[GameSpot] - Diablo 4 - Barbarian Skills Guide

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The Barbarian is one of the classes that you can choose in Diablo 4. They may look oafish and crude, but these warriors are also courageous and unwavering even in the most dire situations. Here's our Diablo 4 Barbarian skills overview guide to help you with various abilities that you can unlock.

Diablo 4 Barbarian skills

The Diablo 4 Barbarian skills use fury as a resource, and they tend to be dependent on the Arsenal system. Basically, your abilities will sometimes require a particular type of weapon or weapon combination (i.e., bludgeoning, slashing, dual-wielding, or two-handed). As such, it's up to your to equip the ones that you need, or swap accordingly. Moreover, Diablo 4 Barbarian skills can be categorized into general use (grey), bleeding (red), shouts (blue), crowd control (yellow), and replenished charges (purple).

In any case, the classes in the game use tiers/groupings for each skill and talent, unlocked once you've spent enough skill points. We list them down in the sections below, further subdividing them based on connected nodes/upgrades. Likewise, you can take a look at our separate article regarding Barbarian talents/perks.

Diablo 4 Barbarian Basic skills

Basic skills are always available to use. They deal fairly low damage, but are your bread-and-butter abilities when generating fury.

Lunging Strike (any complete Arsenal weapon) - Lunge forward and hit a target.

• Enhanced - Increased damage and heals you when you hit a healthy enemy (i.e., at 80% HP or more).
  
  • Battle - Causes bleeding damage.
  • Combat - Crits cause berserking (i.e., +25% increased damage and +15% movement speed; lasts five seconds).

Bash (bludgeoning weapon) - Bash a target with your weapon; your fourth Bash will stun the enemy (increased duration if using a two-handed weapon).

• Enhanced - Damaging a stunned enemy grants a percentage of your base life as fortify (i.e., take 10% reduced damage).
  
  • Battle - Generates extra fury.
  • Combat - Critical strikes with a two-handed weapon will cause the next Core or Weapon Mastery skill to proc overpower (i.e., deal bonus damage based on your current life and fortified life).

Frenzy (dual-wielded weapons) - Unleash several blows that can also increase attack speed.

• Enhanced - When you gain 60% bonus attack speed, you generate extra fury.
  • Battle - Increased attack speed for other skills from each Frenzy stack if you're berserking.
  • Combat - Damage reduction for each Frenzy stack that's active.

Flay (slashing weapon) - Deal damage and inflict bleeding.

• Enhanced - Chance to make an enemy vulnerable (i.e., take increased damage).
  • Battle - Direct damage from Flay also causes increased bleeding damage.
  • Combat - Direct damage from Flay grants you damage reduction and thorns.

Diablo 4 Barbarian Core skills

Core skills (and those in subsequent tiers/groupings) cost fury. They're fairly reliable in combat. You'll unlock them once you've spent at least two skill points.

Whirlwind (any complete Arsenal weapon) - Rapidly attack surrounding enemies; channeled ability.

• Enhanced - Gain fury when Whirlwind deals direct damage; extra fury from elites.
  
  • Furious - Whirlwind also inflicts a portion of its base damage as bleeding if you're using a slashing weapon.
  • Violent - Increased damage after using Whirlwind for two seconds; lasts until it's cancelled.

Hammer of the Ancients (two-handed bludgeoning weapon) - Slams down your hammer to deal AoE damage.

• Enhanced - Gain more fury for each enemy damaged; stacks up to 10 times.
  
  • Furious - Grants bonus damage for each point of fury you have when you used it.
  • Violent - Overpowering with Hammer of the Ancients grants bonus damage.

Upheaval (two-handed weapon) - Strike the ground with your weapon and fling debris in a forward arc.

• Enhanced - Chance to stun all enemies.
  • Furious - Dealing damage with any other skill causes the next Upheaval cast to gain bonus damage; stacks up to 10 times.
  • Violent - Damaging enemies grants berserking.

Double Swing (dual-wielding) - Sweep your weapons from opposite directions; enemies caught in the center are damaged by both weapons.

• Enhanced - Gain fury if Double Swing damages a stunned or knocked down foe.
  • Furious - Casting Double Swing while berserking extends its duration for two seconds.
  • Violent - Apply vulnerable to a target hit by both weapons.

Rend (slashing weapon) - Does a frontal cleave that causes damage and bleeding.

• Enhanced - Direct damage caused by Rend extends the duration of vulnerable.
  • Furious - Direct damage with Rend grants fury (maximum of 20 fury).
  • Violent - Increased damage against vulnerable enemies.

Rend will probably be one of your ideal attacks if you want to cause enemies to bleed.

Diablo 4 Barbarian Defensive skills

Defensive skills are used to get out of a bind. They'll either keep you protected or provide crowd-control capabilities. Moreover, they don't require a specific Arsenal weapon. Spending at least six skill points will let you pick from these options.

Ground Stomp - Deals AoE damage and stuns enemies.

• Enhanced - Increases the duration.
  
  • Strategic - Reduces the cooldown of your Ultimate skill for each enemy hit by Ground Stomp.
  • Tactical - Generates fury.

