Recently, players were able to test the new Season 5 of Diablo 4 on the PTR. Experts are now commenting on the status of the wizards and say: The class can be really strong, but a lot would have to change for that to happen.
The PTR (public test server) for Season 5 in Diablo 4 has ended and various experts are now commenting on the strongest classes, new items and possible powerful builds. According to Diablo expert “Rob2628”, however, the wizard class looks “sad” here. Other players on the PTR also noticed that wizards are even weaker than before – despite buffs.
Rob2628 is known for his OP builds, one of which saw him deal over 1 trillion damage in Zir’s Slaughterhouse and make Druids the top tier.
What is the weakest class? In a YouTube video from July 3, Rob puts the topic into context, referring to a recording by Diablo 4 content creator Perra Gaming, who summarizes the state of the wizard class in Season 5 after the PTR. He says: “The wizard will be the best class in Season 5, but only if you remove all other classes from the game. Because this class is just terrible.”
Rob says that he can feel the pain of the wizards, as it is a recurring topic in his community. He created a tier list after the PTR – the strongest wizard build, Firebolt Wizard, only appears in the A tier. According to Rob, as of the current status in Season 5, wizards do not have a single build in the upper tiers, i.e. S or S+.
He had already played the wizard in the Diablo 4 beta, which was his second favorite class at the time. Now, however, the class needs a lot of help. Current changes are not enough.
Important skills are simply useless
What needs to change? According to Rob, one big point that needs to change is the many caps in Diablo 4, i.e. the upper limits for certain values. It was only in Season 4 that an upper limit for armor came into play. The wizards’ central passive skills are also a problem. They do not scale with better gear and are therefore almost useless, notes “Perra Gaming” in the video.
According to experts, in order to make wizards strong, the following would have to change:
According to Rob, wizards also often have the problem that they simply cannot kill bosses. They do the most damage when enemies are suffering from crowd control effects or are “staggered”. The longer a fight lasts, the harder it is to “stagger” bosses and cause significant damage.
According to Rob, many of the deficiencies in the builds can be traced back to the central passive skills, where he sees the greatest need for revision. With the adjustments, he believes the wizard builds could all move up at least one level on the tier lists. It is unclear whether there will be any changes to the skills in Season 5. However, the first expansion for Diablo 4, “Vessel of Hatred”, will bring new skills, legendary glyphs and paragon tablets for all classes into the game: Diablo 4 Vessel of Hatred: Everything about the release, pre-orders and beta of the first DLC