Since its initial release on May 15, 2012, gamers have found themselves unable to peel themselves away from the quick, loot-oriented RPG gameplay of Activision Blizzard’s Diablo 3.
Though the game initially released in a lackluster state, with its controversial auction house inclusion plus a ton of game-breaking bugs, Diablo 3 hit its stride a few years ago and now serves as a worthy successor to its older siblings.
What’s more, the game is slated to release on the Nintendo Switch this fall, bringing the game to a brand new audience.
Whether this is your first time exploring the world of Sanctuary or you’re looking to climb the season 15 leaderboards, you’ll need the right hero for the job. That’s why we’re bringing you the best Diablo 3 builds for each class.
So stay awhile and listen. Diablo himself won’t be able to stop you with these builds.
Understanding The Diablo 3 Meta
Before we get into the best character builds, it’s important to note that Diablo 3 is a live game. It’s constantly evolving and changing in ways that players may not expect.
As a result, Activision Blizzard regularly tinkers with each character class to nerf and buff abilities. While your Demon Hunter may have been hot stuff five seasons ago, Glide may not be able to get you to victory like it once did.
Don’t be afraid to experiment with more than one build or class at a given time.
It’s also important to note that this article is solely focusing on solo builds. While there are plenty of ways to build your characters for multiplayer and co-op, these builds are intended to help you stack experience as efficiently as possible.
Barbarian
The Barbarian is great for one thing above all else: Doing as much damage as (in)humanly possible while taking insane amounts of damage. Season 15 Barbarians start with a decent bit of HP, but you’ll want to increase HP levels as often as possible.
Players gradually get more HP as they level, however you can speed things up by finding the right gear. You can also use some of your active skills to buff yourself while debuffing your fellow monsters, making them even easier to deal with.
Recommended Build: Whirlwind Wrath Of The Wastes
One of the most popular builds making its way around the Internet right now is the Whirlwind Wrath Of The Wastes build. It’s a high-damage, high-cooldown build aimed at getting your skills ready faster while allowing you to tank even harder.
As with any other build, you’re encouraged to play around with it a bit, but the current meta suggests sticking with these active skills:
- Whirlwind (Blood Funnel)
- Ignore Pain (Iron Hide)
- War Cry (Impunity)
- Wrath Of The Berserker (Insanity)
- Sprint (Forced March)
- Battle Rage (Bloodshed)
As suggested by the name, Whirlwind is going to be your main focus here. It’s great for dealing damage to large groups of enemies and is actually a great way to get yourself out of some sticky situations if you find yourself surrounded — especially when paired with Sprint.
War Cry, Furious Charge, Battle Rage, and Wrath are all intended to buff your damage and help you cleave through waves of enemies.
For passives you’ll need:
- Berserker Rage
- Pound Of Flesh
- Ruthless
- Boon Of Bul-Kathos
That last one is particularly vital as it reduces the cooldown of some key skills.
In terms of armor, you’ll want to collect the Wrath Of The Wastes armor set. When collected, you’ll increase your damage by over 1000%, gain damage reduction, and generate more fury.
Monk
A direct contrast to the barbarian, the Monk is a class all about discipline. They’re quite a bit squishier than their Barbarian counterparts, meaning it doesn’t take a whole lot to take them down early game.
Instead, Monks focus on dealing holy damage through their Spirit meter (the equivalent of Fury for the Barbarian). Each hit the player lands on an enemy generates a small bit of Spirit.
Since Spirit is directly tied to your active abilities, more Spirit means more of an opportunity to deal damage or heal yourself. Therefore, your best bet is to do everything in your power to work on generating as much Spirit as early as possible.
Recommended Build: Raiment Shenlong
If you’ve never played Diablo 3 Monk builds before, you’re in for a treat. Though they sound meek and mild, they’re capable of putting out quite a bit of damage using nothing but their fists.
While Monks are capable of dual wielding and using two-handed weapons, we’re going to focus on a hand-to-hand build while emphasizing crowd control skills.
