Diablo 4
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Barbarian Class Overview
Last Updated: February 14th 2024
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The Barbarian is a staple class in the Diablo franchise and returns for glory in Diablo 4. They use overwhelming strength and a mastery of weapons to turn battlefields into wastelands. This overview covers their Strengths & Weaknesses, Skills, Passives, Legendaries and much more. Let's jump in and learn about the true god of weapons!
Class Identity
The Barbarian has unparalleled strength and expertly wields multiple weapons during battle. He bellows intimidating war cries and unleashes ground-shaking slams to send approaching hordes reeling. Barbarians are fun to play with fast-paced action and many customization options. Their skills are fueled by Fury, a resource that generates while in battle and depletes slowly outside of it. All Barbarian skills deal Physical damage by default.
Strengths
- Tremendous Damage. Barbarian Core Skills are devastating, especially when supported by their additional skills and buffs.
- Berserking. The Barbarian is the only class in Diablo 4 with the amazing Berserking buff, which gives them 25% increased damage and 15% Movement Speed.
- Quick Movement. The Barbarian has multiple movement skills and various ways to boost their base Movement Speed both actively and passively.
- Can DPS at Range or while Moving. With skills like Upheaval, Whirlwind, and Call of the Ancients, the Barbarian has many DPS options for different scenarios.
- Very Tanky. Challenging Shout and many bonuses like Fortify make Barbarians very hard to bring down.
Weaknesses
- Fury Dependent. Fury depletes over time while out of combat and the powerful Core Skills consume it quickly.
- Long Cooldowns. All your Shouts and Ultimate Skills have long cooldowns. While there are ways to reduce these, they still significantly stall your damage potential in longer fights.
- Close Combat. Most Barbarian builds are melee based and some Elite and Boss abilities can be hard to dodge while close by.
- All Alone. Other than Call of the Ancients, Barbarians can't summon pets to DPS or tank for them.
- Slow Early Game. A fully powered-up Barbarian is one of the scariest opponents you'll ever face, but in the early game they're slow mostly due to poor resource generation.
Equipment
The Barbarian has the unique ability to equip FOUR WEAPONS at the same time:
- 2x Two-Handed Weapons (Bludgeoning Maces and Slashing Swords/Polearms/Axes), and
- Dual Wielded One-Handed Weapons (Bludgeoning Maces and Slashing Swords/Axes)
They can swap between them depending on the ability used, and the Barbarian's Arsenal System lets you choose which Weapon applies to each ability.
The rolled affixes of each Weapon always apply to your damage, however the raw Damage per Second (DPS) of a skill is determined only by the attacking Weapon in the Arsenal System. In other words: your main weapon does your damage, and the others are "stat sticks".
There is one final advantage to holding this many items: more Legendary Powers! These extra powers are very useful and gives the Barbarian a notable advantage.
Barbarian Item Slots:
Armor
Helm
Chest Armor
Gloves
Pants
Boots
Jewelry
Amulet
Ring (x2)
Weapons
Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon
Two-Handed Slashing Weapon
One-Handed Weapons (x2)
Check out our Legendary Aspects and Codex of Power Overview or our Uniques Overview to learn more about which items the Barbarian has access to.
Skills & Passives
Skill points are unlocked by level-ups and the Renown system. As you spend more points, you unlock multiple categories of skills. Each active skill can be leveled up 5 times (and further with items), increasing their power (usually +10% of the base value) or reducing their cooldown by 5% with each additional rank. After unlocking a skill, you can enhance it with another point and then choose one out of two upgrades to specialize it even further.
In addition, there are passives found all over the tree, attached as optional choices to certain skill clusters. They grant small bonuses to damage, defense or utility under certain conditions and help to round out your build by shifting it further in the direction you want to take. All passives have 3 ranks and usually scale linearly.
Check out our Skill Tree Overview to learn more details.
Basic Skills
Basic skills are weak and are used to generate Fury. and apply debuffs like Vulnerable. When you run out of resources, they are useful to finish off small enemies or to add extra damage against an Elite or Boss while you prepare one of your stronger Fury-spending attacks.
Flay
Enhanced Flay
Battle Flay
Combat Flay
Notes:
Flay has a relatively high potential damage per hit compared to other basic skills. However, like all Bleed skills, that potential is only realized if the DoT ticks for its entire duration. This ability also gives a respectable Damage Reduction bonus, or increases total Bleed damage. Because of that, it's best when facing a boss with a Bleed build.
