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Barbarian Class Overview

Last Updated: January 7th 2024

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Barbarians are savage wanderers who never thrive in close-quarters combat. Mighty ground stomps, leaping attacks and dual-wielded slashes leave a Barbarian’s enemies dead in their boots and send any survivors fleeing for cover. Currently most Barbarian builds share two main traits:

Barbarian In-Game
  1. Band of Might reliance: Every single build uses ring to stay alive. If you keep the buff up you can do normal Barbarian things, but if you drop it for one second then you’ll be staring at the respawn timer.
  2. Doomed to Support: In group play you won't be dealing any damage and instead will be enabling and protecting your teammates. And while you don't deal any damage, the gameplay still feels pretty Barbarian-y: you Furious Charge all over the place, spam shouts and toss monsters around with Ancient Spear Rage Flip and Ground Stomp Wrenching Smash.


That being said, Barbarians have good solo pushing builds and they are pretty good at both Greater and Nephalem Rift farming. In group play Barbarians perform very well: While their DPS builds are not quite strong enough to be a Trash or Rift Guardian Killer, the zBarb support build shines bright. For almost every experience and group push META Barbarians are essential for the team success with their strong monstrous pulling ability.

Lore

The ancients have blessed me.”

The leaders of the harmonious Zakarum religion once strove to imprison Mephisto, Lord of Hatred, beneath Travincal.

For ages, the Barbarians dwelling in the shadow of Mount Arreat were shaped to be as strong and unyielding as stone. Immense in size and unmatched in ferocity, they were charged from birth with a duty passed through generations: to protect the sacred mountain.

When their homeland was shattered, many Barbarians lost faith. They became aimless, haunted by their past, traveling from place to place without honor or direction.

But not all Barbarians have given up their vigil. Some still honor the harsh snows of Arreat's summit and prowl the outskirts of its crater. They recall being handed axes and spears at an age when city children were clinging to their toys… and they burn with shame at the failure of their people.

These Barbarians strive to find a new purpose for themselves in a changed world, and they will crush any who stand in their way.

Read the full story of the Barbarian here

Resources

Maximum Fury: 100

  • +50 from Paragon points
  • +36 from secondary rolls on gear
  • +20 from Animosity
  • +8 from Stone of Jordan

Passive Regeneration:

  • +2 from Unforgiving
  • +15 from Bul-Kathos's Oath
  • +10% from Animosity
  • +10% from Inspire

Active Generation: 4-9 per attack with a Primary skill

  • +2 from Weapons Master
  • +30 with Earthen Might
  • +20 - +50 from War Cry
  • +15 from Threatening Shout
  • +15 from Leap
  • +15 from Furious Charge
  • +10 for each enemy hit from Dreadnought
  • +4 from Call of the Ancients Ancients' Fury / Fury of the Ancients
  • +1 for each enemy hit from Whirlwind Wind Shear

Additional Fury sources:

  • The Gavel of Judgment
  • +2 from Superstition

Barbarians use Fury to attack with their most powerful skills. Fury degenerates slowly over time when you are not in combat and can be gained by taking damage (0.5 Fury per 1% Life loss), using Primary skills and from a handful of other effects.

Most Barbarian builds generate their Fury with their skills like War Cry, Threatening Shout, Ground Stomp, Furious Charge, Call of the Ancients Ancients' Fury or Whirlwind Wind Shear and by engaging in close range combat. Items like The Gavel of Judgment or Bul-Kathos's Oath or the passive Unforgiving further increase Fury Generation.

Equipment

Barbarians are able to use weapons in ways that others simply don’t possess the strength for. They wield massive weapons – oversized killing devices that normal heroes are barely strong enough to lift, let alone swing. Muscular Barbarians can also dual-wield normal weapons like swords and axes, barraging foes with multiple enchantments and weapon types at once.
Barbarians can equip all melee weapons except staves, can dual wield any two one handers and can use shields.

Mighty Belts

Mighty Belts

Mighty Belts are unique Barbarian items that have the same base stats as regular Belts, but also can roll certain class-specific stats:

  • Primary rolls
    • 1034- 1215 Life per Fury Spent
  • Secondary rolls
    • 10-12 Maximum Fury

Mighty Weapons

Mighty Weapons

Barbarian's unique weapons are Mighty Weapons. One handed Mighty Weapons have 1.3 base APS and share attack animations with Swords, Axes and Maces. They can roll all the normal weapon affixes plus some class-specific stats:

  • Primary rolls
    • 1034-1215 Life per Fury Spent
  • Secondary rolls
    • 10-12 Maximum Fury

Two-Handed Mighty Weapons are the bigger version of a normal Mighty Weapon, they come with 1.10 base APS and can roll all the same unique stats, but with higher stats and damage to specific Barbarian skills.

