War Cry Barbarian Guide
Last Updated:August 10, 2024|Changelog
The War Cry Barbarian (or Singer Barbarian) decimates its foes with the raw power of his powerful warcry while being able to stack some of the highest Magic Find of any build in Diablo 2! With the incredible mobility of teleport granted by Enigma, and Crowd Control (CC) afforded by warcry this Barbarian can get into, and destroys every farming area in the game. Where it really shines is Elite Sniping and target farming specific Bosses. With massive Better Chance to Find Magic Items on the Weapon Swap and a high level finditem, this Barbarian build is only rivaled by even more niche Barbarian builds, as the best Magic Finder in the game!
The addition of grimward in Patch 2.4 provides an interesting tool for increasing DPS and breaking Physical Immunes!
This build guide assumes you have a Character at Level 75 before transitioning to it. It follows the progression of our Character Leveling Guide and our General Leveling Strategies to reach Level 75.
Easy Playstyle ✔
Incredible Survivability ✔
The Most Magic Find Possible ✔
Build Benefits Scale With Skill Level ✔
❌ Repetitive Playstyle
❌ Requires High APM For Efficiency
❌ Cannot Farm Act Bosses Efficiently
❌ Best In Slot Gear Is Difficult To Acquire
Sunder Charm Setup
Patch 2.5 introduces a new way of breaking Immunities: Sunder Charms. Any enemy that would be Immune to your damage type is insted reduced to 95% Resistance, before any other Resistance reductions apply. (e.g. Grimward, decrepify) The Charm also reduces YOUR Resistance against the sundered damage type! Check out our post on Sunder Charms to learn more about these new Charms. The following setup uses Bone Break, allowing you to farm anywhere you want.
Gear Changes
Bone Break drastically increases our Physical Damage against Immunes when used in combination with grimward and our mercenaries Decrepify. You don't need to worry about the Physical Damage Taken increase because every monster is Stunned and immobile while we clean up shop.
Terror Zones
The new Terror Zone mechanic combined with Sunder Charms open up a wide range of farmable areas. The following list highlights the best and worst Terror Zones for this build on the Starter or Budget setup. With the Sunder Charm Setup, more Terror Zones become accessible. Learn more about Terror Zones here and see how they stack up in our Terror Zone Tier List.
Best
✔ The Secret Cow Level - High Density, Easy Mobility, No Immunities
✔ Flayer Jungle ONLY - High Density, Easy Mobility, No Immunities
✔ Pit - High Density, Easy Mobility, Many Elite Groups
✔ Cold Plains + The Cave - High Density, Easy Mobility, Quick Access
✔ Frigid Highlands - Eldritch the Rectifier ONLY
Worst
❌ Tal Rasha's Tombs - Immunities, Slow Access, High Physical Damage, High Elemental Damage, Tanky enemies
❌ Worldstone Keep + Throne of Destruction - Immunities, Slow Access, High Elemental Damage, Tanky enemies
❌ Arcane Sanctuary - Trash Mobility, Immunities
❌ Act 2 Sewers - Trash Mobility, Immunities, Slow Access
❌ Durance of Hate - Trash Mobility, Tanky enemies
Skills
Put 1 Point into each of the following Skills:
1. finditem
2. grimward
3. increasedspeed
4. ironskin
5. naturalresistance
6. leap
Max out the following Skills in order of priority:
1. warcry
2. Battlecry
3. taunt
4. battleorders
5. howl
Damage
Utility
Attributes
Note: This section provides you with the standard Stat Point allocation. Build Variants can require a different allocation!
Strength
Allocate enough Stat Points into Strength to equip all of your gear. Take into account how much Strength your gear provides when equipped.
Dexterity
Allocate enough Stat Points into Dexterity to equip all of your gear. Take into account how much Dexterity your gear provides when equipped.
Vitality
Allocate any remaining Stat Points into Vitality after meeting Strength, Dexterity and Energy requirements.
Energy
Allocate an appropriate amount of Stat Points into Energy for your Mana costs. You don't gain much Mana from your gear, and your Skills require a lot of Mana.
Essentials
Gear Options
Farming Spots
Mercenary
Playstyle
Breakpoints
Hardcore
Build Variants
Setup
The Starter build easily stacks Faster Hit Recovery, Faster Cast Rate, Resistances, and decent +x to Skills since the Barbarian can dual-wield Spirit Crystal Sword. The rest of the gear adds Magic Find, additional Life/Mana and any lacking Resistances. Due to the high Mana cost, and lower Damage output of warcry you're restricted to the Starter farming areas.
