Here's the ultimate Diablo 4 class ranking, including multiple tier lists for your consideration. What's the best one for solo play, group play or PvP? Here is an overview of the available Diablo 4 classes and how they compare to one another.
Classes in Diablo 4 are very important. You will choose a class at the beginning of the game and this will dictate how you play, which resources you need, and your starting stats. And given how big Diablo 4 is, it's especially important that you pick a class you will enjoy playing throughout the game (and if we're being honest, no one wants to feel like their character is useless in a co-op party).
We have five classes available in Diablo 4: Barbarian, Sorceress, Rogue, Necromancer, and Druid (but the Barbarian and Necromancer, which are the only two that appeared in Diablo 3, are quite different here). In this article, we will provide you with an overview of each class.
All Diablo 4 Classes
These are the classes available in Diablo 4:
Class | Overview | Fighting Style | Starting Stats | Most Important Stat To Level | Class Resource |
| Barbarian | The Barbarian is the big, muscly character that attacks everything in close-quarters. Basically a tank. | Non-magical melee weapons, including dual axes and two-handed axes. | Strength: 10Dexterity: 8Intelligence: 7Willpower: 7 | Strength | Fury |
| Sorceress | The Sorceress gives players the most simple and obvious forms of magical DPS. | Elemental magic, including fire, cold, and lightning spells. | Strength: 7Dexterity: 7Intelligence: 10Willpower: 8 | Intelligence | Mana |
| Rogue | Rogues are squishy, but they have great movement and access to ranged weapony. Rogues exel at single-target damage. | Non-magical melee and ranged weapons, including crossbows, bows, daggers & swords. | Strength: 7Dexterity: 10Intelligence: 7Willpower: 8 | Dexterity | Energy |
| Necromancer | Necromancers are the summoner class, they will bring back armies of undead and keep a wall of flesh between you and the enemies. | Summons and close-quarters magic, including zombies and physical damage-magic spells. | Strength: 9 Dexterity: 7 Intelligence: 12 Willpower: 8 | Intelligence | Essence / Corpses |
| Druid | Druids are very peculiar. They can shapeshift into animals that attack in close-quarters, but they can also cast control magic from a distance. | Shapeshifts into a bear or wolf for melee combat, and has access to control magic via earth, wind, and storm spells. | Strength: 9 Dexterity: 7 Intelligence: 10 Willpower: 10 | Willpower | Spirit |
Diablo 4 Class Tier List: Ranking All Classes For Solo Play
This is our ranking of the best Diablo 4 classes for when you're playing Solo.
F-Tier: Sorcerer
The Sorcerer was once great for solo play because they could do it all - but then they got royally f*cked in the Season 1 patch. Previously, they could put out great damage against single targets, they had a ton of CC and AoE options for mobs, and most impressively of all, their defensive skills made themmuch less squishy, and much harder to hit.
But now, Sorcerers struggle to put out much damage at all, they don't have any "broken builds" left, and they're actually quite squishy.
C-Tier: Rogue
The Rogue is definitely going to be a fan-favorite. No matter how you choose to play the class, you can be guaranteed fantastic damage output and great mobility. Some of the Rogue's mobility options sadly require a target rather than just a new location, but that's only a small setback.
The more significant setback for Rogues in solo play is their lack of any defense. Yes, they have abilities for evasion, but they don't have any straight-up defensive skills that can keep you alive in harder boss fights when playing solo.
We rate the Rogue as the fourth-best class in Diablo 4 for solo play. This is a great class capable of absurd damage, but it really benefits from a tank up-front who can take the aggro.
C-Tier: Barbarian
Barbarians aren't bad. We don't want anyone to look at this list and have that takeaway. But, the other classes are all much easier to use effectively. And for solo play, the Barbarian can't be built to "cover all bases" in the same way other classes can. Barbs basically have to pick between focusing on single-target damage or mob-killing.
Another annoying problem with Barbarians compared to other classes is that their skills actually need to be aimed and used correctly. But all in all, we can't rate the Barbarian any worse than third best.
A-Tier: Druid
The Druid was so bad in the beta that we had this class the D-Tier for solo play! But wow, the balancing changes massively buffed the Druid. Now this class is able to do loads of damage, it has a ton of versatility, and amazing survivability. You want to focus on Werewolf/Pulvarize, but even with non-meta builds the Druid is really strong in solo-play.
With all the recent buffs now taken into consideration, we have to rank the Druid as the joint-best class in Diablo 4 for solo play. It doesn't hurt that this class has amazing cosmetics either.
A-Tier: Necromancer
The Necromancer is purpose-built for solo play. Necromancers have a very fun and unique playstyle that revolves around close-range, aggressive magic. And they can survive being so aggressive because they get a ton vampirism effects and a hoard of skeletons. What could be better for solo-play than a one-man army that can passively self-heal?
