Diablo 4 - Lord of Hatred Meta Predictions

This is an early prediction covering the known information for each class. For all the updated information once Lord of Hatred releases, make sure to check our Tier List for the best builds and the Leveling Guides to help blast through the next season.

Warlock Class Expert - Sanctum

Warlock is looking like the strongest class in the game, which should come at no surprise. At first glance, the Warlock's biggest strength appears to be damage and survivability and its biggest weakness seems to be mobility. However, the Anathema of the Primes Unique allows Demonic Smash Rampage to be spammed, giving Warlock builds Barbarian Leap-like mobility.

Standout Damage Skills within the class seem to be Dread Claws and Hell Fracture. Dread Claws is incredibly strong numerically due to Ambush Dread Claws and Cascading Dread Dread Claws. Hell Fracture can compete with it due to the very powerful Spine of Tathamet Unique allowing for constant 5 simultaneous explosions after the 3rd Cast of Hell Fracture.

Although Lava Fissures Hell Fracture could be strong, Fractured Abyss Hell Fracture will most likely be stronger as Abyss is looking like the most powerful Damage Tag with powerful multipliers such as:

• • Phoba of Harash's Shadow Talisman Set
  • Insidious Aspect
  • Hex [x]90% Abyss Damage
  • Ritualist Shard +Abyssal Fragment
  • Mastermind Shard + Blasphemous Fragment

Metamorphosis is looking like an auto-include in most builds as it allows for incredibly powerful damage scaling with Damage Scaling Metamorphosis, Phase 2 Enrage Metamorphosis and Destruction Demon Metamorphosis or Terror Demon Metamorphosis.

Demonic Smash Rampage as mentioned earlier, is looking like an integral part of all builds with Anathema of the Primes for mobility.

Chain Aura Dark Prison will be a feature in a lot of builds as a quite insane damage reduction buff.

Nether Step will also be included in most builds as it not only provides mobility but also

• Damage reduction with Damage Reduction Nether Step + Movement Speed Nether Step.
• Immunity with Gloomwalker Nether Step.

Shards don’t seem to be incredible well balanced as the Legion Shard andVanguard Shard seem weaker than their Mastermind Shard and Ritualist Shard counterparts. It’s possible special builds can utilize them to great effect though, so we can't rule them out.

Overall, a Tier List for the Class is hard to determine without more information but Ritualist Shard Fractured Abyss Hell Fracture and Mastermind Shard Dread Claws seem to be in a league of their own.

For more Paladin / Warlock content, check out Sanctum on YouTube and Twitch.

Barbarian Class Lead - Cliptis

The Barbarian is going to see some old builds rise and some new builds making their way into the game and I'm very excited at all the possible strong and fun builds.
The skill tree now has new variants added in, we'll be building physical, fire and Ancient barbs. On top of a bunch of new uniques its looking like a crazy season but don't worry, all your favorite build like Lunging Strike, and Hammer of the Ancients are still here!

The builds I'm really excited to see is a pure whirlwind build. The devs specifically put in a lot of work into making Pure Whirlwind strong and viable. That means no earthquakes, no Dust Devil's Aspect, just Whirlwind. It got some brand new upgrades through the revamped Gohr's Devastating Grips that now periodially pull enemies into you and increase Whirlwind damage. On top of that if you have access to Talisman you may even be able to add periodic Mighty Throw as you Whirlwind for extra single target damage. On top of that we are looking at the really high potential we see some insane bleed builds, which could mean Whirlwind Bleed making it's return to the main stage.
But I'm also excited to see some big changes coming to Rupture. Of course the king of bleed has been Flay and I'm sure for pit pushing and bossing Flay may be one of the top builds out there. Lots of testing to come but no matter what we find out there, you'll be able to find all of your favorite builds on Mobalytics.gg. We'll see you there!

For more Barbarian content, check out Cliptis on YouTube and Twitch.

Druid Class Lead - Ace

The Druid class has received some of the biggest changes in the expansion. Its skill tree has been reworked more than almost any other class—maybe only Necromancer comes close. A ton of skills now let you seamlessly switch between human, bear, and wolf forms, giving you way more build diversity than before.

A couple of my favorite highlights: Trample no longer pushes enemies away. The slide effect is now built right into the skill tree, so you don’t have to waste an Aspect on it anymore. Boulder rotating version is available as a passive on the skill tree instead of requiring an Aspect. This frees up a lot more flexibility with your Aspects overall.

