Diablo 4 Boosting

Lord of Hatred has brought sweeping changes to every class in Diablo 4, with each skill tree undergoing a massive rework. Many builds players were once familiar with are now unrecognizable, some have vanished entirely, and entirely new ones have emerged in their place.

In Season 13, if you want to level quickly and transition smoothly into the endgame, choosing an efficient build is crucial. Below, let's look at the strongest leveling builds for each class in Season 13 so you can hit max level with ease.

Warlock

• Build: Dread Claw Warlock

Warlock is absolutely central to Lord of Hatred expansion, and since it's a new class, experimenting with any build feels fresh. From a leveling standpoint, however, Dread Claw Warlock is currently the best option.

In terms of gameplay, you'll frequently use Nether Step to dive into enemy packs. It serves as your primary mobility tool while also generating Shadow Form stacks.

Your core damage skill is Dread Claws, which can instantly clear everything in sight. For single targets and elites, you can lean on Profane Sentinel and use Terror Swarm to boost your clearing speed.

Although the build can be a bit complex to pilot, it's incredibly solid in every aspect, letting you breeze through the campaign and step into early endgame content.

Paladin

• Build: Wing Strikes Paladin

Anyone who played Paladin in Season 12 will sing praises about how smooth it feels. This class is nearly flawless in survivability, damage, and farming. Wing Strikes Paladin is, without a doubt, still the best leveling build for the class.

The core goal is to permanently maintain Arbiter form, allowing Wing Strikes to obliterate everything around you. Even if your gear lacks affixes that extend Arbiter form, you can effortlessly sustain it by continuously using Falling Star, Condemn, and Flash of the Blade Advance.

This build makes you practically unkillable, grants absurd mobility, and transitions perfectly into a variety of endgame builds - including the endgame version of Wing Strikes itself.

Rogue

• Build: Dance of Knives Rogue

Dance of Knives has once again become one of the fastest and most powerful leveling builds in the entire game, thanks to its extraordinary mobility, flexible imbue mechanics, and insane single-target damage against elites and bosses.

Combined with Dark Shroud, Dance of Knives Rogue can easily break the 200% movement speed cap. At the same time, it boasts excellent defenses through the damage reduction Dark Shroud provides. You simply spin and move at high speed, annihilating everything with Dance of Knives.

Sorcerer

• Build: Static Field Blizzard Sorcerer

Static Field Blizzard Sorcerer deals absurdly high damage and requires absolutely no Unique items or Legendary Aspects to get rolling, making it incredibly fast to set up. The gameplay is simple: cast Static Field Blizzard to deal damage, and pop Unstable Currents for burst against priority targets like bosses.

Static Field Blizzard is a damage-over-time skill, so avoid stacking Critical Strike Chance or any stats that improve Critical Strike Damage - they have no effect on this skill. Even so, without any other buffs, its base damage can exceed 10,000% of your weapon damage within 1.5 seconds, making it Sorcerer's strongest core skill this season.

Keep in mind this build cannot function before level 30. Until then, you can get by with any other build. Once you reach the early endgame, you can also keep using this build to farm items and Diablo 4 gold, given its outstanding performance relative to the investment required.

Spiritborn

• Build: Rock Splitter Spiritborn

Rock Splitter Spiritborn is a classic leveling build that delivers strong performance in both damage and survivability. Later on, you can leverage Rushing Claw and its variants to achieve permanent dodging, letting you zip across the map (while weaving in Rock Splitter between every other skill). This build is absolutely one of the fastest in the entire game.

Barbarian

• Build: Whirlwind Barbarian

Barbarian's core in Season 13 is Whirlwind, which becomes accessible as early as level 3. The gameplay is straightforward: use Lunging Strike to close the gap and generate Fury; cast whatever Shouts you've unlocked for bonus damage and movement speed; then hold down Whirlwind to spin and unleash massive damage.

This build dishes out terrifying damage right from the start, while Lunging Strike and Leap provide extra mobility, letting your character charge straight into packs and flatten everything.

Necromancer

• Build: Minions Necromancer

Minions Necromancer has always been one of the best leveling builds in Diablo 4, especially after the class resets in Season 13 polished minion management.

Early on, you'll invest points into Skeletal Mages and Skeletal Warriors. When your Ultimate unlocks, Army of the Dead is the natural choice. It deals increased damage and generates more corpses, helping you handle bosses efficiently. This minion build can carry you through the entire campaign all the way to level 70. It only starts to fall off once you push into higher Torment difficulties, but during the leveling phase, it's unquestionably one of the strongest and quickest builds to get going.

Druid

• Build: Stormclaw Druid

After its rework, Druid no longer feels as clunky as before. You can choose to summon companions or lean on damage skills to level up. Stormclaw Druid is the most efficient route, though the gameplay differs slightly between early and later stages due to the skills used.

In the early phase, you'll use Wind Shear to generate Spirit and apply Vulnerable, with Lightning Storm as your main killing tool. Companion skills are crucial here - you'll rely on them to handle single targets and provide crowd control.

Once you reach the mid-game, Claw replaces Wind Shear as your primary Spirit generator. All of this sets up Hero of the Storm at level 32, and it could transform Lightning Storm into a passive effect that follows you around. Combined with mobility skills, you simply keep moving to deal with everything around you.