Nothing, that's what. And so we rate Necromancers as the joint-best class in Diablo 4 for solo play. Plus they look badass.
The Best Class In Diablo 4: Ranking All Classes For Group Play
Here is how we rank the Diablo 4 classes for playing in a group (even a party of two will significantly change the effectiveness of each class).
F-Tier: Druid
The Druid just needs some developer love; they don't put out enough damage or take enough aggro to be worth picking for group-play. Now, you could argue: why not pick them for CC? But CC isn't something only Druids are capable of. Sorcerers were somehow blessed with these abilities in addition to their great damage, so there really is no reason to pick a Druid.
We therefore rate the Druid as the worst class for group play in Diablo 4. Hopefully future buffs improve the situation.
D-Tier: Barbarian
The Barbarian is thankfully more effective in a group because their lack of variety isn't as much of an issue. They can focus on taunting the enemies and taking the hits, while their DPS colleagues put the damage out. In other words, they can be tanks.
However, despite being much better in a group, Barbarians are still sadly the second-worst class in Diablo 4 because their usefulness is more situational. It's great that they can be tanks, but in many instances you just don't need a tank. You could commit every character in the group to DPS, and if your evasion was good enough, you'd do just fine.
C-Tier: Necromancer
The Necromancer's one-man-army shtick just isn't as good in Group Play, where you can afford to min-max and specialize. Don't get it twisted, this is still an incredible class, but the top two classes can contribute more, especially when slaying bosses (a particular weak point with Necromancers).
Another slightly negative thing we have to say about Necromancers for group play is that their army of undead can be straight up obnoxious when blocking corridors and such.
B-Tier: Sorcerer
In a group, the Sorcerer can choose to go full DPS and just stand at the back casting spells for a huge amount of damage. Which is awesome, obviously. But the problem is that Rogues are also going to be focused on damage when playing in a group. And Sorcerers just don't quite reach the same squishy-to-powerful ratio as Rogues.They're still fantastic in a group, and having more Hydras out on the map is always a good thing, but we have to rate the Sorcerer as second best for group play. Remember, most of the defensive abilities that make the Sorcerer so good in solo play simply aren't needed for group play.
A-Tier: Rogue
As we outlined when discussing Rogues for solo play, their only downside is a slight over-squishyness and a lack of defensive skills. But in Group Play, those flaws are super unimportant.
We rate the Rogue as the best class in Diablo 4 for playing in a group. When the enemies have a few other characters to target, the Rogue can focus entirely on doing damage, and they're capable of absurdly high damage output.
The Best Class In Diablo 4: Ranking All Classes For PvP
In the PvP zone, the Fields of Hatred, we can go "Bloodmarked" and then attack other players. But is this a good idea for all classes? Absolutely not. We love the mob-killer classes (Sorcerer & Necromancer), but in PvP single-target damage is the name of the game. Survivability is also very important, although at higher levels there's no amount of armor that can save you from well-built Rogues...
D-Tier: Necromancer
The Necromancer is great for dealing with packs of low-level enemies, but the single-target damage potential just isn't there with this class. They don't even have CC to fall back on like Sorcerers.
That's why we have the Necromancer as the worst class in Diablo 4 for PvP. Sorry, we love skeleboys, but we have to be reasonable.
C-Tier: Sorcerer
The Sorcerer suffers from much the same problem as the Necromancer: a lack of single-target damage. The only reason we have them higher than the Necros is because Sorcerers can occasionally get lucky and pop off a skill that will Freeze or Stun the opponent before they get killed.
Much like the Necromancer, the Sorcerer is also shit for PvP, so we rank the Sorcerer as the second-worst class in Diablo 4 for PvP. Maybe after a buff things will change, but almost certainly not.
B-Tier: Barbarian
A-Tier: Druid
The regen on some endgame Druids makes them feel damn-near unkillable in PvP. You don't get to enjoy the full diversity of the class in PvP, but it's undeniably one of the absolute best.
The Druid is just too strong right now for us to rate this class much lower. Hence, we rank the Druid as the second-best class in Diablo 4 for PvP.
S-Tier: Rogue
And now we get to the strongest class in Diablo 4 for PvP: The Rogue. We really don't need to explain why; an endgame Rogue has such disgusting single-target damage that they can just f*cking delete most players.
Surprise, surprise, we rank the Rogue as the best class for PvP in Diablo 4. How predictable.
Are Classes Gender-Locked In Diablo 4?
No, classes are not gender-locked in Diablo 4, and you're able to play as a male or female of any class. Gender has no impact on anything mechanical in the game, it's only cosmetic.
And there you have it, an overview of all the classes in Diablo 4. We could see even more classes added to the game at a later date, but for now the base five should give us more than enough to play around with.