Which class should you play in Diablo 4 Season 4?

Diablo 4 Season 4: Loot Reborn is almost here, launching on May 14! The season comes with the game’s patch 1.4.0, which introduces a full itemization rework on top of what’s become a standard cycle of new legendaries, uniques, and Aspect tuning to supplement class balance changes. But what do the changes in this season mean for your favorite class, and will it change what you play in Season 4? What should you play in Diablo 4 Season 4?

It’s important to note up front that for the first time, the Season Journey will also reward gear pieces supporting a specific build for your class (sadly, we still don’t get class sets). To align with the Loot Reborn seasonal theme, we’ve highlighted that build and its supporting skills plus updated or newly added aspects to go along with it. Keep in mind — this is not required for your playthrough! Play what you love and enjoy, but be aware you’ll be collecting gear for these builds as you go.

Let’s review Diablo 4’s five classes and what you need to know to pick your class in Diablo 4 patch 1.4.0 for Season 4:

• Barbarian
• Druid
• Necromancer
• Rogue
• Sorcerer
• So, what to play?

Barbarian in patch 1.4.0

Barbarian is your pure melee class, wielding a literal Arsenal to blast through foes. If you love tanky gameplay, the Barbarian is your friend, with multiple options to leverage Fortify; on Barb, this is increasingly important as Fortify’s damage reduction increase as part of the 1.4.0 stat changes balances the loss of the class’ innate 10% damage reduction. The Barbarian’s survivability translates to push opportunities in the endgame without burning through Ancestral’s four rebirths.

In patch 1.4.0, the devs dialed back a few of the improvements to Charge in from 1.3.0. However, Barbarians are one of the four classes that benefit from the improvements to minions through Call of the Ancients; not only with Korlic, Talic, and Madawc receive 100% of the player’s attributes, the abilities of each deal increased damage, and the Ancients will be empowered if you manage to snag the new Arreat’s Bearing unique pants. Finally, Dust Devils have been tweaked so much they form the foundation for Blizz’s journey build.

Season Journey build: Dust Devil (Sample build)
Suggested Aspects:

• Windlasher’s Aspect — Casting Double Swing creates a Dust Devil that deals 0.35-0.5 damage to enemies in its path.
• Devilish Aspect — After generating 100 Fury, your next direct damage creates 3 Dust Devils that deal 0.4-0.6 damage to enemies in their path.
• Dust Devil’s Aspect — Whirlwind leaves behind Dust Devils that deal 0.4-0.6 damage to enemies in their path (1 Dust Devil every 0.75 second).
• NEW! Aspect of the Fierce Winds — Your Shout Skills create 3 Dust Devils that deal damage to enemies along their path. Your Dust Devils are 5-20% bigger and deal 1% increased damage for each 1% their size is increased.

Primary skills:

• Basic — Battle Bash for the highest resource generation to proc Devilish.
• Core — Double Swing for Windlasher or Whirlwind for Dust Devil.
• Defensive — Tactical Rallying Cry or Tactical Challenging Shout to proc Fierce Winds and Devilish.
• Brawling — Power Leap to proc Devilish or War Cry to proc Fierce Winds.
• Ultimate — Wrath of the Besrserker or Call of the Ancients (if you get the new unique).

Return to top

Druid in patch 1.4.0

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 your enemies. The D4 Druid is the jack of all trades class, but remember, that saying ends with “master of none.” That said, Druid has so many options for their survival.

Druid also benefits from patch 1.4.0’s minion buffs. Additionally, your wolves gain Unstoppable when cast, have 200% increased health from previous patches, and a reduced respawn timer (now 5 seconds). Otherwise, Claw, Maul, and Shred received 10% damage increases, Hurricane received almost a 40% damage icnrease, and two ultimates (Petrify and Lacerate) received re-tuning passes.

Season Journey build: Pulverize (Sample build)
Suggested Aspects:

• Aspect of the Ursine Horror — Pulverize is now also an Earth Skill. After casting Pulverize, tectonic spikes continue to deal damage over 2 seconds.
• Shockwave Aspect — Pulverize creates a shockwave that travels forward, dealing 60-100% of its damage to targets in the path.
• Aspect of the Changeling’s Debt — You deal 25-40% increased damage while hitting a Poisoned enemy as a Werebear or a Crowd Controlled enemy as a Werewolf.
• Mangled Aspect — While in Werebear form, you gain 10-25 Spirit every 8 seconds.

Primary skills:

• Basic — Wind Shear for Vulnerable or Maul for Fortify.
• Core — Primal Pulverize.
• Defensive — Preserving Debilitating Roar or Innate Blood Howl for heals.
• Companion — Ferocious Poison Creeper to leverage Changeling’s Debt.
• Wrath — Trample for mobility and staying in Werebear form.

Return to top

Necromancer in patch 1.4.0

D4’s Necromancer wields the powers of life and death as a minion-summoning caster. Blood and bone, shadows, corpses, and curses are all tools in the Necromancer’s toolkit. You have one of the faster leveling experiences to start, but all that casting awesomeness comes with a cost — you’re just as mortal as your enemies and sometimes infinitely squishier.

However, the Necromancer has increased ability to remain behind the battle lines in patch 1.4.0 thanks to minion buffs. Necros will be motoring through most content, especially with Army of the Dead finally receiving the Summoning skill tag. Decompose also received a full rework to make this basic skill easier to use, which may be a lot of fun for starting Shadow Summoner builds. And as a small side bonus, Blood Mist had its movement speed reduction removed.

