Hello and welcome back Librarian Husky! Today, I’m discussing the best builds for all classes in Diablo V Season 5. What is the one build that generally excels across all classes? After spending at least a week with the game and this season, I’ve gained enough experience to commit to a build, obtain multiple Mythic uniques, and optimize it to near perfection within a reasonable amount of playtime. This analysis holds true for any hardcore player, regardless of class. We’ve evaluated how builds are performing in new gameplay, including Infernal Hordes, tier eight, and boss encounters. We’ve also considered DPS output, mob clearing, and overall effectiveness.

Necromancer: The Dominant Build

The best build for the Necromancer, and seemingly for the entire season, was anticipated before the season even began. It was the top build at the end of Season 4, dominated in GTR, and continues to be the best choice for current content. This build is Bone Spirit. In my gameplay, I’ve already managed to hit up to 5 billion damage with a single Bone Spirit cast, highlighting its unparalleled power.

Necromancer Build: Setup and Survivability

I’ve got a lot of setup to do before achieving consistent damage, but I can maintain between 3 and 4 billion damage between the bigger hits, which is very impressive. This is probably the highest burst single number you’ll see, but it doesn’t equate to the highest DPS. Rogues are dealing more consistent DPS compared to us; their numbers are smaller but hit a lot faster. However, our single-target DPS remains strong.

Necromancer Survivability

On the other hand, we have excellent survivability with the Necromancer. You can become very tanky, but the requirements are quite demanding. You need to stack a lot of Max Health, and at least use the Shaker’s Mythic unique Helm. I’m personally running Doombringer, which adds a pile of extra damage reduction (DR). If I were to push further, say if they added tier 9 and tier 10 mid-season for Infernal Hordes, I’d need even more survivability, despite the massive health and DR provided by shields.

Potential for Pushing Higher Tiers

Right now, I think I could push towards tier 130, but I’d have to sacrifice damage for more survivability, possibly by running a Tials Might chest piece. I do believe we can push further than we are right now, but the effective time-to-value ratio compared to other classes with this build is lacking. In Infernal Hordes, the explosion radius of Bone Spirit, even when doubled with two weapons, isn’t big enough. There’s a delay before you can press the next Bone Spirit, and a small cooldown on abilities like Corpse Tendrils or Bone Prison. Essentially, this is a setup build, requiring you to set up situations in Infernal Hordes, especially when mobs surround the ring.

Necromancer Build: Challenges and Adaptation

I can pull a pack of enemies into a corner, but I can’t pull the whole ring, and there’s a cooldown between each pull. This prevents me from providing consistent damage to maintain a high kill pace, which is necessary to spawn events and farm them efficiently. While I can destroy elites and tougher enemies, I’m not generating the progress bar to spawn events as quickly as other builds or classes.

Considering Alternative Builds

Adaptation might be needed for the Bone Spirit build, possibly shifting towards a Bone Splinters build, which offers more area-of-effect (AOE) damage, or the Blood Surge build, which acts as a living wall. Blood Surge provides numerous gameplay perks, including Unstoppable, some mobility, and it’s an AOE monster, making it excellent for Infernal Hordes and pushing your Aether as high as possible.

Single-Target vs. AOE Damage

However, single-target output with Blood Surge is poor compared to Bone Spirit, which could be problematic when facing final bosses. Overall, I think Bone Spirit is our best option right now, but exploring Blood Surge and a potential Bone Splinters-focused build could be worthwhile. Time will tell, but for now, Bone Spirit remains the top performer, capable of handling everything thrown at it.

Rogue Build: The Andariel Core

The Rogue build is currently dominated by the Andariel-based setup, with nearly everyone running it. Unfortunately, this reflects a trend we’ve seen before, where specific uniques become mandatory for a build to work effectively. Unlike in the past, when getting uniques was harder, today it’s somewhat easier, thanks to crafting mechanics and boss drops. Nevertheless, needing a Mythic unique for your main and best build is still tough, even with these improvements.

Mechanics of the Andariel Build

The core of this build revolves around massive attack speed combined with lucky hit chances to trigger poison imbued effects, causing the Andariel poison burst. Even if these attacks aren’t hitting hard individually, they collectively make a significant impact. There are other skills that could theoretically be used for the Andariel proc concept, but Barrage does it best. It operates at a medium range, hits many enemies in a wide arc, and can be fired continuously with no downtime.

Survivability and Efficiency

This setup allows you to manage enemies with Death Traps and Preparation to help reset your cooldowns, enabling you to constantly dish out damage. The procs are relentless, smashing whatever they hit. Additionally, passives like Second Wind help generate a barrier for each energy spent, resulting in a substantial barrier that greatly enhances survivability.

Enhancing Rogue Utility: The Umber Crux

If anything does hit you, the utility of the build is further enhanced by the new unique weapon, the Umber Crux. This weapon spawns a totem that you or your party can attack, which soaks up damage and then spreads it out in a small AOE. With your ultra-fast attack speed, you always have something to attack between phases or when grouping, and it also aids in single-target burst damage.

Passive Mechanics and Synergies

Additionally, the build benefits from some quirky passive interactions, such as the Precision key passive multiplying with itself. The Sky Hunter bow provides significant crit damage and enhances Precision, while Direct Trick attacks offer a strange but effective crit chance and crit damage buff during stuns or dazes. These factors combine with the core elements of Barrage and Andariel to create a build that hits hard, hits fast, is highly survivable, and even benefits from a few helpful bugs.

