The August 20, 2024 Snapshot Had No Barbarian in S Tier
Wowhead’s Patch 1.5.1 update showed seven endgame builds in its featured S-tier group. Druid, Rogue and Sorcerer each had two entries; Necromancer had one. The assessment belonged to Season of the Infernal Hordes in August 2024.
Jezartroz’s original announcement reported that no Barbarian build remained in S tier. This was a statement about that publisher’s build evaluation, rather than a measured leaderboard result or a blanket grade for every Barbarian character.
All Seven Featured Builds
The original image contains these names. Each remains a separate option, including the two versions of Barrage:
- Landslide Druid
- Stormslide Druid
- Bone Spirit Necromancer
- Andariel Barrage Rogue
- Barrage Rogue
- Fire Bolt Sorcerer
- Lightning Spear Sorcerer
The image marks Stormslide with a green plus, but does not show a prior tier or numerical damage change. It also does not supply every lower-tier build. These seven entries preserve the shown group without assigning unshown grades to entire classes.
What Patch 1.5.1 Actually Changed in Infernal Hordes
Blizzard released Patch 1.5.1, Build 56948, on August 20, 2024. Its Hordes changes increased rewards from four named offerings:
| Infernal Offering | Previous reward | Updated reward |
|---|---|---|
| The Exalted Elite | +1 Burning Aether | +2 Burning Aether |
| The Surging Elite | +1 Burning Aether | +2 Burning Aether |
| The Unstoppable Elite | +1 Burning Aether | +2 Burning Aether |
| The Burning Rain | 1–3 Aether at wave end | 3–9 Aether at wave end |
These were offering-reward changes. They did not establish a universal percentage increase in Aether per run: the result still depended on the offerings selected and events encountered. The patch also made the Spoils of Gold chest reusable and made Aether pickup sounds more prominent.
For comparing historical Hordes results, preserve the offering choices alongside the build and patch. More Aether after this update could reflect changed rewards or event behavior, rather than a faster damage setup alone.
Fixes That Changed the Conditions of a Run
- Hellfire offering: Hellborne had not been spawning as frequently as intended; the patch corrected that behavior.
- Withered Wanderer: its resistance reduction had not actually reduced All Resistances. That penalty began functioning after the fix.
- Unkillable Treasure Goblins: these could block wave progression, so a stalled run was not necessarily a damage problem.
- The Umbracrux: weapon swapping could create multiple Shade Totems. The fix removed that unintended behavior.
Those changes make old clips useful only with context. In particular, a setup relying on an unintended extra totem should not be treated as a reproducible Patch 1.5.1 configuration.
Two Different Questions: Build Choice and Item Access
The seven-name snapshot helps identify which builds the publisher favored at that moment. It does not establish that a character already has the equipment for one of them, or that the same choice wins in every activity.
For the companion item question, the historical Season 5 Unique-item snapshot preserves the earlier August 7 selection. The Season 5 target-farming reference explains the original Rogue boss sheet and class-specific reward examples. Keep their dates attached when comparing them with this August 20 update.
Later expansions changed both builds and game systems. This article preserves the original 1.5.1 assessment and released patch behavior; use it for that historical comparison rather than as a current-season tier list.
