The calamity has swept through the end of the launch patch of Diablo 4, leaving builds in ruins. Blizzard heading into Season 1 wanted to nerf the top dogs, while very few buffs arrived for the game’s aspects, uniques, class skills, and passives. So, it means there’s now more room for other builds and classes to dominate. It already looks like we have a few winners. Here’s a look at the best Diablo 4 Classes for Season 1.

Diablo 4 Best Class for Season 1¶

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Currently, Tornados and Lightning-themed Druids are entering Season 1 looking like the best-class builds in Diablo 4. Image via Blizzard Entertainment.

At the moment, Diablo 4’s best classes for Season 1 are as follows:

1. Druid
2. Necromancer
3. Rogue
4. Sorcerer / Barbarian

Coming in as the likely best class for Season 1 of Diablo 4 is the Druid. It has become apparent that the Tempest Roar builds for Druid are smashing the scene, no matter if its a Lightning Storm build; the Stormbeast Werewolf Build, or Tornado build. Due to the strengths of DireWolf aspects for Grizzly Rage, with its damage, spirit generation, and mob and boss killing speeds, these three builds are all great to use, so, you have choices of three different builds to go for. Thus, it is a safe bet running a Druid for Season 1.

Then, it’s time to look at the Malignant Hearts. These new items are gem sockets for your rings, offering you more seasonal passives to change your build. Druid has a fair few. For example, The Picana is a nice choice for the Lightning Storm and Stormbeast for more lightning damage scalings. And there’s The Unconstrained Beast, a Heart that grants you Grizzly Rage for a few seconds. Since most builds run this, that’s a free ultimate when you get crowd controlled (CC’d) to become Unstoppable, and the following damage buffs or spirit generation, depending on your style. Therefore, this is a great defensive option. There’s much more to be said about these Hearts and specific builds, so we recommend following the blue links to specific builds that interest, where we go a little deeper on Heart suggestions. With all that said, the new seasonal mechanic, and current class balance means Druid enters Season 1 with a flying start, being very easily one of the best classes for Diablo 4 Season 1.

The Necromancer: Diablo 4’s Second Best Class for Season 1¶

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Here are the best Diablo 4 Necromancer Builds in the current patch. Image via Blizzard Entertainment.

The Necromancer is arguably the second-best class for Season 1 in Diablo 4. The reason for this is simply down to the Bone Spear build. This minionless, crit-ramping build has taken down Uber Lilith in 20 seconds. While it got nerfs, it still is capable of nuking her down, and is still one of the best defensives in the game, with its moving invulnerability. So, you’ll still progress very far with this build in Season 1.

In addition, the Bone Spear build can improve in Season 1, thanks to the new unique effect, Lidless Wall. This new Unique Shield offers the Necro some more Bone Storms, meaning you get those crazy Bone Storm benefits fairly often from your passives and your legendary aspects.

As for the Malignant Hearts, there’s one very appealing Heart called Tempting Fate, which greatly improves crit damage. Since this build is reliant on building as much Crit Chance as possible, this will give you some very strong late-game damage boosts once you sort your itemization out. So, when you start approaching that 60% crit chance margin, this becomes very good for your crit-focused builds, granting some even more crit multipliers that the class did not previously have access to. However, it is off setting some Splintering Aspect nerfs, so don’t get too carried away. Combine that with The Grandfather (if you’re very lucky), Bone Spear crits will be even higher than they were before.

If you’re more of a minion-build fan, there’s a Malignant Heart called The Great Feast. This greatly improves minion damage, but it does drain Essence. If you start taking talents to get Essence back, with a few Primary Resource themed aspects thrown in, you can manage your Essence well. This could make minion builds more impactful with their big slaps. Aspect of Reanimation got a buff too, so skellies are better. We are not too sure if it will dethrone Bone Spear, but, at least the new season items and balance changes do engage with minion builds better. Blizzard is now offering those who like the playstyle some more options to get a minion build empowered and rolling in Season 1.

The Rogue: The Third best class for Season 1?¶

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Here is a look at the best Diablo 4 Rogue Builds on the current patch. Image via Blizzard Entertainment.

Finally, the other class worth looking into as one of the best classes for Season 1 is the Rogue. The class got some slight nerfs to Death Trap, lowering its appeal as a utility ultimate for mobbing. However, the class has got a new toy called Trickery with the Malignant Heart feature. This one drops a Taunt dummy when you use Subterfuge skills. This means if you use a Death Shroud, Concealment, Smoke Bomb or Poison Trap, the dummy will taunt enemies. Since lots of builds run Poison Trap, this means you taunt enemies into the trap, making that knockdown easier to use, and keeps enemies in the poison damage feature, resulting in a better commonly used skill.

What you now have is a Twisting Blades build with an ultimate spare, which can be used to use Shadow Clone once again, and reap the rewards of your Position Imbuement and Inner Sight specialization to once again do big boss nukes. This is also more likely a better play with Aspect of Imitated Imbuement now drastically better. Twisting Blade players should find a more refreshing build to use for Season 1.

If you’re not in the market for Twisting Blades builds, then, you’ll be happy to know, Ranged Rogue got some nice buffs. The more common build for end-game Rogues was a Penetrating Shot Build, and that got a nice upgrade with a new unique bow called Eaglehorn. This bow adds a rebound ability to Penetrating Shots that hit obstacles and walls, allowing them to travel back. This bow is a flat buff to your skills if you get it and applies Vulnerability if you hit an enemy from the back with a Penetrating Shot arrow. All in all, this bow makes the build better.

There’s also a heart called The Vile Apothecary, which has a chance to add all Imbuements to an attack. Since this build typically uses Poison Imbue and Shadow Imbue, you can get a lot of skill passive benefits, and also get Cold Imbue for some more CC on packs, and grant more Stagger to bosses. Again, the Penetrating Shot builds just got a lot better in Season 1. Moreso, Toxic Alchemist’s Aspect is much better too, making that a very nice aspect to use on this build.

This concludes the best class for Diablo 4 Season 1. Hopefully, there’s a build on this list that you can take a look at, think the season 1 patch notes didn’t screw it up, and get excited for when it comes to getting Hearts to buff them up even further. Obviously, this is just us getting hyped about builds we know are still good, and with some new toys to play with. There could be more builds that make classes better for Season 1, but, at the moment, it’s hard to tell till everyone gets the chance to start cooking.