Play as Barbarian in Diablo IV is to fight your way through the dark corridors filled with hellish creatures.
As expected based on previous games in the series, Diablo IV gives you a few class options to play with. Although they are all well-established archetypes in the fantasy genre, each class was designed to have a distinct identity.
Probably one of the most classic, the barbarian class is back and ready to fight all enemies face to face. To help you do that, here’s the best version of Diablo IV’s Barbarian with an explanation of how to play as a barbarian, the best skillsTHE best gearand the best gems.
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How to Play as a Barbarian in Diablo IV
If you’re considering playing the Barbarian in Diablo IV, there are a few things you need to know first. As one of the melee classes available in the game, you will always be close to enemies and susceptible to taking more damage. This means the Barbarian is inherently a class with a larger health pool and can tank enemies. On the other hand, Barbarians aren’t known as a class that can smash enemies. It’s a slower paced class, but still capable of dealing a fair amount of damage.
Considering the design of the Barbarian, this build is structured around the fact that you will be exposed to a lot of direct damage. The idea is to redirect that damage to enemies and cause them to bleed to death. Before we jump into explaining how you’ll use each skill, it’s important that you understand two mechanics that are crucial to building: the spikes And bleeding.
In Diablo IV, Thorn is a specific attribute that triggers the effect of damaging enemies whenever your character is directly hit. Since as a Barbarian you will be in the middle of the action, constantly being attacked, this is an amazing stat to stack. On the other hand, Bleeding is a status that some of your skills afflict that cause enemies to take damage over time. The concept behind this version is to get the best of both effects. In order to use this build effectively, you need to bypass a few skills and approach enemies with a specific mindset.
In every fight you always have to try to get hit by your enemies, so don’t stay far away from them. Once you have fixed your eyes on the enemy, you must first focus on using difficult cry to lure enemies around you. It’s important to use this shout whenever it runs out of cooldown, as it mitigates the damage you take. After attracting the attention of enemies, start attacking with Flay which will increase your thorn attribute.
Depending on how many fury points you have and how many enemies you’re up against, you can either use Hammer of the Ancients/Rend usually for single target situations, or Tourbillon to fight larger groups of enemies. If you’re using Hammer of the Ancients, try to use it when you’re full or have a considerable amount of Fury, as they affect the damage the skill will cause. If you are surrounded by too many enemies and lose too much health, you can still use your ultimate skill. Call of the Ancients to summon three spirits to help you.
With this skill rotation, two of your passive skills – Blast And hard as nails – go proc. Due to how this build works, your life against a boss alongside his minions will be quite easy.
Diablo IV Barbarian best skills
In this section, you list all the skills needed to make the build work. You’ll have a few points left over that you can use in different skills to tailor the build to your playstyle.
base node
- Skin: This skill is fundamental for this build, since it will apply the Bleed effect and generate Fury. It is important to unlock the Fight the scrape upgrade, which reduces the damage you take while giving you stacks of thorns for a few seconds.
central node
In this node, you have three solid options: Hammer of the Ancients, Rend, and Whirlwind. Pick one between the first two and go for Whirlwind as your main area-of-effect attack.
- Hammer of the Ancients: By using this skill, your character hits a small area in front of him. Upgrade it to Furious Hammer of the Ancients so it will deal bonus damage based on how many fury points you have when using the skill.
- Rip: This skill cleaves enemies in front of the character and inflicts Bleeding on them.
- Tourbillon: This is your classic sword spin attack. A solid option for dealing AoE damage and is quite effective without upgrades.
defensive knot
There are some good defensive skills to choose from, in this node, in case you want some extra damage reduction or to increase your survivability, but below are the ones you should focus on first.
- Hard Cry: When used, this skill increases the amount of damage taken while also taunting enemies. THE Cry of Strategic Challenge adds the effect of gaining Thorns equal to half your Maximum Life to it.
- Imposing presence: This passive will give you an extra maximum life.
- Blast: It gives you thorns based on the max life bonus.
- Hard as nails: Along with giving you extra thorns, this skill will also deal bleed damage based on the thorns you have.
ultimate knot
- Call of the Elders: One of the best ultimate skills in the Barbarian kit. Using it will summon three spirits to aid you.
Best Diablo IV Barbarian Gear
For this version you should search pieces of gear that will give you Thorn and have the legendary appearance of The Prickling. In terms of stat priority, you should also focus on strength, dexterityAnd will. Due to how builds work on Diablo IV, you don’t need specific legendary gear to make it work. There are, however, some good ones that will improve building efficiency.
Diablo IV’s Best Barbarian Gems
When it comes to gems, emeralds, rubies and skulls are the best options. Given how important Thorn stacking is to this build, an Emerald should be placed on your armor to increase your Thorn stat.
Ruby and Skull are two solid options for other pieces of gear. The former gives your resource generation when put into the weapon, helping you rack up Fury Points faster. On the other hand, the second, when used in your weapon, will give you life when an enemy is killed, or increase your armor when put in a jewel.
Enjoy your time playing as a Barbarian in Diablo IV!
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