Rallying Cry - Increases the movement speed and resource generation of your character and allies.

• Enhanced - Grants unstoppable while active (i.e., control impairing effects are removed and prevented).
  • Strategic - Grants a portion of your base life as fortify, and a bonus amount when you take or deal direct damage.
  • Tactical - Grants fury and additional resource generation.

Iron Skin - Gain a barrier that absorbs a portion of your missing life.

• Enhanced - The barrier absorbs 5% more of your maximum life.
  • Strategic - Grants a portion of your base life as fortify, and doubles the amount if you're below 50% HP.
  • Tactical - While active, gradually heal for a percentage of the barrier's amount.

Challenging Shout - Taunts nearby enemies and grants damage reduction.

• Enhanced - While active, gain bonus max HP.
  • Strategic - While active, gain thorns equal to half of your max HP.
  • Tactical - While active, gain fury whenever you take damage.

Diablo 4 Barbarian Brawling skills

Brawling emphasizes getting to the thick of the fray or using abilities that can bolster your melee prowess. These become available once you've spent 11 skill points.

Kick (no specific weapon required) - Kick and knock back enemies in front of you; those that hit terrain features will get stunned.

• Enhanced - Kick makes enemies vulnerable.
  
  • Mighty - Kicked enemies deal damage to other hostiles when you knock them back; causes them to get knocked down, too.
  • Power - Consumes all your fury to deal extra damage per 10 fury spent; no longer causes knockback.

War Cry - Increases the damage you and your allies deal.

• Enhanced - Also grants berserking.
  • Mighty - Grants a percentage of your base life as fortify.
  • Power - Damage bonus is further increased when there are six or more enemies nearby when War Cry is cast.

Charge (any complete Arsenal weapon) - Become unstoppable while rushing forward; pushes enemies and knocks them back.

• Enhanced - Those knocked back into terrain features are also stunned.
  • Mighty - Applies vulnerable when you hit an enemy with Charge.
  • Power - Reduces Charge cooldown if you knock back enemies into terrain.

Leap (any complete Arsenal weapon) - Do a leap forward and slam down on the ground; knocks back enemies on impact.

• Enhanced - Reduces Leap's cooldown if it doesn't damage enemies.
  
  • Mighty - Damaged enemies are also slowed down.
  • Power - Gain fury when Leap damages at least one enemy.

The Diablo 4 Barbarian will have you jumping into the thick of the fray to smash the faces of hostiles.

Diablo 4 Barbarian Weapon Mastery skills

Weapon Mastery skills are devastating spells that can help turn the tide of each battle. These can be selected once you've spent 16 skill points.

Rupture (slashing weapon) - Skewer enemies to deal damage based on total bleeding amount, then removing all bleeding damage.

• Enhanced - Causes an explosion that applies bleeding damage.
  
  • Fighter's - Hitting an enemy increases your attack speed.
  • Warrior's - Hitting an enemy heals you for a percentage of your maximum life.

Deathblow (any complete Arsenal weapon) - Attempt a killing strike; if you do manage to kill an enemy with this move, its cooldown is reset.

• Enhanced - +100% increased damage versus bosses.
  • Fighter's - Gain fury if Deathblow damages at least one enemy.
  • Warrior's - Gain berserking if Deathblow damages at least one enemy.

Steel Grasp (no specific weapon required) - Throw chains and pull in enemies.

• Enhanced - Makes enemies vulnerable.
• Fighter's - Damaging an enemy grants berserking.
• Warrior's - Gain an additional charge.

Diablo 4 Barbarian Ultimate skills

In Diablo 4, Ultimate skills are those that truly make a difference, causing tremendous damage or enhanced effects. You may choose only one Ultimate skill after spending at least 23 skill points.

Call of the Ancients (no specific weapon requirement) - Call a trio of Barbarian Ancients to aid you temporarily. Korlic does Leap and Frenzy; Talic does Whirlwind; Madawc does Upheaval.

• Prime - While active, gain bonus attack speed and damage.
  
  • Supreme - Korlic grants you extra fury if he damages foes with Frenzy; Talic slows enemies hit by Whirlwind; Madawc has a chance to stun opponents with Upheaval.

Iron Maelstrom (must equip a Full Arsenal of weapons) - Can be activated thrice to attach chains to your weapons and perform attacks. Two-handed bludgeoning weapons do an AoE slam and stun; two-handed slashing weapons do a frontal cleave with a bleeding effect; dual-wielded weapons swing around you.

• Prime - Increased critical chance and critical damage.
  • Supreme - Dealing direct damage to enemies after swapping weapons reduces Iron Maelstrom's cooldown.

Wrath of the Berserker (no specific weapon required) - Grants berserking and unstoppable; Basic skills grant berserking.

• Prime - Increased movement speed and fury generation while active.
  
  • Supreme - Increased damage for every 50 fury you spend while this skill is active.

Diablo 4 is currently in its beta stage. As such, some of the information here may change as we get closer to the game's official launch on June 6. We'll update this guide accordingly. For now, you may visit our class hub.

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