Diablo 4 Classes: Full Breakdown Of Class Skills

There are five total Diablo 4 classes, and you will want to get to know them before release, so you know who you want to dive into the action role-playing experience with to take on the hordes of hell and more. Diablo is a legendary series which set the blueprint for ARPGs thanks to its satisfying loop of murdering thousands of enemies and collecting their loot to progress in power. Before you can begin your murdering spree to rival Doomguy though, you will need to select one of the game's distinct classes and specialise their skills how you see fit. So read on for a breakdown of all the Diablo 4 classes. 

• Take a look our primer on the Diablo 4 release date and more. 

Diablo 4 Classes: Barbarian

Click to enlarge

The Barbarian is the resident weapons expert and tank, meaning they hit very hard, and brush off even harder hits. Taking hits as a Barbarian will also build a Fury metre, which allows you to use powerful Fury skills. A new feature of the class for Diablo 4 is the Arsenal system, which gives it four different weapon slots to equip one-handed and two-handed for easy switching to match the situation. 

We have information on some of the basic and Fury skills for the Barbarian, but these are subject to change before launch. 

Basic Skills

• Bash - Bash the enemy with your weapon to deal damage. Has a 20% chance of stunning the enemy for 0.5 seconds. 
• Flay - Flay the enemy to deal damage and inflict bleed for six seconds. 
• Frenzy - Unleash a rapid flurry of attacks, dealing damage on every hit. Attack speed is increased by 20% for three seconds. 
• Lunging Strike - Lunge forward and strike, dealing damage. 

Fury Skills

• Rend - Cleave enemies in front of you, dealing damage and inflicting bleed for five seconds.
• Hammer of the Ancients - Slam your hammer down to deal damage in an area of effect (AoE). 
• Double Swing - Sweep your weapons from opposite directions, dealing damage with each weapon. 
• Upheaval - Tear into the ground with your weapon and fling debris forward.
• Whirlwind - Perform a series of rapid attacks. 

Diablo 4 Classes: Druid

Click to enlarge

Druids are like the hippies of the Diablo universe, but their affinity with nature gives them some powerful elemental and shapeshifting abilities. You can transform into a werebear or werewolf during attacks to deal devastating damage, and you always have two good boy wolf companions who follow you. Basic attacks and skills from the Druid will generate a resource called Spirit, which is used to unleash Spirit skills. 

Basic Skills

• Earthspike - Sunder the earth, impaling the first enemy hit. Every time you hit an enemy with this skill, your chance to deal a Crushing Blow is increased by 10%. 
• Shred - Shapeshift into a werewolf and shred an enemy. Has a 30% chance to strike twice. 
• Storm Strike - Electricity will spawn around your weapon, letting you damage an enemy and chain lightning to nearby enemies. 
• Maul - Shapeshift into a werebear and maul your enemy, while also fortifying yourself. 
• Wind Shear - Conjure a piercing blade of wind, dealing damage and increasing your movement speed by 5% for three seconds. 

Spirit Skills

• Pulverise - Shapeshift into a werebear and slam the ground, causing damage in an AoE. 
• Landslide - Crush enemies between three earth pillars. Has a 10% chance of dealing Crushing Blow.
• Tornado - Conjure a vortex that moves outwards and curves in a random direction, dealing damage every second it's active. 

Diablo 4 Classes: Necromancer

Click to enlarge

The Necromancer was the final class to be revealed, getting a trailer at the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase in June 2022. Necromancers are commonly known as dark mages who can raise the dead in most fantasy worlds, and that's still the same for the Diablo 4 version, only they can forgo summoning completely for different forms of deadly magic. The resource for this class is called Essence, which allows you to use stronger spells by building it with basic attacks. They also have a secondary resource of corpses, allowing them to use dead enemies to raise the dead or set traps. 

We don't have any information on the Necromancer skills yet, but we do know about their four different playstyles: Blood, Bone, Darkness, and The Army. 

