Season 8 Week 1 Guide Updates & Thoughts
Season 8: Belial's Return and the patch 2.2 have been released a week ago! With that in mind, it's time for the Maxroll Team to share their Season 8 Week 1 thoughts, findings and guide updates!
Updated Tier Lists
Of course, the Maxroll Team followed the game very carefully and updated our Tier Lists accordingly!
Updated Build Guides
Since the Season 8 start, the Maxroll Team worked hard to keep updated Build Guides for every Diablo 4 class with all the informations discovered live!
Find all the Build Guides and search for your favorite here!
Barbarian
Though it was already expected to be one of the top performers in Season 8, the Minion Barbarian (or Barbmancer, PetQuake, Zoo Barb, whichever you prefer) has exceeded preliminary expectations, and could be the saving grace to what would have otherwise been a repeat of a stale meta from the yesterdays of green Helltide. That being said, BashQuake (our reigning champion), is not out of the fight yet - it's currently only just slightly behind in terms of the highest Pit clears, likely because all eyes are on the new toys. There's a real possibility that it could end up being the top dog yet again.
While it isn't exactly "new" per se, Mighty Throw got somewhat of a revival this Season after a strong debut in Season 6. If you're mechanically inclined, this is an incredibly strong and competitive build that fills the screen with orange numbers; it even has multiple ways in which it can be played, though some of them might have you feeling like maybe you shouldn't have skipped class (weapon swapping, buff timers, and snapshotting are definitely on the exam).
Aside from these, honorable mentions go to Double Swing and Whirlwind - the former being a fairly chill, fun, recently buffed Core build that is also absurdly tanky once it's decked out; the latter being, well... Whirlwind. You spin and you also get a laser beam now, what else do you want?
— Snail
Some Updated Build Guides:
Many leveling guides have also been updated!
Druid
Unfortunately, it seems that the Druid meta is quite stagnant going from Season 7 to Season 8. Despite losing access to the Xan rune, a wealth of beneficial seasonal powers, and its continuous snapshot, the Cataclysm Druid remains decisively ahead of other top builds. Could it be the 700%+ multiplier that we attach to our gloves causing this issue? Who's to say? Additionally, Gathlen's Birthright and Impending Deluge, new items introduced for the Season, have yet to find a proper home.
On the bright side, Earth and Werebear builds have received some much needed love and are more competitive than they were previously. With Stone Burst gaining access to Overpowers via the reworked Anticline Burst, it's comfortably farming Torment 4 and is pushing to a similar level as its contemporaries. That build, along with Pulverize, Pulverize, and Tornado, have all seen a resurgence in their Grizzly Rage archetypes as Rampaging Werebeast has regained its multiplicative scaling. Each of these builds now leverages this often underutilized Ultimate to push the Pit to its limits. The buffs to Earthen Might are nice, but this Key Passive is still overshadowed by Bestial Rampage and Ursine Strength larger multipliers by the endgame.
— Boiler
Some Updated Build Guides:
- Tornado Druid Endgame Build Guide
- Hurricane Druid Endgame Build Guide
- Stone Burst Druid Endgame Build Guide
Many leveling guides have also been updated!
Sorcerer
The state of Sorcerer in Season 8 can be described in one word: Enlightened. With buffs such as Sinerat's Flames and Familiar + Enchantment Master interaction, this Key Passive gets ridiculously strong. And so every build that can use Enlightenment (read every non-Burning build) is now way stronger. Unfortunately, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. Enlightenment has a major downside: the buff is not permanent, and because it's so large, you feel as weak as a newborn kitten when it's down. In the late game most builds can deal with it and have downtime as short as 2-3 seconds, but in early-mid stages of your progression you often feel like you're dealing damage only half the time.
— Northwar
Some Updated Build Guides:
- Lightning Spear Sorcerer Endgame Build Guide
- Meteor Sorcerer Endgame Build Guide
- Chain Lightning Sorcerer Endgame Build Guide
- Blizzard Sorcerer Endgame Guide
- Ice Shards Sorcerer Endgame Guide
Many leveling guides have also been updated!
Necromancer
Necromancers rejoice! Season 8 sees the return to the OG best build: Bone Spear. With the new Indira's Memory bug fixes, you can finally enjoy an alternative to Blood Wave! With multiple builds in S tier for Pit Pushing, Bossing and Speedfarming. There's a playstyle for everyone.
For leveling, Minions have never been better. Try bringing Blight or Blood Surge into Helltide and other speedfarm content. Look forward to our team testing out some interesting Ultimate skill setups and seeing how the meta continues to evolve these builds.
Some Updated Build Guides:
- Bone Spear Necromancer Endgame Build Guide
- Blood Wave Necromancer Endgame Guide
- Blight Necromancer Endgame Build Guide
Many leveling guides have also been updated!
Rogue
For the Rogues, Death Trap, with many of it's bugs inhibiting it in previous seasons fixed, cements itself as the best build for every activity. We have recently included a brand new Pit Pushing variant, focusing around Close Quarters Combat. Rain of Arrows is still a great bow build, and comfortably places as second strongest, despite the nerfs.
For leveling, Heartseeker is a new build to try! That is, if you do not want to go with Dance of Knives yet again, which stills holds the crown as fastest leveling build. The fixes to Clone + Imbuements missed the mark as they did not include Imbuement Potency, leaving imbuement builds like Twisting Blades still behind the playing field. If you are looking for some fun ranged builds, our Penshot build with Eaglehorn is definitely worth a try.
— M1PY
Some Updated Build Guides:
Spiritborn
Spiritborn are in a tough spot this season. The "Ashava Power Poison Build" many were getting hyped up for before launch straight up doesn't exist just as we expected thanks to the boss power nerfs going from PTR to live patch. Most of the former glory of the class has been stripped away with S7 bug fixes and S8 difficulty tuning, leaving Spiritborn clearly behind other classes at the higher end. Their new toys for Rushing Claw and Sunbird's Gorget (included in our Evade Guide) help some builds, but don't make a dent in top pit clears. While the class is relatively balanced among its own builds and has very good farming potential once it's fully set up, all of them are struggling to reliably clear T4 content and bosses like other classes can with ease. Here's hoping we'll see some sweeping buffs in a midseason patch or future updates.
— Wudijo
Some Updated Build Guides:
Many leveling guides have also been updated!
What's Next?
We hope you enjoy the Season of Belial's Return with the aid of our Season 8 updates. Our focus for the start of Season 8 is to make sure our Build Guides are solid with all the new Item updates, new features and mechanic changes. We're continuing to work on more updates for D4Planner!
With that said, head over to our Discord to stay up to date with our content development and to make the most of your Season 8 experience! Also don't forget to check out our Youtube channel!
Written by: Maxroll Team
