Best Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian build – endgame skills and gear in Season 3

Looking for the best Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian build? Then you’ve come to the right place. The best Diablo 4 Barbarian build transforms your bulky melee fighter into a ballerina of doom. No, we’re not exaggerating; the so-called Whirlwind Barbarian build has you twirling across the battlefield like a mini-vortex, destroying absolutely anyone and anything unfortunate enough to stand in your way.

While many Diablo 4 fans may flood to the Necromancer build, mainly because it knows how to summon a golem, or perhaps a Sorcerer build or Rogue build, the Barbarian class is not to be overlooked and with the right tweaks could well be one of your favorite classes in the game. Right, now let’s kick off with the best Barbarian build in Diablo 4. With Season of the Construct already here, check out all the details on the new Diablo 4 Seneschal companion and Vaults.

Best Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian build explained

In short, the Whirlwind Barbarian build is designed to hit as many opponents as possible with a single skill: Whirlwind. This makes it incredibly effective against large groups of enemies. You’ll be relying on a variety of shouts to buff this skill, plus a basic attack to bridge the “I’m running out of fury” gap and activate a certain ultimate effect (more on that below).

As Whirlwind consumes the Barbarian’s fury, it’s very important to unlock passives and skill enhancements to make sure you’ve got a very high fury regeneration. 

Best Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian build endgame skills

While the full Barbarian skill tree is extensive, these are the skills you must unlock:

• Whirlwind (core skill): your Barbarian twirls across the battlefield while repeatedly hitting all nearby enemies. This skill costs 25 Fury per second and has a 25% lucky hit rate.
• Lunging Strike (basic skill): you quickly jump forward, striking enemies and regenerating 9 Fury. This skill has a 50% lucky hit chance.
• Rallying Cry (shout): increases your movement speed and (with upgrades) helps you regain fury.
• War Cry (shout): increases your damage dealt for a duration of six seconds.
• Challenging Shout (shout): taunt nearby enemies and gain a high damage reduction for six seconds.
• Wrath of the Berserker (ultimate): knock back surrounding opponents and activate both berserker and unstoppable mode for five seconds. After the buff has ended, quickly use a basic skill (Lunging Strike, in this case) to enter berserker mode for an additional five seconds.

As mentioned above, this Barbarian build uses Whirlwind as the main attack, while the remaining active skills are there to boost its damage. Make sure you use your shouts (Rallying Cry, War Cry, and Challenging Shout) before initiating Whirlwind.

Lunging Strike is a great way to position yourself in the midst of battle while simultaneously regaining fury. Try to use it within ten seconds after initiating Wrath of the Berserker (once the initial effect has ended) to activate Berserker mode again. As Wrath of the Berserker has a long cooldown, you might want to save it for tough opponents.

Best Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian skill points distribution

• Lunging Strike: rank 1. Unlock Enhanced Lunging Strike to deal extra damage, receive a bit of healing, and most importantly; reach the next skill tree tier.
• Whirlwind: rank 5. Unlock Enhanced Whirlwind to regain fury whenever you attack an enemy, and Furious Whirlwind to deal additional bleeding damage (beware that the latter requires a slashing weapon).
• Pressure Point: rank 3. Lucky hits from your Whirlwind attack make your opponent vulnerable for two seconds.
• Rallying Cry: rank 5. Unlock Enhanced and Tactical Rallying Cry to regenerate 20 Fury when using this skill. This will also greatly improve your overall fury generation.
• Challenging Shout: rank 5. Unlock Enhanced and Tactical Shout to increase your maximum HP and gain extra fury each time you take damage.
• War Cry: rank 5. Unlock Enhanced and Power War Cry for extra damage.
• Booming Voice: rank 3. This will increase the duration of all your shout effects. Unlock the linked passive Guttural Yell as well to reduce your opponent’s damage output after using a shout.
• Pit Fighter: rank 3. Deal extra damage to nearby enemies.
• Heavy Handed: rank 3. This will allow you to deal extra critical strike damage while using two-handed weapons.
• Wrath of the Berserker: rank 1. Also, upgrade Prime and Supreme Wrath of the Berserker to gain even better fury regeneration and a movement speed boost.
• Unbridled Rage: rank 1. Your core skills (Whirlwind) deal 135% more damage but also cost 100% more fury.

This list shows the recommended Whirlwind Barbarian skill point distribution in the same order as their tiers on your skill tree. It’s typically best to fully upgrade the active skills and unlock their corresponding passives to maximise their potential. As for separate passives, be sure to get a lucky hit effect (Pressure Point) and plenty of fury enhancements.

