Best Starter Builds For Fast Leveling in Diablo 4 Season 9

Jul-02-2025

 

With the launch of Diablo IV Season 9, choosing the right leveling build can dramatically speed up your progression to level 60 and beyond. Even better, with the right builds, you can accumulate more Diablo 4 Gold, setting a solid foundation for the endgame.

 

In this guide, we’ve ranked the top builds of fast leveling into S, A, and B tiers. Each tier details the strengths, ideal classes, and recommendation reasons to help players pick the most effective path to blast through the early game.

 

 

S Tier – Best of the Best

S-Tier builds represent the most powerful and stable leveling options in Season 9. These builds typically feature exceptional clear speed, excellent survivability, and smooth skill rotations, allowing players to reach level 60 and start endgame content as quickly as possible.

 

Quill Volley Spiritborn

Class: Spiritborn

Strengths: Fast, wide-area projectile clear, excellent energy regen

Why Pick It: One of the best Spiritborn builds for early progression. The projectiles from Quill Volley automatically track nearby enemies, significantly reducing the skill floor and making it particularly suitable for new players. Additionally, the Spiritborn class itself boasts excellent mobility and defensive skills, ensuring a smooth leveling experience.

 

Hydra Sorcerer

Class: Sorcerer

Strengths: Passive damage, ranged safety, great bossing

Why Pick It: With the new "Tempered Affix" system and enhancements to burning effects, each Hydra can now have up to 16 heads attacking simultaneously, resulting in extremely high clear speeds. Notably, this build has low gear dependency and can unleash its full potential early on, making it an ideal "lazy build" for players who prefer a relaxed leveling experience.

 

Pulverize Druid

Class: Druid

Strengths: High burst AoE, tanky, crowd control

Why Pick It: The core skill, Pulverize, boasts a massive attack range and substantial damage, complemented by the Druid's shape-shifting mechanics, which balance offense and defense. Another advantage of this build is its smooth progression curve—it performs exceptionally well from early to late game without requiring complex gear setups. For players who enjoy melee combat without excessive micromanagement, the Pulverize Druid is undoubtedly the best choice.

 

Sever Affliction Necromancer

Class: Necromancer

Strengths: Pierce damage, curse synergy, good control

Why Pick It: The unique "Disease Spread" mechanic allows damage to rapidly propagate among groups of enemies, making it especially effective against large mobs. With the addition of the "Spreading Death Aspect" and "Inevitable Fate Aspect" in Season 9, the Sever Affliction build demonstrates strong crowd control and sustained damage early on.

 

Blood Surge Necromancer

Class: Necromancer

Strengths: Life steal, AoE nukes, high sustain

Why Pick It: The core mechanic of this build involves using the Blood Surge skill to deal massive AoE damage while simultaneously healing, creating a perfect balance of offense and defense. The most notable feature of this build is its incredible survivability—when paired with the Necromancer's Blood passive skills, players can maintain full health in almost any combat scenario.

 

Twisting Blades Rogue

Class: Rogue

Strengths: AoE burst, high mobility, fast pacing

Why Pick It: This build deals high burst damage with the Twisting Blades skill while allowing the player to dash between enemies, offering excellent mobility and burst potential. Enhancements to the Rogue's basic skills in Season 9 ensure smoother energy regeneration early on, making the skill rotation more fluid.

 

Stinger Spiritborn

Class: Spiritborn

Strengths: High-speed strikes, amazing single-target DPS

Why Pick It: By rapidly stacking poison debuffs, this build deals sustained damage while utilizing the Spiritborn's unique mobility skills to maintain a safe distance in combat. The Stinger build shines against elite enemies and bosses, quickly whittling down high-health targets.

 

A Tier – Reliable Secondary Choices

While slightly less efficient than S-Tier builds, A-Tier builds remain excellent options for leveling. These builds typically excel in specific scenarios or require slightly more gear investment to reach their full potential.

 

Whirlwind Barbarian

Class: Barbarian

Strengths: Easy AoE clearing, good uptime, simple playstyle

Why Pick It: This build deals AoE damage through continuous Whirlwind attacks while sustaining itself with life-on-hit effects. Although early-game damage may feel lackluster, obtaining key Aspects like "Dust Devil's Wrath" significantly improves clear speed.

