Double Swing Barbarian Endgame Build Guide
Welcome to the Diablo 4 Double Swing Barbarian Endgame Build Guide! This a hard-hitting, fast-paced melee build that excels at all content the game has to offer. Its small hit zone may seem underwhelming at first, but pile on some Attack Speed and a way to group enemies and Double Swing can make quick work of any surrounding opposition.
For skills, we focus on abilities that enable us to keep our damage, defense, mobility and Fury levels high. Rallying Cry and War Cry are great choices for this style of gameplay; they passively provide strong buffs to us and have reliable uptime. Using Strategic Ground Stomp resets our Ultimate and also inflicts Stun, which enables the Fury recoup of Violent Double Swing. Our Ultimate of choice is of course, Wrath of the Berserker, since it gives us a massive damage boost and even more Fury generation on top of it.
All of this combined makes us an Unstoppable machine that relentlessly cuts through hordes of enemies! With that said, let's not let this introduction slow us down any longer as we slice and dice our way through this Double Swing Endgame Guide!
This build guide assumes you have a Level 60 Character and unlocked Torment 1. To get there, level up with one of our Barbarian Leveling Guides. See how this Build compares against others with our various Build Tier Lists.
Season Theme
The Season 9 theme is the Sins of the Horadrim. This season allows you to craft unique Horadric Spells using three different components: a Catalyst, an Infusion, and three Arcana. You earn Catalysts and Infusions through the Seasonal Questline, and Arcana can be found while exploring Nightmare Dungeons. You choose a Skill as the trigger for your Horadric Spell. Once in Torment I or higher, Horadric Jewels can be crafted which replace the Gems in your Jewelry, that add additional power to your build.
Endgame Horadric Spell
Catalyst
You use Disintegrate as it has a long duration and is incredibly reliable. As long as you are positioned between the enemy and the Disintegrate, it applies its effects to the target.
Infusion
The Nebulous Extract Infusion is taken for the damage reduction it grants.
Arcana
- Fractured Core - Disables the damage resistance (purple) aura that is often seen in The Pit.
- Potent Alloy - Gets rid of enemy Barriers and incapacitates them; especially useful for higher levels of The Pit.
- Bloody Charm - Allows us to execute any non-Boss enemy when it reaches a certain health threshold (40% for normal enemies, 20% for everything else).
Optional Arcana
- Gleaming Conduit - Replaces Fractured Core for content where the damage resistance aura is not an issue. This makes Disintegrate a bit larger to help make Executions easier.
- Pressurized Steam - Provides extra Stuns for Violent Double Swing Fury recoup effect.
Best-in-Slot Horadric Jewels
- Reverie Horn - This is the dedicated Summon Jewel; it gives our Ancients a temporary 1.3x damage multiplier whenever something dies or becomes Injured.
- Idol From Below - Grants us a small boost to our Strength and Maximum Life, and also the Unhindered effect. The Jewel Guardians spawned from this help with progressing in The Pit and give us additional targets on Boss fights - this is useful for Shout uptime with Bold Chieftain's.
- Willbreaker - Our Earthquake and Twister procs deal Physical damage, so this is a no-brainer damage boost for them.
Learn more details about the season theme in our full Season Guide.
Skills & Gameplay
- Lunging Strike is required to advance the skill tree. Aside from that, there are benefits to using it in combat - primarily as a Fury generator when or during early progression. It is not used in the final version of the build.
- Double Swing is our main Core ability. It comes packed with some great utility by providing us a way to constantly refresh Vulnerable and Berserking any time it is used.
- Rallying Cry provides us multiple buffs, with the most important ones being Resource Generation, Movement Speed, and the invaluable Unstoppable effect.
- Challenging Shout boosts our defenses even higher with its massive damage reduction and health increase (which increases our Overpower damage), while also Taunting any monsters in range.
- War Cry functions as a generic damage aura while we are under its effect; at baseline, it gives us a 1.21x damage multiplier and we can further scale it with ranks on gear.
- Ground Stomp gives us a way to Stun enemies, which lets Violent Double Swing's Fury recoup kick in. It has additional utility in allowing us to reset our Ultimate based on the number of enemies it hits.
