After an achingly long wait, players finally have the chance to dive into Blizzard’s new hack and slash dungeon crawler Diablo 4 with the arrival of its Open Beta. However, before you start taking down hordes of demonic creatures, you’ll need to choose a class to play. In the beta, there are three classes available to play (two more come with the full game), each with different strengths, weaknesses, and playstyles.
While all of the classes in Diablo 4 are powerful and can enjoy great success on the battlefield, some are a bit stronger than others overall. Also, depending on how you like to play, you might enjoy some classes more than others. To help you choose, we’ve broken down everything you need to know about Diablo 4 classes in this guide, including a tier list of the best classes, an overview of each class, and some class suggestions for beginners and solo players alike.
Diablo 4 beta: best class tier list
As we said before, Diablo 4 has been balanced so that all of its playable classes are effective. There is no “bad class” and ultimately you shouldn’t care about the metagame at all and just pick the class that sounds the most fun to play.
That being said, some classes are slightly better than others, and players who are comfortable with all playstyles will probably want to go for the best overall class. With that in mind, we’ve ranked the three classes currently available in the Diablo 4 Open Beta in the tier list below.
| Range | Class |
|---|---|
| S | Magician |
| TO | Rogue |
| B. | Barbarian |
| N/A | Necromancer, Druid |
Please note that the Necromancer and Druid are currently unplayable and as such we haven’t ranked them because we haven’t been able to get our hands on them yet. When the beta is available to all players from March 24-27, we’ll update this tier list with rankings for those classes, as both will be available.
Diablo 4 beta: Which class should you play?
Here, we’ll go over the ins and outs of each class to give you an idea of what to expect while using them.
Barbarian
- Strengths: Lots of health, mobile, forgiving to play.
- Weaknesses: Short range, not as deadly as other classes
The Barbarian is Diablo 4’s simple melee and tanky class, capable of dishing out good damage at close range and staying on top of enemies with high movement speed. They can deal damage over time with bleed status effects and also have a lot of health, making them easier to play than other classes.
Barbarians will fight more than other classes when facing ranged enemies, as they have few effective ranged options. His damage output, while good, is also a bit lower than what other classes are capable of.
Rogue
- Strengths: Versatile, high crit damage, lots of status effects
- Weaknesses: Not very sturdy, challenging to play.
Rogues are one of the most versatile classes in Diablo 4, as they can attack enemies from afar with bows or up close with daggers. They are capable of dealing heavy critical damage and can also imbue their weapons with magic or set up deadly traps to inflict various status effects.
Rogues are pretty hard to play compared to other classes though, so you might want to start with an easier class like the Barbarian first if you’re new to Diablo. This is because they don’t have a lot of health and also because managing your abilities efficiently is very important as a rogue.
Magician
- Strengths: High damage, long range, lots of status effects.
- Weaknesses: Low health, less effective up close
Sorcerers are essentially the opposite of a barbarian in that they have low health, but are capable of dealing magic damage at very high range. Even though they can’t take much punishment, they are a great class to play solo as they can control groups of enemies very effectively with their spells. Frost spells are particularly effective for this, as they chill anything they hit, slowing down targets considerably.
Additionally, Sorcerers are also a great addition to teams in group play, as other classes, such as Barbarians and Necromancers, can soak up punishment and draw aggression away from them.
Necromancer
- Strengths: Balanced game style, armies of minions.
- Weaknesses: Not as specialized as other classes.
While it is not possible to play as a Necromancer during the Diablo 4 Beta Early Access period, we expect it to be one of the strongest classes (if not the strongest) in the full game, as historically this class type has not has had significant drawbacks. They are capable of both ranged and melee combat, can summon armies of aggro-dealing undead minions, and even bone, shadow, and blood magic that can be used to control groups and convert damage into health.
The only real weakness of the Necromancer class is that it is not as specialized as the Barbarian or Sorcerer. Ultimately, this class trades maximum potential for versatility, and that tradeoff will likely be worth it.
Druid
- Strengths: Versatile, quite sturdy, good for crowd control.
- Weaknesses: limited range options
Based on what we know about the currently unavailable Druid, it sounds like it will be similar to the Barbarian in that its main focus is melee damage. Druids can shapeshift between werewolf and werebear, with the former featuring high attack speed and critical damage and the latter offering more area of effect options and a larger health pool. Druids will also be tougher than some of the other classes overall, though they aren’t as tough as a barbarian.
Like barbarians, druids will have limited options for ranged combat, though they will be able to call upon the powers of nature to control enemies with earth magic and damage them with wind and lightning. Still, don’t expect to be able to shoot or bombard enemies as effectively as Rogues and Warlocks.
Diablo 4 beta: the best class to play solo
If you are playing only the beta version of Diablo 4, we recommend that you choose the Magician or the Barbarian. If you’re comfortable with carefully managing your health and positioning, you’ll be able to annihilate your enemies from afar with the sorcerer’s incredibly powerful magical attacks. Barbarians, meanwhile, have great defense and can take a lot of punishment thanks to their high health, which helps make up for the numbers disadvantage solo players have to deal with.
When the Diablo 4 open beta is available to all players, we hope that the Necromancer it will become the best class for solo play as they can summon hordes of minions and have a very diverse kit.
Diablo 4 beta: the best class for beginners
If you are new to Diablo and you like the games, you should start as a Barbarian. While Wizards and Rogues do they have better damage, they also have much less health and will go down much faster than a barbarian. While you’re learning the ropes, it’s a very good idea to opt for the most forgiving class of the bunch.
He Druid It’s also likely to be a great class for beginners, as they’ll also be on the tank side. If you want good defenses but don’t want to get stuck in the melee-only playstyle, consider picking up Druid when the second run of the beta begins (or when Diablo 4 launches on June 6, 2023).
Diablo 4 is scheduled to be fully released on June 6, 2023, with the open beta expected to run from March 17-20 for Early Access owners and then again from March 24-27 for all players. It has the potential to be one of the best xbox games for fans of dungeon crawlers and hack-and-slash combat, and we’re eager to get in on it now that the initial run of the beta is live.
