Werewolf Barbarian Guide
Last Updated:February 12, 2025|Changelog
The Werewolf Barbarian similar to the Fury Druid is a powerful melee build with high damage and Life potential! The build centers around the WolfHowl Barbarian helm that allows him to transform into a Werewolf. It also provides you with lycanthropy that buff the Barbarians Life even further when shape-shifted.
Feral Rage is our main attack in Werewolf form, it provides additional Faster Run/Walk, Life Stolen per Hit, + x% Damage and +x% Attack Rating bonuses. With the Barbarian's powerful abilities Battle Orders, Blade Mastery, and Natural Resistance the Werewolf Barbarian is a BEAST!
This build guide assumes you have a Character at Level 79 before transitioning to it. Check out our Barbarian Leveling Guide and our General Leveling Strategies to reach Level 79.
Very Tanky ✔
Plenty Of Gear Choices ✔
Big Single Target Damage ✔
❌ Gear Dependent
❌ Weapon IAS Is Mandatory
❌ Only Really Excels In End Game
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 instead reduced to 95% Resistance, before any other Resistance reductions apply. (e.g. Conviction, Lower Resist) 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
To optimize this Sunder Charm you need Grim Ward and a source of Amplify Damage or Decrepify. Equip Atma's Scarab and The Reaper's Toll on your Mercenary.
Counteract the negative effect of Bone Break with Stormshield.
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
✔ Travincal - Quick Access, Council Members
✔ Frigid Highlands - No Immunities, Quick Access, Eldritch
✔ Nihlathak's Temple ONLY - No Immunities, Quick Access, Pindleskin
✔ Pit - No Immunities, Many Elite Groups
✔ Tristram - No Immunities, Quick Access, Many Elite Groups
Worst
❌ The Tower Cellar - Trash Mobility, Immunities
❌ Arcane Sanctuary - Trash Mobility, Immunities
❌ Blood Moor + Den of Evil - Low Density, Few Elite Groups
❌ Burial Grounds + Crypt + Mausoleum - Low Density, Few Elite Groups, Trash Mobility, Slow Access
❌ Act 2 Sewers - Trash Mobility, High Physical Damage
Skills
Put 1 Skill Point into each of the following Skills:
1. Leapattack
2. battlecry
3. grimward
Max out the following Skills in this order:
1. Blade Mastery
Mastery depends on the base Weapon used
2. Battle Orders
3. shout
4. naturalresistance
5. Increased Speed
Feral Rage* from Wolfhowl is your only Damage Skill that also provides Faster Run/Walk, Life Stolen per Hit, +x% Damage and +xx% Attack Rating bonuses. A successful hit from Feral Rage triggers a "red ball" to spin around your Character. The bigger the ball, the more powerful the bonuses.
* Increased Attack Speed Skills (IAS)
enchant*: increases the target's Attack Rating by a large amount and adds a small amount of Fire Damage. This buff last for over 11 minutes when cast from demonlimb. This AR is pivotal to maximize your Chance to Hit.
Leap* allows you to jump over and through objects, allowing you to clear obstacles you could not pass with walking or running. It also causes a radial Knockback effect to stun monsters. The jump distance scales with Skill Level. (Only works in Human Form)
Werewolf* transforms the Barbarian into a Werewolf! It grants Increased Attack Speed, Attack Rating, Life and Stamina while active.
Lycanthropy* is a Passive Skill. Every Skill Level adds +5% Maximum Life, and 20 seconds to the duration of Werewolf form.
Battle Cry* is an Area Of Effect (AOE) Skill used to reduce the Defense and Damage of your foes.
blade Mastery* increases your Damage, Attack Rating, and Chance to Critical Hit with Maces and Staves (not indicated).
Shout* increases the Defense of all party members by a percentage of their current Defense.
Battle Orders* is one of the most iconic Skills that originates from the Barbarian. This Buff grants you and your party a percentage based amount of Life, Mana, and Stamina. It is one of the best buffs in the entire game!
Battle Command* grants you and your party +1 to All Skills for its duration.
Increased Speed* is a Passive Skill that increases your run and walking speed.
Iron Skin* is a Passive Skill that increases your Defense.
Natural Resistance* is a Passive Skill that increases your Resistances to all Elements and Poison.