For more Druid / Warlock content, check out Ace on YouTube and Twitch.

Necromancer Class Lead - kay

While we haven't been shown a lot about the Necromancer for Lord of Hatred, what we have been shown has been incredibly promising and really pushes the entire class in the right direction as the Undead Summoner it was always meant to be thanks to both the Minion skill tree changes the Book of the Dead changes.

Starting in Season 13, the Necromancer will now have each of its Minions be its own active skill with their own branching skill trees rather than just passives you put 3 points into. This opens up minions to have way more options and customization that its never had before. While we've only been shown the Skeleton Warrior skill tree so far, the changes there have made Skeleton Warrior into potentially a threat, so I'm excited to see what the rest of the Minions do. But more than that, now having the ability to have 30+ Minions active at once really makes the class feel like its always meant to be.

The Book of the Dead changes also makes the Necromancer feel like a complete class. The change now makes it so you no longer need to get rid of all your Minions to get the Sacrifice bonus, instead you take a penalty (so far it looks like 50% less) to the number of minions you can have active. This allows for Minions to be added into any build for their utility or to unlock Minion related bonuses such as You And What Army? Blood Surge and the Sever damage bonus node that increases its damage for every active Minion.

As for builds that have been shown that I'm excited about, Sever looks like an incredible early game threat with its very easy to access upgrade Reaping Lotus Sever for lots of damage or Inexorable Reaper Sever for massive mobility. No matter which you use, Sever is going to be a core part of basically every Necromancer build.

Bone Spirit has a really interesting upgrade called Astral Projection Bone Spirit. We haven't seen how it looks in game but the description has been really excited to see how well it works.

And finally we have Army of the Dead with two really huge upgrades in Pile the Bodies Army of the Dead and the newly reworked Sanguivor, Blade of Zir which is over a 1,000%[x] damage bonus on its own. These two additions gives Army of the Dead an insane amount of damage, probably the most damage buffs a build has received in the history of Diablo 4. This build is my number 1 sleeper pick for the season.

For more Necromancer content, check out kay on YouTube.

Mobalytics Team Lead - M1PY

For the Rogue, we have a lot of good changes coming, specifically the change to Beastfall Boots indicates that Death Trap should still work. It allows Death Trap Rogue to have an easy reset just by spending all available energy, without requiring further Mechanics like it did in the past with Scoundrel's Leathers as long as you have Preparation equipped and can restore enough Energy to fuel it.

Dance of Knives is now a core skill, and with that, Dance of Knives can spend energy. That is a huge boon because spending energy allows it to access multiple synergies. With being a core skill, it also means it can use items like Ring of Starless Skies and Heir of Perdition, which synergize very well with ranks to core skills. The most interesting upgrade that Dance of Knives is going to have access to is the grenade upgrade. That allows it to use all things that speak to the Grenade tag such as Grenade aspects and multipliers. Further, Dance of Knives now has a new aspect, which is Aspect of Channeling. With these changes and going full Cold Imbuement, I predict that Dance of Knives is going to be great build to bring into the leveling and endgame.

Imbuements now have a duration instead of being based on charges, which massively increase their usability.

Further, Twisting Blades has gotten a new unique called The Maestro, which is a dagger that allows Twisting Blades to have more blades and deal more damage. Overall, the Uniques look very promising and might allow for potent combinations.

Heartseeker got nerfed, with the unique Orphan Maker receiving a sizable nerf to its overall damage multiplier, and multiple other small changes that make basic skills a little bit weaker. I think that the reign of Heartseeker is likely over, it will probably still be a good build for overall gameplay, but it's not going to dominate pushing as much as it did before. The other Rogue builds seem very interesting, specifically Barrage with the multishot upgrade. If it is allowed to shotgun, there might be a very potent build slumbering here.

Shadow Step is now allowed to be cast without a target with the Artifice Shadow Step upgrade. With that, we have a very potent and very strong access to mobility that is not gated to be limited by Preparation resets.

It is going to be interesting to see how the certain sets are going to play out and how the mechanics will interact with everything new that we get for Rogue. The skill tree looks very promising and I think the Rogue meta in general will hopefully see a comeback of Twisting Blades. I think Death Trap is still going to be a very strong build. And I think pure Dance of Knives is going to make a huge comeback and have a lot of viability going into the endgame and is still a very strong choice for leveling.

For more Rogue content, check out M1PY on YouTube and Twitch.