While these are the best leveling builds for Season 13, the time it takes to complete the campaign can vary significantly due to differences in gear, movement speed, and other factors across characters. For each class, however, these builds represent the most efficient path.

Diablo 4 Lord of Hatred expansion completely overhauls the endgame, and the addition of War Plans system in particular makes every activity feel far more rewarding. You can customize War Plans nodes to boost the yield of specific types of loot.

When it comes to farming gear, the most efficient approach at the moment remains tackling Lair Bosses in the endgame, and Lord of Hatred expansion introduces a brand-new Lair Boss: Mephisto. Let's take a look at what else has changed for Lair Boss farming in Season 13.

How to Challenge a Lair Boss?

As the pinnacle endgame challenge, Lair Bosses demand a certain level of character strength. You must first clear Pit Tier 10 and unlock Torment 1 difficulty before you can take them on.

Lair Bosses received a full rework in Season 8. Previously, nearly every boss had its own dedicated material (Lair Boss keys). The developers have since streamlined the system, grouping Lair Bosses into three tiers. All bosses within the same tier now share the same type of Lair Boss key, greatly simplifying the boss farming process.

Initiate Lair Bosses:

• Grigoire
• Beast in The Ice
• Varshan
• Lord Zir
• Urivar (Vessel of Hatred)

Greater Lair Bosses:

• Duriel
• Andariel
• Harbinger of Hatred (Vessel of Hatred)
• Bloody Butcher

Exalted Lair Bosses:

• Belial 
• Mephisto (Lord of Hatred)

How to Obtain Lair Boss Keys?

After Lair Boss rework in Season 8, you no longer need keys to challenge them - only to claim the rewards. Essentially every Lair Boss has its own dedicated loot pool, and more demanding bosses like Duriel and Andariel carry a higher chance to drop Mythic Uniques.

Lair Boss keys are divided into types corresponding to the different boss tiers. The most common Lair Boss keys can drop from virtually any activity, whereas keys for Greater Lair Bosses can only be earned from the loot drops of Initiate Lair Bosses.

• Varshan: Requires 1 Lair Key, drops 1 Greater Lair Key
• Grigoire: Requires 1 Lair Key, drops 1 Greater Lair Key
• Beast in the Ice: Requires 1 Lair Key, drops 1 Greater Lair Key
• Lord Zir: Requires 1 Lair Key, drops 1 Greater Lair Key
• Urivar: Requires 1 Lair Key, drops 1 Greater Lair Key
• Duriel: Requires 1 Greater Lair Key
• Andariel: Requires 1 Greater Lair Key
• Harbinger of Hatred: Requires 1 Greater Lair Key
• Bloody Butcher: Requires 1 Greater Lair Key
• Belial: Requires 2 Betrayer's Husk
• Mephisto: Requires 1 Crux of the False Prophet

If you're looking to farm Lair Bosses, your first step is stockpiling Diablo 4 Lair Boss Keys. These drop across a wide range of endgame mechanics, and in Season 13 the developers have increased the stack cap, so you'll never have to worry about them eating up your inventory space again.

Lair Key Drop Sources:

• War Plans
• Helltide
• World Bosses
• Legion Events
• Tree of Whisper Cache

You may have noticed that the materials needed for Belial and Mephisto are somewhat unique. They don't drop from Greater Lair Bosses; instead, they have their own distinct drop sources. For instance, Betrayer's Husk only drops after you defeat a Belial's Ambush encounter.

Given how scarce Exalted Lair Boss keys are, if you plan to farm Lair Bosses consistently, it's best to focus on Greater Lair Bosses.

War Plans

War Plans feature introduced in Lord of Hatred is well worth diving into. Lair Boss section of the tree offers nodes that alter or enhance the rewards you receive after defeating a boss, allowing you to gain more gold and more Runes.

Additionally, a series of nodes can trigger Boss Rush. After you defeat a Lair Boss and open its cache, there's a chance a portal will open leading to an even stronger boss - sometimes more than one. And after you emerge victorious, there's a further chance another portal will appear, this time to a boss on the same level as Belial or Mephisto.

• Nemesis Lair Boss
• Greater Nemesis Lair Bosses
• Ultimate Nemesis Lair Bosses

Keep in mind that once you defeat these bosses, the rewards drop directly onto the ground - you won't need additional Boss keys to open any caches. However, since each stage is chance-based, even if you're capable of taking down Ultimate Nemesis Lair Bosses, you won't encounter them every run. These nodes really prove their value over long boss farming sessions.

But what if boss farming isn't your thing, and you still want the rewards from Lair Bosses? Is that even possible? Certain nodes on War Plans tree allow exactly that.

Within Lair Boss War Plans Trees, some nodes give you a chance to trigger Lair Boss encounters during other endgame activities, such as Nightmare Dungeons or Helltides. When you defeat them, their loot drops right on the spot - no Lair Boss keys required at all.

For example, while fighting in a Nightmare Dungeon, Beast in the Ice may suddenly ambush you. Normally a Lair Boss, it can now appear out of nowhere inside your dungeon and will drop its exclusive loot. If you're specifically chasing a particular Unique tied to a certain boss, these cross-activity triggers can dramatically boost your efficiency.

In short, how you allocate your War Plans points will directly influence your Lair Boss key drops and the way you farm Lair Bosses. It's highly recommended to prioritize upgrading your War Plans once you reach the endgame - they'll significantly enhance your overall rewards.