The Barbarian is a melee class in Diablo 4, specializing in close-range combat and dealing massive damage.  Are you interested in writing a guide article on Barbarian builds for Diablo 4 beta? In this guide, we will go over the skill tree and legendary powers that make up a strong Barbarian build. We will focus on the skills and legendary powers rather than stats and affixes since most players won't be min-maxing or trying to get the best stats in the level 25 beta anyway. 

 

• Frenzy
• Enhanced Frenzy
• Upheaval
• Enhanced Upheaval
• Rallying Cry
• Iron Skin
• Leap
• Booming Voice
• Aggressive Resistance
• Prolific Fury
• Wrath of the Berserker
• Legendary Powers

 

 

Frenzy

Frenzy is our basic skill and fury generator, which is probably the best theory generator out of all the basic skills. It is a basic attack, and hitting an enemy with it increases its attack speed by 20 for three seconds, stacking up to three times for a total of 60 attack speed increase. After those first three hits, you will be hitting ridiculously quickly, giving you quite a lot of fury very quickly as well.

 

Enhanced Frenzy

Enhanced Frenzy increases your fury generation by two for every hit while you have the full 60 attack speed buff. So now it's six per hit, which means you're just generating a lot more fury. Combat Frenzy, on the other hand, gives you eight percent damage reduction for each stack of Frenzy you currently have, up to three. 24 damage reduction is pretty massive, and you will be weaving Frenzy with our core skill, which is Upheaval.

 

Upheaval

Upheaval is our main spammable damaging skill, a fury spender that does a big cone attack in front of you, has a pretty decent range, and does really big damage. It is a slow-to-cast ability, but really high damage, and you will want to be using your highest damage weapon. You should put five points into this if you're max level in the beta, and this is going to be your main damage.

 

Enhanced Upheaval

Enhanced Upheaval has a 20 percent chance to stun all enemies at damages for 2.5 seconds. It can just be an AOE stun if you get the procs, and Furious Upheaval synergizes very well with Frenzy. Doing direct damage to an enemy with a skill that is not Upheaval causes your next cast of Upheaval to deal an eight percent increase in damage, stacking up to eight times. If you have this fully stacked, you'll have an 80 percent damage increase on Upheaval now. The really good thing about Frenzy is that if you're using this with dual-wielded weapons, it procs Furious Upheaval two times every time you use Frenzy on an enemy, because it's hitting with both your weapons, giving you those two stacks. So you only need to hit a target four times, then you cast an Upheaval, and you have a max damage Upheaval with that 80 percent damage increase. This is going to do quite a lot of damage, and it puts you in a good rhythm of hitting a few frenzies, hitting an Upheaval, hitting a few frenzies, hitting an Upheaval, and it synergizes together very well.

 

Rallying Cry

This has a base 25-second cooldown and increases your movement speed by 30 and resource generation by 50 at a baseline. This lasts for six seconds for you and three seconds for your allies. Enhanced Rallying Cry grants you unstoppable while it's active, which removes all crowd control effects.

 

Iron Skin

This has a 14-second cooldown on a baseline and grants you a barrier that absorbs 50% of your missing life for five seconds. Enhanced Iron Skin absorbs 5% more of your maximum life, while Tactical Iron Skin heals you for 10% of the barrier's original amount as life per second.

 

Leap

This is around a 17-second cooldown on a baseline and deals damage to any enemies hit and knocks them back. Enhanced Leap reduces the cooldown by four seconds if it doesn't damage any enemies, and Power Leap grants you 40 fury if it damages at least one enemy.

 

Booming Voice

Your shout durations are increased by 10. This helps with Rallying Cry, making it last longer.

 

Aggressive Resistance

Gain 4% damage reduction while berserking.

 

Prolific Fury

While berserking, fury generation is increased by 6%. Fury generation can also be increased by putting points into Battle Fervor.

 

Wrath of the Berserker

This is the ultimate skill and has a 60-second base cooldown. It grants berserking and unstoppable for 5 seconds and dealing direct damage with basic skills grants berserking for an additional five seconds. Enhanced Wrath of the Berserker increases movement speed and fury generation while it's active.

 

Legendary Powers

Iron Skin: Iron Skin grants unstoppable and 14% damage reduction.

Legs: While you have a barrier active, there's a 20% chance to ignore incoming direct damage from distant enemies.

There are many other legendary powers available, but these are just a few examples to get you started.

 

Conclusion:

The Barbarian in Diablo 4 is a versatile class that can deal high damage while also surviving even the toughest encounters. By using the right skills and legendary powers, you can customize your Barbarian to suit your playstyle and dominate the battlefield. So go forth, brave warrior, and conquer the demons of Diablo 4!