| Class | Expansion | Expansion Hardcore | Classic | Classic Hardcore |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sorceress | 53% | 29.4% | 76.6% | 35.3% |
| Paladin | 24.3% | 21.5% | 14.2% | 23.4% |
| Necromancer | 5.2% | 11.4% | 2.8% | 8.9% |
| Amazon | 5.0% | 7.2% | 0.8% | 5.1% |
| Barbarian | 4.1% | 11% | 5.5% | 27.4% |
| Assassin | 3.9% | 6.9% | 0.05% | 0.05% |
| Druid | 5.0% | 12.7% | 0.05% | 0.05% |
There were 403,044 characters on the Normal Expansion server above level 20 on our survey, with 211,959 Sorceresses and 97,952 Paladins taking up over three-quarters of the character slots at 77.4% of the total population.
Necromancers were the top of the "and the rest" category with 5.2% (20,888). Druids (20,170) slightly edged out Amazons (5.0% 19,988) for fourth place, though both came out to 5% of the total, with Barbarians at 4.1% (16.334) coming in sixth and Assassins coming in last at 3.9% (15,753). The biggest difference was the gap between Amazons and Barbarians, with Necromancer, Druid, and Amazon pulling very similar numbers.
With early Magic Find being so important to long-term Ladder success, it's no real surprise that Sorceresses and Paladins would remain top choices. Nothing in the meta changed here.
The Hardcore Expansion server was a much smaller percentage overall, but still second most populous with 27,567 characters over level 20.
Sorceresses are a very risky choice for Hardcore, given their squishiness, but they were still the top pick with 8,103 (29.4%). Like with Normal, Paladins came in second with 5,936 (21.5%), although it was much closer on Hardcore than on Normal.
What signals a possible change for the meta is that Druids came in third with 3.496 (12.7%), which may represent the popularity of the Summon Druid build and its reputation as being a safer build for Hardcore. It's along the same lines of the Summonmancer, a perennial Hardcore favorite, which is in the same range with the Necromancer at 3.133 (11.4%). The tough Barbarian trails these builds at 3,021 (11%), and again, to no one's surprise, the Amazon and Assassin pull in sixth and seventh, with 1,977 and 1,901 characters respectively.
These are interesting to look at, even if the entire 20+ population of the Classic Normal Ladder (8,022) is almost half of the least popular class on the Expansion Normal server. There are no Assassins or Druids on Classic, so this will skew the distribution -- but even so, the distribution on Normal Classic is dramatically one-sided.
The fact that more than 3/4 of the players on Classic are playing Sorceresses (6,148) probably has to do with one factor: the ability to teleport. Classic players have no access to the most popular Teleport items Enigma or Naj's Puzzler. If you want to Teleport, you pretty much need to roll Sorceress. Paladins account for 14.2% (1142), dropping dramatically to 5.5% Barbarians (442), Necromancers at 2.8% (225), and Amazons at 0.8% (65) - the last such a small sliver the name wouldn't even appear on the chart.
With a mere 552 players on the Classic Hardcore ladder who are over level 20+ (and some already dead), it's definitely the place to go if you are certain of your hardcore skills and you want to be a big fish in a small pond.
Like what we saw on the Expansion Hardcore ladder, the Sorceress loses her total dominance due to her squishiness, even though a few intrepid players are willing to take on the challenge (195 characters for 35.3%). Barbarians (151, 27.4%) and Paladins (129, 23.4%) remain the top runners-up, trailed by Necromancers (49, 8.9%) and Amazons (28, 5.1%).
What was most popular remains popular on Ladder. While some builds may be favored now over others, the classes that work best on the Ladder are still its rulers. More daring souls may decide to take on new challenges and new builds, but those who are truly competitive will stick with the tried and true favorites, and largely succeed. Sorceress remains firmly dominant; evidence of this is that Sorceress remains the most popular build even in Hardcore, where the danger of running a very squishy class is outweighed by the potential rewards. Although I did not count them, there were far more grey names (dead characters) in the Sorceress hardcore ladders than appeared in lists with hardier builds.
While it's clear that some of the recent Patch 2.4 changes have improved some builds, it didn't knock the Sorceress or Paladin off the pedestal of being the premier Magic Find classes in Diablo II, and thus the most popular classes for Ladder.
| Server Type | # Over 20 | Percentage |
|---|---|---|
| Expansion | 403,044 | 91.8% |
| Expansion Hardcore | 27,567 | 6.3% |
| Classic | 8,022 | 1.8% |
| Classic Hardcore | 552 | 0.1% |
| Class | Popularity |
|---|---|
| Sorceress | 36% |
| Paladin | 17% |
| Necromancer | 15% |
| Amazon | 12% |
| Barbarian | 8% |
| Assassin | 7% |
| Druid | 6% |
| Class | Popular Build |
|---|---|
| Amazon |
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| Assassin |
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| Barbarian |
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| Druid |
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| Necromancer |
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| Paladin |
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| Sorceress |
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A class build is a generalized way of describing the way a character will fight. Accustomed players will be able to deduce not only what skills a build uses when seeing or hearing the name of a build, but will also know how a character will fight in game and roughly what character stats and gear will look like of that build. For example, the following will make the term Hammerdin obvious: It's a Paladin class focusing on the spell Blessed Hammer.
