What are the best classes in Diablo 3?

Diablo 3 has been around for quite a some time now, and despite several massive setbacks, the game finally found its way with the inclusion of seasons. Since then, the game has spiked in popularity almost eclipsing that of its predecessor.

Every few months, a new season starts and the race to find the most brutally efficient ways to cleanse sanctuary of the pestilence that ravages its lands begins. Lucky for you, I’m here to make that a bit easier by giving you a shortcut to glory. Let’s jump right in and see which of the Nephalem you should take into battle.

While there are several factors to consider when building a class, there are two that function as the common denominator for power. These are synergy and effective DPS. When combining these two, the top players in the are able to catapult character builds far beyond what has originally been considered by the developer.. The purpose of building the best character you can is no longer only about leaderboard placement, but greater rift progression. hat’s what this list will be based on.

S : Builds in this are placed as such because of their ease of use, destructive power, and the effectiveness of their respective gear bonuses. Builds placed in this are the pinnacle of not only their class but their superiority over all other classes in the game.

• Crusader – Condemn Akkhan Set (100/100)
• Necromancer – Corpse Lancer Pestilence Set (95/100)
• Barbarian – WW/Call Of The Ancients Build (85/100)

A : These builds, while incredibly powerful in their own right, are able to be taken advantage of by players that have their paths set, as well as those that have spent a significant amount of time learning that class’ style of play. Theses builds will mostly be able to push through rifts but can also be altered at your discretion for the purpose of farming.

• Witch Doctor – Soul Harvest Jade Harvester Set (80/100)
• Monk - Wave Of Light  Sunwoku Set (80/100)
• Demon Hunter – Multishot Build (80/100)

B : These builds are marked as such because despite the potential for extreme damage output, they are in a group or running through solo As a result, you’ll often find yourself struggling to stay alive if you don’t have your passives and paragon points appropriately set.

• Wizard – Vyr Archon (78/100)
• Crusader – Blessed Hammer Build (70/100)
• Monk – Uliana Seven Sided Strike Build (75/100)
• Necromancer – Skeletal Mage Build (70/100)

1. Crusader – Condemn Akkhan Set (S-)

Crusaders are a great choice because they offer players a simple learning curve with an incredibly high skill ceiling for those aiming for it.

This class also offers the number one build for the current season.

The Condemn build is dramatically improved from last year with adjustments made to the Akkhan armor set. This particular build is the easiest way to progress to the highest s of the rift ladder. However, this build requires monumental patience and perfect skill implementation for the synergy to have its greatest effect.

This build is a perfect 100/100

2. Necromancer – Corpse Lancer Pestilence Set (S-)

The Necromancer is the newest character added to the Diablo 3 roster.

Along with it came a host of new skills, armor sets, and even new enemies. The Necromancer relies on using the bodies of fallen enemies and lost souls to fuel their attacks. With an incredibly high damage output they are a great choice for new players.

This build exists for two reasons. Hunting elites for the purpose of farming Deaths Breath and pushing greater rifts on your own. While this build can work with the Trag’Oul armor set, it’s more efficient to use the pestilence set due to the 50% damage reduction that can be gained  using the corpse lance. The full set also offers a bonus that powers your next bone spear by 3300% following the consumption of a corpse. When combined with a proper skill set up, this will result in titanic damage output, making this build one of the strongest for the season.

This build comes in at 95/100

3. Barbarian – WW/Call Of The Ancients Build (S-)

The Barbarian has always been a staple in the Diablo universe.

With raw power and skills that complement high damage output while also increasing the barbarian’s defense, this build is primarily for farming as its speed and damage outputs enable you to cut down enemies in a single pass.

This build requires the use of two armor sets. The immortal king set for the cool down of wrath of the berserker, and the wrath of the waste set to increase the damage done by your whirlwind and rend. Whirlwind and rend with be the main damage dealers by incorporating synergy between the two.

While this build is not ideal to push greater rifts, it is the perfect build for floating around greater than rift 50 to farm materials and level up weaker gems.

This build gets an 85/100

4. Witch Doctor – Soul Harvest Jade Harvester Set (A-)

The Witch Doctor was the most over-powered build back in the early days of Diablo 3.

That was until season 8 rolled around and it wasn’t until season 11 that they came back to form. The Witch Doctors harness the power of the earth and the souls of their victims to power their spells.

This build of the Witch Doctor class has amazing potential as it can work as both a high damage dealer and an efficient speed farming build. By combining the rune bonuses from the armor set, soul harvest will boost the Witch Doctors’ ability, speed, and power substantially. The big thing with this build is the 50% damage reduction for 12 seconds while also dealing 1650 seconds of haunt damage to enemies hit by it instantly.