Your active skills should include:
- Way Of The Hundred Fists (Assimilation)
- Mantra Of Salvation (Agility)
- Crippling Wave (Mangle)
- Breath Of Heaven (Infused With Light)
- Serenity (Ascension)
- Dashing Strike (Radiance)
The Monk needs to be a bit more balanced than other characters to function properly. Most of these active skills should help you generate enough Spirit to keep you in the fight.
Passive skills will consist of:
- Harmony
- Exalted Soul
- Seize The Initiative
- Alacrity
The former two skills buff elemental resistance and temporarily increase spirit generation. The latter two focus more on damage, as Seize deals extra damage to enemies whose health is above 75%.
Your armor should comprise of the Raiment Of A Thousand Storms set which increases your attack speed and damage, even as you’re moving.
Shenlong’s Relentless Assault is a particularly vital piece of gear, as it increases your elemental damage.
Crusader
Crusaders weren’t actually an included class in the base Diablo 3 game, instead introduced via the Reaper Of Souls expansion.
Pious and proud, these are the holy warriors of Diablo 3. They rely on assistance from above as well as their trusty flails and shields to banish evil from the world.
They’re known for taking immense amounts of damage — more so than any other class, in fact. That’s because Crusaders have access to powerful armor that protects them from whatever Nephalem is foolish enough to toss their way.
Indeed, they’re not the strongest on the battlefield, but they are the bravest. Their shields function as both a defense mechanism and a weapon allowing Crusaders to get in close for the kill.
Recommended Build: Akkhan Condemned
This is a bit of an older build, but that’s because the Crusader hasn’t gone as many changes as other classes. With that said, it’s still an immensely powerful build that should get you through the main game on most Torment levels.
The focus of this build will be your Condemn skill. Condemn sucks in enemies from a wide range and deals 1160% holy damage to anyone unlucky enough to be stuck in your path.
Condemn is best paired with the active skill Provoke, which causes all enemies within a certain range to focus their attention on you. This can help your friends escape a near-death experience while also setting you up for a well-timed Condemn assault.
For active skills, you’ll want to make sure your layout looks like this:
- Condemn (Vacuum)
- Provoke (Too Scared To Run)
- Iron Skin (Steel Skin)
- Laws Of Justice (Prophet)
- Akarat’s Champion (Immovable Object)
- Slash (Guard)
Passive skills should consist of:
- Indestructible
- Finery
- Heavenly Strength
- Holy Cause
Holy Cause is a fantastic choice for a Condemn build as it heals you for each percent of holy damage you cause. A one-two combo of Condemn/Holy Cause combo is going to take you from low HP to nearly maximum in a matter of seconds.
You’ll want to collect the Armor of Akkan set which assists with your ability costs and cooldowns.
Demon Hunter
Demon Hunters are maybe the most fun class to play. In terms of lore, they’re focused on revenge against the very demons who murdered their families.
They’re quick on the draw, deal high damage, and several of their attacks feature health regeneration.
This class is a great choice for those who want to engage with enemies from a distance. Weapons include a healthy selection of crossbows (Multishot is a necessity) as well as magical explosives to assist with crowd control.
At later levels, you can even summon familiars using your Hatred resource while Discipline assists with physical damage.
Recommended Build: Multishot Unhallowed Essence
Imagine you’re in a graveyard surrounded by shambling zombies. As you run to the edge of the screen, the fog of war lifts to reveal several more hordes stumbling after you.
For most Diablo 3 builds, this would present a huge problem. Even at a higher level, you’d eventually find yourself overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies attempting to claim you for Hell.
Not so much in the Multishot Unhallowed Essence build, however. A moment ago we talked about how much fun Multishot is, but now it’s time to get into why.
Pick the following active skills:
- Multishot (Arsenal)
- Companion (Wolf)
- Vengeance (Seethe)
- Evasive Fire (Focus)
- Vault (Tumble)
- Preparation (Invigoration)
Your wolf should take care of any enemies in the distance, allowing you to focus on what’s in front of you. Tumble is a fantastic skill that allows you to vault backward every few shots. At later levels, it’s so fast that you’re zipping around the screen like a pinball.
