My secret for success in Diablo 4 (opens in new tab) is simple: Barbarian, Bash, Upheaval, rinse and repeat until there's nothing but blood and gristle as far as the eye can see. Trust me, it works. Some people prefer a more complicated approach to min-maxing their action-RPG stand-ins, though, and for them, this Diablo 4 build planner will be extremely helpful.
The Diablo 4 Character Skill Tree Planner/Calculator (opens in new tab), as it's formally known, enables you to experiment with character builds even while Diablo 4 itself is currently unavailable. It offers a dropdown box where you can select your class—Barbarian, Druid, Necromancer, Rogue, or Sorcerer—and a duplicate of Diablo 4's twiggy zig-zag skill tree. Use the mouse wheel to zoom the skill tree in and out, and click and drag to move it around; skill points are added by left-clicking on the appropriate box, and can be removed by right-clicking.
Just like the game, you have to unlock more advanced branches in the skill tree by spending skill points—so, for instance, you can't put any points into your "Core" skills until you've spent at least two on "Basic" skills. An indicator bar on each branch will show you how close you are to accessing the individual skill groups.
If you hate the character you've created and want to start over from scratch, a "reset" button at the top of the build planner will instantly set you back to square one. If, on the other hand, you really dig it and want to share what you've cooked up with your friends, there's a "share" button, although all it really does is copy the URL, which changes as points are added or removed.
Here, for instance, is roughly what my barbarian looked like after hitting the level cap in the beta:
https://d4planner.io/skilltree/Barbarian/A1:3;B2:5;B4:1;E2:1;E7:1;I2:3;N1:3;P2:3;S7:3;U1:5;V2:1
It's very cool, no? (The build planner, that is, not my barbarian—although he was a real ass-kicker too.) Unfortunately, the build planner does not include the Paragon Board (opens in new tab), the endgame system that opens up after players hit level 50. The creator of the planner said on Reddit (opens in new tab), where he goes by lowpoly_nomad, that they left it out because they didn't have access to the endgame beta (opens in new tab) that ran in 2022 and so doesn't know how it works, but they plan to add it (and other features, like weapon expertise) in the future.
Speaking of Diablo 4 classes, here's our thoughts on all of them (opens in new tab), based on our time spent in the demo. I can't say I agree with Robin's assessment of the barbarian, but Blizzard apparently does (opens in new tab) and I guess that's what matters. Diablo 4 is set to launch on June 6.
