Which class has the highest DPS output in Diablo 4?

For games like Diablo 4, it's important to go with a class that has a high DPS output. For the uninitiated, DPS stands for damage per second. The high DPS rating is good for boss fights because the higher the rating, the quicker the fight will end. Given that this is a role-playing game (RPG), the DPS output of a character heavily depends on their build.

There are multiple builds available for each and every class in the game. However, not all builds are equally efficient, and even with a really good build, some classes end up dealing a lot more damage than others.

Note: This article reflects the opinions of the writer.

---

The Rogue has the potential to deal the highest amount of damage in Diablo 4

When it comes to making a DPS-specific build in Diablo 4, it's important to focus on Critical Strike and Critical Chance before focusing on the overall damage output. Critical Strikes usually deal a lot more damage than regular strikes, and Critical Chance refers to the chance that a regular hit gets counted as a Critical Strike.

It's absolutely important that the values for both these parameters are high in a DPS build. If you were to analyze the Rogue skill tree very meticulously, almost every skill in the tree either mentions increasing the chance of a Critical Strike or increasing the damage that the said strike causes.

Apart from this, the class also has a lot of debuffing abilities that force targets to take more damage than usual. Moreover, the class thrives on trap-based builds. The Poison Trap is a really deadly ability that deals a lot of area of effect (AoE) damage, especially when maxed out.

There's also an ultimate ability known as Death Trap. If used correctly, the Death Trap can be spammed consecutively.

In short, the entire skillset of the Rogue focuses on dealing damage rather than being defensive. Although there are a few damage mitigation skills available, choosing them does feel like a compromise at times. This is mainly because these skills don't absorb damage but only reduce the amount of damage that you take. So instead of opting for a skill like this, it's more prudent to have a skill that can dish out additional damage or imbue your attacks with a specific kind of elemental damage in Diablo 4.

It would be incorrect to say that the other classes cannot deal as much damage as the Rogue in Diablo 4. However, for these classes to do so, you will have to go out of your way to only focus on damage-dealing skills in your build.

The Rogue is naturally tuned to dish out a lot of punishment in the game, but the flipside is that it's easy to die if your positioning on the battlefield isn't optimal.