*all the values given are for ancient legendary items

Sets and Builds

Horde of the Ninety Savages
Immortal King's Call
Might of the Earth
The Legacy of Raekor
Wrath of the Wastes
No Six Piece Set

Horde of the Ninety Savages

  • (2) Bonus doubles the effectiveness of your Shouts and provides a separate double damage multiplier to enemies who are affected by a Fear, Freeze or Stun.
  • (4) Bonus increases your damage reduction for each Frenzy stack by 6% (up to 60%) and doubles the duration of your Frenzy stacks.
  • (6) Bonus provides a 1,000% separate damage multiplier for each Frenzy stack (up to 10,000% - x101) .

Horde of the Ninety Savages Set revolves around Frenzy dealing a tremendous amount of damage at high attack speed breakpoints and has awesome group support aspects.

The Horde of the Ninety Savages (H90) Set was introduced with Season 20 alongside a complete rework and buff of Bastion's Revered, making Frenzy, a long time community favorite skill, great again! The Build combines Bastion's Revered, Depth Diggers, The Undisputed Champion and Oathkeeper for massive damage.

Immortal King's Call

  • (2) Bonus Call of the Ancients lasts until they die. This is very helpful to gain toughness with Together as one or generate Fury with Ancients' Fury.
  • (4) Bonus reduces the cooldown of Wrath of Berserker and Call of the Ancients by 3 seconds for every 10 Fury you spend with an attack.
  • (6) Bonus provides a 4,000% (x41) separate global damage multiplier as long as both Wrath of Berserker and Call of the Ancients are active.

Immortal King's Call is the only Barbarian Set that provides a general global damage multiplier that buffs all damage. The Cooldown Reduction mechanics are very helpful and let you keep a permanent Wrath of Berserker and Call of the Ancients with ease!

Hammer of the Ancients (HotA) is a pretty iconic Barbarian skill. This IK build combines Bracers of the First Men, The Gavel of Judgment, Fury of the Ancients and Mortick's Brace for massive damage. Keeping up Wrath of the Berserker and Call of the Ancients permanently is essential to this build due to Remorseless mechanics, making the IK set a solid choice.

The Charge Barbarian (cBarb) remains a solid build overall as it is very mobile and AoE heavy due to the Vile Ward's mechanic. The build uses Furious Charge in combination with Standoff and Movement Speed buffs to deal damage.

Might of the Earth

  • (2) Bonus reduces the cooldown of Earthquake, Avalanche, Leap, and Group Stomp by 1 second for every 30 Fury you spend with an attack.
  • (4) Bonus Leap causes an Earthquake when you Land. Additionally Leap gains the effect of the Iron Impact rune and the rune's effect duration is increased by 150%.
  • (6) Bonus provides a 37,500% (x376) separate damage multiplier to Earthquake, Ancient Spear and Seismic Slam.

Might of the Earth provides the highest damage multiplier of any Barbarian Set for Earthquake and Seismic Slam. The Cooldown Reduction mechanics are very helpful and can even be used as a zBarb to reduce the cooldown of Group Stomp for frequent pixel pulls and stuns.

The core skill of with builds is Earthquake. In conjunction with its supporting item Lut Socks, the build quickly earned its gimmicky "Leapquake" nickname. Combined with Blade of the Tribes and Girdle of Giants, this build deals tremendous damage.

Seismic Slam offers a unique ranged playstyle on the Barbarian class. A 20,000% increase damage from the Set combined with Fjord Cutter, Bracers of Destruction and Fury of the Vanished Peak is a deadly combination. Damage can be increased even further with Zei's Stone of Vengeance and No Escape.

The Legacy of Raekor

  • (2) Bonus Furious Charge refunds a charge if it only hits 1 enemy.
  • (4) Bonus Furious Charge gains the effect of all runes: Battering Ram, Merciless Assault, Stamina, Cold Rush and Dreadnought. On top of that, Furious Charge damage is increased by 1,000% (x11). For every 1% Life missing, you gain 2% Ancient Spear damage.
  • (6) Bonus Every use of Furious Charge or Weapon Throw increases the damage of your next Ancient Spear by 2,500% (x26). This effect stacks. Every use of Ancient Spear consumes up to 5 charges for a total of 12,500% (x126) damage increase and additional Spears spawn.