Sorcerer Build: The Power of Lightning Spear

It’s clear that Lightning Spear is the standout build this season, and I agree that it’s incredibly effective. However, it does have some pretty steep requirements, essentially demanding an Exodia-level gear collection. You must meet these extreme requirements for the build to function as well as it should. This is similar to the Bone Spirit Necromancer concept. But when the build comes together, it’s obviously worth it. The newly buffed SL rework and Splintering Energy aspect take Lightning Spear and increase its base power by over five times, which is insane.

Combining with Fractured Winter Glass

The build’s effectiveness is further enhanced by combining it with the Fractured Winter Glass unique, an amulet that has a chance to spawn conjurations after Frozen Orb is cast. These conjurations have a high chance to throw out their own Frozen Orbs, creating massive waves of orbs when combined with the right stats and enough lucky hit. This synergy pushes the build into the meta, but it doesn’t fully come together until you reach high-end gear.

Achieving the Exodia State

To reach the pinnacle of this build, you’ll need max Masterworks, extremely high CDR, crit chance, and lucky hit stats to make it all work. One of the most valuable items in the game right now is the Fist of Raex with a lucky hit chance roll, which is crucial for this build. Once you achieve this Exodia-like state, you essentially become a machine gun of Frozen Orbs, spreading them everywhere. For some, this might actually be considered a downside, given the overwhelming nature of the build’s power.

Druid Build: Expanding Attack Range and Single-Target Damage

Expanding the attack range is crucial, and while the single-target damage may not match the intensity of Rogue or Sorcerer builds, it’s still impressive and reasonable. The Druid’s DPS remains strong, with the constant attacking providing a quick Stagger buildup, effectively stopping incoming damage before it starts. Stunning is a key tactic, especially against elites, allowing you to shut them down efficiently during normal clears.

Nature’s Fury: The Key to Consistency

The most consistent top-performing version of this build revolves around the Nature’s Fury key passive, which causes Earth skills to potentially trigger a free Storm skill, and vice versa. Storm strikes give you free Landslides, and Landslides trigger free storm strikes, allowing for nearly constant spamming between the two. The newly improved Earthbreaker unique ring enhances this by leaving tectonic spikes down, which, when hit with a Landslide, might spawn two more spikes.

Synergy and Enhancements

This build benefits from perfect synergy with The Unsung Aesthetic unique gloves, which cause Lightning Storm to strike extra times, complementing the spammy output. Combined with Bear form for tankiness, mixing in some poison damage to boost overall damage, and using Petrify for quick stun buildup, this build is versatile and capable of handling almost any situation.

Druid: The Power of Landslide

While the output might not be as impressive as some other builds, the lack of pressure during a tier eight run is what truly stands out here. The control through stuns and the ability to eliminate everything around you make this build incredibly effective for clearing tier eight hordes, and likely tier nine and ten as well when those are released. Landslide emerges as the obvious top choice for Druids.

Barbarian: The Rise of Whirlwind

Now let’s discuss the Barbarian, which is a bit more complex. At the start of the season, we saw a huge surge in Whirlwind’s popularity, and it remains a top choice for leveling and speed farming. Whirlwind, combined with the Dust Devil tornadoes, offers a fun and effective way to clear mobs. Constant spinning sends tornadoes flying out around you, and you can even increase their size, making it perfect for mob clear.

Whirlwind’s Versatility and Gear Requirements

As Rob demonstrates, Whirlwind can also be highly effective for single-target damage, especially in tormented boss farming. This involves pressing yourself against a wall and spinning in place, making use of the Inner Calm aspect to boost damage while stationary—a clever trick. However, like with Bone Spirit and Lightning Spear, achieving this level of effectiveness requires exceptionally high-end gear.

Barbarian: The Challenge of Mythic Gear

He’s wearing four Mythics, which is quite impressive and a testament to the difficulty of reaching this level of output. The result is undeniable—clearing packs of enemies and farming Infernal Hordes effortlessly. However, this comes at the cost of long-term single-target DPS, especially in lower-tier pits where final bosses present more of a challenge. The mechanics that require movement and eye-framing can significantly reduce DPS buildup.

The Return of Bash Barb

To combat this issue, we’re seeing a return of the Bash Barbarian, which is much better for single-target encounters. The current Bash Barbarian build is capable of delivering roughly a billion damage per hit. While this might sound weaker compared to the Bone Spirit‘s 5 billion in a single button press, it’s important to note that Bone Spirit has a delay between each cast. In contrast, Bash Barb spams basic attacks, providing much more consistent DPS over time.

Tankiness and Utility of the Barbarian

Additionally, the Barbarian is inherently very tanky, with buffs from shouts, increased movement speed, and Unstoppable options that don’t involve self-CC. While both builds feature small attack radii with massive hits, the Barbarian’s overall durability and consistent damage make it a formidable choice.

Bash Barbarian: Consistent DPS and New Gear Synergies

I believe the Bash Barbarian offers more effective and consistent DPS compared to other builds. While they share similar strengths and weaknesses, the Bash Barbarian stands out due to the new Shard of Veral, a unique sword that enhances the Bash build by providing up to 200% increased damage on basic skills. This boost is perfect for this build, but it does cause basic attacks to start costing resources. To manage this, you’ll need the Starless SK Mythic unique ring, which aids in resource generation. However, this means the build has extremely high requirements to reach its full potential.

Whirlwind vs. Bash Barbarian

This season is full of demanding builds, with Whirlwind and Bash Barbarian excelling in different areas. Bash Barbarian is the superior single-target option, while Whirlwind is more relevant for the activities in Season 5, particularly Infernal Hordes. If I had to choose, I would lean towards Whirlwind for its broader utility, but both builds have their merits.

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