How quickly things are forgotten - Solo Greater Rift Summary Per Class

General Discussion
1

Several forum posters have discussed differential class performance for solo seasonal greater rifts over the last couple of years. I have summarized the last six seasons (12-17) relative to the top 10 greater seasonal rift clears per class from the America region. I have also included the data for the 4 eras since the necromancer was introduced. Needless to say, I think some might be surprised that the lowest greater rift clears on average during this time.

For the average of the four eras, the class with the lowest clears are demon hunters.:neutral_face:

During this time, two classes with the lowest seasonal greater rift clears have been demon hunters and witch doctors. :neutral_face: Witch doctors have been in the bottom two for 5 of 6 seasons while DH 4 of 6. Monks have been in the bottom two, 2 of 6 seasons while barbarians only 1 in 6 seasons.

If one considers the data relative to the average of 3 patches [2.6.1 (Season 12-15 collectively), 2.6.4 (Season 16 of Grandeur) and 2.6.5 (Season 17 of Nightmares)], the two lowest classes are monks and barbarians. :neutral_face:

Patch 2.6.1 (Season 12-15) **
Crusader (121.8) >> Necromancer (119.6) > Wizards (118.7) >> Barbarians (115.9) > Monks (115.2) >> Witch Doctors (113.1) > Demon Hunters (112.4)

Patch 2.6.4 (Season 16 of Grandeur)
Demon Hunter (127.8) > Crusader (127.1) > Wizard (126.9) > Necromancer (1125.2) > Barbarian (124.7) > Monks (124.2) > Witch Doctors (122.9)

Patch 2.6.5 (Season 17 of Nightmares)
Wizard (135.2) >> Necromancer (133.2) >> Witch doctor (130.3) >> Demon Hunter (128.2) > Crusader (128.0) >> Monk (125.2) >> Barbarian (122.4)

After the introduction of the necromancer, three classes (crusader, demon hunters, and witchdoctor) have been largely excluded from the four man meta. :neutral_face:

For eras:

Era Barbarians Crusader Demon Hunter Monks Necromancer Witch Doctors Wizards
2017-1 100.6 106 100.9 101 114.5 107.1 108.5
2017-2 116.8 122.2 113.3 116.2 119.4 114.5 117.2
2018-1 121.7 126.9 116 119.7 123.5 118.5 122.8
2019-1 126.1 130.3 129.7 126.7 131.1 131.1 137.4
Average 116.3 121.35 114.975 115.9 122.125 117.8 121.475
Era Barbarians Crusader Demon Hunter Monks Necromancer Witch Doctors Wizards
2017-1 7 4 6 5 1 3 2
2017-2 4 1 7 5 2 6 3
2018-1 4 1 7 5 2 6 3
2019-1 7 4 5 6 2.5 2.5 1
Average 5.5 2.5 6.25 5.25 1.875 4.375 2.25

The raw and average data for seasons is shown below in table format:

Season Barbs Crusader DH Monks Necromancer Witch Doctors Wizards
12 115.8 121.1 112.2 114.8 119.0 113.9 117.2
13 115.6 121.4 112.2 115.6 119.8 111.5 119.8
14 115.6 122.5 112.4 115.7 120.4 113.6 119.5
15 116.5 122.1 112.8 114.8 119.1 113.4 118.2
16 124.7 127.1 127.8 124.2 125.2 122.9 126.9
17 122.4 128.0 128.2 125.2 133.2 130.3 135.2
Season Barbs Crusader DH Monks Necromancer Witch Doctors Wizards
Season 12-17 118.4 123.7 117.6 118.4 122.8 117.6 122.8
Patch defined seasons 121.0 125.6 122.8 121.5 126.0 122.1 126.9

The same data viewed in terms of rank order

Season Barbs Crusader DH Monks Necromancer Witch Doctors Wizards
Season 12 4 1 7 5 2 6 3
Season 13 4.5 1 6 4.5 2.5 7 2.5
Season 14 5 1 7 4 2 6 3
Season 15 4 1 7 5 2 6 3
Season 16 5 2 1 6 4 7 3
Season 17 7 5 4 6 2 3 1
Season 12-17 4.92 1.83 5.33 5.08 2.42 5.83 2.58

4 Man meta link

Prokahn has now done an era 11 analysis. See:

Imgur

Conclusions:

The strongest class in terms of greater rift efficiency is wizards (represented by orange dots and lines), a class that many think is vastly overpowered. Many have called for nerfs to this class.

The weakest class in terms of greater rift efficiency depends on the greater rift level analyzed. The two weakest classes for grifts considered below 113-114 were necromancer (the worst) and monks (second worst). For greater rifts above 114 monks had the lowest greater rift efficiency.

