The Barbarian is by far the beefiest class in Diablo 4, significantly tougher than the Sorcerer or the Rogue. With passives that enhance its overall health and health regeneration capabilities, the Barbarian can stand toe to toe with almost any boss. They are a valuable asset to players looking to clear harder content, as they are capable of tanking damage and even stunning enemies with some skills.
However, while the Barbarian is extremely sturdy, its damage potential is severely lacking by comparison. Though it can deliver debilitating debuffs to enemies, you won’t find yourself taking down swaths of foes as fast as the Sorcerer (unless you choose hyper-specific builds). Running a Barbarian requires a lot of investments into Legendary items and aspects in order to make it shine.
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The Diablo 4 beta caps characters at level 25, which limits how many skill points you can initially receive. You can earn skill points by increasing your renown by — among other ways — tracking down the dozens of Altars of Lilith in the Fractured Peaks region. Here are the best Barbarian skills to get in Diablo 4.
Best Diablo 4 Barbarian Build — Single Target:
- Flay → Enhanced Flay → Combat Flay
- Lunging Strike → Enhanced Lunging Strike
- Rend → Enhanced Rend → Furious Rend
- Pressure Point 3/3
- Rallying Cry → Enhanced Rallying Cry → Tactical Rallying Cry
- Leap → Enhanced Leap → Power Leap
- Pit Fighter 3/3
- Death Blow → Enhanced Death Blow
- Iron Maelstrom
Best Diablo 4 Barbarian Build — AoE
- Flay → Enhanced Flay → Combat Flay
- Lunging Strike → Enhanced Lunging Strike
- Whirlwind → Enhanced Whirlwind
- Upheaval → Enhanced Upheaval
- Rallying Cry → Enhanced Rallying Cry → Tactical Rallying Cry
- Leap → Enhanced Leap → Power Leap
- Death Blow
- Steel Grasp → Enhanced Steel Grasp → Warrior’s Steel Grasp
- Iron Maelstrom
How to use the Barbarian in Diablo 4
Much like other classes, Barbarian has the ability to make enemies Vulnerable. Diablo 4’s Barbarian can inflict various status ailments upon its foes, which is what players will want to make the most out of. A Vulnerable enemy will receive 20% more damage. The Barbarian can also inflict Bleeding, which functions similarly to the Rogue’s poison as a form of damage-over-time. The Barbarian is also capable of Stunning enemies if players choose specific paths through its skill tree. All-in-all, it is a class that is focused more or less on debuffs and soaking damage to deal it back through Thorns.
However, this class is almost as agile as the Rogue. Players will want to invest at least a single skill point into Leap, as you can actually jump over or across terrain you cannot with the other classes. It’s also great in general as a traversal tool or as a means to avoid damage from area-of-effect skills (commonly used by bosses).
Additionally, the Barbarian can provide support for party members through the Rally Cry skill, which increases movement speed and resource regeneration while active. This makes the Barbarian more or less feel like a true support, or something similar to the Crusader from Diablo 3. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it instead facilities a very specific kind of play that encourages grouping up with other players.
You can further enhance the power of your skills through the use of aspects, passive skills that are found on gear that you can remove and reapply on better gear. Here’s how that process works.