Lunging Strike
Enhanced Lunging Strike
Combat Lunging Strike
Battle Lunging Strike
Notes:
Lunging Strike gives great mobility, has a large damage bonus against healthy enemies, heals you, and either triggers Berserking or adds a large bleed. On top of that, this skill can deal more damage out of all the basic skills. It's easy to see why this is the most popular basic skill for Barbarians.
Frenzy
Enhanced Frenzy
Battle Frenzy
Combat Frenzy
Notes:
Frenzy is typically taken for its high Damage Reduction. It is the only basic skill with a dedicated Unique item, which makes it quite popular in the endgame for players fortunate enough to find Battle Trance.
Bash
Enhanced Bash
Battle Bash
Combat Bash
Notes:
Bash is the most under-appreciated basic skill. It should scale well in the endgame: with enough attack speed, it can stunlock opponents. It quickly generates Fortify, which can be a life-saver. Finally, it can guarantee an Overpower, which could give Barbarians the crazy damage numbers they need to annihilate endgame bosses.
Core Skills
These skills are primary damage dealers of most Barbarian builds. They spend lots of Fury but deal much higher damage and hit more targets than Basic Skills. In addition, Core Skills can be amplified by multiple Legendary effects.
Rend
Enhanced Rend
Violent Rend
Furious Rend
Notes:
- Rend is best known for its fantastic power in player-versus-player combat. It has the highest damage per hit of all core skills, but you must be patient for it to pay off. It is also very Fury-efficient, which makes it a popular choice for leveling.
Hammer of the Ancients
Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients
Violent Hammer of the Ancients
Furious Hammer of the Ancients
Notes:
- Hammer of the Ancients is one of the most popular core skills in the game, and with good reason. With Ancestral Force, it has a huge AOE. It is expensive, but it regenerates Fury quickly when Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients is stacked up. Furious Hammer of the Ancients makes it scale better into endgame than any other Core skill.
Upheaval
Enhanced Upheaval
Violent Upheaval
Furious Upheaval
Notes:
- Upheaval is great in the early-game because it has a huge AOE, it deals enough damage to kill trash in a single hit, and it can give Berserking. However, it is awkward to use optimally, it has poor efficiency and low single-target damage, and is incredibly slow to cast. Still, it can be fun, if you can get past feeling like you're sweeping the floor.
Whirlwind
Enhanced Whirlwind
Furious Whirlwind
Violent Whirlwind
Notes:
- Whirlwind is an old fan-favorite with a long history of being either incredibly overpowered, or virtually useless. Some Barbarians love the unique playstyle and freedom it gives. Even when it is not the meta, it seems to sneak its way into builds. It is extremely Fury-efficient, but has poor single-target damage. One thing is for sure - we never know what to expect with this unique core skill.
Double Swing
Enhanced Double Swing
Furious Double Swing
Violent Double Swing
Notes:
- Double Swing is another skill with a large diehard fanbase. It has some of the best Fury-efficiency and single-target DPS out of all the core skills. Its ability to make targets Vulnerable or maintain Berserking is priceless. However, it has a very small AOE.
Endless Fury
Pressure Point
Defensive Skills
These skills significantly boost your defensive capabilities. Many of them also allow you to control enemies and increase your Thorns damage.
Rallying Cry
Enhanced Rallying Cry
Strategic Rallying Cry
Tactical Rallying Cry
Notes:
- Rallying Cry gives movement speed, Fury generation, and grants Unstoppable. Because it is a Shout, you can use it without interrupting attacks or movement. Most people take this as soon as possible, and never remove it from their hotbar.
Iron Skin
Enhanced Iron Skin
Tactical Iron Skin
Strategic Iron Skin
Notes:
- Iron Skin is attractive, especially with Iron Warrior. However, it seems like the Barrier it gives is so squishy, it only stays up for a fraction of a second. Could it be that we take increased damage while a Barrier is up? Testing indicates that, yes, we do. Sadly, this skill is not worth the space on the bar.
Challenging Shout
Enhanced Challenging Shout
Strategic Challenging Shout
Tactical Challenging Shout
Notes:
- Challenging Shout is great in the endgame when you need the extra Life and Damage Reduction to stand toe-to-toe with hell's most brutal demons.