* Faster Cast Rate Skills (FCR)
* Skills that do NOT utilize either FCR or IAS
Attributes
Note: This section provides you with the standard Stat Point allocation. Build Variants can require a different allocation!
Strength
Allocate the majority of Stat Points into Strength to gain additional Physical Damage on melee attacks.
Dexterity
Allocate enough Dexterity to reach 50% Chance to Block. More Dexterity is needed at higher Character levels. In addition to Dexterity and Character Level, Shield bases also affect Chance to Block.
Vitality
Allocate any remaining Stat Points into Vitality after meeting Strength, Dexterity and Energy requirements.
Energy
Do not allocate any Stat Points into Energy. Mana costs are covered by “x% Mana Stolen per Hit” or “+x Mana after each Kill” on gear.
Essentials
While every Stat in the Desirable Stats column is useful for this build, we highlighted the Priority Stats in Teal so you can easily identify the Most Important Stats on them.
Hover over any Item to see a pop-out with the full Item description.
Gear/Base Notes: Any Items with specialized or niche uses have a superscript that refers here.
1) Angelic Halo and Angelic Wings are great for boosting your Attack Rating significantly. You can even add another Angelic Halo to stack even more Attack Rating!
2) Death's Hand and Death's Guard are fantastic budget options granting you Increased Attack Speed, Cannot Be Frozen, All Resistance, and x% Life stolen per hit!
| Slot | Item Options | Desirable Stats |
| Weapons | Ribcracker Tomb Reaver Grief Phase Blade Oath Balrog Blade Unbending Will Phase Blade Breath of the Dying Archon Staff | +x% Increased Attack Speed +x% Faster Hit Recovery +x% Enhanced Damage Damage +x Ignore Target's Defense -x% Target Defense +x% Damage to Demons x% Life stolen per hit x% Chance of Crushing Blow x% Deadly Strike |
| Off-Hand | Stormshield Phoenix Monarch Rhyme Spirit | Level x Redemption Aura When Equipped + x% Faster Hit Recovery +x% Faster Block Rate x% Increased Chance of Blocking +x% Enhanced Damage +x to Attribute +x Life +x% to Maximum X Resist X Resist +x% Cannot Be Frozen |
| Weapon-Swap | Call to Arms Crystal Sword Heart of the Oak Flail Demon Limb | +x to All Skills +x% Faster Cast Rate +x to battlecommand +x to battleorders +x to battlecry |
| Off-Hand-Swap | Spirit Monarch Heart of the Oak Flail | +x to All Skills +x% Faster Cast Rate +x% Faster Hit Recovery X Resist +x% |
| Body Armors | Duress Archon Plate Chains of Honor Archon Plate Treachery Archon Plate Fortitude Archon Plate Hustle | x% Chance to cast level x Fade when struck +x% Increased Attack Speed +x% Faster Hit Recovery +x% Enhanced Damage x% Enhanced Damage to Demons x% Enhanced Damage to Undead +x% Life stolen per hit x% Chance of Crushing Blow x% Chance of Open Wounds +x Life X Resist +x% Damage Reduced by x% |
| Helmets | Wolfhowl metamorphosis | +x to Warcries [Barbarian Only] +x to Feral Rage +x to Lycanthropy +x to Werewolf |
| Gloves | Dracul's Grasp Soul Drainer Steelrend Venom Grip Laying of Hands Death's Hand2 Rare Gloves | x% Chance to cast level x Life Tap on striking +x% Increased Attack Speed x% Enhanced Damage x% Enhanced Damage to Demons x% Enhanced Damage to Undead +x% Mana stolen per hit +x% Life stolen per hit x% Chance of Crushing Blow x% Chance of Open Wounds +x to Attribute X Resist +x% |