Monks are represented by red dots and line.
Necromancers by gray dots and lines.

Barbs are blue dots and lines.
Demon Hunters are brown dots and lines.
Crusaders are green dots and lines.
Purple are purple dots and lines.

Prokhan also showed a more simple comparison of the average grift clears of the top 1000 players. Each > represents a 1 greter rift difference.

Wizards>>>>Demon Hunters>>>>>>Crusader>Witch doctor>>>Barbarian>Monk>Necromancer

I would encourage everyone when they are comparing classes to link this thread/post. I think it would help to dispel misperceptions that occur on the forum.

@ greater Rift efficiency of 50 Greater rift clear
Necromancer 111.0
Monk 111.7
Barb 113.0
Crusader 114.5
Witch Doctor 116.0
Demon Hunter 117.3
Wizard 123.5
22 Likes
3

Oh man, this one’s hard for me. I play every class, but DH and barb are my favorites for sure.

While it’s true that DH hasn’t been in the 4-player meta for a good long while, the way I console myself is that DH is pretty boss when it comes to everything besides pushing 4-player leaderboard. Normal rifts, speed GR’s, bounties, conquests, etc… DH can do it all, in multiple builds.

Sure, barb has a guaranteed support role in the meta. But every time I switch from DH to barb in pub games or solo…man, it hurts because DH is just so much better.

I guess what I’m trying to say is that the data from the very tippy-top of the spectrum doesn’t tell the story of the daily experience for most players.

P.S.- both classes deserve a buff :slight_smile:

8 Likes
4

Yep those are stats. I remember people doing gr 100 in prob season 8 . I can remember ww barbs going gr 100 many season back. Blizz math does no add up and it never will. Its the same just faster. Patches they show you a few things but they don’t show you hidden dimisnishing. How can they deny it when when builds that work no longer do?

2 Likes
5

I’m not going to argue with that. But I do want to say that a lot of classes get a reasonable buff next season with Captain Crimsons and Sages. DH’s just about become the premiere death breath hunting class and key farmer. Though monks are pretty strong at that too.

Our UE clears in Greater Rifts will go up and stuff like that, so it appears some classes are getting some things as long as the patch hasn’t changed much between PTR and Season 18.

Barbarians though, it appears, don’t profit as much from Captain Crimson’s as other classes. So I can understand why they might feel ignored because of it.

3 Likes
6

The game has changed.

The focus has changed.

If you play just one class, you are years behind.

At this point, the game isn’t about playing one class, it’s about playing all of them that you have access to.

Gear and drop rates are a joke compared to what they were when ROS came out. I spent months getting a full eq set, now I can get one in a few hours.

Understand that the game has evolved, single class mentality is the wrong approach to this game.

Adapt.

Play a few new classes, explore, etc.

11 Likes
7

DH has always been my favorite class, and I am happy of how it has been brought back to life since season 16. Besides being one of the best speedfarmers with Multishot, it is now a very decent alternative boss killer with Impale (at least up to GR140) and has at last a nice solo LON build with Rapidfire. And I am excited for season 18, as the new Crimson and Aughild sets should allow the DH to shine even more :slight_smile:

3 Likes
8

I understand what you are trying to say. You are trying to show average clears by class to show a disparity between the classes in solo clears.

I don’t understand why you would lump these seasons together. We have had a lot of power creep since seasons 12-15. You can’t just throw these seasons in with current seasons without normalizing. You also include seasons that had seasonal buffs which only affected certain classes and builds. Those season buffs were designed to throw balance off.

I agree with what you are trying to say, but the averages you provide mean nothing. It just doesn’t back up what you are trying to prove.

3 Likes
9

I included seasons and eras to account for differential benefits of seasonal buffs. Also, the reason that I went back in time is that some are saying that a specific class is currently the worst and has been that way for years. This post hopefully will dispel that misconception. Sone classes that are underperforming currently have been mediocre/average in the past 2 years. Other classes have spent much more time at the bottom than the current underperforming classes.

6 Likes
10

The bigger issue is that you have to play a meta 4 man class to get your leg gems to the highest point which affects your solo classes clear.

What comes with this is that the group dps are always highest level (also higher likelihood of a bot) and the zds are usually running turbohud.

These is a legimiate problems all linked together.

The root causes are subtly different however.

3 Likes
11

Oh man.

No. Just no.

There are a lot of problems with this analysis. You’re not considering builds and Paragon, which means you’re not considering inter-class parity and the availability of broken game mechanics. For example, if you’re looking at Barb clears with Vile Charge or R6 HOTA, you’re not taking into account the fact that both builds rely on the exploitation of wall-charging to maximize damage output. In other words, you’re talking about two builds that can only clear as high as they can by using an exploit.