Ground Stomp
Enhanced Ground Stomp
Tactical Ground Stomp
Strategic Ground Stomp
Notes:
- Ground Stomp has great synergy with Double Swing, helps you stay alive, and makes a big difference in generating Fury or getting your Ultimate Skill off of cooldown.
Imposing Presence
Martial Vigor
Outburst
Tough as Nails
Brawling Skills
This cluster of skills adds various utility choices to your setup. Generally you want to choose one of these depending on your build and play style to assist you either offensively, defensively, or both.
War Cry
Enhanced War Cry
Power War Cry
Mighty War Cry
Notes:
- War Cry is not as critical as Rallying Cry or Challenging Shout, but it's a great skill nonetheless. The most valuable aspect of this skill is that it grants Berserking for a whopping 4 seconds. The damage bonus is good as well, but the cooldown is very long.
Kick
Enhanced Kick
Mighty Kick
Power Kick
Notes:
- Kick is useful for applying Vulnerable. The most notable thing about it, however, is the ability to dump all of your Fury with a single move. This is actually a huge benefit to some off-meta builds that don't have a Fury-hungry core skill.
Leap
Enhanced Leap
Mighty Leap
Power Leap
Notes:
- Leap is another old fan-favorite skill that is immensely fun. It's great to have while leveling, since its mobility makes up for your lack of movement speed. Leap-quake builds are fun and interesting, but it's very difficult to find the necessary gear to make them work. Leap has a few problems, however: it's difficult to aim on console, and it pushes enemies away from you.
Charge
Enhanced Charge
Power Charge
Mighty Charge
Notes:
- Charge is a great mobility skill, like Leap. It's useful that it also grants Unstoppable and Vulnerable. It's tempting to try to make a Charge build work, but unfortunately it feels a bit difficult to aim, and it leaves you vulnerable during its long animation, and you're not always in control of where you'll end up.
Booming Voice
Raid Leader
Guttural Yell
Aggressive Resistance
Battle Fervor
Prolific Fury
Weapon Mastery Skills
These skills allow you to master your Weapons, dealing significant damage with cooldown based attacks.
Rupture
Enhanced Rupture
Fighter's Rupture
Warrior's Rupture
Notes:
- Rupture is not what you'd expect. Basically, it seems like a good idea to take the enemy's remaining bleed and deal it all to them at once ... but that's damage that they were going to take anyway, making Rupture almost a waste of time. The Enhanced Rupture bleeding explosion scales very well in endgame, and some players actually open combat with this for the attack speed bonus.
Death Blow
Enhanced Death Blow
Warrior's Death Blow
Fighter's Death Blow
Notes:
- Death Blow has potential to do the highest damage in the game against bosses with Encroaching Wrath and Earthstriker on Two-Handed weapons. It is incredibly fun, but a very big risk. If you don't kill an enemy with it, the long cooldown is soul-crushing.
Steel Grasp
Enhanced Steel Grasp
Warrior's Steel Grasp
Fighter's Steel Grasp
Notes:
- Steel Grasp is very useful. It's nice that it grants Berserking and Vulnerable, but the real value is how it stacks up enemies, which really helps accelerate clear times, especially with ranged enemies that always seem to be too spread out.
Pit Fighter
No Mercy
Slaying Strike
Expose Vulnerability
Hamstring
Cut to the Bone
Thick Skin
Counteroffensive
Defensive Stance
Ultimate Skills
Ultimates are high-impact abilities with a long cooldown and need to be built around to be effective, so not every build runs with one of them. Only one can be chosen and only have a single rank with a two-step linear upgrade path that offers no extra choices.
Wrath of the Berserker
Prime Wrath of the Berserker
Supreme Wrath of the Berserker
Notes:
- Wrath of the Berserker is the most popular Ultimate in the endgame. It gives Fury Generation, Movement Speed, grants Unstoppable, and can double the damage bonus of Berserking. It buffs the base 25% into 50%, and as long as you keep that Berserking buff rolling, the buffed value never fades.
Call of the Ancients
Prime Call of the Ancients
Supreme Call of the Ancients
Notes:
- Call of the Ancients is very fun early-game because it generates Fury. It doesn't scale well into endgame, unfortunately.
Iron Maelstrom
Prime Iron Maelstrom
Supreme Iron Maelstrom
Notes:
- Iron Maelstrom does huge damage, but its long animation feels bad. The skill seems to be more concerned with looking flashy than getting the job done. Half the time, you're stuck spinning around posing after everything is already dead.