In the current season, the Helltooth set is what you get from Headrigs gift so you’ll have to do greater rifts for the best chance of completing the Jade Harvester set. If you find yourself with duplicates, you can use the cube to convert set item pieces.

This build gets an 80/100

5. Monk - Wave Of Light  Sunwoku Set (A-)

The Monk class had a consistently solid build that can be easily used by all players for the duration of the games existence.

Monks use spirit and chanting mantras to power themselves, as well their allies. Because of this, they can be used as a better support class than any of the others.

This build centers on the wave of light technique which, on its own, multiplies damage by eight. Combining this with the Mantra of Salvation and Sweeping Wind, creates a build that can have consistent damage output while also raising your defense by 20% with an additional 20% being granted for three seconds. This build is ideal for solo rifting.

Due to the fact that it has a limited range of movement this build shouldn’t be used in a group unless everyone involved can handle whatever level rift they’re doing individually.

This build receives an 80/100

6. Demon Hunter – Multishot Build (A-)

The Demon Hunter is a speedy class that focuses on area of effect and damage over time rather than brute force.

This class consistently had solid builds from the beginning and one of the best has always been the Multi-shot build. It functions as both a damage dealer and a speed farming build without having to change much.

This build draws strength in equal measure from its class set and skills. Unlike many of the other builds in the game, one is not dependent on the other. In other words, if you don’t have the full Marauder set, you can still supplement the missing pieces with regular legendary gear and expect the same results. The Multi-shot build also has a fan of knives variation which, in most cases triples damage output as long as you have the proper gear skill affixed into the cube.

The only downfall of this build and class in general is that movement speed can get a bit out of control and thus be difficult for some players to maneuver correctly.\

This build receives an 80/100

7. Wizard – Vyr Archon (B-)

One of the classic wizard builds from the game, the Vyr Archon set relies heavily on cool-down time.

I don’t play with the wizard class very often because I don’t understand the mechanics of it on a fundamental level. My wife however has run through T13 rifts solo while using the most basic of wizard builds. Let’s take a look at one of the better ones in the bunch and why it’s the one you should be using.

The faster you can cool down the Archon skill, the higher you can expect your damage output to be. The Vyr set is going to increase your attack speed dramatically and this will allow you to unleash powerful bursts of heavy damage upon your enemies. This build is almost exclusively for solo rifting but can be tweaked in order to run with a group without sacrificing much power.

This build comes in at a 78/100

8. Crusader – Blessed Hammer Build (B-)

The build is viable in the current season because of the crusaders ability to absorb high amounts of damage. 

This has been one of my favorite builds for years because of the Blessed Hammer rune infinity which caused the hammers to split every time they hit an enemy. It would have been higher on the list but this rune has been nerfed and no longer breaks off, it simply lasts longer. 

This time around, the build must be used in conjunction with the seeker of the light set and falling sword skills. The first bonus from the set reduces the cool down of falling sword and provoke. Falling Sword will create incredible amounts of damage to hit large groups of enemies with creating a nice crowd control effect. It should be used in a group for the best results. Creating a synergy with other characters in your party will allow you to reach much high rift levels.

This build get a 70/100

9. Monk – Uliana Seven Sided Strike Build (B-)

Back to the Monk again to show a less effective but equally impressive build from the Ulianas stratgem armor set.

This build works great in groups and on your own as large groups of enemies are going to be your key focus.

This build is going to be used to gather large groups of enemies and packs on the side. This is done by using Dashing Strike to draw enemies you’re passing to follow you. Once you have a suitable cluster around you, Exploding Palm should be applied. At this point, you are ready to unleash the Seven-Sided strike. This will result in titanic damage from the increased damage multiplier from the set bonus that’s applied to each exploding palm.

This one gets a 75/100

10. Necromancer – Skeletal Mage Build (B-)

It should be noted beforehand that this particular build has so many variations that it’s impossible to choose just one.

Last but certainly not least, we have the Skeletal Mage build for the Necromancer. I’m going to be showing you one that can create an enormous amount of damage should you have the skill to upkeep your mages.

You’re going to want to use the complete Bones of Rathma set for this build. Doing so will work extremely well in conjunction with the Skeletal Mage singularity rune. Each Skeletal Mage summoned will increase the damage of your minions by 1000% percent up to 4000%. So at a minimum, you should always have 4 Skeletal Mages with you at all times.

You also get the added benefit of 1% damage reduction for 15 seconds each time a Skeletal Mage attack an enemy going up to 50%. You get a half damage buff and quadruple damage output from this one. It’s lower on the list because of the difficulty of use that some players will experience using it.

This one comes in at 70/100