Alright, let’s dive into how I tackled figuring out the best starter classes for Diablo 4 Season 5. Felt like getting punched in the face at first with all the changes, gotta be honest.
The Confusion Phase
Started the season pumped, jumped right in like I always do. Cranked the difficulty up to World Tier 2 immediately because, you know, felt confident. First, rolled a Barbarian like I did back in Season 3. Big mistake. My guy felt like he was swinging a wet noodle instead of a massive axe. Kept getting smacked down by random trash mobs constantly. Rage quit faster than light. Seriously, felt so stupid.
The Scrambling Around Phase
Took a deep breath. Cracked open some ice tea. Said okay, maybe Barb just ain’t it right now. Switched to Sorcerer. Heard some buzz online about fire being okay. Got her up a few levels… and man, mana vanished faster than my paycheck. Couldn’t kill anything without running around like a headless chicken waiting for refills. Super frustrating. Almost gave up.
Poured through a bunch of forums then. Messy stuff. Everyone yelling about what’s S-tier, what’s F-tier. Felt like trying to hear someone in a hurricane. Needed to see for myself.
The Actually Testing Stuff Phase
Wiped the slate clean. Made a new plan:
- Tested just leveling 1-20. Didn’t care about late game yet. Focused on early survival and kill speed.
- Tracked resources: How often did I run out of juice? How bad was it?
- Felt the skills: Which class had smooth moves? Which felt clunky?
- Durability: How many times did I faceplant?
Armed with this plan, went back to work:
- Barbarian Again (But Slower): Took it steady, stayed on World Tier 1. Surprisingly… less bad? Fury generation was still a pain early on, but slowly got smoother. Survivable at least.
- Rogue Experiment: Okay, everyone screams “Rogue top tier!” so I tried. Chose Twisting Blades. Holy cow. Damage felt amazing right off the bat. Super squishy though! Like, sneeze and die. Needed careful play, but killing stuff fast? Hell yeah.
- Necro Time: Always liked minions. Built a skeleton army with Bone Spear spamming. Minions died constantly. Kept getting swarmed myself trying to resummon. Felt awful to play early. Gave up quick. Maybe later, not now.
- Druid Attempt: Tried out werewolf shred stuff. Slow. Painfully slow at first. Resources okay? Yeah, survivable? Yeah. But killing elites took forever. Almost fell asleep.
The “Oh Duh” Moment
It slapped me then. My first Barb run sucked because I played him like it was Season 4! Season 5 changed everything under the hood. Assumed too much. Scratched everything and started comparing apples to apples, testing under my own stupid rules (1-20, WT1).
The Putting It Together Phase
After all that button mashing and dying, here’s where things landed for me just getting rolling:
- Rogue (Twisting Blades): Insane early damage. You feel powerful fast. But wow, it’s brittle. Gotta be careful. Resource felt okay once it started rolling.
- Sorcerer (Fireball/Chain Lightning): Still mana issues. Annoying. But… way less squishy now? Died less than Rogue weirdly. Kill speed got decent once I got a rhythm. Solid choice if you manage mana.
- Barbarian (Any with Shouts): Damage ramps slower. But yelling like a lunatic gave me crazy damage reduction. Super tanky early on. Didn’t die much at all. Damage was fine.
- Druid (Pulverize): Felt slow as molasses starting out. Tough guy though. Once I got the spirit flowing, it became okay. Needs patience.
- Necromancer (Minions): Just no. Not for starting fresh this season. Felt terrible. Minions useless, resource hungry. Avoided it like expired milk.
Made myself a stupid little tier list scribbled on a sticky note that looked like this:
Smooth Start: Rogue (kill fast, die fast)
Strong Start: Sorcerer (needs blue drinks), Barb (yell and survive)
Steady Start: Druid (slow and steady)
Sad Start: Necro (why buddy, why)
Felt messy, but it worked for me. Maybe it’s completely wrong for others, but this is where my own testing landed me after a bunch of trial and error. Season 5 threw curveballs, but eventually got the hang of it. Maybe next season I’ll learn to read patch notes first.