We have officially entered the third week of Diablo 4’s massively successful Season of Hell’s Legacy: a season celebrating 30 years of the Diablo franchise with familiar foes, friends, and battlegrounds.
We have already covered class balance breakdown in several articles, predicting the rise of the Warlock that we are witnessing at the moment. You can check out our breakdowns here:
Necromancer, Paladin, and Spiritborn Get More Help in Diablo 4’s Updated Patch Notes
Warlock Is Suddenly Diablo 4’s Best Class and It Is Not Close in Season 15
From the very start of the season, it became clear that there would be a large gap between Warlock and the other classes. Blazing Scream, in particular, has distinguished itself through its versatility and ridiculous damage potential, making every type of content in the game feel like a breeze.
However, as the season has progressed and players have become more familiar with the new mechanics, items, and Runewords, the situation at the very top has started to shift. Classes such as Spiritborn, Necromancer, and Sorcerer have all found high-end S-tier builds, narrowing the gap considerably.
Meanwhile, Paladin is struggling for the third season in a row and is likely the overall weakest class in the game over that period. It is currently the only class yet to clear Tower Tier 150, while also suffering from a lack of real endgame build diversity.
As the Helltides.com Pit leaderboards seem to be all over the place right now, I will focus on the official Tower leaderboards for this breakdown.
Barbarian
Barbarian dominated the previous two Lord of Hatred seasons, which is why the class was targeted with a broad range of well-deserved nerfs. Despite that, Barbarians are still very strong, and Whirlwind Barb is probably the overall best build for the class for who knows how many seasons in a row.
That said, three Tower Tier 150 clears have only just arrived. Player ooo currently holds the best Barbarian clear at 7:42, achieved in the early hours of this morning, while the other two clears were completed yesterday and today.
What is particularly interesting about these clears is the use of Charge, which is slowly emerging as the top Tower and Pit pushing Barbarian build. Flaming Charge allows Barbarians to race through dungeons at blazing speed while stacking a huge number of Damage over Time multipliers for maximum damage.
Barbarians also have plenty of variety, with builds such as Rend and Mighty Throw both earning places in the top 20.
Druid
After an underwhelming Season 13, Druids had a very good time last season, with several powerful endgame builds.
A special shoutout goes to Lightning Storm. With remarkable mobility, AoE, and damage, it was the best Druid build of the season by a wide margin. I particularly enjoyed how spectacular it looked visually, and it was my main build last season.
Shred was also a very powerful option for Season 14 Druids. Both builds were enabled by one incredibly powerful item: Might of the Ursine, which allowed Druids to scale their damage dramatically based on the number of Resolve stacks they had.
As a result, Season 15 heavily nerfed the item, but also opened up other builds through well-placed buffs. In previous articles, we mentioned that a dedicated Tornado build looked like the strongest option going into Season 15, and that prediction quickly proved true. With a hefty buff to Fleshrender, Tornado is finally having its moment, with an attractive playstyle focused on speed and AoE.
At the very top, however, another build reigns supreme. Unlike Barbarian, Druid currently has 41 Tower Tier 150 clears, making it one of the most powerful classes in the game. First place was taken last week by IBoilerUp, a well-known Druid guide maker. All of the top clears have one thing in common: Rabies.
Damage over Time really is the name of the game in Season 15, as Druid is another class topping the leaderboard through that mechanic. This should not come as a surprise, as Blizzard has introduced several powerful ways for DoT builds to scale their damage. First, there is the new Deadly Strike mechanic, allowing DoT builds to essentially crit for the first time.
Then there is Splinter of Hellfire, which provides even more damage at the cost of Critical Strike Chance—a stat that is largely useless for Damage over Time builds anyway.
Lacerate has also received strong buffs and is frequently seen near the top of the leaderboard, often coupled with Rabies.
Necromancer
Care to guess the top Necromancer build right now? Even if you stopped playing around Season 10 and made a wild guess, you would probably still be right. Yes, it is Blood Wave.
This enduring build has been a staple of Necromancer high-end pushing for many seasons, and Season 15 is no exception. It is easy to see why: Blood Wave is a fantastic skill, with a huge area of effect, spectacular visuals, and plenty of ways to make its damage deadly.
Necromancer struggled in the previous two seasons, but Season 15 has given the class several strong builds. The introduction of Enigma to Diablo 4 has also proved very useful, as Necromancers have traditionally struggled with mobility.
Necromancers currently have only three Tower Tier 150 clears, and all of them use Blood Wave. However, Minion Necromancer is also common in the top 20, with Shadow Mages doing the brunt of the damage while Blood Lance’s Shadow upgrade serves in a support role.