Passive skills should rely on:
- Ballistics
- Thrill Of The Hunt
- Steady Aim
- Ambush
You’ll also need to collect the Unhallowed Essence armor set which improves your resource generation, strength, and dexterity.
Witch Doctor
When fans first got their hands on Diablo 3, many were eager to see how it’d compare to the Witch Doctor of previous games.
Unfortunately, it had a major balance problem for quite some time. Players were blowing through the game with Witch Doctors in a matter of hours — and they weren’t happy about it.
Thankfully, things have evened out a bit. While the Witch Doctor can still summon hordes of enemies to get in on the action and use its trusted pets to slay the undead, things are fairer now.
Recommended Build: Helltooth Gargantuan Minion
So about that pet, we mentioned earlier…
Maybe you were thinking it was a small wolf or raven like the Demon Hunter can summon. Oh no, not at all. On the contrary, this build will make your pets almost as strong as your character.
Since you’re taking a pet-focused approach with this Diablo 3 Witch Doctor build, you’ll want the following active skills:
- Piranhas (Piranhado)
- Zombie Dogs (Leeching Beasts)
- Wall Of Death (Communing With Spirits)
- Soul Harvest (Languish)
- Spirit Walk (Jaunt)
- Gargantuan (Humongoid)
Your active skills are as ridiculous and powerful as they sound. You can literally summon an army of piranhas to swallow your enemies whole. And with
Gargantuan, you can even toss in a massive zombie to finish them off.
Passives should consist of:
- Confidence Ritual
- Spirit Vessel
- Pierce The Veil
- Grave Injustice
The Hellmouth armor set should help offset your ability cooldowns, so you can turn the tides of war with your hellacious beasts.
Necromancer
This creepy class has a lot in common with the Witch Doctor, as both summon the undead to do their bidding. However, the Necromancer can summon even more enemies.
What better way to defeat Hell’s minions than with a swarm of skeletal beings at your disposal?
Recommended Build: Skeletal Mages With Rathma
To summon forth your army of skeletal monstrosities, make sure you have these active skills:
- Bone Spikes (Sudden Impact)
- Devour (Cannibalize)
- Decripify (Wither)
- Skeletal Mage (Singularity)
- Blood Rush (Potency)
- Command Skeletons (Dark Mending)
Command Skeletons, Skeletal Mage, and Devour are a destructive trio intended to overwhelm enemies quickly. The other three skills are fantastic for dealing with whatever remains
Passives should include:
- Final Service
- Overwhelming Essence
- Extended Servitude
- Spreading Malediction
Extended Servitude is the key here. It’ll keep your skeletal army alive longer.
Finally, don’t forget to collect the Rathma armor set. These pieces of high-powered gear will boost your HP and give your minions even more buffs.
Wizard
If you’re a longtime Diablo fan, we’re willing to bet your first or second Diablo build was a Wizard of some sort. Rest assured, your favorite classic character is here with all of their charm and skills intact.
Ever wanted to summon a meteor to crush your enemies? Then the Wizard is for you. Wizards are great for dealing with enemies at a distance thanks to their elemental focus.
Recommended Build: Elemental And Firebird’s Finery
For active skills, your build should consist of:
- Disintegrate (Convergence)
- Familiar (Arcanot)
- Storm Armor (Power Of The Storm)
- Meteor (Molten Impact)
- Energy Twister (Gale Force)
- Teleport (Wormhole)
This is a pretty good mix of abilities. Your elemental damage should do enough to keep most hordes at bay, and if things get rough, you can use Teleport to put some distance between yourself and your enemies.
For passives, you’ll want:
- Evocation
- Astral Presence
- Audacity
- Glass Cannon
The Firebird’s Finery armor set is one of the best in the game. It even features a piece of armor that revives you via meteor should you fall to demonic forces. Seriously, what else do we even need to say?
Use These Diablo 3 Builds To Send The Demon Hordes Back To The Rifts
If you’ve yet to experience the fun and wonder of Diablo 3, don’t feel intimidated. There’s never been a better time to get into the game, and these Diablo 3 builds will help you conquer the game even at higher Torment levels.
Get in touch and let us know what games you’d like to see covered next!
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