Here’s a table with skill point distribution for the Whirlwind Barbarian in Diablo 4 Season 1:

Level	Skill
2	Lunging Strike
3	Enhanced Lunging Strike
4	Whirlwind
5	Enhanced Whirlwind
6	Furious Whirlwind
7	Combat Lunging Strike
8	Rallying Cry
9	Enhanced Rallying Cry
10	Tactical Rallying Cry
11-14	Whirlwind
15	War Cry
16	Enhanced War Cry
17	Power War Cry
18	Leap
19	Enhanced Leap
20	Power Leap
21	Hamstring
22-23	Booming Voice
24	Raid Leader
25	Call of the Ancients
26	Prime Call of the Ancients
27	Supreme Call of the Ancients
28	Aggressive Resistance
29-31	Prolific Fury
32-34	Pit Fighter
35	Unbridled Rage
36-39	Rallying Cry
40-41	Raid Leader
42	Booming Voice
43-45	No Mercy
46-48	Heavy Handed
49-50	Pressure Point
Renown	Skill
1-2	Pressure Point
3-5	Guttural Yell
6-7	Thick Skin
8-10	Counteroffensive

You may want to change some of the passive skills suggested above to gain a damage bonus for a specific weapon type, to make your build more defensive, or to offer your teammates better support. Using the Raid Leader passive is a great way to accomplish the latter. Expertise builds up as you use a certain weapon, granting you even more bonuses by weapon mastery.

Best Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian armor and gear

Our best Diablo 4 Barbarian build mostly relies on the strength stat (to increase skill damage and armour strength), followed by dexterity (increasing critical strike chance). You also need willpower to boost your resource generation, but if you already have enough fury to keep your whirlwind rotation going, it’s not as important as the other two.

As for your gear, try to equip armor and weapons that favor your Whirlwind ability. Anything that reduces cooldowns, improves speed, improves resource regeneration, or increases critical strike chance is most welcome.

While choosing your weapon, keep in mind that the Barbarian class uses the ‘arsenal’ quick-swapping system with four weapon slots. If your weapon grants a bonus related to weapon swapping, be sure to use it. However, do keep in mind that you’ll need to swap to a slashing weapon before activating Whirlwind, or the Furious Whirlwind passive effect won’t work. 

Many Gear items in Diablo 4 will come with Gem Sockets, into which you can insert Gems for more passive bonuses. Gems will have different effects depending on whether they are inserted into Weapons, Armor, or Jewellery. Emeralds and Skulls are great but here are the best gems for a Barbarian brawl.

For your Weapons, we’d recommend using Amethysts to boost your damage over time. Using Amethysts in Weapon Gem Sockets could offer up to an 8% increase to that Whirlwind damage. For your Armor, use Rubies to boost your Maximum Life. The extra Life offered by Rubies will come in handy if you suddenly find yourself without any minions left standing to soak the hits. For your Jewellery, find Diamonds to use in empty Gem Sockets. When placed in Jewelry or an amulet, Diamonds offer increased resistance to all elements, giving you some extra defence against whatever your enemies throw at you.

Best Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian build Legendary Aspects

Here are the aspects we’d recommend for the Whirlwind Barbarian in Diablo 4:

• Utility Aspect of Grasping Whirlwind: periodically pulls enemies towards you. By looting a Legendary item, you can extract the Legendary Aspect from it.
• Offensive Aspect of the Dire Whirlwind: increases Whirlwind’s critical strike chance for every second it is channeled, with a maximum increase of 40%. Garan Hold dungeon in Scosglen has this one.
• Bold Chieftain’s Aspect: Cooldown reduction of your shouts depending on the number of nearby enemies. By looting a Legendary item, you can extract the Legendary Aspect from it.
• Resource Aspect of Echoing Fury: generates fury while your shouts are active. Get it at Sirocco Caverns in Kehjistan.
• Wind Striker Mobility Aspect: critical strikes increase your movement speed. Grab it from the Shivta Ruins in Kehjistan.
• Gohr’s Devastating Grips (unique gloves): Whirlwind explodes after the duration ends, dealing part of its base damage as fire damage to nearby opponents. Perfect for Diablo 4 Nightmare Dungeons.