The Legacy of Raekor set provides massive damage and the ability to permanently Furious Charge a single target (like the Rift Guardian) to gain many stacks. To maintain the full damage bonus however, you must Furious Charge around a lot! Furthermore having all runes of Furious Charge lets us reset our cooldown with Merciless Assault and instantly gain full Fury in large pulls with Stamina. On top of that, 5 stacked attacks of Boulder Toss can deal devastating damage.

Boulder Toss is an iconic Barbarian skill. This build combines The Three Hundredth Spear, Arreat's Law and Skular's Salvation for massive damage bursts with Wrath of the Berserker.

Wrath of the Wastes

  • (2) Bonus increases the damage of Rend by 500% (x6) and its duration to 15 seconds (up from 5 seconds).
  • (4) Bonus During Whirlwind and for 3 seconds after, you gain 50% damage reduction and your applied Rends deal 200% more damage (x3).
  • (6) Bonus Whirlwind gains the effect of the Dust Devils rune and all Whirlwind and Rend damage is increased by 10,000% (x101 multiplier).

Wrath of the Wastes buffs two skills: Whirlwind and Rend. Combining the 2 in conjunction with Ambo's Pride defines the one of the strongest Barbarian builds in Diablo 3.

The Whirlwind (WW) Barbarian uses the Wrath of the Wastes set and has become one of the strongest builds in the game after having Rend added to its bonus. The core concept is that Whirlwind applies the Damage over Time (DoT) effect from Rend using Ambo's Pride and Lamentation. You spin and move through the monster while DoTing and killing them quickly.

Legacy of Dreams/Legacy of Nightmares

For skills which don't have a dedicated Set, you can make a build around the Legacy of Dreams gem or Legacy of Nightmares set that provides a 97.5x damage multiplier at 13 Ancient items. Since Barbarian's generic damage set, Immortal King's Call, only provides a 41x multiplier, this battle is often won by the LoD.

For Hammer of The Ancients, Legacy of Dreams is the best choice for more damage and toughness.


Nowadays, Hammer of the Ancients is one of the few Barbarian skills making use of the Legacy of Dreams setup as the Immortal King's Call set 4,000% damage bonus is pretty outdated these days and, with loads of new complementary item options over the years, it gets even less attractive. Hence Legacy of Dreams is the setup of choice as it wins both in terms of damage output and toughness.

The domain where zBarb really shines is its unparalleled capacity to pull and gather monsters with Ancient Spear Rage Flip and then pixelpull them tightly together using Ground Stomp Wrenching Smash. This is complemented with incredible mobility and ability to control monsters via Furious Charge and The Legacy of Raekor Set. As a result, this build is one of the most engaging but also one of the hardest, if not the hardest build, to master in the entire game!

Legendary Items

Apart from 6-piece sets, Barbarians have 33 unique Legendary and Set items, providing bonuses to various skills and in some cases altering their behavior:

Mighty Weapons

  • Ambo's Pride
  • Blade of the Warlord
  • Dishonored Legacy
  • Fjord Cutter
  • Oathkeeper
  • Remorseless
  • Bul-Kathos's Solemn Vow
  • Bul-Kathos's Warrior Blood

Two-Handed Mighty Weapons

  • Bastion's Revered
  • Blade of the Tribes
  • Fury of the Vanished Peak
  • The Gavel of Judgment
  • Madawc's Sorrow

Spears

  • The Three Hundredth Spear

Polearms

  • Standoff

Mighty Belts

  • Chilanik's Chain
  • Dread Iron
  • Girdle of Giants
  • Lamentation
  • Pride of Cassius
  • The Undisputed Champion

Belts

  • Saffron Wrap

Rings

  • Band of Might
  • Skull Grasp

Helms

  • Skull of Resonance

Bracers

  • Bracers of Destruction
  • Bracers of the First Men
  • Mortick's Brace
  • Skular's Salvation
  • Vambraces of Sescheron

Boots

  • Lut Socks

Shoulders

  • Fury of the Ancients
  • Vile Ward

Below are a few items that have mechanics that aren't immediately obvious from their description.

