Diablo 4 Strongholds

Diablo 4 Season 11 is significantly more difficult than previous seasons, with monsters dealing more damage, which may impact character leveling.

Also, you might not want to take too much time on the campaign, so here are some of the most reliable leveling builds for every class this season.

Evade Spiritborn Build

This build revolves entirely around Accelerated Thunderspike, and each time you evade, Spiritborn automatically fires a large number of feathers, dealing area damage.

You don't need to aim at enemies, and simply dive into the monster horde and use the high-frequency evades to automatically clear them. The evasion also allows you to move quickly across the map while attacking, making it extremely efficient.

Defensively, Evade provides invincibility frames, allowing you to avoid damage while dealing damage, making it very safe. This build primarily relies on evasion cooldowns, requires minimal resource management, and is very easy to play.

You only need to adapt to this dodge-centric playstyle, which may feel different from other class-specific builds. Its transition to endgame is also very smooth, as you can continue to develop this build, using it as the core for endgame content, or seamlessly transition to other top-tier endgame builds like Quill Volley Spiritborn using resources accumulated during leveling.

Firewall Sorcerer Build

This leveling build primarily uses Firewall and Hydra as its core damage skills. Firewall's continuous damage and Hydra's multi-headed attack can quickly melt enemies.

After casting Firewall and summoning Hydra, you can move freely or cast other skills, allowing DoT effects to automatically deal with monsters, making it particularly suitable for dealing with groups of monsters and elite enemies. This indirect damage method provides a stable output environment even when your gear is poor in the early game.

The transition of Firewall Sorcerer build to endgame is also clear. Because it focuses on fire damage, it can be transitioned to Hydra build, and you only need to slightly adjust your Diablo 4 items. Alternatively, you could transition to Crackling Energy Sorcerer endgame build, which utilizes the new season mechanics and enhancements, and might be the strongest Sorcerer build this season.

Dance Of Knives Rogue Build

While Rogue's strength in endgame is relatively average, its high movement speed makes it one of the fastest-leveling classes. Dance of Knives Rogue is its most classic leveling build, used by Rogue players almost every season.

Dance of Knives is a continuous spinning attack, utilizing high-frequency AoE attacks, making Rogue very efficient at clearing mobs and very fun to play. Rogue's high mobility allows for repositioning during the spin to dodge monster attacks. Dance of Knives has good base damage and effects and doesn't rely on items, so it's quick to build in the early game.

The ideal goal for this build in endgame is to transition into Death Trap Rogue build. This is a classic build with high burst AoE damage, allowing for a smooth transition from Dance of Knives build.

Minion Build Necromancer Build

One of the defining features of Necromancer build is its summons, which serve as both primary damage dealers and defenders. Necromancer gains Skeleton Mages from level one, making for a smooth start.

Furthermore, with summons fighting at the front, Necromancer can safely command and cast support skills from the rear, reducing survivability pressure. Skeleton Mages' ranged attacks are effective in handling various situations. However, due to the class's characteristics, movement speed is slow, but its advantages are simplicity and safety.

Minion Build Necromancer can be perfectly transformed into one of the newest and strongest builds of the season - Golem Necromancer - at endgame. This build is built around the new and unique item Gravebloom, boasting an extremely high damage cap and capable of challenging levels 110 and above in The Pit, making it one of the most fun builds in Season 11.

HOTA Lunging Strike Barbarian Build

This is a hybrid build that utilizes Fury displacement and small-area attacks provided by Lunging Strike to handle single enemies, and Hammer of the Ancients for high-damage area-of-effect burst damage to clear dense groups of monsters.

The official release in Season 11 significantly buffed Barbarian's core skills, Paragon Legendary nodes, and primary stat scaling. This means that from level 1 to the endgame, Barbarian's base damage and scaling are better. You can flexibly focus on one of the two skill builds depending on the gear and effects you acquire.

At endgame, you can transition to either the pure HOTA build or the pure Lunging Strike build, depending on your gear and preferences.

Companion Druid Build

With the removal of Season 10 Chaos Perks, Druid's strength has returned to normal. However, the relative weakness of basic skills and early legendary effects has slowed down early-game monster clearing efficiency and pace.

You can choose Companion Druid build, playing like a Necromancer in the early game. However, this build isn't viable from the start, and you'll need more meticulous planning of your skill path and gear choices, and the experience might not be as smooth as other classes.

While leveling is weaker, Druids can still rise to prominence in the mid-to-late game after acquiring key legendary and unique items. You can switch to Pulverize Druid in the endgame.

Finally, when choosing your class and build, besides The Pit level, you should consider your personal preferences. Because if you're very familiar with the leveling process, the difference in leveling time between the fastest and slowest builds might only be 10-20 minutes. The important thing is whether you can obtain the necessary items during this process.

Diablo 4 Season 11 made some adjustments to various classes, and Necromancer once again emerged as one of the best. The newly acquired unique item for Necromancer, Gravebloom, is particularly interesting; it allows you to summon three powerful golems.

