Barbarian of the Diablo 4 is one of the recurring characters in the series and also has builds that favor an aggressive playstyle. In this article, we will take a look at two builds that take advantage of Barbarian’s ferocity and skills.
Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian Build
Many people agree that if anyone does not want to go through the complexities of building the famed Whirlwind Barbarian build in Diablo 4, Hammer of the Ancients Build is the perfect one for that.
This Barbarian build in Diablo 4 relies on quick Fury generation, which then gets spent on the necessary skill, specifically Hammer of the Ancients. This build also aims to provide a huge life pool and more access to Fortify. As such, many people highly talk about this particular build.
Basic Skill
- Skill to Unlock: Bash
- Level: 1
- Supporting Skill: Enhanced and Battle Bash
The first skill we will unlock to start this Barbarian build in Diablo 4 is called Bash. As the name suggests, the Barbarian will bash the enemy with their weapon, dealing damage.
As an added measure, we shall pick Enhanced Bash and Battle Bash. Enhanced Bash will provide us fortify, which doubles when using a two-handed weapon. Similarly, Battle Bash generates fury, used for special skills mentioned later in this build.
Core Skill
- Skill to Unlock: Hammer of the Ancients
- Level: 5
- Supporting Skill: Enhanced and Furious Hammer of the Ancients
The next skill to pick is the one that gives the name to this Diablo 4 Barbarian build – Hammer of the Ancients. This skill makes Barbarians perform an AOE attack by slamming their hammer on the ground.
We will grab the Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients and Furious Hammer of the Ancients to improve the skill. Both of these skills respectively improve fury generation and increase damage dealt.
Defensive Skill
- Skill to Unlock: Ground Stomp and Rallying Cry
- Level: 1
- Supporting Skill: Enhanced and Tactical Ground Stomp, Enhanced and Tactical Rallying Cry
On to some defense, we will pick two skills to make this Diablo 4 build for Barbarian better. The first is Ground Stomp, which helps stun groups of enemies around the place. This is great when you want to stop a hoard of enemies. As an added measure, we will pick Enhanced Ground Stomp and Tactical Ground Stomp. Enhanced Ground Stomp increases the effect’s duration, while Tactical Ground Stomp generates more fury per usage.
The second skill we will pick is Rallying Cry. This increases the movement speed and resource generation when used. Furthermore, nearby allies also benefit from the effects of this skill. To improve it, grab Enhanced Rallying Cry and Tactical Rallying Cry. These two skills ensure that the skill generates more fury and makes Barbarians unstoppable when active.
Brawling Skill
- Skill to Unlock: Leap
- Level: 1
- Supporting Skill: Enhanced and Power Leap
The next skill we will unlock is Leap. This skill makes Barbarian leap forward and slam down, performing another AOE attack and knocking back enemies. To make it better, grab Enhanced Leap and Power Leap. Enhanced Leap reduces the cooldown if enemies are not hit by the skill, and Power Leap helps in fury generation upon hit.
Ultimate Skill
- Skill to Unlock: Call of the Ancients
- Level: 1
- Supporting Skill: Prime and Supreme Call of the Ancients
To round off this Barbarian build in Diablo 4, we will pick an ultimate. Call of the Ancients is the one we will go with. This Ultimate calls in three ancients to help Barbarian during battles. Each of the three ancients deals a varying degree of damage. However, all three combined do a total of 200%+ damage.
On top of the ultimate, we will pick the Prime Call of the Ancients and the Supreme Call of the Ancients. Prime Call of the Ancients provides +10% attack speed and increased damage. Supreme Call of the Ancients gives additional power to each of the ancients.
Key Passives
- Skill to Unlock: Unbridled Rage
- Level: 1
- Supporting Skill: Nil
For passives, we will pick Unbridled Rage. This passive improves the core skill (Hammer of the Ancients), making it deal 135% increased damage. However, Fury generation for the same will increase.
This is the preferred passive for this Barbarian build, as we will take out most of the enemies in Diablo 4 using Hammer of the Ancients. And this passive increases the damage.
Passives
- Skill to Unlock: Endless Rage under Core Skill, Imposing Presence, Martial Vigor, Outburst, Tough as Nails under defensive skills, Swiftness under Brawling skills, Pit Fighter, Thick Skin, Defensive Stance, Counteroffensive under Weapon Mastery Skill, Wallop, Concussion, Tempered Fury, and Invigorating Fury under Ultimate.
- Level: One for Outburst, Tough as Nails, Hamstring, Wallop, and Tempered Fury. Rest of them for three points.
- Supporting Skill: Enhanced and Battle Bash
Finally, to enhance Barbarian, we will pick some passives. The first passive skill we will
We will then move to the defensive skills to pick Imposing Presence, Martial Vigor, Outburst, and Tough as Nails. Imposing Presence and Martial Vigor improves the resiliency of Barbarians on the battlefield. Outburst and Tough as Nails add and improve bleeding damage on the enemies.
Then, pick up Swiftness under Core Skills. This improves our movement speed. Under weapon mastery, pick up Pit Fighter, Thick Skin, and Hamstring. Pit Fighter and Thick Skin strengthen the defense and attack of Barbarian. Hamstring further amplifies the bleeding effects by slowing down the bleeding enemies.