| Belts | String of Ears Verdungo's Hearty Cord Thundergod's Vigor Nosferatu's Coil Blood Crafted Belt Death's Guard2 | +x% Faster Hit Recovery +x% Increased Attack Speed +x% Life stolen per hit x% Chance of Open Wounds +x to Attribute +x Life +x% to Maximum Lightning Resist X Resist +x% +x Lightning Absorb Damage Reduced by x% Magic Damage Reduced by x Cannot Be Frozen |
| Boots | Goblin Toe Gore Rider War Traveler Aldur's Advance Magic Boots | +x% Faster Run Walk x% Deadly Strike x% Chance of Crushing Blow x% Chance of Open Wounds +x Life X Resist +x% |
| Amulets | The Eye of Etlich Highlord's Wrath The Cat's Eye Angelic Wings1 | +x to All Skills +x% Increased Attack Speed +x% Faster Run Walk x% Deadly Strike +x% Life stolen per hit +x to Attribute X Resist +x% +x to Attack Rating |
| Rings | Rare Ring Angelic Halo1 Raven Frost | +x to Attack Rating +x% Mana stolen per hit +x% Life stolen per hit +x to Attribute +x Life X Resist +x% Cannot Be Frozen |
| Charms | Grand Charm Large Charm Small Charm | + x % Faster Run / Walk + x% Faster Hit Recovery +x to Maximum Damage +x to Attack Rating +x to Attribute +x Life X Resist +x% x% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items |
| Unique Charms | Gheedsfortune Hellfiretorch (Barbarian) Annihilus Bone Break | Monster Physical Immunity Is Sundered +x to All Skills +x to Barbarian Skills +x to all Attributes All Resistances +x x% Better Chance of Getting Magic Items Reduces all Vendor Prices x% |
The areas below are efficient farming locations that make use of the build’s strengths. Other farming spots might not be as effective due to immunities or bad layouts. These areas are strong without a Sunder Charm.
Anything that has a ✔ in the "Starter" column can be farmed with the Starter Variant.
Act 1
| Area | Starter | Rewards | ||
| The Countess | ✔ | Runes Key of Terror | ||
| The Pit | ✔ | All Item Types Max Area Level Leveling | ||
| Andariel | ✔ | Uniques Sets Jewelry | ||
Act 2
| Area | Starter | Rewards | ||
| Stony Tomb | ✔ | All Item Types Max Area Level Leveling | ||
| Summoner | - | Key of Hate | ||
Act 3
| Area | Starter | Rewards | ||
| Arachnid Lair | - | All Item Types Max Area Level | ||
| Travincal | - | Gearing Runes Charms / Gems / Jewels Gold | ||
| Mephisto | - | Uniques Sets | ||
Act 4
| Area | Starter | Rewards | ||
| City of the Damned | - | All Item Types | ||
| River of Flame | - | All Item Types Max Area Level Leveling | ||
| Chaos Sanctuary | - | All Item Types Max Area Level Leveling | ||
| Diablo | - | Uniques Sets Leveling | ||
Act 5
| Area | Starter | Rewards | ||
| Eldritch the Rectifier | ✔ | Gearing Gold Leveling | ||
| Shenk the Overseer | ✔ | Gearing Gold Leveling | ||
| Pindleskin | ✔ | Gearing Gold Leveling | ||
| Thresh Socket | ✔ | Gearing Gold | ||
| Nihlathak | - | Key of Destruction Leveling | ||
| Baal / Waves | - | Uniques Sets Max Area Level Leveling | ||
Your Mercenary serves an incredibly important role to the overall success of your build. They can be a front line tank, provide a pivotal Aura, and/or deal Physical Damage to kill enemies with Immunity to your Skill set.
Act 2 Desert Mercenary
The Act 2 Desert Mercenary is hired from Greiz. He can be equipped with a Spear or a Polearm, a Body Armor and a Helmet.
Every Act 2 Mercenary has access to an Aura and uses Jab as his base Attack. The Aura activates once the Mercenary has engaged in combat and remains active between traveling to and from town. The Auras available are based on what difficulty you hire the Mercenary from.
Reaper’s Toll, Might
Use a Desert Mercenary with Might Aura to significantly boost your 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.
