The Gauntlet just concluded its first week, and as a result, the Leaderboards have opened the Hall of the Ancients! These leaderboards have been a highly requested feature since the launch of Diablo 4, and the battle for the Top 10 spots in the first week was intense. In this blog post, we will examine the final rankings in Week 1 of the Gauntlet and Leaderboards, and discuss what they reveal about each class.
Editor's Note: Due to the nature of the leaderboards only recording the Top 10 in the Hall of the Ancients, we have taken a snapshot of the leaderboard scores at approximately 8:30pm EST on Monday, March 11. Although the data has since changed, we are using this snapshot to discuss and analyze the overall averages for the week in a transparent manner.
Additionally, many players have opted to make their profiles private on the leaderboards. As a result, we are currently exploring the best way to present this data accurately and faithfully. We welcome your feedback and suggestions in the comments below!
At the end of the first week, the initial variety in builds has diminished significantly. As expected, Charge Barbarians of various types dominate the Top 10 leaderboard. However, Ball Lightning Sorcerers have been completely replaced by Blizzard Sorcerers, who joined the fray later in the week. Sorcerers clearly dominated this first ranking week, achieving a total score of almost 1.5 million - an incredible feat. Rogues managed to surpass Necromancers by a small margin, but at the cost of sacrificing build diversity. Barrage Rogues dominate the rankings, leaving little room for other builds to shine. Druids maintained their middle-of-the-pack status, while Necromancers struggled to keep up but still secured a Top 10 spot with just over 1 million points.
It should be noted that Sorcerers are the exception here. While the other classes were fairly competitive in their top scores, Sorcerers possessed mobility that other classes lacked. They were able to leave damaging abilities behind them, allowing them to continue killing enemies while other classes had to engage in direct combat. It will be interesting to observe how the meta evolves in the future and whether Sorcerers will maintain their dominance.
As predicted earlier in the week, privacy settings on the leaderboards have presented a challenge. Although several Number 1 spots are now held by players with public profiles (in contrast to earlier in the week), only about 50% of profiles are public at best, and around 30% at worst. It remains to be seen what solutions Blizzard will introduce to address this issue in the future. For now, we can only work with the data that is visible to us.
The trend observed on Day 1 continued throughout the week. Sorcerers and Barbarians dominated both the Standard and Hardcore modes, but their positions were reversed in each. The Necromancer and Druid communities achieved almost equal scores in both modes, indicating excellent class balance between the two. Unfortunately, the Rogue class falls behind the others in terms of performance.
The significant discrepancy between Rogues and every other class is worth noting. While Barbarians and Sorcerers clearly stand out at the top of the curve, Rogues are the complete opposite, performing significantly lower. This suggests that there may be tuning issues with the Rogue class as a whole. As a hybrid class, Rogues suffer from the Jack-of-all-Trades syndrome. With an array of options, they lack the depth of specialization possessed by other classes, such as Barbarians, who excel at melee combat. Rogues have to adapt their skills for different scenarios, which can be challenging.
It is still too early to determine whether Blizzard will utilize these scores to address class tuning in the future. Similar tuning adjustments based on DPS rankings have been made in World of Warcraft, so there is a precedent. However, it remains uncertain how much influence the Leaderboards will have on future metas in upcoming Seasons.
While we cannot access every build in the Top 10 due to privacy settings, we have worked with the visible and available data from public profiles and overall scores. Unfortunately, the ability to inspect each player's build, a crucial feature of the Leaderboards, is currently limited. Oftentimes, the top-ranked player on a leaderboard has their settings set to Private, preventing access to their build information and leaving only their score visible.
In compiling our rankings, we have compared known builds to unknown ones. We have gathered data from builds and profiles that are not set to private, ensuring that the information is verifiable, and compared it to the number one score on each specific leaderboard. In order to analyze build data thoroughly, Blizzard would need to make changes to provide build visibility while still respecting player privacy, should players choose to keep their builds private.
The scores presented in the Standard and Hardcore charts reflect the average of the Top 100 players from each class leaderboard. The Hardcore leaderboards have complete data for each class, so no class has fewer data points in this dataset. The data sample for the two average charts was taken on Monday, March 11, at approximately 8:30pm EST, while the data for the build scores chart was collected from the Hall of the Ancients during the weekly reset.
We would love to hear your thoughts on the first full week of the Gauntlet and the launch of Leaderboards in Diablo 4. Share your opinions and feedback with us in the comments below!
