Each season brings a number of new changes and balances to shift all of the classes and their builds in the meta tier list of Diablo 4.
With the debut of the Season of the Malignant, the new Caged Hearts might not have changed the game that drastically, but still enough to knock down a few popular builds.
If you’re struggling to get through the endgame of this season, then this Season 1 tier list will definitely help you out, which includes the best builds of Diablo 4’s Season 1 ranked from best to worst.
Diablo 4 Season 1 end-game builds tier list
The tier list below ranks all of the best builds you can consider in Season 1 of Diablo 4. These are classified into four tiers – ranging from S to D (best to worst).
| Tier | Diablo 4 Build |
|---|---|
| S | Barrage Rogue, Bone Spear Necromancer, Death Trap Rogue, Flurry Rapid Fire Rogue, Lightning Shred Druid, Lightning Storm Druid, Pulverize Werebear Druid, Twisting Blades Rogue, Werewolf Tornado Druid. |
| A | Blizzard Sorcerer, Double Swing Barbarian, Flurry Rogue, Infinimist Necromancer, Penetrating Shot Rogue, Rapid Fire Rogue, Shadow Summoner Necromancer, Whirlwind Barbarian, Shred Druid, Omnistorm Necromancer. |
| B | Ball Lightning Sorcerer, Blood Lance Necromancer, Chain Lightning Sorcerer, Fireball Sorcerer, HotA Barbarian, Poison Shred Druid, Rend Barbarian, Sever Necromancer, Thorns Barbarian, Trampleslide Druid, Walking Arsenal Barbarian, Storm Claw Druid. |
| C | Arc Lash Sorcerer, Blood Surge Necromancer, Firewall Sorcerer, Frozen Orb Sorcerer, Leapquake Barbarian, Meteor Sorcerer, Stormclaw Druid, Conjuration Mastery Sorcerer, Upheaval Barbarian. |
| D | Companion Druid |
The S-tier builds are the absolute killers. These are the best builds you can make in Diablo 4 Season 1 that perform perfectly in any situation that you get in in the game – specifically the endgame.
The A-tier builds are great, but not as good as the S-tier builds. They can get you through most of the situations in the game but do lack some specific ones depending on the playstyle of the build.
The B and C tiers are not that good and are entirely situational as of the Season of the Malignant. It’s best to choose a build from the former two tiers – but if not, you can still make do with the builds in these tiers.
The D-tier builds are the absolute worst in the game and should be avoided entirely.
Best class and builds for Diablo 4 S1 nightmare dungeons
The series of Season 1 patches introduced a number of buffs and nerfs to all of the classes, resulting in a massive meta shift for the popular builds in Diablo 4.
Currently, the Rogue class and the Druid class are the best to farm nightmare dungeons in terms of speed and efficiency in Diablo 4.
The Necromancer class is still left, but since it didn’t receive any major nerfs or buffs, it is pretty much the same as it was before.
The real question now is, what are the best classes and builds in the all-new Diablo 4 Season of the Malignant?
To face the never-ending hordes of enemies and the continuous debuffs on the ground inside Nightmare Dungeons, you need strong and versatile classes like the Druid or the Rogue.
The Rogue is currently the best class in Diablo 4 following S1 and is hence the perfect choice for Nightmare Dungeons because it has received all the buffs it needs to dash out tons of damage.
It is even more powerful in Season 1, surpassing the rest of the classes including the Barbarian – which reigned supreme previously – owing to its comparatively major buffs in playing mechanics received.
However, this class is still very hard to master and requires you to invest a lot of your time to learn its mechanics.
The Necromancer is also a great option to use in the S1’s Nightmare Dungeons, but you need to play it carefully and with the right build.
You can pick any of the aforementioned classes for your Nightmare Dungeon run, but it is recommended to pick their best builds to make the most efficient, quickly ending your run without any major consequences.
Twisting Blades Rogue Build
The Twisting Blades Rogue build is considered one of the best builds in the game, not just exclusively to its class. This would be the best build to use if you want to clear out Nightmare Dungeons because it is specifically made for that kind of task.
The best part about this build is its high DPS, which allows it to wipe out anyone in front of it in the blink of an eye. This is mainly possible because of the selection of skills like Twisting Blades – your main source of damage – and Shadow Crash/Shadow Imbuement, which are responsible for making the enemies vulnerable.
After that, you mainly deal passive damage to enemies with the help of Dash and Shadow Step.
Death Trap Rogue Build
The Death Trap Rogue build is one of the most swift and mobile builds that you can play in Diablo 4. Moreover, this build is also extremely effective in terms of offense, dashing out tons of AoE damage and eliminating a large number of enemies within seconds.
This sort of playstyle works best in the Nightmare Dungeon because mobility, pace, and total AoE damage are the most important things you need to clear them – which is exactly what this build offers.
In this build, your main source of head-on damage is the Twisting Blade Skill, which is a great skill in itself, but it is paired well with the Poison Trap and Death Trap skills, which add to overall AoE damage as well.
The main purpose of the rest of your selections in this build is to optimize your Death Trap and Poison Trap skills, allowing you to use them more quickly, freely, and efficiently, and hence allowing you to annihilate tons of enemies quickly in Nightmare Dungeons.
Penetrating Shot Rogue Build
The Penetrating Shot Rogue Build is one of the most effective ranged builds in D4. This can serve as an alternative to the Twisting Blades Rogue build because it is equally effective in the offense department.
Therefore, if you’re not really a melee player, this build is made for you. The main skill we use with this build is the Penetrating Shot, which is a great skill for dashing out tons of damage.
It is also responsible for applying Vulnerable to enemies, further increasing the damage it deals. The rest of your basic skills are mainly used to generate Combo Points.
Collect three Combo Points for the Penetrating Shot and combine it with Poison Imbuement to add poison damage, and you can clear the whole arena in the blink of an eye.
Werewolf Tornado Druid Build
The Werewolf Tornado Druid Build is one of the most effective builds to use in the Nightmare Dungeons because of its sheer amount of damage output, superior mobility, and ability to handle negative crowd control effects.
Moreover, it’s also pretty tanky and can survive heavy blows that would otherwise annihilate you easily.
This is why it’s one of the most popular builds among players of Diablo 4, whether they are playing through a Nightmare Dungeon or not.
The best thing about this build is that you can use your Storm Skills as Werewolf Skills with the help of the Tempest Roar that you equip.
You mostly use skills like the Tornado and Hurricane to dash out most of your damage. With the help of Aspects like Accelerating Aspect and Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast, you are able to constantly spam these skills and increase your Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Damage, adding to your overall damage out.
Bone Spear Necromancer Build
The Bone Spear Necromancer build was insane during the early launch days of Diablo 4. You were able to do damage in the billions after reaching the end-game.
Season 1 has toned down the Bone Spear build a bit in Diablo 4, but it is still a highly effective build to use in nightmare dungeons.
