Season 5 Tips

Season 5 features major overhauls to a bunch of class-specific sets: The Legacy of Raekor, Might of the Earth, Armor of Akkhan, Thorns of the Invoker, Embodiment of the Marauder, The Shdadow's Mantle, Monkey King's Garb, Sprit of Arachyr, Delsere's Magnum Opus, Firebird's Finery, and Tal Rasha's Elements.

One of the nicest additions to Diablo 3 this is Haedrig's Gift; as you progress through the season journey for the first time, you'll be rewarded set items for your current class. This makes gearing out your first seasonal character much easier than it was in previous seasons.

Another reward for completing the season journey is an extra stash page. This is huge everyone that plays multiple classes or just enjoys hording a bunch of items (we're all guilty of this from time to time).

Classes

Simply put, crusaders and wizards are the strongest solo greater rift classes this season and offer the most damage in group play. Demon hunters and witch doctors are good general play choices as they are slightly faster at bounties while still clearing T10 rifts quickly. Monks have the fastest T10 speed farming build this season but fall off quickly after that, while barbarians have been relegated to a support role and their farming builds don't keep up with any other class.

Refer to the following list for a quick and dirty guide to decide what class to play (more information provided later on):

1. Wizard is the best all around class this season with the only real drawback of not being able to play support. Deals damage in groups, farms extremely well.
2. Crusader is the best solo greater rift class, the wizard is better at just about everything else. As a first character, crusaders can be difficult to gear out since their late game build requires ancients.
3. Demon hunters are a great all around class but don't do well in higher greater rifts (although they are slightly better at dealing damage in groups than the witch doctor). I give them the edge over witch doctors as most of their builds require class specific set pieces and not Legacy of Nightmares and a pile of ancients. Better for group players.
4. Witch doctors are in the same place as demon hunters - very solid overall choice with lots of versatility, but slightly weaker at higher greater rifts. Like crusaders, their best late game builds use Legacy of Nightmares. The pet based builds sometimes perform worse in groups because their pets can be stupid and attack the wrong targets. Better for solo players.
5. Barbarians come in as the fifth choice this season as they are only good in the support role. Greater rift progression is okay, but farming T10 and bounties can be a chore.
6. Monks are pretty much bad barbarians. They are better than barbarians at farming, but worse at group play.

Solo players should look at crusader, witch doctor, or monk while group players should gravitate towards wizard, demon hunter, and barbarian.

Barbarian

Season 4's strongest class is in a pretty bad spot this season. Their mobility builds don't offer damage during bounty or speed runs and their damage builds are subpar for greater rifts. In group play, they play the support role and generate as many health globes as they can to generate more resources for energy twister wizards in the group.

Recommended pretty much only for the suppot role in group play, the barbarian is the best class for this role.

Crusader

After countless seasons of being irrelevant, the crusader finally got some love in season 5. The Legacy of Nightmares set along with lots of thorns damage makes them one of the highest damage dealers in the game while still being tanky.

Recommended for higher level greater rifts (pushing the solo or group leader boards); not great for farming bounties or rifts as their build sometimes struggle in killing goblins.

Demon Hunter

Although the demon hunter is a little weak this season in terms of solo greater rift performance, they are extremely versatile. No particular build shines, so that hurts their ceiling this season, the demon hunter is one of the best classes to run bounties, farm T10 rifts, and mid level greater rifts (up to 65 or so). Demon Hunters are best played as a support class in groups as crusaders and wizards are just better at dealing damage.

Recommended for T10 and bounty farming, early greater rift progression. One of the two best general classes this season; if you plan on only playing one class this season, the demon hunter can do it all. Demon hunters edge out witch doctors in group play because the player should be smarter than the witch doctors pets when choosing targets.

Monk

Like barbarians, monks find themselves in a pretty bad spot this season. They have survivability issues in high level greater rifts and rely heavily on Unity so group play is somewhat difficult. Monks have the fastest speeed and bounty run clear times when they are well geared and high paragon level (600+).

Recommended for speed farming T10 and bounties. Stay away from greater rifts unless you are a diehard monk fan and plan on playing support in groups.

Witch Doctor

Season 5's witch doctor is in pretty much the exact same spot as the demon hunter; they are great for general play and the only real difference between the witch doctor and demon hunter in terms of gearing them out is the witch doctor uses the Legacy of Nightmares set and demon hunters use class sets.

Recommended for general game play, T10 and bounty farming is great, greater rift progression is better than average. The witch doctor edges out the demon hunter in solo play because pet builds provide better defense.

Wizard

Like the crusader, the wizard finally saw love in season 5 after a long run of being pretty bad in previous seasons. Even though it farms T10 slightly slower than a monk, the wizard will outperform the monk pretty much everywhere else; it's good at running bounties with Aether Walker, pushing greater rifts with the Delsere's set, and farming death's breaths with the Sage's Journey set (the wizard is the only class that effectively uses the Sage's set this season).

Recommended for pretty much everything but the support role; if you want to play support, don't play a wizard.