Duelist
Tempered Fury
Invigorating Fury
Furious Impulse
Heavy Handed
Brute Force
Wallop
Concussion
Key Passives
These passives are located at the very bottom of the Skill Tree and couldn't be reached in the preview version. They are extremely powerful and define the overall playstyle of your build. Similar to Ultimate Skills, only one of them can be chosen!
Unconstrained
This passive improves the damage bonus of Berserking, as well as its maximum duration. By default, when you gain or extend the duration of Berserking, it cannot exceed 5 seconds. Unconstrained increases this duration cap to 10 seconds. In addition, this key passive improves the multiplicative damage bonus granted by Berserking from 25%[x] to 100%[x]. Note that with Supreme Wrath of the Berserker and Unconstrained, your 100%[x] Berserking damage bonus doubles to 200%[x]. And yes, you can keep that bonus up indefinitely.
Walking Arsenal
This key passive is significantly more difficult to make good use of compared to Unconstrained. You will need to design a build around the expectation that you'll use 3 different weapons, each at least once every 10 seconds. The damage bonus is significant, and the attack speed bonus feels great too. However, having 3 offensive abilities means you're pulling in multiple directions at once, and it's difficult to optimize a build around those competing interests.
Unbridled Rage
This skill feels like cheating once you can actually afford it. At first, spending extra Fury to deal extra damage is a fair trade - but in the endgame, it's a win-win! Barbarians are rewarded in numerous ways for spending Fury quickly, and there's plenty to go around when you prioritize Resource Generation on your gear. This is considered by many to be the best key passive for any endgame build that relies on core skills for their damage - even Bleed builds.
Gushing Wounds
Out of all of the Key Passive skills available to Barbarians, this one is the most challenging to make good use of. Other key passives will yield better damage bonuses unless you have a build designed around maximizing your Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Damage bonuses, including perfectly rolled gear and The Grandfather - one of the rarest weapons in the game. For those who enjoy Bleed builds and are ready to commit to making this work, there's no greater achievement than making Gushing Wounds viable.
Unique Class Mechanic - The Arsenal System
The Arsenal System allows Barbarians to wield 4 weapons and assign different weapons to each of their attacks. Each weapon gives a different Expertise bonus to the Barbarian's attacks. In addition, the Technique Slot is unlocked via a quest chain at level 15. In addition to getting the Weapon Expertise bonus for the weapon they are currently using, Barbarians also get the benefit of the Weapon Expertise they have assigned to their Technique Slot regardless of what weapon they are using. Note that the Technique slot only gives the first part of Expertise, not the bonus. The Weapon Expertise and the Weapon Technique stack, so it's okay (and sometimes optimal) to assign a weapon currently in use to the Technique slot.
Check out our Barbarian Arsenal System post for more details on this system.
Attributes
The four core attributes provide the following to the Barbarian:
- Strength: Skill Damage (10% per 100), Armor (1 each)
- Intelligence: All Resistances (5% per 100)
- Willpower: Resource Generation (3% per 100), Healing Received (10% per 100), Overpower Damage (25% per 100)
- Dexterity: Critical Strike Chance (2% per 100), Dodge Chance (2.5% per 100)
Strength is considered the main attribute as it multiplies all of your skill damage. Dexterity and Willpower are also useful for their offensive and defensive bonuses, while Intelligence improves magical resistances. Some items can roll bonuses to attributes and later on Paragon boards allow stacking the right stats for your character. In addition, you may find hidden Altars of Lilith in the open world that unlock a permanent bonus for all of your characters.
Check out our Stat Overview to learn more.
Video Guide
Barbarian Summary
- Barbarians are powerful, mobile and tanky, but they fight alone, have to be in close quarters, and struggle with resource generation early on.
- They deal Physical damage with melee attacks.
- Fury is their primary resource. It degenerates slowly and has to be generated in battle to unleash powerful attacks.
- With Four Weapons equipped at the same time, they have advantages from Weapon swaps, extra stats and additional Legendary Powers.
- Core Skills deal massive damage at the cost of significant Fury.
- Barbarians bring incredible utility from their shouts, making them a strong choice for group play.
- The Arsenal System allows Barbarians to use a variety of weapons for every attack, Weapon Expertise gives each weapon a unique bonus, and the Technique slot gives one additional Weapon Expertise at all times.
Credits
Written by Slothmaster
Contributions by Raxxanterax, Rob
Reviewed by Aristotelian, Echohack
