Diablo 2: Resurrected tasks the player with eliminating not just Diablo, but his siblings and fellow Prime Evils: Mephisto and Baal. The task is a tall order. Every class is capable of beating them all but it's clear that some classes require a lot of thought and talent to beat the game with while others are more simple to succeed with.
Measuring any class in Diablo 2: Resurrected will always leave room for debate. Some characters at the bottom can top the charts against a specific boss or certain elite mob types. Some characters at the top can find themselves without any recourse with an unlucky resistance roll. Still, it's possible to factor in
Updated on June 21st, 2023 by Hodey Johns: With the release of Diablo 4, players are once again revisiting Diablo 2: Resurrected. This isn't too much of a surprise; the game's combat and art style is much more similar to Diablo 2 than it is to Diablo 3 and some gamers will naturally re-explore the history of the current game during this time. With that in mind, this article has been revisited and overhauled, changing from a "guide" style to a proper list, ranking all the characters traditionally. It's also been shortened so gamers get a sense of why each character ranks where they do without a deep dive into every build and skill tree. With the article more concise and legible, readers should be able to find the rank of any class they are looking for and a brief explanation with more ease.
7 Barbarian
The Warrior from Diablo takes on the form of the Barbarian in Diablo 2. Serving as the game's heavy melee tank, Barbarians dominate physical battles. Serving as guardians of Mount Arreat in the game's story, Barbarians heed the call for help when they sense the threat of the Lord of Terror.
If this list was a ranking of the best support builds, the Barbarian would flip from the bottom to the top. His shouts make him a must-have for parties. He can still carry his own thanks to the Whirlwind build, but his soloing capacity isn't on par with the others. Leap makes the class very mobile but since traditional tanking in Diablo 2: Resurrected isn't wise, the Barbarian finds himself running away more often than engaging directly.
6 Assassin
Assassins were introduced to Diablo 2 in the Lord of Destruction expansion. Having come from a secret mage-slaying order, Assassins operate from the shadows. They avoid the use of magic and instead rely on magical equipment and traps. As such, they specialize in close-quarters combat with their techniques and special abilities.
Unless playing on the easiest settings, playing a light-armored melee character is a recipe for disaster. Most heavily-armed builds don't even opt to stay in melee range for long without serious group buffs. The Trapper Assassin "Trapsin" build works incredibly well for those gamers who are alright with turning the Assassin into a caster but the more classic attack builds are a recipe for disaster as the Assassin is almost always one hit away from death.
5 Druid
Companion to the Assassin in Lord of Destruction, Druids specialize in manipulating nature and wildlife. Despite being kin to the Barbarians, Druids have remarkable control over nature. They can amass the power of the wind and plants around them and take on the form of animals.
The biggest fault of the druid is that they are a "jack of all trades, master of none" kind of class. This can be true as they are not capable of summoning as well as a Necromancer, doing physical damage as well as the Amazon, or doing magic damage as well as the Sorceress. However, they can cast physical damage as ranged spells with the Wind build, making it one of the best Druid builds and one of the best builds for any class.
4 Amazon
The Rogue from Diablo returns as the Amazon class, serving as the ranged specialist. As nomads from tropical islands, Amazons specialize in defending their forests and homes from invaders with their weapon mastery. Like rangers, they employ bows and arrows, crossbows, javelins, and even spears to demonstrate their combat prowess.
The Amazon class finds itself in the middle of this list for a good reason. It's hard to make a bad build as either the "Bowazon" bow or the "Javazon" javelin build will be fantastic when specialized correctly. There is a healthy mix of magic and physical damage here; nothing that breaks the game, but it's a safe pick for newer players.
3 Necromancer
Necromancers study the "Great Cycle of Being." As such, these mages have slowly honed power that links life and death, and death back to life. Thanks to their training, Necromancers are calculating and pragmatic, using everything at their disposal to eliminate threats. As such, they use curses, hexes, and even the dead as their weapons.
With a character build as strong as the summoner or the poison build, the Necromancer is impossible to counter on a literal level. There are only four ways to break enemy immunities and the Necromancer has three of those four, including ways to break both physical and magic immunities. From start to finish, the Necromancer has a nice segway from relying on summoned units to the devastating Corpse Explosion which actually improves in damage on harder difficulties.
2 Sorceress
The Sorceress serves as the counterpart to Diablo's Sorcerer class. As a member of one of the most powerful mage clans in Sanctuary, the Sorceress is a master of the elements. She's capable of amassing power from fire, lightning, and ice– helping her easily dominate the battlefield.
It can be argued that the Sorceress is the best class in the game. Her lightning build is the fastest clearer in the entire game on the toughest difficulties, but there is a catch; if she gets bad luck and runs into monsters with magic resistance or immunities, she's in a lot of trouble. Even so, almost every hardcore Diablo 2: Resurrected player has a Sorceress just to farm gear with.
1 Paladin
Both knight and priest, the Paladin defends the land from the forces of evil with their military training and faith. Unfortunately, a civil war within this Paladins order has forced the character to venture West to seek the Prime Evils and vanquish them once and for all. As such, Paladins arm themselves with weapons that help them smite their foes and auras that help them dominate in combat.
There are some great character builds in Diablo 2: Resurrected, but if the community had to narrow the best ones down to a single, consensus pick, the winner would be the "Hammerdin" Paladin. It takes a while to get geared up with very particular Runewords, but once the players have what they need, the Paladin is dominant across all difficulties and against every boss.
Diablo 2: Resurrected is available on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.