 

Landslide Druid

Class: Druid

Strengths: Mid-range crit damage, excellent burst potential

Why Pick It: This build summons earth spikes to deal high single-target damage, making it particularly effective against elite enemies and bosses. The Landslide build's standout feature is its incredible burst damage, allowing players to eliminate high-threat targets quickly. While its clear speed falls short of the Pulverize build, it performs exceptionally well in specific scenarios. Druid players who favor high burst damage should consider this build.

 

Blight Necromancer

Class: Necromancer

Strengths: DoT damage, zone control, low resource cost

Why Pick It: With the new "Shadow Mist Aspect" in Season 9, this build's survivability has improved significantly. The Blight Necromancer excels in crowd control, effectively limiting enemy movement while dealing sustained damage. Although its single-target damage is somewhat lacking, it performs exceptionally well against large groups of standard enemies.

 

Dance of Knives Rogue

Class: Rogue

Strengths: Multihit burst, strong elite clear

Why Pick It: Season 9 fixed an issue where the "Preparation" skill failed to reset Dance of Knives charges, making the skill rotation smoother. This build's strengths lie in its incredibly fast attack speed and excellent single-target damage, making it ideal for prioritizing high-value targets. While its AoE capabilities fall short of Twisting Blades, it offers more precision and efficiency in specific scenarios.

 

Incinerate Sorcerer

Class: Sorcerer

Strengths: Channeling damage, constant output

Why Pick It: Buffs to burning effects in Season 9 significantly increased this build's damage potential. The Incinerate Sorcerer's straightforward playstyle—simply aim and channel to deal damage—makes it highly accessible. Although it lacks burst damage, its consistent output makes it a reliable leveling choice.

 

Fire Bolt Sorcerer

Class: Sorcerer

Strengths: Simple, efficient, low-cost spam

Why Pick It: The Fire Bolt Sorcerer is the most basic yet stable leveling build for the Sorcerer class, dealing sustained damage through rapid fireball attacks. This build's strengths lie in its extremely low resource consumption and consistent damage output, making it particularly suitable for new players as an introductory build.

 

 

B Tier – Niche or Conditional Choices

B-Tier builds generally require more gear investment or specific conditions to perform well. While they may feel underwhelming during early leveling, they remain viable options for players with particular preferences or playstyles.

 

Charge Upheaval Barbarian

Class: Barbarian

The Charge Upheaval Barbarian combines the mobility of Charge with the AoE damage of Upheaval, offering an aggressive melee playstyle. While obtaining key Aspects like "Dust Devil's Wrath" significantly improves performance, early-game resource management and survivability can be challenging. Players who enjoy high-risk, high-reward gameplay may find this build thrilling.

 

HotA Barbarian (Hammer of the Ancients)

Class: Barbarian

The HotA Barbarian is renowned for its exaggerated single-target burst damage but struggles with resource regeneration and AoE capabilities during leveling. This build heavily relies on specific Aspects and gear setups, performing modestly until fully optimized. However, once fully assembled, HotA becomes unparalleled in dealing with elites and bosses.

 

Lightning Storm Druid  

Class: Druid

The Lightning Storm Druid summons lightning storms to deal AoE damage but relies heavily on stationary casting. Although Season 9 buffed Lightning Storm, a 40% damage cap limits its potential. This build performs decently in open areas but struggles in tight spaces or against highly mobile enemies.

 

Shred Druid  

Class: Druid

The Shred Druid is a more agile melee build for the Druid, dealing damage through rapid combo attacks. However, the Shred build faces survivability challenges during leveling and requires precise execution to perform effectively.

 

Final Recommendations

Best for Speed Leveling: Quill Volley Spiritborn or Hydra Sorcerer.

Best for Survivability: Blood Surge Necromancer or Pulverize Druid.

Best for Melee Fans: Twisting Blades Rogue or Whirlwind Barbarian.

 

For endgame viability, S-Tier builds like Hydra Sorcerer and Quill Volley Spiritborn remain top choices for Pit 100+ clears1.

                                                                                                                         

Season 9 "Sins of the Horadrim" brings abundant new content and balance adjustments to Diablo 4, offering multiple viable leveling options for every class. By understanding each build's strengths and weaknesses and aligning them with personal preferences, you can enjoy a smooth leveling experience and lay a solid foundation for endgame content. Ultimately, the best build is the one that matches your preferred playstyle, allowing you to fully enjoy Diablo's signature loot-driven gameplay.