Mercenary
Since we are at the 105% FCR BP we drain Mana at exceptionally high rates and the Insight helps to mitigate that, from its meditation Aura.
Skills
Put 1 Point into each of the following Skills:
1. finditem
2. grimward
3. increasedspeed
4. ironskin
5. naturalresistance
6. leap
7. leapattack
Max out the following Skills in this order:
1. warcry
2. battlecry
3. battleorders
4. taunt
5. howl
Attributes
Allocate enough points into Strength to wear your gear then put the rest of your points into Vitality.
Setup
This Setup sacrifices 1 Frame off our cast speed, and some Magic Find to gain a much higher + to All Skill and ends up increasing our warcry DPS by ~1,000. This is typically better suited for target farming a particular Super Unique pack, as you kill more quickly, but also need to reset games faster.
Bone Break drastically increases our Physical Damage against Immunes when used in combination with grimward. You don't need to worry about the Physical Damage Taken increase because every monster is Stunned and immobile while we clean up shop.
Mercenary
Use a Desert Mercenary with Might Aura to significantly boost his Physical Damage. Equip him with The Reaper’s Toll for a 33% Chance to cast Decrepify on striking, slowing down and increasing Physical Damage dealt to enemies. Decrepify can even break some Physical Immunities.
Skills
Put 1 Point into each of the following Skills:
1. finditem
2. grimward
3. increasedspeed
4. ironskin
5. naturalresistance
6. leap
Max out the following Skills in this order:
1. warcray
2. battlecry
3. battleorders
4. taunt
5. howl
Attributes
Allocate enough points into Strength to wear your gear, enough into Vitality to reach 2500-3500 Life, then shift click Energy sustain your casting costs.
Setup
This Setup reaches the 200 FCR BP (max cast speed) and stacks incredibly high amounts of Magic Find on the primary weapon swap, and additional Magic Find on the secondary swap for using finditem on Super Unique monsters. It also maintains high + to All Skills for warcry damage and battleorders buffing.
Bone Break drastically increases our Physical Damage against Immunes when used in combination with grimward. You don't need to worry about the Physical Damage Taken increase because every monster is Stunned and immobile while we clean up shop.
Mercenary
Since we are at the 200% FCR BP we drain Mana at exceptionally high rates and the Insight Thresher helps to mitigate that.
Skills
Put 1 Point into each of the following Skills:
1. finditem
2. grimward
3. increasedspeed
4. ironskin
5. naturalresistance
6. leap
Max out the following Skills in this order:
1. warcry
2. battlecry
3. battleorders
4. taunt
5. findpotion
Attributes
Allocate enough points into Strength to wear your gear, enough into Vitality to reach 2500-3500 Life, then shift click Energy sustain your casting costs.
Setup
The biggest changes in this Variant are prioritizing Physical Damage Reduction, 75% Chance to Block, overcapped Resistances, and Faster Hit Recovery. We use a Stormshield to achieve many of these goals while maintaining high + to All Skills. We also swap to a Caster Crafted Amulet to shore up some of our Dexterity and Life.
Bone Break drastically increases our Physical Damage against Immunes when used in combination with grimward. You don't need to worry about the Physical Damage Taken increase because every monster is Stunned and immobile while we clean up shop.
Mercenary
Since we are at the 105% FCR BP we drain Mana at exceptionally high rates and the Insight Thresher helps to mitigate that.
Skills
Put 1 Point into each of the following Skills:
1. finditem
2. grimward
3. increasedspeed
4. naturalresistance
5. leapattack
Max out the following Skills in this order:
1. battleorders
2. warcry
3. Battlecry
4. taunt
5. ironskin
Attributes
With our gear we need 130 Dexterity to reach 75% Chance to Block. The remainder of our points get put into Vitality.
Summary
- warcry applies a very powerful stun once it lands on monsters. Committing to spamming the Skill if often safer than kiting or moving.
- At high FCR breakpoints warcry DPS is truly impressive and mops up Elites quickly.
- The Barbarian is nearly unkillable once fully buffed. Don't be afraid to jump into danger to offer your team that vital support.
- The Singer Barbarian is a powerful support in Multiplayer, even when fully committing to damage output.
- finditem nearly doubles the amount of drops you get off monsters, and benefits from Magic Find.
I hope this guide inspires you to try the "Singer Barbarian". If Karaoke isn't your thing, at least you'll enjoy the benefits of the fastest casting frames, and highest Magic Find Diablo 2 has to offer. Once you begin raking in the GG drops you'll understand why this build is just so unbelievably strong.
Good luck! In Bocca al Lupo
Credits
Written by MacroBioBoi
Reviewed by Teo1904