If you decide to play Necromancer in Season 11, you might want to know which builds are the strongest. Below is a ranking of the strongest Necromancer builds, which are focusing on their performance in The Pit and Tower.

The Impact Of Season 11

Season 11 made several permanent changes to the crafting and defense systems, which directly impacted many builds.

Firstly, the cooldown reduction affix can now appear on jewelry. Ring of Mendeln was buffed, and Rathma's Vigor passive was changed, making some builds viable again.

On the other hand, developers increased monster damage and generally weakened character survivability, making build tankiness extremely important.

Tier D

Blood Mist Necromancer

Blood Mist Necromancer primarily relies on frequently triggering Blood Mist and Corpse Explosion, especially Blighted Corpse Explosion, to deal damage, and it's also known as Infinimist Necromancer.

It performed poorly in the season. The main reason is its over-reliance on corpse resources, while there are currently more high-damage alternatives.

C Tier

Affliction Necromancer

Affliction Necromancer is a new build in Season 11, and it involves curse skills like Iron Maiden. Some unique items allow Iron Maiden to deal shadow damage.

Affliction Necromancer is very suitable for leveling. However, its damage output has a ceiling for pushing The Pit and Tower levels, preventing it from reaching top-tier levels and placing it primarily in the mid-tier of The Pit.

Tier B

Blood Surge And Blood Lance Necromancer

Both Blood Surge and Blood Lance have received significant buffs, resulting in substantial damage increases. With the right Diablo 4 items, these builds might reach Tier A.

Corpse Explosion Necromancer

This build focuses entirely on corpse explosion damage, making it heavily reliant on Black River gear. Its survivability is decent, but its damage output may be insufficient at higher levels of The Pit.

Sever Necromancer

Sever Necromancer performs strongly in the early game, but suffers from slow movement speed and insufficient damage in the late game.

Bone Storm Necromancer

It was very strong in Season 10 due to the existence of Chaos Perks, but its ranking has dropped due to the removal of these mechanics in the new season and the nerf to Lidless Wall. It might not be as good as Blood Necromancer builds, but it's still Tier B.

Tier A

Blight Necromancer

This build focuses on Blight skill, utilizing Ebonpiercer to make Blight effective. This build is very tanky and suitable for speed farming. In Season 11, due to the significant increase in monster damage and the decrease in overall player survivability, survivability becomes extremely important, which is the main advantage of this build.

Bone Spirit Necromancer

With Season 11 allowing players to gain cooldown reduction on rings and amulets, coupled with the fix to Rapid Ossification, Bone Spirit can finally be self-sufficient and become a viable option. Its damage and survivability are decent, and if Sanctification is utilized to obtain suitable affixes, this build has the potential to reach Tier S.

Bone Spear Necromancer

Bone Spear Necromancer has very strong single-target damage, making it very effective against bosses, but it lacks AoE capabilities. The buff to Ring of Mendeln also benefits it, resulting in a slight rise in its ranking.

Skeletal Mage Necromancer

The primary beneficiary of Ring of Mendeln damage buff is Skeletal Mages Necromancer, making Necromancer's summons very reliable again. It excels for leveling and early push of The Pit, but falls slightly below Tier S for higher levels.

Blood Wave Necromancer

Overpower variant of Shadow Blood Wave struggles somewhat with triggering Blood orbs, but the changes to Rathma's Vigor (Overpower timer 15s → 10s) might give it the potential to reach Tier S.

Another DoT variant is viable; regardless of the variant, this build provides strong survivability, which is invaluable in the current season.

Tier S

Shadow Blight Necromancer

Shadow Blight Necromancer boasts extremely high damage, possibly slightly higher than the buffed Golem Necromancer. It's also incredibly tanky, offering far greater survivability than Golem Necromancer.

It relies on corpses, requiring corpse explosions, Soulrift, and Blight casts to trigger Shadow Blight effect. While the controls are somewhat cumbersome, the high damage makes survivability less of a concern in The Pit.

Golem Necromancer

Golem Necromancer received approximately a 60% damage buff compared to the PTR, and is expected to stack an additional 6 layers in The Pit. It doesn't rely on corpses, and Golem's casting provides an Unstoppable state, combining single-target and AoE damage for a more comfortable gameplay experience. However, its biggest drawback is survivability, so you'll need to be careful to dodge monster and bosses' skills.

If you prioritize stability, high damage, and high survivability, choose Shadow Blight Necromancer. If you want to challenge yourself with extreme damage, try new playstyles, and accept a fragile build, choose Golem Necromancer. These two are likely the highest-ranked Necromancer builds on The Pit and Towers leaderboards.

While classic Necromancer builds remain reliable, we highly recommend trying newer builds like Golem Necromancer and Affliction Necromancer. They're perfect for early-game leveling and endgame play, respectively, offering a fresh experience.