Finally, under Ultimate, we will pick Wallop, Concussion, Tempered Fury, and Invigorating Fury. Wallop and Concussion improve attacks using Bludgeoning weapons. Tempered Fury and Invigorating Fury heal and improve fury generation respectively.
Rend Barbarian Build (High Damage)
Do you enjoy inflicting bleeding damage to your opponents? In that case, Rend Barbarian is the perfect Barbarian build you can pursue in Diablo 4. Just like the previous build, Rend Barbarian favors players that want to stack high damage over time instead of burst damage.
Though this is a more complex build than the Hammer of the Ancients, it is a viable build for players wanting to get into some intermediary builds in the game. Furthermore, this still makes this build comparatively easier than the famous Whirlwind Barbarian build.
Basic Skill
- Skill to Unlock: Flay
- Level: 1
- Supporting Skill: Enhanced and Battle Flay
The first skill we will pick is called Flay. This one does bleed damage on the enemies, which does passive bleed damage alongside active damage. As an added measure, take Enhanced Flay and Battle Flay.
Enhanced Flay increases the chances of making an enemy vulnerable, while Battle Flay injures enemies directly, resulting in increased bleeding damage.
Core Skill
- Skill to Unlock: Rend
- Level: 1
- Supporting Skill: Enhanced and Violent Rend
To live up to the build name, the next skill we will pick is Rend. This skill damages enemies by once again inflicting bleeding damage on the enemies by 134%. Pick up Enhanced Rend and Violent Rend as it increases the enemy’s vulnerability to attacks and chances to incur bleeding damage.
Defensive Skill
- Skill to Unlock: Rallying Cry
- Level: 1
- Supporting Skill: Enhanced and Tactical Rallying Cry
Barbarian is a slower character in comparison to Rogue. Hence, we shall try to improve that problem using Rallying Cry. This skill increases the movement speed of Barbarian and nearby allies for a short duration. Make sure to spend points on Enhanced Rallying Cry and Tactical Rallying Cry. These two skills in this build help generate more fury and make Barbarians unstoppable when active in Diablo 4.
Weapon Mastery Skill
- Skills to Unlock: Death Blow and Steel Grasp
- Level: 1
- Supporting Skill: Enhanced and Warrior’s Death Blow, Enhanced and Fighting Steel Grasp.
The next two skills we will unlock are Death Blow and Steel Grasp. Death Blow makes the Barbarian attempt a killing strike, dealing 120% damage. If an enemy dies from it, their cooldown resets. Pick up Enhanced Death Blow and Warrior’s Death Blow To improve the skill. These two skills ensure that Death Blow deals damage on bosses, and enemies dying from the skill trigger a free berserking.
Steel Grasp pulls enemies towards Barbarians, dealing damage along the way. Pick up Enhanced Steel Grasp and Fighter’s Steel Grasp to improve it. Enhanced Steel Grasp makes enemies vulnerable for 2.5 seconds, and Fighter’s Steel Grasp gives Barbarian berserking for 2 seconds.
Ultimate Skill
- Skill to Unlock: Wrath of the Berserker
- Level: 1
- Supporting Skill: Prime and Supreme Wrath of the Berserker
When using Wrath of the Berserker, the Barbarian explodes into a rage, gaining Berserking and becoming unstoppable in the process. Additionally, enemies get knocked back when you cast the skill. Furthermore, any direct damage dealt during this state will grant Barbarian berserking.
To further improve this, pick up Prime Wrath of the Berserker and Supreme Wrath of the Berserker. Prime WoB gives movement speed and better fury generation, while Supreme WoB gives a damage bonus for every fury spent.
Key Passive
- Skill to Unlock: Walking Arsenal
- Level: 1
- Supporting Skill: Nil
Choosing Walking Arsenal in this Diablo 4 build grants Barbarian increased damage when using two-handed, bludgeoning, two-handed slashing, or dual-wielding weapons.
Passives
- Skill to Unlock: Imposing Presence, and Marital Vigor under Defensive Skills, Aggresive Resistance and Prolific Fury under Brawling Skills, Pit Fighter, Thick Skin and Defensive Stance under Weapon Mastery skill, Wallop, Concussion, Tempered Fury, Invigorating Fury, and Furious Impulse under ultimate.
- Level: Death Blow, Wallop, and Tempered Fury will take one point each, Furious Impulse will take two points, rest of the passives will take one point.
- Supporting Skill: Nil
To wrap up this build, we will pick some passives across the skill tree. This will help us improve our Barbarian’s performance in Diablo 4 if we use this build.
First, pick up Imposing Presence and Marital Vigor under Defensive skills. These two passives help in making our Barbarian resilient, giving them increased max life and reduced damage against bosses.
Then, pick up Aggressive Resistance and Prolific Fury. These two skills help in further damage reduction in berserk state and fury generation.
Under weapon mastery skills, pick up Pit Fighter, Thick Skin, and Defensive Stance. These three skills improve our close combat damage, helping in fortifying our base health and increasing our damage reduction.
Finally, we move to the ultimate skills. We start by picking Wallop and Concussion, giving us increased damage and stun while using a Bludgeoning weapon.
We then pick up Tempered Fury, Furious Impulse, and Invigorating Fury. These three skills help in fury generation and also heal Barbarian.
