Hey guys, and It’s Librarian Husky. In this article, we’ll be discussing our first Power Rankings for Season 5 of Diablo. This overview will cover where things seem to stand in the opening week of the season. Essentially, we’ll examine how the classes are performing relative to one another in the current Meta content, at least for this initial period.

Initial Meta Content and Key Areas

In week one, the Meta focuses on three main areas: Infernal Hordes, the new game mode called The Pit, and the ability to farm the higher-tier content effectively. This includes farming materials in tiers 80 and above and tormented boss farming for Mythic drops. These activities are critical for obtaining the gear and upgrades needed to progress.

Fluidity of Early Season Rankings

Before diving deeper, please remember to take these rankings with a grain of salt. I’ve done my best to research and discuss this with knowledgeable players, but the situation is still evolving. New builds could emerge, or a hotfix could alter the landscape drastically. This overview should give you a solid starting point, but be aware that things may change in the coming days. So, with that in mind, let’s start from the bottom

Necromancer and Druid Performance in Season 5

I’m confidently placing both Necromancer and Druid in a joint fourth position. The reason is simple: the other three classes can currently destroy bosses, clear pits faster, and do so more effectively and safely, without significant flaws. In contrast, Druid and Necromancer have notable issues that hold them back at the moment.

Necromancer: Challenges and Potential

Let’s take Necromancer as an example. This is the class I chose in the opening days, and I’m working on what is likely the best build for the season: Bone Spirit. However, Bone Spirit requires absurdly high stats to function optimally—100% critical hit chance, 235 maximum resource minimum, and Mythic Uniques are almost essential. Compared to other classes, Necromancer feels fragile, with the main build taking time to gather the right items with min-max stats.

Build Experimentation and Reality Check

The burst damage potential of this build is definitely impressive, but don’t take the early impressions too seriously. I’ve been experimenting with various builds, including a non-overpower version of Bone Spirit designed for players who want a cheaper option they can use sooner. Even with this weaker version, I’m hitting for 50 to 60 million, while in the overpower build, I’m expecting 300 to 400 million hits or higher. It sounds great on paper, but the reality is more complicated.

Challenges of Bone Spirit Necromancer Build

I’m slow, fragile, and the explosion radius of Bone Spirit, even with Tempers, is so small that it’s almost negligible. Adding to that, it’s on a cooldown for a few seconds, unlike other classes that can continuously deal damage. In these early days, the downsides of a build like this are significant. Although we’ll get stronger over the coming weeks, with mid-max builds showing their true power, right now, it’s far from ideal.

Necromancer Struggles in New Game Mode

This analysis doesn’t even touch on the new mode, Hordes, where Necromancer, especially with the Bone Spirit build, performs much worse than other classes. Meanwhile, Blood Surge offers incredible AOE capabilities, but its single-target damage is significantly lacking when compared to other builds, particularly for boss fights at the end. Both of our main options currently have serious issues, especially early on while gearing up for Bone Spirit. It’s been a rough opening week for Necromancers, at least for now.

Druid: Landslide Build Comparison

Now, let’s compare this with the Druid. This footage showcases one of the expected best builds from the PTR, Landslide. As you can see, it’s much tankier and more survivable in comparison. You don’t even need to dodge or carefully set up; you can dive straight in and keep going. The Landslide’s earthquakes smash and move, allowing them to catch multiple targets. This makes it excellent for boss killing, as you can just ram into the target and do your thing. In modes like Hordes, the AOE capability is fantastic for clearing chunks of enemies quickly, where Bone Spirit tends to be very stop-and-start.

Druid: Strengths and Weaknesses in Season 5

This build just keeps going and going, with the main issue being its output. While it functions great and is incredibly tanky, it doesn’t clear content as quickly as other classes. Bosses will be a significant problem, taking much longer to kill compared to other classes, which really slows down your runs. That’s the main downside for Druid in this opening week: it has the AOE and survivability, but lacks mobility and DPS.

Barbarian: Whirlwind Dust Devil Setup

Now, let’s talk about the other classes. As we observe here, Rob2628 is showcasing the Barbarian, which I’m currently placing in third place. This is the Whirlwind Dust Devil setup that was predicted to be very strong in the PTR leading into this season. The key is maximizing the size of your dust devils while spinning, hitting as many targets as possible. It’s perfect for a season focused on dealing AOE damage in the Infernal Hordes.

