The Diablo 4 beta is live, and with it, players are getting the opportunity to test the game up to level 25, and in the Fractured Peaks. If you’re a bit of chad, (of course you are, you are playing Barb), then you will be on the second-world tier. However, it turns out that the Barbarian is not so good at dealing with bosses, thanks to all the annoying melee mechanics, and the generally lower single-target DPS output. So, with this in mind, we’re going to help you with some of the Diablo 4 Barbarian betas builds you can run.

Diablo 4 Barbarian Beta Build¶

You can get two main builds: the Upheaval core skill or the Rend / Bleed core skill avenue. One is more single-target focused, which does get some decent AOE tools as you get closer to the level 20 mark. Meanwhile, the Upheaval build is a solid mobbing build. However, its single target damage does lack, especially if you’re fighting main story bosses very early on. We’ve also thrown in a third build suggestion using Whirlwind if you love that fantasy, but we’re not particularly fans of it, thanks to the lacking crit on gear for your whirlwind at such a low level.

Below we’ll go into detail on each build, explaining the skill point assignments, potential legendaries you can get, and when the build really comes online.

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Barbarian Bleed Build in the Diablo 4 Beta¶

The Bleed Build is all about applying damage over time (DoT), by using you skills to inflict nasty bleeds. The main thing to note about this build is that you cannot use it until you are about level 17, as you need the weapon mastery skills to make this build work via the Rupture skill.

Rupture is a key skill, as it will expend the remaining bleeds on the target, inflicting damage instantly, rather than over the remaining five-second window or less, depending on the bleed durations. This is how you convert your bleed damage uptime into large amounts of burst, which you can then later convert into some AOE damage so you still have mobbing potential.

Rotation: The general theory is you need to Flay enough to build your rage> activate War Cry into 3x Rends, then Rupture for your highest burst damage profile profile.

However, the bleed build is still somewhat viable in the early game bosses, especially bosses that like to run around the battlefield, so they you can still get consistent pressure on them. Yet, it will need higher level skill to advance further through the Veteran world tier campaigns and solo dungeon bosses.

Your Skill Tree is as follows:

• Basic Skill: Flay Maxed > Enhanced Flay> Battle Flay
• Core Skill: Rend Maxed > Enhanced Rend > Violent Rend
• Ability 1: War Cry
• Ability 2: Iron Skin
• Ability 3: Rupture x 5 > Enhanced Rupture > Optional - The optional is for if you feel you need more sustain in your boss fights, or you feel the extra attack speed to generate more fury for other rend windows. For leveling we highly recommend the Fighter’s Rupture as its sustain on shorter cooldown windows is very good.
• Ability 4: Wrath of the Berserker

While leveling, if you can get your hands on an item that grants a brawling skill or defensive skill, so that you have some movement speed or some extra defensive tools, then those are good shouts too.

You’ll also likely need to throw a point or two into some passives to get to Wrath of the Berserker, especially if you don’t get gear that gives you points in the skills you want to use.

Weapon Expertise: To complement this build, you want to set you skills to use your two-handed sword, as two-handed sword expertise grants bonuses to bleeding enemies. You also want to get damage bonuses through your skills, bleeds, and vulnerability damage. Make sure to level it up and check your bonuses via the arsenal page. However, this is a bonus, so don’t follow this advise if your weapons damage is starting to fall very far behind replacements.

Legendaries¶

As for legendaries, you can get the following affixes:

• Slaking Aspect: Has a percentage chance to generate 20 Fury when your Rend hits bleeding enemies. - Ring affix, gained from the Maulwood Dungeon in Fractured Peaks.
• Iron Blood: Gain damage reduction for each nearby bleeding enemy. - Pants drop
• Scorchblade of the Expectant: Attacking enemies with a basic skill increases the damage of your next core skill by 12% up to 50% - Weapon drop

Diablo 4 Barbarian Upheaval Build¶

The Upheaval skill is perhaps the Barbarian’s best tool for destroying packs, thanks to its very long-range cone that can one hit most packs, as long as they don’t have the extra HP affix. The main playstyle of the build is as follows.