Paladin Class Lead - Sanctum

Paladin is relatively unchanged by the expansion as it was always designed with it in mind. The class has mainly gotten nerfs that leave the core functionality of builds intact but lower the power level. Despite those, Paladin should still be one of the top three, probably top two, strongest classes in the game, especially after we consider the integration of Sets and all other sources of “power creep”.
That said however, The overall power balance within the class should stay relatively similar:

• Thorns is still the strongest pushing build
• Holy Light Aura/ Arbiter of Justice are still great overall builds due to their speedfarming capabilities and ease of play.
• Blessed Hammer will still be an amazing speedfarmer.
  
  The most powerful builds received various nerfs.
  
  - Shield of Retribution, Paladin’s strongest build, got multiple nerfs:
• Ward of the White Dove 177% x 2 = 354% -> 77% x2 = 154%
• Enhanced Blessed Shield gone  (2000%+ multi)

- Auradin has gotten Dawnfire nerfed from 50% x 10 = 500% -> 15% x 10 = 150%

- Arbiter Wing Strikes has gotten Sanctis of Kethamar nerfed from 400% -> 150%

Powerful uniques used in most builds also received nerfs such as:

• Griswold's Opus 100% -> 50%
• Argent Veil 60% -> 15%

For more Paladin / Warlock content, check out Sanctum on YouTube and Twitch.

Sorcerer Class Lead - OperatorOtter

Hey guys, I am the new Class Lead for Sorcerer going into Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred!
Going into Lord of Hatred we have limited information on the Sorcerer in terms of its damage potential. With the information we do have, we have three builds that standout in terms of potential for overall content to Torment 12 and beyond.

First is the Meteor/Burn Sorcerer, the new Starfall Coronet states that we can consume stacks of overpower to drop an extra Meteor, but we don't know the best way to generate these overpower charges yet. Regardless, being able to cast multiple Meteor in tandem with Drognan's Anguish and Blood-Mad Idol with buffs to burning damage means that we can apply high amounts of burning damage to generate the overpowers and then drop multiple Meteor within a burst cycle for pushing.

Second will be Hydra Sorcerer because general multipliers and conjuration interactions are still looking strong for Sorcerer in terms of speed and pushing power. Its been a consistent staple and that will probably still be true after the expansion.

Lastly, and my favorite. Crackling Energy with the new Esadora's Overflowing Cameo means we can instantly reduce all of our cooldowns with the amount of crackling energy we can generate. Once cooldowns are consistently reduced to below 1 second, it's only a matter of time before something is found to be extraordinarily powerful. What's guaranteed is the ability to instantly reset our base cast of teleport which has a farther range then the teleport enchantment version of Teleport. With the raw amount of aoe that the Sorcerer has in tandem with instant resets on Teleport, you can be rest assured that the Sorcerer will more than likely reign supreme when it comes to speed content in Lord of Hatred.

For more Sorcerer content, check out OperatorOtter on YouTube and Twitch.

Spiritborn Class Lead - Imortilize

The information we currently have for the Spiritborn is extremely limited right now so it's pretty hard to get a good gauge of exactly what our best builds will be.
That being said, it looks like Evade won't be quite so strong early game due to the removal of the evade cooldown on Thunderspike and maximum evade charges implicit on boots, but we get a new shiny toy to play with in Rushing Claw which can now be converted into an Evade with a high cooldown.
We will be able to solve this using Ravager to make it so that we can perma-evade and it may even cast quicker than we were able to evade, we will see when we can log in. This will be on of the fastest builds in the game and I foresee it being able to speed farm the highest content.

We also got to see the Crushing Hand Skill Tree upgrades and variants and it's looking like Crushing Hand will potentially be very strong, especially if we are able to combine the Rod of Kepeleke and Sepazontec to make Crushing Hand a walking Gatlin Cannon, something we couldn't do previously.
This build is potentially going to be one of our stronger options as well as being super easy to play.

Finally we were able to see all the Basic Skill upgrades and variants, particularly Rock Splitter which will make a solid comeback with the thorns variant so long as we are able to scale the thorns still after the removal of the Xan Rune. I expect this to be a very good levelling strategy still for all game modes with low gear requirements so you can take this if you don't want to play Evade.

Overall, the vibe I'm getting is that Spiritborn will still have all the builds we know and love as well as some new shiny toys which we'll explore more after release. Guides are as up to date as they can be for all of these builds so be sure to go check those out and click the favorite and track buttons to be notified of updates.

For more Spiritborn content, check out Imortilize on YouTube and Twitch.