Blood

Blood magic allows you to drain the life force of enemies to heal yourself and party members, and increase your power. They are incredibly valuable for clutch moments where you need a big increase in health to stop you from dying.

Bone

Bone abilities allow you to use the remains of enemies to summon Bone Spirit minions or set traps. These require a lot of Essence to use due to their power, so you won't be able to throw skills out as often. 

Darkness

Darkness spells mostly have damage over time (DOT) effects that can drain enemies health, along with debuffs that help you and your party members deal more damage. This playstyle is very useful if you want to take a more supportive role in the party.

The Army

The Army is the perfect playstyle for the classic Necromancer archetype, allowing you to summon hordes of skeleton and golem enemies to overwhelm your enemies. A great choice if you want to stay back and let your allies do the work for you. 

Diablo 4 Classes: Rogue

Click to enlarge

Rogues are hybrid classes that can switch between close-quarters melee combat and long-range combat at the drop of a hat. This gives the class a lot of versatility in different situations, allowing you to take advantage of enemy weaknesses or manage your own weaknesses. Of course, you can also spec purely into a melee build, or vice-versa and just make use of bows and crossbows - the choice is yours. On top of the melee and ranged skills that Rogues have access to, they can also imbue their own attacks, and have three class specialisation skills.

Basic Melee Skills 

• Shadow Step - Blinks you behind a target to perform critical attacks.
• Dash - Dashes you in the direction you're facing.
• Caltrops - Deploy caltrops behind you as you dash backward. 

Basic Ranged Skills

• Arrow Barrage - Fire a volley of arrows in a cone.
• Rain of Arrows - You jump into the air and fire arrows at the ground, dealing AoE damage. 

Imbue Skills

• Frost Imbue - Imbues your attacks and skills with a chill effect.
• Acid Imbue - Imbues your attacks and skills with a poison effect.
• Shadow Imbue - Imbues your attacks and skills with the shadow effect.

Class Specialisation Skills

• Shadow Realm - Become immune for a second and pull enemies into the Shadow Realm with you for five seconds. In the Shadow Realm, you gain stealth and deal 50% more damage to enemies.
• Exploit Weakness - You can exploit the weaknesses of enemy attacks, meaning all your hits become critical strikes with 60% increased damage. 
• Combo Points - Your basic attacks add combo points. You can use these points with certain skills for additional effects. 

Diablo 4 Classes: Sorcerer

Click to enlarge

The Sorcerer is a bit of a glass canon, allowing you to dish out overwhelming damage while also folding like a napkin from a strong gust of wind. They have great AoE skills that can wipe out hordes of enemies, along with crowd control effects that make them key in a party. Sorcerers can also harness the power of lightning, fire, and frost. They have mana that is used up when performing different skills, but your mana passively regenerates, while one of your Minor Destruction skills can also generate it for your more powerful Major Destruction skills. 

Minor Destruction Skills

• Lightning - Launch a bolt of lightning that deals damage to an enemy then arcs toward nearby enemies, dealing 30% less damage. 
• Fire Bolt - Hurl a flaming bolt that damages and burns enemies for eight seconds. 
• Frost Bolt - Throw a bolt of frost at an enemy to damage and chill them. 
• Arc Lash - Unleash a wave of lightning that shock enemies in front of you, before returning and restoring some mana. 

Major Destruction Skills

• Charged Bolts - Release six bolts of lightning that run across the ground in erratic patterns, each dealing damage when they hit. 
• Fireball - Throw a giant fireball that explodes on contact for AoE damage.
• Ice Shards - Launch five shards that deal damage and deal extra damage to frozen enemies.
• Incinerate - Channel a beam of fire to burn enemies, dealing more damage over time. 
• Chain Lightning -  Unleash a bolt of lightning that jumps to nearby enemies. 
• Frozen Orb - Summon an orb that chills enemies and expels piercing shards, before exploding into bolts of frost. 

That's all for our breakdown of the Diablo 4 classes, and we'll make sure to dive more in depth which each one as we get closer to release or when the Diablo 4 beta occurs.