Mercenary Gear Options
Your Mercenary needs maximum Resistances, Life Leech, a high damage Weapon, and high Defense and/or Damage Reduction to stay alive reliably. Cannot Be Frozen is also a great stat for maintaining Mercenary DPS and leech. Ethereal gear is preferred since it doesn't lose durability.
| Slot | Early-Game | Mid-Game | End-Game |
| Weapon | Insight | Insight Obedience | The Reaper's Toll |
| Body Armor | Smoke Lionheart Skin of the Flayed One Rockfleece | Treachery Duress Shaftstop Duriel's Shell Guardian Angel | Fortitude Treachery Chains of Honor |
| Helmet | Bulwark Undead Crown The Face of Horror Temper | Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest Guillaume's Face Vampire Gaze Crown of Thieves Stealskull Kira's Guardian Rockstopper | Andariel's Visage |
The Mercenary is hard to keep alive until you have the minimum gear recommended in this guide. Remember you can drag Healing Potions onto the portrait, or shift + 1/2/3/4 to directly feed them a Healing Potion from your Belt. The Mercenary also gains bonus Resistances from Thawing Potions and Antidote Potions.
If your Mercenary dies in battle, you can revive them from any of the Mercenary NPCs in each Act. This does come with an increasing cost, capping at 50,000 Gold. Keep that in mind and decide if the Mercenary is currently worth the cost.
General
- Switch to the secondary Weapon Swap (it gives you more + to Warcries) and cast Battle Command 2 times, Battle Orders, and Shout at the beginning of each run. Make sure that these buffs stay active all the time, they are essential to your survivability.
- Cast enchant and Werewolf and get ready to BLAST!
- In combat use Feral Rage and keep it fully charged at all times to give you Faster Run/Walk, Life Steal, Damage and Attack Rating bonuses. Each successful hit increases the size of the swirling red ball until it is maxed out, indicating the maximum strength of the skill.
- In human form Leapattack is a great way to move from place to place.
Immunities
Breakpoints in Diablo 2 are the minimum values required to reduce the frames of an action. Below are the important breakpoints considered for this build. For more information on the mechanics involved, check out our in-depth Resource: Breakpoints.
Increased Attack Speed (IAS)
Increased Attack Speed speeds up your attack animations. Weapon bases have different IAS breakpoints. Values for recommended weapon options provided below. Consult the d2planner for other bases.
Grief Phase Blade
| Frames | 8 | 7 | 7 | 6 |
| EIAS | 92 | 100 | 116 | 129 |
Faster Hit Recovery (FHR)
Faster Hit Recovery (FHR) increases survivability. Aim for at least the 42% FHR Breakpoint.
| Frames | 7 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 2 |
| FHR | 0 | 9 | 20 | 42 | 86 | 280 |
For all Hardcore gameplay, your primary focus is increasing your Resistances, Damage Reduction, Chance to Block and Maximum Life. This can mean sacrificing overall power level for a more secure playstyle.
This build can become Hardcore viable with key changes to the Skills, Stat Point allocation, and items. Review the changes below before building this character, as they may differ significantly from the normal build.
Stat Point Changes
- Put enough Stat Points into Dexterity to maintain 75% Chance to Block with Stormshield.
Item Changes
- Use a Grief Phase Blade and Stormshield for added Damage Reduction and Chance to Block.
- Use Shimmering Small Charm of Vita over Fine Small Charm of Vita for more over capped Resistances.
Build Variants
Setup
The Werewolf Barbarian Priority Stats:
- Increased Attack Speed (IAS)
- Faster run/walk
- Resistances
- Life
- Attack Rating
- Faster Hit Recovery.
- Cannot Be Frozen
Oath Balrog Blade, Duress Light Plate, and both the Angelic Wings and Angelic Halo in combination are great budget options for this build and greatly impact the build's performance. Death's Hand and Death's Guard grant IAS, Resistances, Life Steal, and Cannot Be Frozen.
Mercenary
To keep your Mercenary alive, equip him with a Smoke and Tal Rasha's Horadric Crest for Life and Resistances. Insight is a pretty easy Runeword to find and farm that gives a great amount of damage and Quality of Life with Meditation. Hire the Might Aura Mercenary, to gain extra Physical Damage.
Skills
Put 1 Skill Point into each of the following Skills:
1. Leap
2. Iron Skin
3. Battle Command
Max out the following Skills in this order:
1. Blade Mastery
Mastery depends on the base Weapon used
2. Battle Orders
3. Natural Resistance
4. Shout
5. Increased Speed
6. Battle Cry
Attributes
Allocate enough Stat Points into Strength and Dexterity to equip your gear. Put remaining Stat Points into Vitality.
