This is the first in a series of articles about class distributions by level. The full table can be found at the end of this article, but here are some interesting tidbits: There’s no clear winner among classes at any point during leveling; there may not even be a consensus for which classes have a better distribution throughout levels 1-60.
The “diablo 2 resurrected paladin stat priority” is a guide that shows the distribution of stats for each class in Diablo II: Resurrected. The guide also includes a list of recommended items and skills.
With almost 500,000 characters tallied on all four Ladders since their April 28th launch, it’s fascinating to see how the class distributions for the Ladders break out. This raises the issue of whether the Ladder meta has altered.
Short answer: no, at least not on non-Hardcore (Normal) ladders. Sorceresses and Paladins have long dominated the S-tier and A-tier of Ladder suggestion lists, and it seems that this is still the case in Normal ladders. Surprisingly, the Hardcore ladders have more variety, despite the fact that you’d expect people to adhere to more tried-and-true builds. While Sorceress and Paladin continue to be popular, there seems to be some meta movement.
We only counted Level 20+ characters in the first week of Ladder Season 1 for this class analysis. Mule characters are excluded, and only characters that have progressed through Act 1 and Andariel are included, indicating a minimal dedication to Ladder.
Character Distribution Across the Four Ladders as a Whole
To no one’s surprise, the Expansion Normal is by far the most popular Ladder.
| Type of Server | # Over 20 | Percentage |
| Expansion | 403,044 | 91.8% |
| Hardcore Expansion | 27,567 | 6.3% |
| Classic | 8,022 | 1.8% |
| Hardcore in its original form | 552 | 0.1% |
Ladders of Expansion
Will this, after the large 2.4 patch with substantial adjustments to class balance, result in major changes in Ladder? Although the inclusion of the Summon Druid may cause a little shift in Hardcore, it looks that what was dominating in Ladder before the adjustments remains dominant after all. Unfortunately, we can’t analyze characters on the D2:R ladder, so we don’t know how the 2.4 modifications affected the game overall. Some players may choose to play Hydra Sorceress or FoH Paladin over another spec, but one thing is certain: Sorceress and Paladin stay at the top.
Expansion Normal Ladder Class Distribution
According to our poll, there were 403,044 characters over level 20 on the Normal Expansion server, with 211,959 Sorceresses and 97,952 Paladins accounting for roughly three-quarters of the total population (77.4%).
With 5.2 percent, necromancers were at the top of the “and the rest” group (20,888). Druids (20,170) just beat out Amazons (5.0 percent 19,988) for fourth position, however both accounted for 5% of the total, with Barbarians (16.334) in sixth place and Assassins (3.9 percent) in last place (15,753). The largest disparity was between Amazons and Barbarians, with the statistics for Necromancer, Druid, and Amazon all being extremely close.
Because early Magic Find is so crucial to long-term Ladder success, it’s no wonder that Sorceresses and Paladins are still the best options. Nothing in the meta has changed in this case.
Class Distribution on Hardcore Expansion Ladder
The Hardcore Expansion server had a slightly lower proportion of characters above level 20, but it was still the second most populated with 27,567 characters over level 20. What’s fascinating about this is how uniformly dispersed the classes become:
Given their squishiness, Sorceresses are a highly dangerous option for Hardcore, yet they were still the top selection with 8,103 votes (29.4 percent ). Paladins finished in second with 5,936 (21.5%), same to Normal, although it was considerably closer on Hardcore than on Normal.
Druids landed in third place with 3.496 (12.7 percent), which might indicate a shift in the meta due to the popularity of the Summon Druid build and its reputation as a safer Hardcore build. It’s similar to the Summonmancer, a perennial Hardcore favorite, which has a rating of 3.133 and is in the same range as the Necromancer (11.4 percent ). The difficult Barbarian trails these builds with 3,021 (11 percent), while the Amazon and Assassin come in sixth and seventh, respectively, with 1,977 and 1,901 characters.
Ladders from the past
We wouldn’t expect to observe any change in class distributions from previous years since there was no 2.4 in Classic and none of the class balancing improvements made it to that server. These are included primarily for the sake of comparison and, maybe, to inspire some individuals to take on a new endeavor.
The Distribution of Classes on a Traditional Normal Ladder
Even though the total 20+ population of the Classic Normal Ladder (8,022) is over half of the least popular class on the Expansion Normal server, they are fascinating to look at. On Classic, there are no Assassins or Druids, so the distribution will be skewed — yet even so, the distribution on Normal Classic is very one-sided:
The fact that Sorceresses (6,148) account for more than 3/4 of all players on Classic is likely due to one factor: the ability to teleport. The two popular Teleport equipment, Enigma and Naj’s Puzzler, are not available to classic players. You’ll almost certainly need to roll Sorceress if you wish to Teleport. Paladins have 14.2 percent (1142), Barbarians have 5.5 percent (442), Necromancers have 2.8 percent (225), and Amazons have 0.8 percent (65) – the last being such a tiny percentage that the name wouldn’t even display on the chart.
Class Distribution on Hardcore in its original form Ladder
With a mere 552 players on the Hardcore in its original form ladder who are over level 20+ (and some already dead), it’s definitely the place to go if you are certain of your hardcore skills and you want to be a big fish in a small pond.
Like what we saw on the Hardcore Expansion ladder, the Sorceress loses her total dominance due to her squishiness, even though a few intrepid players are willing to take on the challenge (195 characters for 35.3%). Barbarians (151, 27.4%) and Paladins (129, 23.4%) remain the top runners-up, trailed by Necromancers (49, 8.9%) and Amazons (28, 5.1%).
Conclusion
On Ladder, what was most popular is still popular. While different builds may now be preferred over others, the rulers are still the classes that operate best on the Ladder. More courageous minds may choose to take on new challenges and develop new buildings, but genuine competitors will stick to the tried and true favorites, and they will mostly succeed. Even in Hardcore, when the risks of running a relatively squishy class are balanced by the possible benefits, Sorceress remains the most common construct. Although I did not count them, the Sorceress hardcore ladders had considerably more grey names (dead characters) than the lists with harder builds.
While some of the latest Patch 2.4 improvements have boosted certain builds, they haven’t dethroned the Sorceress or Paladin as the best Magic Find classes in Diablo II, and hence the most popular classes for Ladder.
The “diablo 2 paladin leveling guide” is a guide that covers the class distribution in Diablo II: Resurrected. The guide includes information on what to expect from each class and how to level them up.
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