Ambo's Pride

Bastion's Revered

Blade of the Tribes

Bracers of Destruction

Standoff

Passives

Most of the Barbarian Passives revolve around damage buffs, toughness buffs and Fury generation. Below you can find a list that answers any questions regarding passive mechanics and their uses:

Animosity

Berserker Rage

Bloodthirst

Boon of Bul-Kathos

Brawler

Earthen Might

Inspiring Presence

Juggernaut

Nerves of Steel

No Escape

Pound of Flesh

Rampage

Relentless

Ruthless

Superstition

Sword and Board

Tough as Nails

Unforgiving

Weapons Master

Skills

Primary Skills

Bash

Cleave

Frenzy

Weapon Throw

Most Primary skills deal little damage and generate Fury with every attack. However, most builds can solve their resource issues by other means, and Primary skills are only used to proc the Bastions of Will bonuses or for the stat boosts they provide. Frenzy is the one exception, as it is even strong enough to deal significant damage with Bastion's Revered in the Frenzy Barb Build.

Damage Dealing Skills

Rend

Hammer of the Ancients

Seismic Slam

Earthquake

Furious Charge

Revenge

Overpower

Avalanche

Whirlwind

These are the main build-defining skills. Pick one of these, a Set that buffs it, 2-3 supporting Legendaries and you got yourself a build.

Revenge, Overpower and Avalanche are very lacking supporting legendaries and while you can make a DPS build around them, it will be very weak.

Whirlwind doesn’t deal much damage by itself, but it’s used in the Wrath of the Wastes build to apply Rend with Ambo’s Pride.

Hammer of the Ancients is another great DPS skill that is used in many strong Barbarian builds.

Seismic Slam can be used to deal damage, but there are usually better main skills available.

Earthquake has a very long cooldown that can be significantly reduced and actively triggered with other skills, such as Leap using the Might of the Earth Set.

Furious Charge is used as a DPS skill in only one build and as mobility tool in many others.

Shouts

War Cry

Threatening Shout

Battle Rage

War Cry is one of the strongest defense buffs in the game that also benefits your party members. Veteran's Warning is a very popular pick, especially for group play.

Threatening Shout can be used to weaken monsters or to increase their damage taken with Falter.

Battle Rage only affects the Barbarian himself and is very useful when dealing with large amounts of enemies while using Bloodshed or to heal with Swords to Ploughshares.

Horde of the Ninety Savages (2) Bonus doubles the effectiveness of these Shouts. Effectiveness doesn't include base buff effect duration nor range. The term effectiveness is rather vague and only refers to specific effects (more info above).
The Inspiring Presence passive doubles the duration of your shouts and heals your allies.

Utility Skills

Other Barbarian skills can be grouped together. They are used to round up the builds with additional pulling, provide damage, defense and utility benefits, or can be used to proc certain Sets or Legendaries.

SkillUsage
Wrath of the BerserkerWidely used offensive skill, provides huge buffs with a longer cooldown. The cooldown can be reduced with Boon of Bul-Kathos, Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac or Messerschmidt Reaver. Mainly used with Mortick's Brace to gain 50% increased damage and damage reduction.
LeapUsed from mobility, Fury gain and to trigger Earthquakes with Might of the Earth in combination with Lut Socks.
SprintMostly used with the Marathon rune for Torment or Bounty farming. Also very good on a zBarb with the Forced March rune.
Ignore PainWidely used defensive skill, provides 50% damage reduction and immunity to Crowd Control effects. Mostly used on zBarb with the Mob Rule rune in combination with Pride of Cassius.
Ancient SpearWidely used as Rage Flip in the Support build and in several high Greater Rift Solo pushing builds to gather huge amounts and kill them efficiently with Arena Damage and Bloodshed.
Ground StompMostly used as Wrenching Smash to stun and to create pixel pulls both in solo pushing build and group play.
Call of the AncientsUsed to gain the damage bonuses in combination with Remorseless and Immortal King's Call. Also has some use cases for toughness with the Together as One rune and Fury gain with Ancients' Fury.

Below are a few  select build-relevant skills with their mechanics explained in detail.

Ancient Spear Rage Flip

Ancient Spear Boulder Toss

Battle Rage Bloodshed

Earthquake & Critical Hit Chance

Furious Charge + The Legacy of Raekor

Ground Stomp Wrenching Smash

Hammer of the Ancients & Critical Hit Chance

Rend

War Cry & Threatening Shout

Summary

I hope you enjoyed this Barbarian class overview! Since the release of the game in May 2012 it has been by far my favorite and most played class. Whether you like to shred your enemies while moving at the speed of light or crush them with mighty attacks, the Barbarian is the class for you! On top of that, they are the best overall supporter in the entire game, being a vital part in almost every group setup and leading them to victory with our unique abilities. All hail the great Barbarians - Spin to win!

Credits

Written by Rob.
Reviewed by Northwar & Raxxanterax.
Updated by Chewingnom.

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