Barbarian’s DPS and Gear Requirements

Despite the Whirlwind concept allowing for mobility while applying damage, we see Rob pressing against a wall during a boss fight to trigger Inner Calm for a damage increase. Spinning on a stationary spot maximizes output, which might seem a bit silly, but it results in incredibly impressive DPS—much higher than what we’ve seen with other builds. However, achieving this level of damage requires insanely high-end gear, which is where the Barbarian truly shines.

Early to Mid-Season: Barbarian’s Growth

Barbarians might start a bit slow in the early season, but mid to late season is when things get really good, especially when players have had time to acquire those ridiculous items. Credit goes to Rob for already obtaining four Mythic Uniques in the first week and achieving really good itemization. However, most players won’t come close to this for some time, so the reality of this build won’t be nearly as crazy for most people until they’ve had time to grind.

Potential of Barbarian Builds

The concept of this build is obviously strong and could challenge the top builds and classes once we see how things stand in high-level pits and other content. A build like this will destroy mobs in the Hordes, making it great for that content, but it may struggle against bosses, especially those with huge health pools and unpredictable mechanics. Even Rob, with his great setup, showcases the lacking single-target damage by comparison when the setup isn’t in stable conditions.

Top Spots: Rogue and Sorcerer

This brings us to the top spots: Rogue and Sorcerer, who are currently competing for first and second place. They’re extremely competitive with one another, both able to take down bosses faster than anyone else and clear the highest tiers of content initially. Shockingly, they’re also very survivable while being some of the fastest-moving classes with the best utility for movement.

Survivability of Sorcerer and Rogue

The raw shields and defenses that both Sorcerer and Rogue possess allow them to mitigate dangerous mechanics that other classes might need to dodge. This makes it difficult to place one above the other at this point. However, there are arguments to be made for Sorcerer, particularly due to their variety of Meta builds and the long-term potential they have as they scale up.

Build Variety and Scaling: Sorcerer vs. Rogue

Right now, Sorcerer has a wide array of strong build options being explored, with significant long-term potential. On the other hand, Rogue is primarily focused on the new version of the Andariel’s Visage Mythic Unique, which is crucial for multiple top builds in the first week. If a Mythic Unique is key to the best setups, it’s fair to bump Rogue back slightly, considering that most players won’t instantly acquire that Mythic Unique.

Rogue: Speed, Mobility, and Unique Defensive Options

If we consider Rogue as the top class, they are incredibly fast and mobile, allowing them to dodge what they need to or reach objectives quickly. Their Second Wind passive, which provides a barrier as you spend energy, can be tempered to increase its potency, offering early defenses. Additionally, their new unique, Umbral Crux, is quite exciting for AOE builds, giving them the ability to effectively deal with single targets as well.

Totem and Damage Management for Rogues

The totem you’ve likely seen in your parties is placed down by Rogues. It soaks up damage and then spreads it to nearby enemies or just a boss if only one is present. Additionally, Rogues have some crit mechanics that are currently overperforming, with Andariel’s Visage being the big hype right now. Rogues are definitely performing well, making the competition between Rogues and Sorcerers quite tight.

Sorcerer’s Strong Week One Performance

Credit must be given to Sorcerers for their impressive week one power floor. Once you hit level 100, farm the right uniques—which is relatively easy to do this season—and get your basic aspects, you’re more than good to go. Many Sorcerers are running Fireball as a common, effective build during the opening week due to its initial effectiveness. With ideal gear and Scaling power, Sorcerers are poised for a significant increase in performance as the season progresses.

Scaling Potential and Survivability of Sorcerers

The ceiling for Sorcerers this season looks insane, with multiple builds that should scale incredibly well with the right gear and perfect stats. These builds are currently being discussed and broken down by the community. On top of that, Sorcerers have great base mobility and outstanding survivability. While they can dodge mechanics with Teleport, they often don’t need to, as they can simply shield through them, which is a major advantage. Thus, the battle between Rogue and Sorcerer remains close.

Initial Season Rankings

I’m inclined to place Sorcerer above in terms of initial performance. However, these are my initial rankings based on all the research, discussions, and considerations I’ve made. As I mentioned, take this with a grain of salt—things are absolutely going to change in the coming days and weeks. For now, I’m putting Necromancer and Druid at the bottom, Barbarian in the middle, and Rogue and Sorcerer at the top. Let’s see how things evolve as we get settled into the season.

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