Setup
Werewolf Barbarian Priority Stats:
- 42% or 86% FHR Breakpoint
- Damage
- Increased Attack Speed
- Life and Mana Steal
- Resistances
Grief Phase Blade provides us with a large amount of damage and IAS. Use Sharp Grand Charm of Balance for the additional damage and FHR. Phoenix Monarch provides a lot of Enhanced Damage and Redemption which sustains Life and Mana from corpses. Use Bone Break instead of Sharp Grand Charm of Maiming to enable farming of any monster.
Mercenary
Your Mercenary provides Physical Damage and Decrepify to break Immunities and/or lower Physical Resistances. This setup with 2 Ruby Jewel of Fervor in Andariel's Visage Demonhead and The Reaper’s Toll allow your Mercenary to reach the 75% Increased Attack Speed Breakpoint.
Skills
Put 1 Skill Point into each of the following Skills:
1. Leapattack
2. battlecry
3. grimward
Max out the following Skills in this order:
1. Blade Mastery
Mastery depends on the base Weapon used
2. Battle Orders
3. shout
4. naturalresistance
5. Increased Speed
Attributes
Allocate enough Stat Points into Vitality to reach ~3,500 Life when buffed. Enough Dexterity to reach 50% Block Chance and the rest into Strength.
Setup
Priority Stats for Ubers:
- x% Chance of Crushing Blow
- Resistances
- 42% or 86% FHR Breakpoint
- Increased Attack Speed
- Physical Damage Reduction
Use Ribcracker as our main weapon for the IAS and large amount of x% Chance of Crushing Blow. Dracul's Grasp procs Life Tap for much needed Life sustain. Thundergod's Vigor works well against Uber Mephisto's Lightning attacks. Use the Fade proc from Treachery to increase your more Resistances, Attack Speed, and Physical Damage Reduction. Use Bone Break instead of Sharp Grand Charm of Maiming to enable farming of any monster.
Mercenary
Your Mercenary provides Physical Damage and Conviction. Conviction lowers the defense of bosses which increase the chance to hit them. This can be used for Lilith, Izual, and Duriel as they are difficult to hit as a melee character. DON'T expect your Mercenary to survive main Uber Tristram though!
Skills
Put 1 Skill Point into each of the following Skills:
1. Leap
2. Iron Skin
3. Battle Command
Max out the following Skills in this order:
1. Mace Mastery
2. Battle Orders
3. Natural Resistance
4. Shout
5. Increased Speed
6. Battle Cry
Attributes
Allocate enough Stat Points into Strength and Dexterity to equip your gear. Put remaining Stat Points into Vitality.
Setup
Focus on survivability by adding Physical Damage Reduction, over capped Resistances to counter enemy Conviction, Maximum Chance to Block (75%) with Stormshield, and 42% or 86% Faster Hit Recovery. Additionally, Dracul's Grasp, and Shimmering Small Charm of Vita give you the ultimate tank build! Use Bone Break instead of Sharp Grand Charm of Vita to enable farming of any monster.
Mercenary
Your Mercenary provides Physical Damage and Decrepify to break Immunities and/or lower Physical Resistances. This setup with 2 Ruby Jewel of Fervor in Guillaume's Face and The Reaper’s Toll allow your Mercenary to reach the 75% Increased Attack Speed Breakpoint.
Skills
Put 1 Skill Point into each of the following Skills:
1. Leap
2. Iron Skin
3. Battle Command
Max out the following Skills in this order:
1. Blade Mastery
Mastery depends on the base Weapon used
2. Battle Orders
3. Natural Resistance
4. Shout
5. Increased Speed
6. Battle Cry
Attributes
Put enough Stat Points into Strength to wear your gear, Dexterity to reach 75% Chance to Block, and the remaining Stat Points into Vitality.
Summary
- Keep Feral Rage stacks up for maximum bonuses.
- Keep your Battle Command, Battle Orders, and Shout active!
- Utilize Leapattack in human form to bypass obstacles.
- Increased Attack Speed is important, remember to stack it!
- Use a The Reaper’s Toll on a Mercenary to lower Physical Resistances!
Enjoy playing an unstoppable force in battle as a Werewolf Barb! When you didn't know a Barb could get more savage, there is always this build!
Good luck!
Credits
Updated and Maintained by MacroBioBoi
Originally Written by BTNeandertha1
Reviewed by Teo1904