- Wrath of the Berserker is our primary source of Berserking and serves as yet another damage multiplier while active. With attention to Cooldown Reduction, we can have all of the buffs that this skill grants permanently active.
Skill Rotation
- Generally speaking, always try to initiate encounters while under the effects of Wrath of the Berserker and Shout buffs. Then...
- Proceed to shred everything to pieces with Double Swing! With sufficient Resource Generation and Cost Reduction (Ring of Starless Skies), as well as the combination of Violent Double Swing and the Wrath Glyph, we can self-sustain our Fury costs in pretty much any situation.
- Use Ground Stomp off cooldown to help reset Wrath of the Berserker and spawn Earthquakes for the Earthquakes Aspect. Using this skill also generates a large amount of Fury for us in a pinch.
(Season 9 PTR)
Note: Footage is from Season 9 PTR and intended for demonstration purposes only. Does not necessarily indicate the strength of the build in the current patch.
Arsenal System
The Arsenal System allows us to use a specific weapon for every attack skill, with each weapon granting different bonuses. We also have what is called the Technique Slot. With this, we can use any weapon of our choosing to always reap the benefit from, regardless of which weapon we have equipped.
For this purpose of this guide, the One-Handed Mace Expertise is one of our main weapon choices since we are dual-wielding - it gives us a 10% damage multiplier against Stunned enemies and access to other Mace-related buffs, like the Wallop passive and Crusher Glyph. The One-Handed Sword Expertise is our other weapon choice since we're using Ramaladni's Magnum Opus, a very powerful item that scales our damage based on our Maximum Fury.
In the Technique Slot, the Two-Handed Axe allows us to deal 10% more damage to Vulnerable enemies. This build has high Vulnerable uptime thanks to Enhanced Double Swing. Unfortunately, its secondary effect does not apply here - the limitation of the Technique Slot is that it does not allow us to benefit from the second bonus that is normally gained from reaching rank 10 with any weapon expertise.
Learn more details and how to unlock this system in our full Barbarian Class Overview.
Paragon & Glyphs
Carefully check your Paragon Boards to ensure correct board rotation. Glyphs go from a radius of 3 to 4 at level 15 and from 4 to 5 at level 46. Some of them cannot be activated before reaching these thresholds! Progress through The Pit to rank up your Glyphs.
Use the slider to see the progression steps. At around Paragon 200, leveling slows down significantly and all important Rare clusters, Legendary nodes and Glyph sockets should be unlocked. Afterwards, you can min/max your build with minor tweaks and by picking up additional smaller nodes.
Double Swing Barbarian Endgame Paragon
Some Glyph position swaps, board changes and other pathing adjustments may occur as you unlock your full potential. The setup displayed by default is the final version of the build before spending additional points that do not significantly impact your character's power.
Placeholder Glyphs
- Rumble and Twister
- These are only used in the early stages of the build, and are replaced by Ire and Crusher when swapping out of the Starter setup.
Glyph Leveling Priorities
Level 15
- Rumble
- Ambidextrous
- Twister
- Challenger
- Wrath
Level 46
- Challenger
- Wrath
- Ire
- Crusher
- Ambidextrous
Learn more details about the Paragon System in our in-depth Paragon Boards and Glyphs guide.
Runes
You can have up to two Runewords in your setup, each consisting of one Ritual and one Invocation Rune. Socket them in Two-Handed Weapons if your build calls for them, otherwise place them into your Armor pieces to replace normal gems. The Double Swing Barbarian focuses on the following combos:
Best in Slot
- Ahu + Xan - While in combat, this Runeword constantly procs Overpowers for us when attacking enemies that are below 80% health, and can trigger many times per attack.
- Cir + Zec - This Runeword helps reset Wrath of the Berserker so that we can have it up permanently; it is especially useful on Bosses, since Ground Stomp on a single target is typically not enough for a full reset.
Alternative choices
If you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top runes, you can also benefit from these options:
- Lith / Poc - Alternative Ritual Runes; can be used in place of either of the above (though they are inferior in most cases).
- Kry - A great damage option for some additional grouping utility.
- Lum - Helps with Fury sustain early on.
- Gar - A good way to boost Critical Strike Chance during early progression.
Learn more about Runes and how they work in our dedicated Runewords Overview and Runewords Tier List.