Season Journey build: Minion Army (Sample build)
Suggested Aspects:

• Unyielding Commander Aspect — While Army of the Dead is active, your Minions gain 70-100% increased damage and take 90% reduced damage.
• Aspect of Occult Dominion — Your maximum number of Skeletal Warriors and Skeletal Mages is increased by 2.
• Blood Getter’s Aspect — Your Skeletal Priests also empower you at 55-70% effectiveness.
• Aspect of Reanimation — Your Minions gain increased damage while alive, up to 30-40% after 10 seconds.

Primary skills:

• Basic — Acolyte’s Reap or Acolyte’s Decompose for corpses.
• Curse — Abhorrent Decrepify for cooldown reduction on your Army of the Dead.
• Ultimate — Army of the Dead.
• Book of the Dead — Summon Skeleton and Summon Golem both need to be on your bar for the skills to work and leverage your legendary aspects.

Note: This is the one class where you might struggle with early points allocation around the three skill slots “taken” by your summons. Consider early skills like Blood Surge for clearing trash and Corpse Tendrils for crowd control. Later, you can freely put points into minion-buffing passives.

Return to top

Rogue in patch 1.4.0

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. Shadows, cold, and poisons are the Rogue’s friends, whether you’re stabbing about or laying down punishing bow fire from afar. That said, Rogues may be unseated as the king of D4 classes this season.

The Rogue probably received the least love in patch 1.4.0. They’re the only class that does not benefit from the minion tuning and had the shortest list of skills updates in the patch notes. Inner Sight, Preparation, and Flurry received small buffs and Stun Grenades will show up a bit more through the new Saboteur’s Signet unique ring, plus base stun duration doubled regardless of what item aspect procs the Stun Grenades.

Season Journey build: Barrage (Sample build)
Suggested Aspects:

• Aspect of the Expectant — Attacking enemies with a Basic Skill increases the damage of your next Core Skill cast within 5 seconds by 5-10%, up to 30%.
• Aspect of Branching Volleys — Increase the damage of arrows that ricochet from Barrage to 50-80% . Barrage’s arrows have a 30-60% chance to split when they ricochet.
• NEW! Aspect of High Velocity — Barrage arrows now pierce through 1 enemy. Barrage has 10%-20% increased Attack Speed.

Primary skills:

• Basic — Fundamental Puncture, Enhanced Heartseeker, or Enhanced Forceful Arrow to apply Vulnerable.
• Core — Improved Barrage.
• Agility — Dash.
• Imbuement — Blended Shadow Imbuement or Enhanced Cold Imbuement to apply / leverage Vulnerable; Barrage is an Imbueable skill so you always want to have at least one Imbuement on your bar.
• Key Passive — Precision.

Return to top

Sorcerer in patch 1.4.0

Embrace the pure elemental magician fantasy with the Sorcerer. You are the quintessential ranged caster, specializing in lightning, fire, and frost magic. Leveling is practically explosive with Sorcerer’s Fire Skills, and Enchantment-based elemental resistances make way more sense with the resistance system’s rework from patch 1.2.0. That said, you are the literal glass cannon and benefit strongly from keeping a defensive skill on your bar while blasting (although a new legendary aspect rewards you for living dangerously).

Sorcerer companions (i.e. Hydras) do benefit from the minion rework, but this is pretty minor compared to the other three minion-capable classes. However, Sorcerer Mastery Skills are tagged as Core skills now, receiving all Legendary Aspect buffs applicable to that tag which is a big damage win. The Sorcerer also has the longest list of active skills tuned! Highlights include:

• New functionality for Frozen Orb (you can control travel distance) and Incinerate (gain damage reduction while channeling).
• Adjustments to Enhanced and Mystical Teleport and Flame Shield.
• Twice the baseline maximum amount of Hydras.
• Small damage increases to Ice Shards, Lightning Spear, Greater Charged Bolts, and Incinerate.

Phew!

Season Journey build: Incinerate (Sample build coming soon!)
Suggested Aspects:

• Aspect of Conflagration — While channeling Incinerate, your Burning damage is increased by 25-40%. Enemies hit by Incinerate explode, Burning all surrounding enemies for over 6 seconds. This effect occurs once per 3 seconds.
• Aspect of Efficiency — Casting a Basic Skill reduces the Mana cost of your next Core or Mastery Skill by 10-25%. NOTE: This aspect previously suffered from a bug (which should be resolved) where it didn’t benefit Incinerate’s mana cost fully while channeled.
• Elementalist’s Aspect — Core or Mastery Skills cast at or above 100 Mana gain 20-40% increased Critical Strike Chance.
• NEW! Flamethrower’s Aspect — Incinerate splits into 3 beams, each dealing 70-85% of normal damage.

Primary skills:

• Basic — Glinting Fire Bolt.
• Core — Destructive Incinerate.
• Defensive — Mystical or Shimmering Flame Shield and Shimmering Teleport.
• Conjuration — Invoked Hydra to benefit from minion buffs.
• Key Passive — Esu’s Ferocity.

Return to top

So, which class should you play in Diablo 4 Season 4?

Anything you want! Every class can hit level 100 and has a powerful enough build to kill Duriel and Andariel. But if you’re still not sure, here’s a recap of the builds benefitting from the free gear you’ll receive in the Season Joureny legendary item caches:

• Barbarian: Dust Devils (Double Swing build or Whirlwind build)
• Druid: Pulverize (build)
• Necromancer: Minion Army (Regular or Shadow)
• Rogue: Barrage (build).
• Sorcerer: Incinerate (coming soon!).

Return to top

So, pick your character, tackle the Iron Wolves’ seasonal questline, and explore the slew of systemic improvements to the game. We’ll see you in Sanctuary.

Please support us on Patreon by subscribing or increasing your Patreon tier. Donate by May 31 so we can keep creating the quality content you enjoy.