Diablo 3 | Need help picking and speccing your hero? This guide features three very different builds per class to help inspire you, whether you’re playing on PS4, Xbox One, PS3 or Xbox 360.
Basic Tips
Check equipment stats: Diablo III’s green and red arrows are useful short-hand for whether or not a weapon is an improvement, but it shouldn’t always be taken as gospel. Some items offer excellent perks that go well beyond ordinary stats, such as huge bonuses to XP, life regeneration, and individual skills. Sometimes it’s better to keep the weapon that improves your favorite skill by 10 percent than it is to take the one that improves one stat by five percent.
Pay attention to the stats for each class: Each class has a different preferred stat. Demon Hunters and Monks favor the Dexterity stat. Witch Doctors and Wizards favor the Intelligence stat. Barbarians and Crusaders favor the Strength stat. For best results, choose the weapons and armor that improve the stats that correspond to your chosen class.
Be smart about attack speed:
Attack Speed is no longer the be all, end all stat that it was in the vanilla version of Diablo III, but it’s still a useful piece of information. Generally, you want higher attack speed for classes like Monk, who are more about repeatedly using resource-generating attacks. If your build relies on cooldown attacks or similar skills, then attack speed isn’t as useful. Plan accordingly.
A party that stays together slays together:
If you’re playing couch co-op, try to stay together as a group. The screen will zoom out to try to keep every player in view, but once it hits its maximum range, it’s possible for players to go off-screen. The game will try to push you back into camera view, but this can result in your character being shunted into a dangerous position.
If you’re playing online, everyone has their own view and can go their separate ways.
Match your class with your playstyle:
Diablo III offers a high degree of class flexibility, but even so, there are some distinct styles. Barbarian, Crusader and Monk are largely melee based, and tend to stay closer to the action. Wizard, Demon Hunter and Witch Doctor are ranged attackers, and prefer to keep their distance.
All classes have crowd control spells (cc), but Crusader and Wizard are the strongest in this respect. Crusader and Barbarian are capable of absorbing the most amount of damage. Wizard and Demon Hunter can put out high damage, but they are a little squishy. Monk, Crusader and Witch Doctor are good all-rounders, and have the additional bonus of healing capabilities. This makes them a very effective support class.