Mercenaries
Mercenaries are unlocked during the Vessel of Hatred campaign and assist you in battle. There are 4 separate Mercenaries to choose from, each with their own skill trees and abilities. You can have one hired (permanent) mercenary during solo play and a reinforcement who assists you from time to time in certain situations.
Hired: Subo
He's mainly used for his Seeker ability, which is just incredibly useful in all content since it reveals enemies on the mini-map; the value this has can not be understated. Aside from that, he just kinda shoots stuff and occasionally applies Stuns. His Iconic Skill, Cover Fire, gives us a pretty decent 25% damage multiplier as well when linked with Opening Fire.
Alternatively, Raheir and hisAegis can be used if Resistances need a touch-up at any point.
Reinforcement: Varyana
She uses Bloodthirst to increase our Attack Speed, which helps us reach the Attack Speed cap. She's a Barbarian too, so she gets cool points.
Learn more about Mercenaries and how they work in our dedicated Mercenaries Overview.
Stat Priorities & Item Progression
To enable the Double Swing Barbarian to perform optimally, hunt for these stats on your gear with good rolls and aim to Temper ⚒️ & Masterwork Crit ↑ them accordingly. The green arrow ↑ indicates which affix is most impactful to Masterwork Crit, and it does not indicate how many Masterwork Crits you need on that particular affix. Keep in mind that certain stats, such as Armor, Resistances, Extra Size Tempers, Attack Speed, and more, have caps that may affect your priorities according to the items and Paragon points available at that moment.
Recommended Endgame Stat Thresholds
- 90%+ Chance for Double Swing to Cast Twice
- 25%+ Double Swing Size
- 70%+ Attack Speed
- 20+ Ranks of Double Swing
- 250+ Maximum Fury
- 3500+ Strength
- Armor Capped 1,000
- Resistance Capped 70%+
- 12,000+ Life
- 160%+ Movement Speed
- 100% Wrath of the Berserker Uptime
- Use Zec / Ground Stomp to assist with this.
Item Progression Goals
Before you dive into the Endgame with the Double Swing Barbarian, take a look at this overview of the items used in the build. See below for further details about the different progression steps and variants. Some of your Skill Tree choices depend on what Legendary Aspects and Unique items are available to you. Keep in mind that while we can guarantee that everyone has access to the same Codex of Power Aspects, the exact progression is different for everyone.
Learn more details and how to farm Legendary Aspects and Uniques in our General Farming Guide.
Build Variants
This section is designed to guide your Double Swing Barbarian from a fresh level 60 into the very late endgame using the three variants Starter, Ancestral and Mythic. At the final step, you should be fully decked out with a great all-rounder build. From there, follow the other min/max variants if you want to optimize around certain activities such as Pit Pushing, Speedfarming and more.
If you are fresh in Torment 1 coming from a leveling guide, this is where you begin. Since only some Aspects can be guaranteed from Dungeon unlocks for the Codex of Power, focus on acquiring the additional Aspects via gambling with Murmuring Obols.
Gear & Skills
- Note: If arriving here after following the Double Swing Barbarian Leveling Guide, it's perfectly fine to continue using the Starter variant described in that guide if there are no issues. There is often more than one way to play a build successfully; feel free to choose or even combine ideas from both to customize the experience!
- During early progression, Armor & Resistances should be prioritized in order to survive. Each Torment difficulty adds a penalty of -250 Armor and -25% to all Resistances and it's recommended to keep both capped at all times; this means having a value of 1,000 for Armor and 70% for each Resistance. As masterworking levels and Paragon points are unlocked, character power naturally scales into the higher difficulties. As this happens, most of these stats can start being replaced with utility or offensive-oriented ones.
- Important: At this progression point, the level experience is much smoother with Double Swing if it is used with Earthquakes and Dust Devils for additional damage support! As such, this early setup aims to balance all of these damage types, rather than focus on one in particular.
- With that said, focus on acquiring and improving the Earthquake and Dust Devil-themed Aspects, as these contribute the most to our overall damage output:
- Earthquakes
- Executioner's
- Incendiary Fissures
- Windlasher
- Fierce Winds
- As for the rest of the setup, the focus is on defense and utlity:
- Juggernaut's and Steadfast Berserker's are both extremely important, especially at this progression point. The former is very helpful for reaching Armor cap, while the latter is a worry-free way of keeping Fortify.
