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Project Diablo 2 Season 12 Starter Tier List
A comprehensive Tier List for popular Starter Builds for each Class in the upcoming Project Diablo 2 Season 12.Project Diablo 2 Starter Build Tier List
Season 12
Last Update: 03/12/2025
Introduction
The Project Diablo 2 aims to continue the development of Diablo 2 years after its initial release. With each new season, you will be greeted with new or reworked content. The 12th Season of the Suffering is not exactly massive and groundbreaking, but it still introduces plenty of changes and Quality of Life updates that make replaying with a fresh start once again very enjoyable.
The goal of Project Diablo 2 is to make every Skill a viable choice, and it is largely successful at it. However, as always, there will be some Skills that are easier to start than others. In return, their power might diminish as you tackle the hardest content in the game such as Tier 4 Dungeons, or challenge the Diablo Clone himself. However, at that point, you will be able to utilize all your accumulated wealth and easily swap to one of the more endgame-focused Builds with ease.
In this tier list, we’ve ranked two of the most popular and effective Starter builds for each Class, focusing on the efficient start of the new Season. Each Tier considers clear speed, survivability, gear dependency, and utility, so you can find a build that matches your goals and resources.
Starter Builds Tier List - Season 12
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Detailed Explanation about Tier List Choices
| S TIER | |
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Summoner Druid
The Summoner Druid is probably one of the best Builds you can pick to start a fresh journey in the newest Season of the Project Diablo 2. Minions require minimal investment to be extremely efficient, but also make you much safer by soaking up Enemy Damage, further covering the shortcomings of your Items. The Ravens are especially powerful during the campaign, later supplemented by the Wolves and Bears. Your main and only goal is to get as many bonuses for Skill levels as possible. |
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Blizzard Sorceress
The Blizzard Sorceress is still an incredibly powerful Cold-damage Caster known for huge area damage, strong crowd control, and excellent boss-killing potential. She’s easy to start, scales very well with gear, and excels at fast mapping thanks to Blizzard’s large AoE, now even stronger than before, thanks to the Buff received in the newest update. Overall, it's one of the safest and most efficient cold builds for both beginners and endgame players. |
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Golem Necromancer
The Golemancer focuses on using multiple of the same Golem type. At the start, you should focus on the Clay Golems for an easy campaign run. For Bosses on a lower Budget, we recommend focusing more on the Blood Golems instead. Once you acquire better items, you can finally switch to the Fire Golems that excel at quickly farming even the hardest Endgame Maps with ease. |
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Decoy Amazon
Yet another Summoner on the list that further confirms that this archetype is extremely powerful for a smooth start. You will summon Decoy and Valkyrie Minions to do all the work for you. While the build doesn’t reach the best AoE coverage, it excels in survivability and single-target Damage, which is much more important at first. Most importantly, it has almost zero dependencies on your gear to smoothly progress through the game all the way to the early Maps. |
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Fissure/Volcano Druid
This build taps into the Druid’s elemental power, relying on Fissure and Volcano as its main damage skills. It delivers strong area coverage and steady fire damage, thriving in open spaces and against tightly grouped enemies. Fissure creates a broad lava field that burns foes over time, while Volcano adds a mix of Physical and Fire damage, helping deal with Fire-resistant targets. Unlike the Summoner Druid, this is a highly active Build with a flashy playstyle. Despite that, it remains effective even without high-end gear. |
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Cold Arrow Amazon This Season heavily favours Projectile Skills, especially Bows and Crossbows, thanks to the upgraded Pierce count, and Sockets and Runewords for Arrows and Bolts. The Cold Arrow Amazon heavily benefits from those changes, becoming one of the strongest Builds out there that excels at fast Clear Speed, great AoE coverage, and decent Damage against Bosses. |
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Chain Lightning Sorceress The Chain Lightning Sorceress is a fast-paced caster that excels at clearing large packs thanks to Chain Lightning’s ability to bounce between enemies. She offers high mobility, great screen coverage, and strong mapping potential. The damage against Bosses is not that great, especially without good items, but you can make up for that by farming hordes of weaker enemies with lightning speed. |
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Teeth Necromancer |
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Phoenix Strike Assassin The Phoenix Strike Assassin channels elemental martial arts to unleash powerful, charge-based attacks. By building and releasing different charge combinations, she can call down all 3 elements, but you should primarily focus on the Lightning. She excels at clearing groups with elemental bursts, while her mobility and control skills keep her safe and fast. Despite requiring some rhythm in playstyle, Phoenix Strike remains a simple and effective playstyle even on lower investment levels. |
| B TIER | |
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Throw Barbarian This build centers on Throwing Mastery and skills like Double Throw to deal damage from a distance using weapons such as Axes or Javelins. In PD2, throwing weapons are more accessible, have stronger base stats, can be Socketed, and work well with updated or rebalanced Rune Words and Uniques. The Throw Barbarian excels at farming mid-tier content and makes a strong ladder starter thanks to low gear requirements and fast clearing in open areas. However, its damage can drop in endgame content if gear and weapon optimization are lacking. |
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Holy Bolt Paladin The regular Holy Bolt Paladin is a simple and reliable way to get through the campaign without much effort. You can invest more to get better results, or you can experiment more with the Principle Runeword Armour to trigger Holy Bolt when you Strike with a Bow, providing a fresh and unique way to play with this Skill and benefit the most out of the changes in this Season. |
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Mind Blast Assassin The Assassin specializing in the Mind Blast skill from the Shadow Disciplines tree, rapidly evolves into a formidable master of crowd control. Mind Blast inflicts Magic damage and has a chance to stun Enemies, rendering it one of the most potent skills in terms of both damage and utility. This build enables the character to deliver substantial damage from a safe distance while simultaneously keeping foes at bay, offering a highly effective and safe playstyle even with less-than-ideal gear. |
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Sacrifice Paladin The Sacrifice Paladin is another simple Build. It is a very basic Attack, but has great bonuses to Damage, and you will use your own Life to pay its cost instead of Mana. Slain Enemies will explode, dealing Damage in a large area around them based on the Overkill Damage and their own Life. In the new Season, this Skill received a sizeable improvement to its radius, and you can now achieve its full potential at Skill level 24, which is nearly half of what it used to be. |
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Whirlwind Barbarian The Whirlwind is a very iconic and pleasant Skill to play, but its own Damage is a bit lacking, especially without any good Gear to back it up, and the Mana Costs can be quite high early on. However, it is probably one of the best skills to quickly apply all 3 stacks of Open Wounds, which is where your Damage should come from. It is based on your level, and can be modified only by special Open Wound modifiers, found mostly on Jewels. It starts out very strong and starts to slow down in the endgame, but by that time, you will have no problems farming up better gear. |
Evolving Builds for Project Diablo 2: Share Your Best Strategies
Please remember that every in-game decision should be based on your preference, as fun is the most important aspect of the game. You should not base your Build choice on raw statistics unless you are a true hardcore player focused on speed-clearing end-game content. Choosing a strong Build that uses mechanics that you don't like might kill all your enjoyment.
If you’ve found a build that’s performing exceptionally well or have a unique setup you’d like to share, let us know in the comments. We are committed to keeping this guide up-to-date throughout the expansion and beyond, adding new builds and refining existing ones based on player feedback and ongoing gameplay developments.
We hope this guide helps you find the perfect build for your journey in Season of Prosperity! Stay tuned for regular updates, and may your loot be plentiful and powerful.
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If you have any other Guide requests, please leave them in the comments below. Also, we are always open to suggestions and constructive feedback.
Pictures used in this article are the intellectual property of Blizzard Activision.