While not the game’s main focus, the player-versus-player aspect of D4 is an excellent opportunity to change scenery and approach to fighting your opponents. Instead of clearing hordes of hell’s best soldiers with meta builds, you will face fellow players with their arsenal of abilities, legendaries, and tricks. Will you overcome such an opponent, or will you fall? Let’s see what you can do to step up your game in PvP based on your class and current viable builds.
Necromancer
In general, Necro players seek to boost their DPS to reach some massive numbers in PvP due to their lack of damage reduction abilities compared to other classes, making them vulnerable targets in prolonged duels. The reliance of most builds on the use of corpses is not working in favor of Necros either, narrowing down the options. Still, some opportunities exist to overcome those difficulties and work around pure DPS kits without summons.
Necro PvP Kit and Tips
Let’s take a quick look over the Necromncer’s arsenal of abilities, utilities, and the best ways to use them to your advantage.
- Bone Skills are Heavy Hitters. This particular school of spells can drop lots of area damage and provides you with some excellent burst damage with abilities such as Bone Spirit or Bone Spear with Vulnerable upgrades. Spec’ing into Bone spells can increase their cost in exchange for the significantly increased damage.
- Defensive Kit. Always remember to bring the Blood Mist or the Bone Prison to get both a lifesaver and healing, plus CC to trap enemy players. There is little for Necromancers in the department, so make sure to get the best out of these.
- Blood Synergy and Sustainability. Blood Spells have some significant interconnections and provide much-required damage mitigation in the form of Fortified HP and Lifesteal from spells like Blood Surge. And the higher helf translates into better damage. Bloodwave Ultimate delivers a form of CC with slow and knockback.
- Book of the Dead. The lack of corpses in the PvP surrounding leads us to sacrifice the minions for the buffs to personal abilities, such as extra HP or Vulnerable damage.
Best Build
The recommended build in the current patch would focus on the Blood Lances that consistently proc the Overpower damage. Additionally, it covers for the lack of damage reduction and enables consistent healing through the Blood Orbs and Blood Mist. The BL is great for dealing with a single target enemy, valid for the PvP duels. You may use the Decrepify curse and Bone Storm Ultimate for the additional on-demand DR boosts.
One thing that is true for Necro and all the other classes is that making a perfect build requires you to target farm-specific Uniques, such as Temerity or Razorplate, that can drastically improve the build’s performance but have a low drop rate. Knowing how much of a grind that might take, it is worth considering to outsource something like this instead of pouring hours into one specific item. I’d prefer less grind and more time spent practicing in PvP.
Barbarian
The toolkit of the Barbarians makes them one of the best-suited classes for PvP in D4. They’ve got heavy-hitting abilities to destroy opponents in seconds, especially the Hammer of Ancients, along with incredible damage reduction, great CC, and mobility provided by shouts.
Barb PvP Kit and Tips
Here’s what makes these brutal warriors tick and perform as they do.
- Damage Buffs. You can boost already high DPS even stronger with the passives, weapon mastery, and Walking Arsenal Ultimate, as well as War Cry. Make sure to spec into the weapon of your choice and max out the damage.
- Closing the Distance. As a melee, it’s most important to cut the distance and land heavy strikes on the opponent – use Leap and Charge abilities to close the gap and obliterate enemies.
- Utilities. Adding to already mentioned mobility abilities like charge, Barbarians have access to decisive CC break in the form of Rallying Cry, allowing them to push through the stuns and Unstoppable Force with a similar effect.
- Staying Alive. Undying Rage is a passive ability that is incredibly powerful in PvP, where a matter of seconds can change everything, and this spell buys you time even after death, resurrecting and healing barbarian if he manages to kill the enemy in five seconds after death. In an equal duel, these seconds are the game-changers.
Best Build
Barb players opt for the Bleed spec with Rupture and Thorns in PvP these days. Utilizing the Berserk windows to deal more damage is crucial to finishing the deal with heavy Death Blows or the Iron Maelstroms.
