Classes

Our class tier list puts the Barbarian at A and the Wizard at F, and it says something in its opening lines that almost nobody reads: the tier does not make a class better or worse, it is based on how difficult the class is to master. Read it that way and it stops being a ranking and starts being a learning curve, running from the class you can play badly and still win with to the one that punishes every mistake.

Set that curve against our best class guide, which picks a winner for each of five roles, and something falls out that neither page says by itself. The top five classes on the curve each own exactly one role, in order. The Barbarian is the easiest and the best at DPS. The Crusader is second and the best in groups. The Necromancer is third and the best solo. The Monk is fourth and the best in PvP. The Demon Hunter is fifth and the best in PvE. And the Wizard, the hardest class in the game, is the only one our role guide names for nothing at all.

That is the order this guide uses: easiest to hardest, with the one job each class is actually best at, and the pages we have for it. Six classes, twelve pages, and a coverage grid worth knowing before you commit a character slot.

The curve, and what each class wins

Two gaps in that grid are worth flagging up front. The Crusader and the Monk have no standalone class page, only builds, which means the fastest way to understand how either one plays is the build pages themselves plus the entries in the tier list. And the Crusader is the only class in the game with no levelling build written for it, which matters because it is also the class whose whole kit is built around a party.

A tier: Barbarian, the one you cannot get wrong

The Barbarian sits at the top of the curve because it forgives everything. It has the largest health pool in the game, melee attacks that hit several targets at once, and enough mobility that closing distance is never your problem. The tier list's summary is blunt about who it is for: if you lack patience and want to run at the battlefield without thinking, this is the class.

Our best class guide makes it the DPS pick for the same reasons, with one detail the tier list leaves out. Lacerate attacks heal you a little on every landed hit, and Undying Rage stops you dying outright for its duration while returning thirty percent of your damage as health. A class that heals by attacking is a class that punishes you least for standing in the wrong place.

The class page covers the core skills, with Wrath of the Berserker, Furious Charge, Hammer of the Ancients, Demoralize, Sprint and Whirlwind, plus the weapons and armour sets worth chasing. The builds page carries four setups, and the Barbarian is the only class in the folder where one of them does double duty: its solo build is also its levelling build, which is another way of saying the class works before it has any gear.

B tier: Crusader, the one that needs a team to be worth it

The Crusader is second on the curve for versatility rather than simplicity. It fights like a Barbarian with the emphasis moved to area attacks, has a smaller health pool and weaker single-target damage, and can ride a horse, which the tier list counts as making up for the rest.

Where it stops being a lesser Barbarian is in a party. Our role guide calls it the best group class in the game without qualification, and the argument is about two skills: Conjuration of Light, which makes the whole party invulnerable for a few seconds, and Holy Banner, which raises everyone's critical strike chance. Those set up other people's damage rather than dealing your own, which is exactly why a solo player will not feel what the class is for.

The builds page has three setups, a PvE Apocalypse build, a PvP build and a group and rift build, and it is the only builds page in the bucket that names Set Items directly, pointing at Issatar Imbued, the Feasting Baron's Pack and Vithu's Urges. Read that alongside our Set Items page before you commit, because two of those three want ring slots that do not drop below Hell 4.

C tier: Necromancer, the one that brings its own party

The Necromancer is placed third for a very specific reason, and it is a timing one rather than a power one: the class needs corpses before it can raise anything, and generating them takes a moment you do not always have. That is the entire cost of playing it.

What you get back is the best solo class in the game. Golems, mages and skeletons fight for you and soak hits meant for you, which turns a solo run into a group run with you at the back, and the corpse piles it builds can be detonated for area damage or fired at things. Our role guide's phrase for it is that the minions serve as teammates, and that is the honest description.

The class page runs through Soulfire, Command Skeletons, Skeletal Mage, Dark Curse and Command Golem with the weapons and armour that support them. The builds page is the fullest in the folder at five setups, covering solo, group rifts, hybrid, PvP and levelling, and its levelling build is one of two in the whole bucket that names no legendary gems at all. Read that as a feature: the Necromancer arrives at level 60 without needing anything bought.