- Bold Chieftain's helps keep our Shouts off cooldown so we can benefit from them as much as possible.
- Vehement Brawler's is another multiplicative damage increase, but also gives us additional Ultimate ranks.
- Anger Management gives us stress-free Berserking uptime.
- Ghostwalker is used in tandem with Rallying Cry for a large Movement Speed increase.
The goal here is to progress through the Torment difficulties as you unlock Ancestrals, Paragon points, all Legendary Aspects, Temper mods and the most important Uniques to pilot this build. Some Legendary Aspects are used temporarily to fill slots that may be replaced with more Unique items later on.
Gear & Skills
- As gear is upgraded to Ancestral and more masterworking levels and Paragon points are unlocked, we can focus on replacing Armor and Resistance rolls with more desirable stats; however, staying capped at 1,000 Armor and 70% for all Resistances should always remain a priority for the current difficulty level.
- Important: At this progression point, the goal is to transition from Earthquake and Dust Devil damage and start focusing on Double Swing. It's not recommended to swap until all essential pieces are in place! Continue playing the Starter setup until the following are acquired:
- Ugly Bastard Helm gives us a massive damage multiplier and comes with a bunch of great stats, all of which benefit us in some way. The most important ones to focus on are Ranks to Aggressive Resistance and Wrath of the Berserker Cooldown Reduction.
- Twin Strikes is Double Swing's dedicated Unique item, and it comes packed with great stats. Whenever we trigger an Overpower, the additional hits from this item also Overpower - which means we can dish out a ton of damage when the Chance for Double Swing to Hit Twice temper also kicks in.
- Ramaladni's Magnum Opus is a pure damage item that scales based on our Maximum Fury. Because of this, we prioritize this stat on gear and with paragon points.
- For the above reason, Tibault's Will is a great choice - not only for its inherent damage multiplier, but also the large amount of Maximum Fury it grants. The conditional damage reduction it provides is a nice touch as well.
- Rakanoth's Wake is a good way to keep up with our Resistances at this stage, as they can be quite difficult to cap without a dedicated slot. The additional Cooldown Reduction this item provides makes it an even better choice.
This is the final version of the build's progression, including all regular Unique items, Mythic Uniques, Legendary Aspects, Temper mods and Masterworking, leaving you with a great all-rounder build for all content in the game. Additional variants use this as a baseline to optimize around certain activities.
Gear & Skills
- Heir of Perdition is a fantastic upgrade here, as it grants us some much needed Critical Strike Chance and a bunch of Core Skill Ranks.
- Shroud of False Death is an extremely strong item, despite its stats not being terribly interesting. Its main draw is its +1 to All Passives implicit - this alone gives us a ton of damage and utility and is basically unmatched in terms of power when it comes to this gear slot.
- Ring of Starless Skies offers us much of the same as Heir of Perdition, but with some extra Attack Speed on top of it. The Fury Cost Reduction we get from this item makes sustaining Double Swing very simple.
FAQ & Mechanics
Once a guide is released, many players have questions on why and how we are approaching certain choices. In this section you can find the answers to the questions that have been asked the most.
- Bring up your active skills (default keybind: [s]).
- Hover over the skill you wish to assign a weapon to.
- Cycle through the available weapons to choose which to assign to the skill (default keybind: MOUSE3).
To see which weapons for each skill are used in this build, hover over the skill bar in the introduction of this guide.
Mechanics
Learn about the mechanical details which makes the build tick.
Summary
The Double Swing Barbarian is a fast-paced powerhouse that excels in lower tier content. Here's why it's a great build:
- Permanent Wrath of the Berserker uptime with Cooldown Reduction-focused gear and Strategic Ground Stomp.
- Can self-sustain Fury with the help of Stuns and Knock Downs.
- Great uptime on all Shout buffs with the help of Bold Chieftain's.
- Permanent Vulnerable uptime with Enhanced Double Swing.
- Lots of Orange numbers! Whenever a single Overpower happens, many additional instances trigger at the same time
Credits
Written by snail