And when you don’t factor Paragon into the equation, you miss important details. For example, dark’s recent 132 Barb clear is pretty awesome, but it took 9800 Paragon to get there. And the clear wouldn’t be possible without, again, an exploit.

This also ignores the reality of game play since the set buffs two years ago. Here’s a simple experiment you can try at home.

Gear an Impale DH. Or multishot. Whichever.

Gear a Condemn Crusader. Or a Shield Bash. Whichever.

Gear a Garg Doc, a Frozen Orb Wiz, etc. Don’t worry about GG gear. Just gear it up, correct items, correct gems. Run GR 80, 90, 100, and 110. No Augments.

Do the same with a Barb. Any set. Any build. No Augments. Same Paragon.

Tell me what happens. I’m all ears.

I’m going to leave it to other Barbs to deal with your data, because I don’t have the time or energy. Statements like the one I quoted above are dog whistles: “See, Barbs don’t have it that bad, they’re not that weak.”

And as we’ve proven time and time again, that simply isn’t true.

I don’t see you advocating for things you want.

All you’re doing is quietly insinuating that our stance is misguided or flat-out wrong. That’s neither true, nor welcome.

14 Likes
12

i wouldn’t even reply to him , he/she is just trying to rank up on the forums so all the things he/she writes is all :poop: anyways

6 Likes
13

omg! Barbarians weren’t the worst two of the last four seasons! They were only in the middle while still being extremely far behind the top class for those two seasons!

STOP THE PRESS!

Barbarians are fine.

False alarm Blizz. We don’t need any buffs.

/s

3 Likes
14

Fixed that for you :joy:

3 Likes
15

Sorry but i’m not totally agree with you. Why i need to play what developers of games tell me to play It? A RPG Game should let you do all content, even competitive content, with any class. And this not the case of Diablo 3.

You can play what you want of course, but there is 1 effecient build (all bots use it), to play every aspect of the game.

The Game is a fail since It come out, and they start trying to make a new face of It.

A Game where I can’t be competitive with any class? Laughts*

3 Likes
16

Phatty has a good point. A multi-class approach is what Blizzard has, implicitly or explicitly, pushed as the optimal way to engage the game’s various activities. And that’s not a bad thing… except that for some–possibly many–players, this is neither the desired, nor a possible, approach.

You don’t have to play the game the way he’s suggesting, but he is right in that it’s the optimal way to play.

Whether that’s good or bad is an entirely different argument.

3 Likes
17

You can make a valid argument that barbs are currently the worst and I wholeheartedly agree. Monk are also in a bad spot. Both classes need a buff. The conclusion that barbs have been the worst every era from era 2017-1 and every season from season 12 is different than the data shown above that admittingly has limitations.

A more sophisticated analysis was done here and is linked below. In that thread, they took into account paragon and looked at several seasons where season 12 was the last (Season 12-15 were all patch 2.6.1 seasons: patch 2.6.1, 2.6.1a, 2.6.1b, and 2.6.1c).

5 Likes
18

First off:

Touchy crusader subject, dont start with me on this…

Second, what has been said was more of an attempt to diffuse the whole barbarian rage over the buffs. Bad attempt but still, because for many, there’s still large underlying issues with several classes. Monks have more or less been following the same power curve as barbarian, also riddled with wonky mechanics and difficult gearing (ulianna’s area damage anyone?)

Yet, those two classes are the main choices for 4-man meta. And I know it’s hard to be forced into that spot, but not having a spot at all doesn’t feel great either, being forced to run other classes for grouping is not optimal.

In short, there’s a huge issue for both sides, and yes monks and barbs should recieve damage buffs, but the outcry is sadly louder from the barbs side.

4 Likes
19

Of course, Rash. Barbs are organized. As a community, we’re tight knit. Other classes need that kind of community cohesion. We can’t do the work for them.

The bit about being in the meta is a completely separate discussion and shouldn’t in any way impact the decision to buff Barbs (and Monks).

3 Likes
20

Normal rifts - DH is far from the best class from key farming because they can’t teleport throughout the walls. You get one Keep Depths map and bb, Monk is 3 screens away.

Speed GR - Wizard is way faster, rat runs are way faster

Bounties - DH is probably the best I agree here

Now lets look what people do in this game most of time?

  • Farm keys 30% of time
  • Farm exp 50% of time
  • Push GR 15% of time
  • Do bounties 5% of time

So DH is not even close to be the best class for things that are done 95% of all play time.

2 Likes
21

Yes ofcourse, but then I would argue to be buffed in a way that allows my crusader to tank for a meta group, so much that I could technically take the barbs spot.

As long as barbs are fine with that, then you can have power to pass 135 gr level.

If not, then this issue is connected.

5 Likes