will be slow but you’ll eventually be able to survive almost any encounter.

For Season 2, sample the following Vampiric Powers on your Barbarian from the 22 available to all classes:

• Anticipation (1 Divinity): Your Ultimate Skills gain 20% Cooldown Reduction. Your Ultimate Skills gain 12% increased damage for each nearby enemy affected by your Damage Over Time effects.
• Jagged Spikes (1 Ferocity, 1 Divinity): Thorns have a 10% chance to deal 300% increased damage and Chill enemies for 8%.
• Hemomancy (3 Eternity): Your attacks deal 80% of your Maximum Life as Physical damage to nearby enemies. This can only occur once every 4 seconds. You heal for 1% of your Maximum Life for each enemy damaged this way.
• Call Familiar (3 Ferocity, 3 Divinity): Casting a Mastery, Weapon Mastery, Macabre, Wrath, or Imbuement Skill calls a bat ally to attack nearby enemies, dealing 80% Physical damage with a 30% chance to Stun.

Druids in patch 1.2.0

The Druid is D4’s hybrid class with the chance to swap quickly between multiple playstyles — shifting into a tanky Werebear or slashing Werewolf, slinging Tornados from a distance, and overall surrounding yourself with Nature’s strength to dominate. Keep Fortify’s changes in mind as you develop your build, because Druid has so many options for survival. Additionally, your companions benefit from patch 1.2.0’s improvements to summons! On top of all this is the newly-added Dolmen Stone Unique Amulet — cast Boulder while Hurricane is active and your boulders rotate around you.

Conversely, Druids are impacted twice with critical strike tuning — first by the overall changes, and second through a nerf to Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast, which now has a cap of 200% to the CSD bonus (this Aspect was previously uncapped). Leveling is slow for Druids, but you’re incredibly powerful once you’ve developed your build. Like Barbarian, be patient because your time will come after level 50.

For Season 2, sample the following Vampiric Powers on your Druid from the 22 available to all classes:

• Domination (1 Ferocity): You deal 24% increased damage to enemies who are Stunned, Immobilized, Frozen, or Feared. If they’re also Injured and not an Elite, they’re instantly killed.
• Coven’s Fangs (2 Divinity): Your Conjuration, Companion, Minion, and Bat Familiar attacks deal 52% increased damage to Crowd Controlled enemies. Lucky Hit: Your Conjuration, Companion, Minion, and Bat Familiar have up to a 30% chance to inflict Vampiric Curse when hitting enemies.
• Ravenous (3 Ferocity): Lucky Hit: Up to a 20% chance to increase your Attack Speed by 40% of your Total Movement Speed for 6 seconds.
• Moonrise (6 Ferocity): Hitting an enemy with a Basic Skill grants you 4% Attack Speed for 10 seconds, stacking up to 5 times. Upon reaching maximum stacks, you enter a Vampiric Bloodrage, gaining 160% Basic Skill damage and 15% Movement Speed for 10 seconds.

Necromancers in patch 1.2.0

D4’s Necromancer is the second class (with Barbarian) to continue through the franchise, wielding the powers of life and death as a minion-summoning caster. Season 2 Necromancers benefit incredibly from tuning improvements to their pets (available at level 1!) with buffs to damage and survivability; combine this with Blood Surge and you won’t even feel the leveling period. Additionally, Necromancer Shields now have an associated Armor value, while Blood builds have amazing survival through Fortify’s improvements.

Bone Spear builds were the Necro’s top-tier option for blasting through the endgame on launch and in Season 1, but receive a nerf in patch 1.2.0 through a change to the Ossified Essence key passive. Additionally, Necros still lack a mobility skill. Apply that patience you didn’t need for leveling to your early endgame and use your speedy leveling to capture valuable affixes from dungeons early on so you are just fine for early Nightmare Dungeons.

For Season 2, sample the following Vampiric Powers on your Necromancer from the 22 available to all classes:

• Feed the Coven (1 Eternity): Lucky Hit: Conjuration, Companion, Minion and Bat Familiar attacks have up to a 60% chance to restore 10 Primary Resource to you and increase your Damage by 10% for 4 seconds.
• Sanguine Brace (1 Divinity, 1 Eternity): When you kill an enemy, Fortify for 6% of your Base Life. While you have more Fortify than half of your Maximum Life, you gain 8% Critical Strike Chance.
• Hectic (3 Divinity): For every 5 Basic Skills you cast, one of your active Cooldowns is reduced by 2 seconds.
• Metamorphosis (2 Ferocity, 2 Divinity, 2 Eternity): When you Evade you turn into a cloud of bats, becoming Unstoppable for 4 seconds. Enemies along your path take 160% Physical damage and are inflicted with Vampiric Curse.