Bone Spirit is another strong option for Necromancers. It is not currently present at the very top of the leaderboard, but it requires a specific playstyle with a strong focus on resource generation. Finally, Army of the Dead is also worth playing thanks to some great buffs this season.
Paladin
The experience of playing a Paladin in Season 15 varies greatly depending on which build you choose. There is Shield of Retribution, and then there is everything else.
If you start with Shield of Retribution, Paladin is a fun class to play. It is capable of pushing into the highest difficulties in the game while fully benefiting from the mobility offered by Enigma. Other builds struggle much more, and reaching the competitive late game requires far more effort and high-end items to compensate.
As mentioned in the title, Paladin has yet to clear Tower Tier 150, with the top three players currently reaching Tier 148. As expected, every top-20 Paladin clear on the leaderboard uses Shield of Retribution, with no exceptions. The first different build appears at rank 23, where player Eorl has reached the leaderboard with Shield Charge, another strong Paladin option.
Auradin has also started making a strong comeback later in the season, and we may see it reach the top 50 soon.
Paladin has been among the worst classes for the past two seasons, and even though its most potent build is very powerful, the lackluster leaderboard results and lack of real endgame build diversity mean it unfortunately takes that spot yet again.
Rogue
Rogues have been very powerful in the last two seasons, and Season 15 is no exception. Previously, the class was plagued by a multitude of bugs that resulted in unintended levels of damage. The same thing happened in Season 15, with Dance of Knives dealing dozens of trillions of damage.
This has since been fixed, but Rogue remains one of the strongest classes in the game and has a very diverse selection of endgame builds.
When it comes to the Tower leaderboard, there are currently 16 Rogues who have cleared Tier 150. Build-wise, two really stand out. Penetrating Shot has managed to dethrone Dance of Knives as the top Rogue build, focusing on Poison Imbuement and, of course, stacking Damage over Time.
The second is a Dance of Knives/Flurry hybrid, which currently holds the number-one Rogue clear through player Spectre.
Other popular builds include Rain of Arrows, Heartseeker, and Death Trap.
Sorcerer
Sorcerers have been very powerful throughout Lord of Hatred, consistently having several strong S-tier endgame builds. That has continued in Season 15, where the class is currently one of the strongest in the game.
Sorcerers are sitting at an impressive 49 Tower Tier 150 clears, second only to Warlocks. This is mostly thanks to one dominant build: Firewall.
Even though Firewall’s Ring of Fire variant was slightly nerfed and repurposed in Season 15, it is stronger than ever. This is because Ring of Fire allows all Sorcerer Pyromancy skills to apply a powerful Burning effect, which is, of course, yet another Damage over Time mechanic.
Most top clears use Firewall in combination with Meteor for large bursts of Burning damage. Other top entries also use Charged Bolts’ Pyromancy upgrade, Blaze, as an alternative damage source.
When it comes to build diversity, Sorcerer has the same issue as Paladin. Firewall builds are by far the best option, while nothing else ranks in the top 30 places on the leaderboard. Still, because Firewall is a support skill, it can be paired with several Pyromancy skills, giving the build a little more depth.
Spriritborn
Spiritborn is another class that struggled in previous seasons, with the exception of Evade Counterswarm, which served as its saving grace.
That trend continues in Season 15, with Spiritborn struggling in terms of both Tower clears and endgame build diversity. This time, however, Counterswarm has been eclipsed by Stinger. The rise of these builds is not surprising, as both rely heavily on Damage over Time, which is especially strong right now.
Currently, only one player, ungeziefer89, has managed to clear Tower Tier 150 (with Stinger), making Spiritborn the second-weakest class after Paladin.
When it comes to the top builds, both Stinger and Counterswarm are equally represented in the top 30, offering different flavors of the Poison DoT playstyle.
Quill Volley and Touch of Death are not top-tier builds this season, but they are still strong options for Torment 12 content.
Warlock
I briefly mentioned the class gap slowly closing, mostly in terms of how many classes can now compete at Tower or Pit Tier 150, the ultimate challenge in Diablo 4.
But when it comes to the sheer number of top clears, this is where things stop being close. All 1,000 of the top Warlock leaderboard entries have cleared Tier 150. In other words, if you want any chance of ranking on that leaderboard, Tier 150 is the difficulty you need to beat.
Thankfully, leaderboards will reset soon, offering a far more welcoming environment for players who want to rank highly.
When it comes to build variety, Warlocks have plenty of viable options. But if one build defines Season 15, it is undoubtedly Blazing Scream. Out of the many, many Tier 150 Warlock ranks, the vast majority come from that build. In fact, I failed to spot a different one.
Apocalypse Warlock is also incredibly strong, while Lunatic is a super fun build that can comfortably clear Torment 12 content.
After two seasons of mediocrity, Warlocks are finally having their moment.