This won’t come as a surprise by now, but we’ll say it nonetheless: you need to prioritize Diablo 4 aspects capable of enhancing your Whirlwind attack. We recommend the ones above, but many other legendary aspects will also fit the Whirlwind Barbarian build as long as they focus on things like your critical strike ability, fury, and core attack. Since they’re absolutely perfect for this build, always use Gohr’s Devastating Grips if you’re able to do so. Rage of Harrogath, Ramaladni’s Magnum Opus‍, and Penitent Greaves are excellent Diablo 4 unique items that work with this build too. Consider Aspect of Limitless Rage, Aspect of Disobedience, and Aspect of Berserk Ripping too for your Whirlwind build.

Best Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian build Paragon Board

After level 50, Paragon points make a drastic difference in how you approach your build. These are the Paragon boards you need to prioritize for the Whirlwind Barbarian in Diablo 4:

• Starting board
• Blood Rage board
• Decimator board
• Warbringer board
• Flawless Technique board

As for what Glyphs to slot into the Paragon board, here are the ones that make the most sense for the Whirlwind Barbarian:

• Exploit – For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +0.9% increased damage to Vulnerable targets. Bonus – When an enemy is damaged by you, they become Vulnerable for 3 seconds. This cannot happen more than once every 20 seconds per enemy.
• ‍Wrath – For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +1.5% increased Critical Strike Damage. Bonus – Skills that Critically Strike generate 5 Fury.
• ‍Territorial – For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +1.9% increased damage to Close targets. Bonus – You gain 10% Damage Reduction against Close enemies.
• ‍Might – Grants +25.0% bonus to all Magic nodes within range. Bonus – You deal 8%[x] increased damage while wielding Two-Handed weapons.
• ‍Undaunted – For every 5 Willpower purchased within range, you deal +1.9% increased damage while Fortified. Bonus – You gain up to 10% Damage Reduction the more Fortify you have.
• ‍Marshal – Grants +25.0% bonus to all Magic nodes within range. Bonus – After casting a Shout Skill, the active Cooldown of every other Shout Skill is reduced by 1.2 seconds.

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Take advantage of seasonal mechanics to hone your build

Malignant Hearts, vampiric powers, and the Seneschal companion add neat bonuses to existing builds, letting you refine them.

Best Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian build Seneschal stones

While Season of Blood brought players back with vampiric powers, Season of the Construct’s Seneschal companion is the big draw of the season. And in Season 3, you gain access to Governing Stones and Tuning Stones to build out this Seneschal companion. This construct can deal damage and heal you by itself, making it a valuable ally. Here’s how to spec your Seneschal companion for a Whirlwind Barbarian in Diablo 4 Season 3:

• Governing Stones – Opt for Tempest and Gyrate. Tempest deals electrical damage to an enemy while Gyrate spins the construct around to hit all surrounding enemies. These are offensive options that can be augmented with Tuning Stones.
• Tuning Stones – For Tempest, we recommend pairing it with Arcing, Registered Damage, and Tactical Tuning Stones. These provide extra enemy coverage, explosions on enemy deaths, and cooldown reduction. As for Gyrate, opt for Safeguard, Resource, and Efficiency. These alter damage reduction, offer bonus Primary Resource, and Critical Strike chance. These pair incredibly well with a Barbarian adept at taking out mobs.

Is the Barbarian good in Diablo 4?

In short, yes. So long as you follow this build advice, the Barbarian is an exceptionally effective tank capable of devastating large groups of weaker enemies, and really causing a nuisance to more powerful ones. It’s arguably one of the easiest classes in the game, making it great for those who are trying Diablo for the first time, or for those who find the more complicated Necromancer class a bit intimidating. Crack skulls and rend foes apart, even at higher world tiers.

That covers just about everything with respect to the Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian build. Raw power and brawn lets this build hammer through most mobs and bosses. Want more Diablo 4 help? We’ve got all the Diablo 4 bosses covered in a dedicated guide, along with all of the Diablo 4 quests throughout the story. Slotting Paragon Glyphs into your Paragon Board nodes is an important Diablo 4 balancing act too. Remember to earn Diablo 4 renown as you start off with a new Seasonal character in Season 3. And this time, renown rewards are carried over across characters. Players entering the campaign should definitely know where to get Gallowvine in Diablo 4.

Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian FAQ

Is Whirlwind good in Diablo 4?

Whirlwind is great in Diablo 4 as it lets the Barbarian do damage while moving.

What weapon to use for whirlwind d4?

The Two-Handed Sword is the weapon of choice for this best Diablo 4 Season 1 Whirlwind Barbarian build.