Season 3 has nerfed many builds in Diablo 4 and buffed others. The two strongest builds in the game currently are the Meteor Sorceress and the Charge Barbarian. Both builds are top-tier for their class. However, they do not work well together – at least not for Sorceresses.
What kind of build is this?
- Charge Barbarians have only become viable since Season 3. The patch for Season 3 made Charge 900% stronger and opened up new possibilities.
- The build focuses on pushing enemies around with Charge. The Barbarian deals massive damage, both to single targets (bosses) and to groups of enemies.
- Currently, this build is not at the top of the tier list of the best builds for Diablo 4 Season 3, mainly because it is still being tested.
This is why they don’t work well together: The playstyle of the Charge build negates many others – like the Meteor Sorceress, for example. Meteor Sorceresses rely on enemies moving as little as possible. Once they summon a meteor, it only hits a few moments later.
Charge Barbarians push enemies around with their ability. Even bosses. Whatever they charge at does not stay in place, unless it is unstoppable.
Especially frustrating for Sorceresses because: At the best farming spots in Season 3, there are usually many players together. Meteor Sorceresses then have no chance to participate properly.
“Barbarian is the new meta”
The problem between the two classes has been frequently mentioned on Reddit and has also been noticed by us. It goes something like this: “I hate every single Charge Barbarian. Every time I place meteors, the Barbarian has already pushed the mobs three screens away before they fall.”
This situation apparently does not only affect Sorceresses and Barbarians, but even Barbarians against other Barbarians. If other Barbarians are faster with Charge, then one has no chance to hit the enemies at all.
I personally mainly play Sorceresses in Diablo 4 and initially tried a Meteor build. On one hand due to the poor damage against bosses, on the other hand, because of Barbarians, I switched to a Spark build instead.
Some other classes are also speaking up. Storm Druids, possibly the strongest build in Season 3, have only limited issues, but that’s only because they can hit enemies even outside of the screen. However, some Druids feel obligated to play a different build.
Necromancers seem to be the only ones not complaining. This is mainly because they can pull enemies back to their place with Corpse Tendrils, which in turn is likely to annoy the Barbarians.
Season 3 is already jokingly referred to as the season of Barbarians, just like Season 2 before it. The class is considered the best in the game and in the tier list is ranked with the most builds in S-tier. Experts like Raxxanterax say: Where in Season 2 everyone was running around as Spark Sorceress, today everyone is playing as Charge Barbarian.
The build seems to be strong enough to become the best in Season 2. Whether this will prove true remains to be seen – no one has the absolute best gear and can play any build to perfection yet. In Season 3, however, it only helps you to a limited extent: You don’t get particularly good loot just by playing an OP build.