New and old players alike often refer to friends or internet for class builds when it comes to creating a new character. The way a character is developed is easily formatted into writing, giving insight to other players on how and why a build should be built like it is. The way a Class Build Guide is formatted varies depending on the author. Some guides will go as far as recommending certain Jewels to be socketed, while other guides will list the skill setup and give a few short pointers on where stats should be going, leaving more room for preferred gear setup. In the end, a player who starts understanding how D2 game mechanics work will be able to read a guide and tweak it for his own use, having a rough but helping guideline from the beginning of a character's development.
The term "Funbuild" means that a character is able to be played a specific way that is more uncommon, but usually in an interesting manner. These builds are not always perfect for general PvE, but can be played successfully with skill. A melee Sorceress using Enchant is still about killing, but doesn't perform as well as a straight caster in some cases. However, this build can still provide many hours of gameplay. Other builds like the Suicide Necro, are even less practical in terms of playing, but can lead to many amazed looks from other players when the Necromancer lets himself be killed, activating multiple Death Rainbow Facets at once.
Expert players trying out new things or attempting to perfect a character tend to theory craft instead of attempting something without any deep thoughts. In simple terms, theory crafting in this context means planning out possible cause and effect attributes of a character. A well developed knowledge of the inner game workings is required, such as knowing how gear affects damage and survivability, solutions to possible immunity problems, stat requirements, some simple RNG based values, and thorough understanding of what certain attributes found on gear and skills can actually do to improve your character. A lot of time and mathematical thinking can go into theory crafting, resulting in a generally well thought out thesis of a character's performance in the game. With some effort, the actual characters resulting out of this planning can wipe the enemies out easily compared to more simplistic builds, or even of the same type of build.
A common form of theory crafting happens when a player looks at a guide and thinks of available assets compared to recommended assets, such as gear to follow through with character development. Through this, a player can work towards the best character setup using things that are available to him or her. This can mean a character with less than optimal gear than recommended can still be as effective, or even better than suggested if skills are pushed towards the play style instead of strictly following the guide.
Another form of theory crafting is developing a character with other gear in mind than currently available, while still making the character playable at the moment without spending more stats than the build will ultimately need at the end.
Classes is a collective name for the seven playable characters available to the player in Diablo II and the expansion Diablo II: Lord of Destruction. Each class features a different model and animations, speech, skill set and breakpoints, but otherwise they all follow the same story and general game mechanics. The differences however, particularly the different skill setups, lead to very distinct playstyles that are often described in various builds.
Every class can also hire one of four different Hirelings available in the game to follow them through the game.
All classes have a lot of features in common.
Though there are many unconventional builds that can use weird skill and gear combinations, the most popular builds typically fit the archetype and intended function of the class.
The Amazon is a warrior who fights with the bow or spear. The strongest builds are the ranged ones that utilize the bow, crossbow or javelin, while the spear builds are more risky due to the lack of a shield and the added protection it would bring. The attacks themselves are either fire or cold attacks for the bow and crossbow, or lightning and poison attacks for the spear and javelin. Both focuses also allows for pure physical attack skills. The passive abilities either augment the attack skills of the Amazon - whether ranged or melee - or provide ways for her to keep enemies off her, such as Decoy and Valkyrie.
The Assassin uses a distinct mechanic in the Martial Arts tree that involves charge up moves and finishing attacks: the Assassin can power up with up to three charges and release the charges with various finishing moves for a host of different effects. The Shadow tree contains passive abilities, such as a skill that allows the Assassin to block attacks with claw weapons instead of a shield, and the ability to create a duplicate of the Assassin that can utilize her skills. The Trap tree allows the Assassin to throw deadly projectiles, including blades and bombs, and also includes several fire and lighting sentries that work much like the skills of the Sorceress but originating from a thrown stationary item rather than a spell.
The Barbarian is the heaviest melee class with many melee skills and passive abilities for survivability. The Barbarian is the only class who can dual wield melee weapons (apart from an Assassin using claw weapons). The Combat Skills contains the attack skills, and allows for specialization in either one weapon (either two-handed or with a shield), two weapons or two throwing weapons. The Masteries tree contains exclusively passive skills that boost both offensive and defensive stats of the Barbarian, and the Warcries are temporary buffs the Barbarian can apply to himself and allies. Any number of warcries can be active at one time, further boosting the Barbarian's ability to boost his own stats as well as managing monsters.
The Druid requires the most specialization of all classes, as each of his trees provide for unique play mechanics. Elemental makes him a caster that creates earthquakes, hurricanes and other spells based on nature. The Shape Shifting tree allows him to become either a Werewolf based on speed or Werebear based on power, and makes him a dangerous melee combatant. The Summoning tree allows him to summon wolves, crows, a bear, creeping vines, and several spirits that provide buffs similar to the Paladin's auras.
The Necromancer is a pure caster focusing on the dead. In the summoning tree he can raise skeletons, create golems and revive dead enemies, while the Poison and Bone path makes him a more direct damage caster with poison and magic abilities. Curses are debuffs that can be cast on enemies to create a host of effects, such as increasing their damage taken and slowing them down.
The Paladin is a holy warrior and the second focused melee class. He excels while using a shield. He can use one aura at a time that provides a persistent bonus to him and his party members. Defensive helps him survive attacks, while offensive boosts his ability to inflict damage. The combat skills tree serves a similar function to the Barbarian's combat skills, but the tree is broken up between melee skills, shield skills, and magic attacks.
The Sorceress is the second caster class who focuses exclusively on elemental attacks from the elements of fire, cold, and lightning. Each tree offers different benefits: fire provides high reliable damage, cold slightly less damage but also slows enemies, and lightning provides the highest potential damage but has a large damage variance. Each tree contains some support skills in addition to the multitude of attack skills she possesses.