• Basic: Frenzy x5 > Enhanced Frenzy> optional - The options you are looking at are extra tankyness per each stack of Frenzy you have, which can grant 24% damage reduction at max stacks, which is very good. The other is more attack speed, which is a nice DPS boost, especially for berserking.
• Core: Upheaval x5 > Enhanced Upheaval > Optional - The optional one depends if you want to stack burst damage, which is good for bossing, or you can get your Berserker buffs, which is handy for your basic skill attack speed and damage.
• Ability 1: Iron Skin
• Ability 2: War Cry > Enhanced War Cry
• Ability 3: Death Blow > Enhanced Deathblow > Warrior’s Death Blow
• Ability 4: Wrath of the Berserker

The general theme of the build is that you want to be attacking very fast, which will generate your Fury to dump using Upheaval. You can also use Death Blow to easily conserves your Fury and smashes packs apart with now major HP buffs. This build also allows you some solid single-target damage too, especially around the berserk windows, bonus Death Blow damage against bosses on CD, and the general ease of Fury generation for Upheaval.

However, the issue with this build is that it means being in the face and maintaining your Frenzy as often as possible, making boss kill times theoretically slower on high-movement fights. You also run the risk of dying much easier doing this, so make sure to manage Iron Skin effectively, and , if you really need to, upgrade it or get gear with Iron Skin points on it.

Weapon Expertise: As for your weapon, it largely doesn’t matter too much. Polearm is likely the best choice because if you can stay healthy, you will deal more damage at level 10 Polearm expertise. The other two-handed bonuses rely on stuns or vulnerability bonuses. However, select the weapon that has the most damage for skill scaling.

Weapon Expertise: As for your dual wield skill in Frenzy, double axes are typically the best, so you have an execute window damage boost. However, weapons with more damage are still preferable, and this is something to focus more on at end game.

Legendaries¶

Below is a list of legendaries that can work rather well for this playstyle, however, they are optional. Rather, these are legendaries worth keeping an eye on as you play the game:

• Scorchblade of the Expectant: Attacking enemies with a basic skill increases the damage of your next core skill by 12% up to 50% - Two-handed sword drop
• Hell Hammer: Upheaval ignites the ground, burning enemies for additional damage over 3 seconds. - Two-handed mace drop.
• Pent-Up Axe: Fury skills deal 4% more damage for every second you haven’t spent Fury, up to 24%. Two-handed Axe - This scales very well with the Furious Upheaval talent.
• Ring of Frozen Thought: Your physical attacks apply chill to enemies. Enemies chilled enough times can become frozen. - This can help build a stagger bar against bosses for additional CC. - Ring
• Death Wish Circle: Gain 31 thorns while Berserking - Ring Drop.

Whirlwind Barbarian Build in Diablo 4¶

While the two build above offer solid damage for burst AOE and single target, they lack mobility, and the iconic spin to win. If you want something a little faster, and damage somewhere in the middle of AOE and Single Target, this might be for you.

• Basic: Flay > Enhanced Flay > Battle Flay
• Core: Whirlwind x3 > Enhanced > Violent Whirlwind
• 1: Rally Cry > Enhanced Rally Cry > Tactical Rally Cry
• 2: Leap > Enhanced > Power Leap
• 3: War Cry
• 4: Deathblow > Enhanced > Fighter’s Death Blow
• 5: Call of the Ancients Ultimate skill - Swap this out with any of the skills you don’t like, typically you will remove war cry as you don’t invest in it too much, and the damage bonus doesn’t scale too well with whirlwinds scaling damage bonuses

You will also want to spec your points into some passives like the Cry boosts for your resource generation, movement speed, or go with some other whirlwind damage dump instead, depending on your preference.

As for Legendaries, you can get:

• Amulet of Pulling: Pulls nearby enemies into your whirlwind. Amulet legendary affix
• Ancestral Echoes: Damaging enemies with Leap, Upheaval or Whirlwind has a chance to summon an Ancient to perform the same skill.
• The Dire Whirlwind: Whirwind’s critical strike chance increases for each second in whirlwind, up to a cap.