Diablo 4 Season 13's Best Class is a Huge Surprise

It’s still early days in Diablo 4 Season 13 following the release of the Lord of Hatred expansion, but all indicators point to the Warlock not being the best class so far. Instead, it appears that other staple classes, including the Rogue and Sorcerer, are massively outpacing Diablo 4‘s newest addition in endgame content.

Blizzard makes balance changes to most classes in pretty much every Diablo 4 season, which helps to keep the meta fresh for returning players. However, whenever a new class is released, it tends to be overpowered, at least for its debut season. Over the last two seasons, Diablo 4‘s Paladin has been dominant in endgame Tower and Pit leaderboards, following its addition as a Lord of Hatred pre-order bonus in Season 11. It was the same in Season 6, when Blizzard added the Spiritborn with Vessel of Hatred. Because of this, most assumed that the Warlock would be the best class in Diablo 4 Season 13 by some margin, but that doesn’t appear to be the case so far.

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Diablo 4 Warlock Not Being Season 13’s Best Class is Lord of Hatred’s Biggest Surprise

On both the official Diablo 4 Tower and Helltide’s Pit leaderboards, the Warlock is firmly in the middle of the pack when it comes to clearing higher-tier endgame content. So far, the Rogue leads the way on both, followed closely by the Sorcerer. At the time of writing, the highest Rogue on the Diablo 4 Tower leaderboards has cleared Tier 150, with the best Sorcerer at 147. Next up is the Barbarian, which currently has a peak Pit tier clear of 144. The Warlock is some distance away at Tier 131, but still remains ahead of the Paladin, Spiritborn, Necromancer, and Druid classes.

It was clear from the patch notes that the Rogue was getting significant buffs in Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred and Season 13, but to see it top the charts so far is extremely surprising. It has long been considered among the game’s worst classes, and it will be cool if it is able to continue on this powerful trajectory throughout the season. The biggest surprise, though, is that the Warlock is not too overpowered in Diablo 4 Season 13. Making a new class overpowered on its debut is an easy way to make it feel extremely fun, as it can be balanced properly further down the line. Given the expectations surrounding the Warlock, it would not be surprising to see it receive buffs in the future.

It’s worth noting that it’s still far too early to declare Diablo 4 Season 13’s best class for certain. Build optimization in the endgame is far from complete, and there’s always the possibility of Blizzard issuing mid-season nerfs and buffs that affect all Diablo 4 classes. That said, the Season 13 endgame leaderboards make for interesting reading so far, and the unpredictability surrounding the best class makes for a pleasant surprise.

Rearrange the covers into the correct US release order.

Easy (5)Medium (7)Hard (10)

Blizzard has already released a post-launch patch for Diablo 4: Lord of Hatred, aiming at addressing some of the early issues players are having with the expansion. Hopefully, the developer will continue to monitor these problems and resolve as many as possible, but the expansion has largely been well-received by players.