Reaching the endgame in Diablo 4 isn’t that difficult, but that’s where the real trouble starts, as you have to truly optimize your build to make the most out of your playtime.
Part of our complete Diablo 4 class guide.
Even though Barbarians are currently pretty strong in Diablo 4, finding the right build when reaching endgame might seem like a daunting task. So that’s why we’re going to show you one of the best Barbarian builds for endgame that is sure to make the leveling process up to 100 feel like a breeze. But before you manage to reach endgame, you can check out our best Diablo 4 Barbarian build for leveling.
Main Skills
Lunging Strike
This will be our main basic skill for this build that only needs two skill points, with one for the Enhanced upgrade. It will help us get into an ideal position for our Whirlwind skill, as well as giving us a bit of healing due to the Enhanced upgrade.
Whirlwind
Whirlwind will take up seven skill points for optimal play as the most important skill of this entire build. As far as upgrades go, you should use the Enhanced and Violent ones. Anyone who is familiar with the Barbarian from Diablo 2 already knows how this skill works. You turn into a spinning monster, turning everything around you into mincemeat.
Rallying Cry
To help our mobility Rallying Cry will give us an additional 30% movement speed when cast. A single point should be enough for it with two more for the Enhanced and Tactical upgrades.
Challenging Shout
This is a very important shout for this build since it taunts enemies around you while also giving you a 48% damage reduction. Definitely put five points into it and two more for the Enhanced and Tactical upgrades. After casting it wait for enemies to bunch up around you before you start using Whirlwind.
War Cry
A decent buff to our damage output, War Cry will take up three skill points, with two for the Enhanced and Power upgrades.
Wrath of the Berserker
The ideal Ultimate for this build, Wrath of the Berserker will knock surrounding enemies back while giving you the Berserking and Unstoppable states for five seconds. While this might sound counter-intuitive since we want enemies closer for our Whirlwind skill, it does give us a quick way of getting out of danger when our Health is low. Two more skill points will be used for the Prime and Supreme upgrades.
Passive Skills
Key Passive – Unbridled Rage
One of the best Key Passives available to the Barbarian, Unbridled Rage will increase the damage of our Core skills by 135% with the downside of 100% more Fury cost. This is a huge boost to our Whirlwind damage, making it a must since this build revolves around this skill.
Pressure Point
This passive will give you a 30% chance of making your enemies Vulnerable for two seconds when landing a Lucky Hit with Whirlwind. Since other effects will help us deal more damage to Vulnerable enemies we will need three skill points in this passive.
Booming Voice/No Mercy
Since our build makes use of three different Shouts, three points in the Booming Voice passive will increase their duration by 24%. Three additional points placed into No Mercy will also heal your allies for 3% of their Max Life for the duration, which is amazing when playing with a party.
Swiftness
An important passive for most Barbarian builds, adding three skill points to Swiftness will give us a 12% increase in movement speed. This is pretty much mandatory since mobility is key for any melee class.
Aggressive Resistance/Prolific Fury
Given that we will be entering a Berserking state through the use of multiple skills, both of these passives will require three skill points. The first one will give us 9% Damage Reduction with the second giving us 18% more Fury Generation.
Pit Fighter/No Mercy
Two more passives that require three skill points each, Pit Fighter will allow us to deal 9% more damage to Close enemies while giving us 6% Damage Reduction from Distant enemies. No Mercy on the other hand will increase our damage output by increasing our Crit Chance by 9% against Immobilized, Stunned, or Slowed enemies.
Thick Skin/Defensive Stance
Thick Skin will only require one skill point to give us 0.4% of our Base Life as Fortify whenever we take direct damage. The real winner here is Defensive Stance which will give us a 6% Damage Reduction when Fortified for three skill points.
Heavy Handed
Whirlwind uses Two-Handed weapons so three skill points in this passive will give us 15% more Critical Strike Damage.
Aspects
Plenty of Aspects can work great with this build, but we’re only going to mention some of the more important ones that are also easily accessible.
Aspect of Grasping Whirlwind will give your Whirlwind the ability to Pull enemies near you every so often. This is a great boon for any Whirlwind build, especially when dealing with ranged enemies that will always try to keep their distance when engaging you. The one real downside here is that this Aspect can only be found on random Legendary items, meaning you will have to choose the item you want to add it to carefully. The ideal piece of Gear to use it on should be your Helm.
Another great Aspect that buffs our Whirlwind is Aspect of the Dire Whirlwind. This Aspect will give us an increase to our Critical Strike Chance by 5% for each second that you channel Whirlwind. This increase will be capped when reaching 20%. Luckily, this aspect can be easily obtained after finishing the Garan Hold dungeon which can be found in Scosglen. This Aspect should be added to your Two-Handed weapon.
If you find yourself dying a lot you should Imprint the Aspect of Might on your pants as soon as possible. This Aspect will give you a 20% Damage Reduction for two to six seconds whenever you use a Basic Skill. Ideally, it would be best if you used Lunging Strike right before you want to start spinning with Whirlwind to ensure that you get the effect. Aspect of Might can be found in the Dark Ravine dungeon in Dry Steppes.
Since our build uses three different shouts, any Aspects that improve them should definitely be on your list. The best ones are Aspect of Echoing Fury and Bold Chieftain’s Aspect. Aspect of Echoing Fury can be found in the Sirroco Caverns dungeon in Kehjistan and will give us between two and four Fury per second while a Shout effect is active. Bold Chieftain’s Aspect is harder to get since it can only be found on Legendary items. But the effect is well worth the effort of finding it since it will decrease your Shout cooldowns by up to six seconds whenever you cast one.
Playstyle
Every fight that you engage in should generally start with you using Rallying Cry and Challenging Shout. These will buff your MS as well as forcing enemies to come near you. Then you can use War Cry to increase your damage output. If there is an Elite in that particular pack you should also pop your Wrath of the Berserker and then start spinning with Whirlwind. If you’re running out of Rage and the pack isn’t dead yet, start using Lunging Strike to make yourself a harder target to hit while also generating some more Rage to start using Whirlwind again. Shouts should also be used whenever their cooldown is down, and never forget that you can cast them freely even when you’re spinning.
Whirlwind is an amazing skill due to the fact that you’re continuously on the move while also dealing damage. This means that as long as you have the necessary Attack Power dungeons should be a breeze as you spin through their corridors. Keep in mind though that certain stats don’t work with Whirlwind such as Attack Speed. Our Whirlwind will also generate Fury due to our upgrade path so make sure that you use it wisely so you don’t waste your Rage.
Crowd Control will be a huge issue for us which is where Wrath of the Berserker comes in again. Whenever you are CC’d simply pop it if it’s off cooldown and it will instantly give us the Unstoppable status. It will also help us a lot when facing multiple Elite mobs since our Whirlwind upgrade generated more Fury when hitting Elites. And since our Wrath also increases our Fury cost this is an ideal combo that ensures you will have plenty of Rage.
