Diablo 4 Nightmare Dungeons Tier List: XP/hour (S2)

Nightmare Dungeons are, hands down, the most worthwhile activities in the game. Not only are they a challenging part of Diablo 4’s endgame, but they’re also the most rewarding in terms of pure XP and loot.

While standard Dungeons should be a part of your leveling process in order to get crucial Legendary Aspects, Nightmare (NM) Dungeons will be the cornerstone of your endgame grind to level 100.

Updated as of Season of Blood (S2). See Updates.

What are Nightmare Dungeons

Available on World Tier 3 difficulty and above, Nightmare Dungeons are more challenging variants of Diablo 4 dungeons that feature specific affixes (modifiers) and reward players with significantly more XP, loot, and materials to summon Endgame bosses.

Nightmare Dungeon Tier List: XP per hour as of Season 2

This NM Dungeon tier list ranks every Nightmare Dungeon on rotation this season based on XP per hour gains:

Dungeon	Class	-	Aspect	Tier	XP per hour	Clear time
Sirocco Caverns	Barbarian		‍Aspect of Echoing Fury	Best ❘ S	2.04	180
Flooded Depths	Necromancer		‍Aspect of Empowering Reaper	Best ❘ S	1.93	216
Light's Watch	Sorcerer		‍Aspect of Conflagration	Best ❘ S	1.85	216
Belfry Zakara	Druid		‍Aspect of the Ursine Horror	Best ❘ S	1.76	200
Jalal's Vigil	Rogue		Bladedancer's Aspect	Best ❘ S	1.75	238
Ghoa Ruins	Rogue		‍Enshrouding Aspect	Best ❘ S	1.75	171
Buried Halls	General		‍Rapid Aspect	Great ❘ A	1.59	352
Carrion Fields	Barbarian		‍Aspect of the Iron Warrior	Great ❘ A	1.59	289
Vault of The Forsaken	Necromancer		‍Requiem Aspect	Great ❘ A	1.52	265
Sanguine Chapel	Rogue		‍Energizing Aspect	Great ❘ A	1.50	243
Grinning Labirynth	Druid		‍Aspect of the Calm Breeze	Great ❘ A	1.41	312
Deserted Underpass	Necromancer		‍Torturous Aspect	Great ❘ A	1.38	216
Forbidden City	Druid		‍Nighthowler's Aspect	Average ❘ B	1.35	224
Steadfast Barracks	Druid		‍Vigorous Aspect	Average ❘ B	1.33	290
Broken Bulwark	General		‍Ghostwalker Aspect	Average ❘ B	1.31	240
Conclave	Druid		‍Aspect of the Changeling's Debt	Average ❘ B	1.30	332
Tormented Ruins	Druid		‍Aspect of the Unsatiated	Average ❘ B	1.30	175
Luban's Rest	Rogue		‍Cheat's Aspect	Average ❘ B	1.30	315
Oldstones	Barbarian		‍Edgemaster’s Aspect	Poor ❘ C	1.28	295
Bloodsoaked Crag	Druid		‍Shepherd's Aspect	Poor ❘ C	1.27	303
Fetid Mausoleum	Sorcerer		‍Snowguard's Aspect	Poor ❘ C	1.25	271
Crusader's Cathedral	Druid		‍Stormshifter's Aspect	Poor ❘ C	1.23	219
Inferno	Rogue		‍Vengeful Aspect	Poor ❘ C	1.20	253
Renegade's Retreat	Rogue		‍Aspect of Corruption	Poor ❘ C	1.19	267
Whispering Vault	Rogue		‍Aspect of Unstable Imbuements	Poor ❘ C	1.18	275
Sepulcher of The Forsworn	Necromancer		‍Hulking Aspect	Poor ❘ C	1.17	349
Leviathan's Maw	Rogue		‍Aspect of Siphoned Victuals	Worst ❘ D	1.09	294
Heathens Keep	Barbarian		‍Aspect of Numbing Wrath	Worst ❘ D	0.92	236
Endless Gates	Druid		‍Aspect of the Rampaging Werebeast	Worst ❘ D	0.88	314
Hallowed Ossuary	Barbarian		‍Aspect of Unrelenting Fury	Worst ❘ D	0.83	196

This XP per hour data comes from Raxxanterax, and exceptionally good Diablo 4 content creator you should definitely follow.

These are the different Tier levels used for our list:

• S Tier – Best: Best dungeons to farm. Prioritize when possible.
• A Tier – Great: Great dungeons to farm.
• B Tier – Average: Decent dungeons to farm.
• C Tier – Poor: Bad dungeons to farm. Avoid if possible.

Nightmare Dungeon Tier list, Diablo 4

How to access Nightmare Dungeons

To unlock Nightmare Dungeons, you must first:

• Complete the main campaign
• Clear the Cathedral of Light Capstone dungeon (set at level 50)
• Move to World Tier 3 (Nightmare) Difficulty
• Complete  and turn in Grim Favors to the Tree of Whispers

The Tree of Whisper will then reward you with a cache that will contain a Nightmare Sigil. At this stage, you can simply go to your inventory, open the “items” tab and activate the sigil. Since Patch 1.0.3, activating a sigil will open a portal that will take you straight to the Nightmare Dungeon.

Completing Nightmare Dungeons will reward you with more Sigils. After a while, you can go to the Occulist and craft more Sigils (and salvage the ones you do not want to run).

Best leveling method past level 50

Nightmare Dungeons launched in a lackluster state. Their rewards were subpar, and actually getting to them required unreasonable amounts of walking around. Patch 1.0.3, resolved both issues and turned Nightmare Dugneons into the most efficient and pleasant part of Diablo 4’s endgame:

• Significantly increased the experience awarded for completing Nightmare Dungeons.
• Significantly increased the experience gained from killing monsters in Nightmare Dungeons.
• Players can now teleport to their Nightmare Dungeon directly through the map.

Even better, with Season 2, Nightmare Dungeons got even better:

• Teleporting to a Nightmare Dungeon now takes the player inside the Dungeon, instead of teleporting to its entrance.
• Many Dungeons have received visual updates and layout improvements.

To maximize your time running Nightmare Dungeons and farm XP, we recommend the following:

• Salvage Sigils for the Nightmare dungeons you don’t want to run (C or D-tier dungeons).
• Use the generated powder to craft new Sigils.
• When running the Nightmare dungeon, focus on Elites, high-density groups of enemies, and the objectives (you don’t have to kill every monster unless that’s the actual objective).

What level Nightmare Dungeon Should You Do?

This is an extremely important question because finding the right balance between XP gains and difficulty to complete is crucial. The rule of thumb is that you should target the highest NM dungeon level you can clear with relative ease. The last thing you want is spend too much time clearing dungeons because they’re level is too hard. You’ll generate more XP clearing easier dungeons quickly than clearing difficult dungeons slowly. 

Methodology

The work that went into gathering the data behind this tier list is impressive. Raxxanterax spent hours clearing all dungeons and went to great lengths to ensure the data was as reliable as possible. I strongly suggest you visit his YouTube channel for more top-tier video guides. The table above includes two data sets:

• XP per hour
• Nightmare Dungeon clear times

Clear times can be useful if you’re particularly interested in upgrading your glyphs, but I strongly recommend focusing on the XP per hour instead and upgrading your glyphs passively.