by theygamesWhat is the best Diablo 4 Barbarian build? After a rocky performance in earlier beta tests, the Diablo 4 Barbarian received a slew of balance changes that may leave you feeling unsure how to spec at launch. Thankfully, our best build rises to the occasion, and – in our experience – puts all other builds to shame.
Of course, our hunt to find the best Diablo 4 Barbarian build necessitated many hours of testing in Sanctuary, where we got to grips with all the changes to the RPG game’s well-loved classes. While the Barbarian’s kit has received a bit of a shake-up with the introduction of the arsenal system, it’s still the dedicated melee class we know and love. That said, Diablo 4 skill trees are as versatile as they’ve ever been, and it’s easy to spec into a sluggish skill rotation. To avoid that, here’s the best Diablo 4 Barbarian build if you’re looking to get your hands dirty in potentially one of the best PC games of this year.
What is the best Diablo 4 Barbarian build?
The best Barbarian build is Hammer of the Ancients – here’s how to make it:
- Skills: Frenzy, Hammer of the Ancients, and Leap.
- Passive Skills: Iron Skin and Death Blow.
- Aspects: Aspect of Ancestral Force.
The best Diablo 4 Barbarian build helps you bring the hammer down on Lilith’s demonic forces at a frenzied pace, sending them back into Hell with an explosion of blood and viscera. We’ve also paired this high-impact offensive with plenty of survivability and resource generation to keep your skill rotation ticking over while making a mess solo or in Diablo 4 co-op or crossplay.
Best Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian skills
Here are the best skills for a Diablo 4 Rend Barbarian build:
- Frenzy (1/5)
- Enhanced Frenzy (1/1)
- Combat Frenzy (1/1)
- Hammer of the Ancients (5/5)
- Enhanced Hammer of the Ancient (1/1)
- Furious Hammer of the Ancients (1/1)
- Iron Skin (1/5)
- Enhanced Rallying Cry (1/1)
- Strategic Rallying Cry (1/1)
- Leap (1/5)
- Enhanced Ground Stomp (1/1)
- Strategic Ground Stomp (1/1)
- Death Blow (1/1)
- Enhanced Rupture (1/1)
- Warrior’s Rupture (1/1)
Starting with your Basic Skill, Frenzy helps you tear through enemies without having to wait for damage-over-time or variable control effects. Instead, you can dish out damage both faster and harder, with the benefit of a damage reduction buff at the culmination of its skill branch.
Hammer of the Ancients forms the basis for our best Diablo 4 Barbarian build. This AoE attack makes for exceptional crowd control as standard, but the two-hander presented by the subsequent skills on this branch is the key to its efficacy. The damage output of Furious Hammer of the Ancients depends upon the amount of Fury you have when you cast it – a constraint made inconsequential when Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients allows you to stack fury regeneration up to ten times.
By the time you’ve unlocked Defensive Skills, you might be feeling uncharacteristically squishy for a Barbarian. We’ve put those worries to rest in our best Diablo 4 Barbarian build with Iron Skin. A barrier that absorbs up to half of your health is already a boon for survivability, but Tactical Iron Skin actually grants you the ability to heal. This is an obvious and quite literal lifesaver, but when used tactically, you can top your life up to cut down on juggling healing potions.
The Diablo 4 Barbarian thrives in close-quarter combat, but you can easily fall foul of ranged attacks from distant enemies. Thankfully, Leap is an incredibly versatile skill that can either drop you right in the center of the action or help you escape it. It also inflicts knockback on surrounding enemies, which grants you some breathing room when you’re already in the thick of it. The Barbarian is far less mobile than the likes of a Diablo 4 Rogue or Sorcerer, so it’s important to protect yourself where you can.
While the burst damage that comes from Enhanced Death Blow is nice for taking out vulnerable enemies in one fell swoop, this skill only reaches its true value once you obtain Fighter’s Death Blow. This skill nets you 20 Fury for each enemy that takes damage from Death Blow, which is guaranteed to solve any resource generation issues you might experience with our best Diablo 4 Barbarian build.
Best Rend Barbarian equipment
Barbarians have been thoroughly spoiled in the Diablo 4 beta by getting the chance to pick up a Unique item to add to their weapons arsenal: The Butcher’s Cleaver. This powerful axe is the cream of the crop in the Diablo 4 loot system, and inflicts fear and slow an enemy by 45% following a critical strike. It also deals increased damage to crowd-controlled enemies and injured enemies, while also providing a boost to your critical strike’s proc chance and overall damage.
As you might expect, obtaining The Butcher’s Cleaver is no mean feat, since parting it from its owner involves as much luck as it does skill. Unlike the Diablo 4 world boss, the infamous Diablo 4 Butcher is a random dungeon boss encounter, and The Butcher’s Cleaver sports a seriously low drop rate – so unless you’re planning to do some serious grinding, the chances of pulling it are pretty slim. To that end, we’ve compiled a list of the legendary aspects to watch out for, and how to unlock them.
The best legendary aspects for our Diablo 4 Barbarian build are:
- Aspect of Ancestral Force – Hammer of the Ancients quakes outwards, dealing 32% of its damage to enemies.
- Veteran Brawler’s Aspect – Each time a Core Skill deals direct damage to an enemy, your next Charge or Leap deals x15% increased damage, up to 225%.
- Aspect of the Iron Warrior – Iron Skin also makes you Unstoppable.
That’s all the best Diablo 4 Barbarian build needs to turn the tide of enemies into a river of blood. If you’re looking to dip into other classes, be sure to check out our best Diablo 4 Necromancer build and Druid build, or see what the devs think with their best Diablo 4 builds. On that note, it’s worth keeping our list of the Diablo 4 error codes to hand while playing an early build, just in case anything goes wrong. Our builds will see you all the way into the Diablo 4 endgame, but if you simply can’t wait, we’ve got a list of the best games like Diablo to tide you over until the time comes.