D tier: Monk, the one built for other players

The Monk is where the curve starts to get steep. The tier list files it under classes for people who play with others, crediting it with mobility and attacks that are merely respectable, and is candid that respectable is the word: as other players' health pools and damage grow, a Monk on its own falls behind.

In PvP none of that applies, and our role guide picks it outright as the best PvP class, describing it as though it were designed for the mode. The argument rests on Shield of Zen at level 28, which grants immunity to crowd control and cancels out the thing that decides most duels, and on chaining Cyclone Strike to pull opponents in with Seven-Sided Strike to hit everything around you seven times while briefly invulnerable. Our PvP tier list independently puts the Monk on top, so both of our PvP pages agree.

There is no Monk class page, but the builds page carries five setups covering PvP, levelling, solo, group and rift, and hybrid, with skills, weapons, armour and Paragon priorities for each.

E tier: Demon Hunter, the one that dies if you stand still

The Demon Hunter is ranked fifth for veteran-only reasons. It is the fastest killer in the game and the most fragile thing in it, with no healing, little support and average mobility, so it works entirely on positioning and falls apart the moment something reaches you.

That combination is why our role guide names it the best PvE class. Against a boss that cannot chase you, a class with no survivability and enormous ranged damage is simply the best answer available, and the pairing of Vengeance, which fires your crossbow's primary twice, with Empowered, which raises crossbow damage and lets arrows pierce, is where the numbers come from. The class page covers Knockback Shot, Knife Trap, Vengeance, Sentry and Strafe with a long armour list, and the builds page gives four setups across solo PvE, group rifts, PvP and levelling.

F tier: Wizard, the one with no easy job

The Wizard is last on the curve and it is worth being precise about why, because the tier list itself is: it is ranked lowest not because it is useless but because it is a very challenging class to play. The problem is a contradiction built into the class. It has a small health pool, so it needs to keep moving, and it has to stand still to cast, so it cannot.

It is also the one class our role guide names for nothing. It is compared to the Demon Hunter and comes off second in the comparison, trading single-target obliteration for ranged area damage and crowd control. That is not the same as being bad, and the tier list is careful to say so: it is a class for players who can read a fight before it happens. But if you are choosing a class by what it wins, this is the one with no entry.

The class page is the longest skill list in the bucket, with Arcane Wind, Scorch, Lightning Nova, Teleport, Black Hole, Meteor and Arcane Torrent, which is itself a hint about the class: it plays on combinations rather than on any one button. The builds page has four setups, and like the Necromancer's, its levelling build names no gems.

What every class wants regardless

Reading all twenty-five builds across the six builds pages side by side turns up something none of them says on its own. The legendary gem recommended most often is Blood-Soaked Jade, which appears in eight builds and is wanted by five of the six classes. Chip of Stoned Flesh and Pain of Subjugation follow at six builds each, across five and four classes. Everlasting Torment, the Trickshot Gem and Lightning Core come next at five apiece.

In practice that means your first few Legendary Gems are close to class-agnostic, which is worth knowing when each one costs a Crest and the supply is capped at three empowered Elder Rifts a day. Two more pages cover the ground across classes rather than within one: best skills collects the skill picks for all six, and the Rank 10 Battle Pass rewards lists the free off-hand weapon each class should claim.

Frequently asked questions

Which class should a new player pick? The Barbarian, and the tier list says so for the right reason: it is the most forgiving, not the strongest. If you want the class that carries a solo campaign best, take the Necromancer instead.

Is the Wizard bad? No, it is the hardest. It is bottom of the tier list because the tier list ranks difficulty, and it is the one class our role guide does not name a winner for, which is a coverage fact rather than a verdict.

Why is there no Crusader or Monk class page? Both have builds pages only. For those two, the build setups plus their tier list entries are the full picture we carry.

Which class is best in PvP? The Monk, and both our role guide and our PvP tier list land on it independently, largely on Shield of Zen's crowd control immunity.

Do I need legendary gems to level up? No. The Necromancer and Wizard levelling builds name none at all, and the Barbarian's levelling setup is the same one it uses solo.