The best, the best, the best, the best Barbarian
Though Diablo 4 features only five character classes, players can build each into specialized fighters that match their perfect playstyle. The Barbarian is a great example of this.
Players who pick Barbarian will have access to a two-handed bludgeoning weapon, a two-handed slashing weapon, and two one-handed weapon slots at all times. How you use this arsenal is up to you. Perhaps you’d like to use that two-handed sword to inflict bleeding on enemies. Maybe you’ll use those one-handed weapons for fast attacks that could put rogues to shame. Or, for those who like classic Diablo playstyles, you’ll pick up a weapon and spin it around like Barbarians always have.
Barbarian features a variety of build options, but to make them work, you’ll need to dive deep into the class’ skill tree. Here’s the rundown.
UPDATE 07/21/2023: This guide now reflects the state of the game as of the launch of seasonal content in Diablo 4.
What kind of builds does Barbarian have in Diablo 4?
As mentioned above, Barbarian features a ton of different weapons to choose from. However, you don’t necessarily need to worry about specializing in one weapon. Barbarians can seamlessly switch between weapons depending on what the skill calls for, so don’t limit your build based on this. You might want to match the weapon of your Basic and Core skill moves (IE your first two moves), but that’s it.
Instead, Barbarians should focus on their unique buffs and passive effects scattered all throughout their skill tree. By using the “Keyword Search” option in the top-right side of the screen, players can hone in on certain traits to maximize. As of writing, popular builds specialize in one or more of the following categories below.
Berserk: The most Barbarian of Barbarian’s build options. While Berserking, Barbarians gain bonus damage and movement speed. You’ll want to focus on both activating and maintaining the Berserk buff for as long as possible.
Bleed: Barbarians can stack bleed damage with their other innate mechanics to build towards their Key Passive Gushing Wounds. This carries its own variety of build options, as focusing on critical hits, Overpowering, or even defensive options work here.
Whirlwind: Barbarians can learn their Whirlwind core skill early on, letting them swing their weapon around for as long as their Fury Gauge can handle it. This leads to a sturdy playstyle ideal for grabbing aggro and ripping through huge crowds of enemies.
All weapons: The Walking Arsenal Key Passive and Iron Maelstrom Ultimate skill both reward using all your weapons in one build, letting players mix and match any skills they prefer.
Note that this is not an exhaustive list of Barbarian build options. This just covers the basics for understanding how the class works.
What Barbarian build is best for Season 1 of Diablo 4?
Due to the ever-changing nature of the game, picking a single “best” build for Barbarian is tricky. However, if you just want a simple, yet effective build, a Whirlwind build is your best option.
Whirlwind builds are phenomenal for two reasons. First, they’re easy to play. Whirlwind just works as a skill, requiring little setup to be effective. It lets you effortlessly plow through enemies and take out huge groups, which you’ll be doing a lot of as you level in Diablo 4. Second, it synergies very well with Barbarian’s Shout skills, which can grant massive self-healing. Thanks to the Raid Leader passive skill, your Shouts will both buff you and your party and deliver serious healing in the process. Even if you play solo, you can’t beat this level of healing. That’s how good it is.
Additionally, Barbarian can invest a few points into Bleed-related skills to help them deal single-target damage. While it’s not the most engaging playstyle available in the game, it does guarantee you’ll make steady progress during your season journey.
How to easily make a Barbarian Whirlwind Build
Depending on your equipment and your Aspects, Whirlwind builds can go in a few different directions. However, if you’re just starting out, I recommend investing in the skills below:
- Lunging Strike (1) > Enhanced Lunging Strike > Battle Lunging Strike
- Whirlwind (5) > Enhanced Whirlwind > Furious Whirlwind (Note that this will require you to use a slashing weapon)
- Pressure Point (3) (Invest in this after you get Cut to the Bone)
- Rallying Cry (1) > Enhanced Rallying Cry > Tactical Rallying Cry
- Challenging Shout (1) > Enhanced Challenging Shout > Tactical Challenging Shout (Note on this below)
- War Cry (1) > Enhanced War Cry > Power War Cry
- Booming Voice (3) > Raid Leader (3) (These lengthen the duration of shouts and make them heal you, this is where the build comes together!)
- Aggressive Resistance (1) > Prolific Fury (3) (Great passives to keep your Whirlwind going)
- Swiftness (Middle priority, invest to taste)
- Hamstring (1) > Cut to the Bone (3) (Fantastically good, make sure to combine with Pressure Point)
- Pit Fighter (3) > No Mercy (3)
- Wrath of the Berserker > Prime Wrath of the Berserker > Supreme Wrath of the Berserker
- Tempered Fury (1) > Invigorating Futy (3) (Very good self-sustain)
- Unconstrained
Of these skills, Challenging Shout is an interesting case. Despite being one of your Shouts, you may feel free to invest in this skill last. It doesn’t increase your DPS and mainly affects your self-healing and fury generation, which you can generally cover better from other skills on this list. While I was leveling and acquiring Renown for skill points, I found it was worthwhile to temporarily use cooldown skills granted by my equipment in that slot instead. For example, I had a set of armor that gave me Leap, so I incorporated that into my gameplay until I replaced it.