Sorcerer
From one perspective, the Sorcs are glass cannons with high damage but low defensive capabilities, but make no mistake – their toolkit can help them avoid all the damage by utilizing freezes and slows so the opponents can die before even reaching the target. There is no need for damage mitigation if you can avoid it altogether! They are good with breaking CC themselves with spells like Teleportation or Conduit, plus the Frost and Fire shields will undoubtedly save you from some damage if enemies manage to get to you. Keeping the gap is crucial to the Sorcerer in PvP, and being caught means a certain death.
Sorc PvP Kit and Tips
This class is powerful but more skill-dependent in PvP. Let’s get to the toolkit!
- Control Mastery. Applying the slow and freeze (stun) is the key to keeping opponents away from you, and there are many ways to do so: cast Frost Bolt, Frost Nova, Blizzard, Frozen Orb, or other frost skills. Spec-ing into those abilities even more, you can pair the CC with the damage buffs against controlled targets or improve your resistance against their damage.
- Glass Cannon. While the class lacks direct damage mitigation, the offensive capabilities are a force to be reckoned with – the damage burst, and tons of DPS-boosting passives can turn the Sorc into a machine of destruction.
- Escape Artist. The key to survival is avoiding crowd control at all costs – Teleports and Conduits can break the CC if you slip up and can be used to build the distance between you and opponents. Well-timed immunity from the Deep Freeze (the Ice Block) is a lifesaver – pair it with the TP immediately to quickly escape the danger.
Best Build
Sorcs always choose the Ice Shard build due to the slows and great DPS capabilities. Utilizing this build to its maximum potential, you can constantly slow and stun opponents, kite them with good mobility, and apply Vulnerable effects.
Druid
Druid’s toolkit provides some good counter-abilities against mobile classes such as Sorc, and the survivability is on top levels. Building your Druid in PvP means focusing on improving your HP with Fortify and boosting DPS through the Vulnerability and Crushing Blows/
Druid PvP Kit and Tips
Use these pros to your advantage in PvP and build a setup around the strengths of the Druid.
- Wall of Defences. Certain passives will turn shapeshifting druids into tanks with tons of survivability – life restoration with spirit, damage reduction abilities, and a Fortify health boost can make you a tough opponent to fight against.
- Rotation Based DPS. The DPS rotation of a druid is different compared to other classes. Instead of a raw damage increase, you’ll improve specific combos, such as guaranteed crit and extra damage on the follow-up attack.
- Controlling Battlefield. There are many ways to mess with the enemies as a druid – you have multiple stuns, knockbacks, and Attack Speed reduction on top. And if you find yourself on the receiving end of CC, you can utilize Unstoppable Ultimate to break free or the Earthen Bulwark to try and avoid it.
Best Build
Playing Druid in PvP, you will generally try to play the long game with your opponents – you have the means to survive longer, and you should focus on it. The Nature build can provide all you need, including CC, sustained damage with poisons, and burst potential from Landsliding, with the extra HP and damage mitigation to secure the victory.
Rogue
A highly mobile and versatile class with great burst dps and control-breaking capabilities. Like with Sorc, mobility is the key, and the playstyle suggests you not get into the fair fight with more of a heavy-weight class like Barbarian. There are simply not enough defenses to survive the close-up meeting. But with the proper build, a skilled Rogue can eliminate any opponent in seconds and stay out of trouble.
Rogue PvP Kit and Tips
- Critical Damage. You have both melee and ranged weapons at your disposal – landing solid crits from the range and closing the gap to finish off the target with rapid melee strikes is how you get things done. Use the traps to CC enemies – it’s much easier to prey upon the stunned player.
- Poison is the Instrument of Assassins. Poisons are nasty in PvP, dealing consistent and serious damage over time, eating players away rather quickly with certain passive upgrades, and reducing their combat effectiveness with debuffs. Spending points to improve your poisons is a good choice.
- Quick Contacts. Efficient Rogues are careful, and they know when to disengage and when to jump on the enemy and burst them down. Utilize the kit to slow and disorient enemies with traps and bombs, and Dash in to deal devastating damage when the opportunity strikes.
Best Build
The Twisting Blades is a reliable PvP dueling build that covers melee and ranged engagements. Multiple mobility tools, CC breaking, and Shadow Step to have an opportunity to engage the enemy when needed quickly – these are all you need to eliminate the competition.