Rogues in patch 1.2.0

Rogues are Diablo 4‘s undisputed monarch of mobility — dashing into the fray with poisoned blades, laying traps, and escaping to barrage their foes from afar. Their Twisting Blades build remains top tier (despite other top tier builds seeing nerfs), and benefits from the improvements to damage-over-time. Additionally, ranged Rogues benefit heftily from updated Unique items. Basically, you can blast without equal once you survive leveling.

Arguably, Rogues receive primarily buffs in patch 1.2.0. Yes, the Rogue’s survivability remains lower than the other classes; you don’t benefit at all from Fortify changes. Leverage skills like Dash and Shadow Step to dodge around attacks, Dark Shroud for damage reduction, or Concealment for Unstoppable and Stealth that is not broken by damage.

For Season 2, sample the following Vampiric Powers on your Rogue from the 22 available to all classes:

• Undying (1 Eternity): Casting Skills heals you for 3% Life. Double this bonus while below 50% Life.
• Prey on the Weak (2 Ferocity): You deal 16% increased damage to Vulnerable enemies. Enemies are Vulnerable while affected by a Vampiric Curse from your other Vampiric Powers.
• Accursed Touch (6 Divinity): Lucky Hit: Up to a 44% chance to inflict Vampiric Curse on enemies. Enemies with the Vampiric Curse have a 15% chance to spread it to other surrounding enemies. Accursed Souls deal 200% increased damage.
• Flowing Veins (2 Ferocity, 2 Divinity, 2 Eternity): You deal 60% increased Damage Over Time to enemies that are moving or affected by a Vampiric Curse.

Sorcerers in patch 1.2.0

Embrace the pure elemental caster fantasy with the Sorcerer. The class receives a few skill buffs in the patch across a variety of skills — Hydras especially thrive in Season 2 with a huge damage increase! Leveling is practically explosive with Sorcerer’s Fire Skills, and Enchantment-based elemental resistances make way more sense with the system’s rework. You are the quintessential ranged character, which is important because…

Sorcerers, like Rogues, have zero skills leveraging Fortify so survival can be an adventure and the math surrounding critical strike damage may mean some adjustments in playstyle. Continue to embrace Defensives like Teleport (giving you the second best mobility in the game) and Ice Armor while freezing enemies in place with Frost Nova. You have access to the single coolest Ultimate Skill (Inferno), and you are going to get plenty of opportunities to use it!

For Season 2, sample the following Vampiric Powers on your Sorcerer from the 22 available to all classes:

• Anticipation (1 Divinity): Your Ultimate Skills gain 20% Cooldown Reduction. Your Ultimate Skills gain 12% increased damage for each nearby enemy affected by your Damage Over Time effects.
• Rampart (1 Divinity, 1 Eternity): After not moving for 3 seconds, you gain a Barrier for 40% of your Maximum Life for 6 seconds. This effect can occur once every 20 seconds.
• Terror (1 Ferocity, 1 Divinity, 1 Eternity): When struck, you have a 14% chance to Fear nearby enemies and Slow them by 80% for 2 seconds. You are guaranteed to Critically Strike enemies who are Feared.
• Bathe in Blood (3 Divinity, 3 Eternity): While Channeling a Skill, you form a pool of blood beneath you. While channeling a skill in a pool, your Channeled Skills deal 40% increased damage and you gain 30% Damage Reduction. A pool can only form once every 8 seconds.

So which class should you play in Diablo 4 patch 1.2?

Anything you want to play! Every class can hit level 100 and has a powerful enough build to kill Uber Lilith. But if you’re just not sure and want some quick notes to review for consideration, we’ve got you covered with a handy summary:

• Play Barbarian if: you’re ready to shout your way to the highest life pool available and outlast your enemies in any fight (or if your name is Matt Rossi).
• Play Druid if: you want a little bit of everything — casting, slashing, tanking, and pets — and a Hurricane of Boulders spinning around you.
• Play Necromancer if: you want to wield your undead horde through the fastest start to Season 2.
• Play Rogue if: you want multiple mobility options while stabbing, slashing, and shooting your enemies.
• Play Sorcerer if: you want to melt faces off while teleporting your way around Estuar.

Diablo 4 Season 2, Season of Blood starts Tuesday, October 17 at 10:00 am pacific. See you in Sanctuary!