This isn’t necessarily an end-all-be-all Barbarian build. However, it will work and provide solid synergy regardless of your equipment. As you dive deeper and find legendary equipment, feel free to adjust these skills accordingly. For example, if you really rack up the Fury regeneration, you can swap Unconstrained with Unbridled Rage. You have several ways to customize this build to your taste, so absolutely work with it to make it your own.
In the meantime, lean heavy on that Whirlwind skill to tear through enemies. You’ll get healing from your Shouts and from spending Fury, so you shouldn’t have serious healing issues. Make sure to space your cooldowns so you can keep Berserk going for as long as possible, and depending on your equipment, Lunging Strike can easily become your main source of single-target damage.
Just for fun, here’s a sample Double Swing build in Diablo 4
This was my original build I used to level and progress during both my time reviewing Diablo 4 and the early-game at launch. I still really like this playstyle, and it has great single-target damage, but Whirlwind builds ultimately play easier and come with much better self-sustain. I still find the build below works quite well when you start leveling, but the minute you start needing more healing than you have in potions, swap to a spin-to-win build.
I’ll keep it here for posterity’s sake, in case balance changes arrive that make Double Swing builds more viable.
Basic Skill: To start, we’re going with Frenzy. This will give you strong, fast attacks to lean on while you work on developing the rest of your kit. You absolutely want Enhanced Frenzy afterwards, and invest into Combat Frenzy to start. We don’t want to lean into Berserk just yet, but later we’ll respec this last perk into Battle Frenzy.
Core Skill: Here’s our Double Swing. What makes this skill so fun is twofold.
First, Enhanced Double Swing restores its own Fury cost when attacking stunned enemies. This lets it absolutely decimate single targets as long as you lean into this playstyle. Second, Furious Double Swing will let us keep up Berserk once we reach roughly level 25. Having said that, spec into Violent Double Swing until we’re ready to go all in on Berserk.
I highly recommend strengthening this skill if you don’t know what else to invest in. The extra damage really adds up.
Defensive Skill: Ground Stomp is our only logical option here. Stunning all surrounding enemies so we can unleash infinite Double Swing for as long as the ailment lasts? Yes please!
Furthermore, Enhanced Ground Stomp is a no brainer. Tactical Ground Stomp will also give you enough Fury to immediately start to Double Swing after use. You could also opt to respec into Strategic Ground Stomp once we earn our Ultimate Skill.
At this point, we’ll start seeing interesting passive skills we’ll want in the future. I’d recommend investing in the Imposing Presence passive once you’ve maxed out your offense options.
Brawling: Here’s where this build starts to pick up. We want both Kick and Leap.
Grab the Enhanced Kick and Mighty Kick perks, and Leap should get Enhanced Leap and Power Leap. We’re double dipping here because we’ll want to work toward maxing out the Battle Fervor passive. This will let us initiate Berserk with both these skills, meaning we can finally start to see this build’s potential.
Once Battle Fervor has three points invested in it, feel free to respec Frenzy and Double Swing to include their Berserk-oriented perks.
Weapon Mastery: We’re straight-up just skipping this. Keep investing in those Brawling skill or Double Swing.
That’s not to say the skills here are bad. In fact, they’re remarkably useful! They just don’t fit our current build.
Ultimate: Because of our Brawling investment, we can ignore Wrath of the Berserker and get Call of the Ancients instead. This is an enormously powerful skill that can easily act as a screen-clear while you’re leveling. Get all its applicable perks and consider respeccing Ground Stomp to use Strategic Ground Stomp.
We also have great passive abilities around this node. Duelist works fantastically for Double Swing spamming. Invigorating Fury also gives us some sustain with how much Fury we’ll blow through.
Key Passive: For this build, we’re going with Unconstrained. This will let us maintain virtually perpetual Berserk, even through complex boss mechanics. In other words, you’ll almost always have a 50% power increase!
How to use the Double Swing Barbarian build
Once you have your core pieces together, initiate combat with Kick or Leap to get your Berserk started. To really mess up an enemy, use Kick > Leap > Kick to pin them against a wall, inflicting stun while you earn a huge stack of Berserk and prepare to spam Double Swing. Remember that Double Swing will extend Berserk duration, but it won’t activate it. You can tell if Berserk is active if your movement speed is increased.
That said, make sure to maintain three stacks of Frenzy to make your Double Swing spam even deadlier. While an enemy is stunned, using a basic attack every three Double Swings will easily maintain the buff. As your attack speed increases, you can space this out to every four or even five Double Swings.
Try to use Call of the Ancients before Ground Stomp (if you’re using Strategic Ground Stomp) so you can soak up that reduced cooldown time whenever possible. Otherwise, that’s all there really is to this build. If you’re having trouble with control impairing effects, consider swapping Leap for Charge. Otherwise, just lean into your skills, try to pin enemies against walls, and use Double Swing to tear into anyone that is stunned or knocked down. Bosses have a stun gauge that you can fill, so make sure to time their stun windows for when you’re ready to inflict serious damage on them.
We’re still incredibly early in Diablo 4, so the state of the meta will inevitably change in the coming days. Stay tuned as we test more builds and see what becomes prominent at the highest level of content!
