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 as a proc-based build, it gets some incredible area of effect coverage from Earthquakes and Dust Devils. This coverage makes Double Swing more of a support tool that easily keeps the Berserking status active while spreading Stuns and other Crowd Control effects.
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. Additionally, Wrath of the Berserker gives us a massive damage boost and resource regeneration, with some healthy Movement Speed to go along with them. Ground Stomp helps keep our Ultimate off cooldown, and also provides us with additional damage from the Earthquake aftershocks it creates. Lastly, Hammer of the Ancients gives us a Knock Down effect when it lands, while simultaneously exploding all of our active ground effects for massive damage.
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.
Witchcraft Powers
Season 7 is the Season of Witchcraft. It features two separate borrowed power mechanics in the forms of Witchcraft Powers and Occult Gems. Both Seasonal mechanics are unlocked and improved by new NPCs found at the Tree of Whispers after collecting resources from Headhunt Zones, Seasonal areas similar to Helltide that appear across Sanctuary.
There are 25 Witchcraft Powers, 6 of which can be equipped at a time. Each Power belongs to one of four Schools (Eldritch, Growth & Decay, Psyche, and Lost), tags that promote synergies within themselves and with Occult Gems. Each School has a single Unique Witchcraft Power, only one of which can be equipped at a time. These Unique Powers max out and gain an additional effect at rank 5, while the other Powers max at rank 21 and gain their bonus effects at various levels. To unlock and improve Witchcraft Powers, defeat Headrotten or complete Whispers within the Headhunt Zones to collect Restless Rot. Lost Powers are an exception, requiring you to randomly encounter a Forgotten Altar in Dungeons to unlock them.
Best-in-Slot Witchcraft Powers
- Piranhado - This is a fantastic ability that passively and automatically groups up enemies for us.
- Soul Harvest - This Power dramatically increases Core Stats based on monster density and is a reliably strong choice, especially since we are pretty much always casting a skill that has a cooldown.
- Shaken Soul - This is used in combination with Aura of Siphoning to constantly apply Vulnerable to all enemies in its radius.
- Aura of Siphoning - As mentioned above, this is our primary source of Vulnerable. The additional healing this Power gives is also a very welcome defensive buff.
- Aura Specialization - The extra area of effect that it grants our Aura is nice, but the Critical Strike Damage multiplier that comes with leveling it makes this an even better choice.
- Hex of Whispers - Serves as our third Growth & Decay Power, which is necessary in order to activate Friend of the Bog.
Alternate Witchcraft Powers
- The Cycle - This power can be used as a replacement Growth & Decay Power for Aura of Siphoning. If this is used, it's wise to socket the Hungering Void Occult Gem to keep some grouping utility.
- Aura of Misfortune - The alternative to Aura of Siphoning, this Power mitigates some incoming damage while boosting Movement Speed. Unfortunately, it's ineffective against Bosses.
Occult Gems
Rarely, Headrotten Bosses appear with a still-attached Fugitive Head stolen from the Tree of Whispers. Slay these enemies and return the Heads to Gelena to unlock and upgrade Occult Gems. These Gems are socketable in Jewelry and each provide +160 Armor and +8% Resistance to All Elements. More importantly, each Occult Gem grants a unique effect that synergizes with your equipped Witchcraft Powers to provide a variety of Offensive, Defensive, and Utility-based bonuses.
Best-in-Slot Occult Gems
- Moonlight Ward - This a fantastic defensive Gem that scales with our Piranhado levels for a total of 15% damage reduction and 2.5% to our maximum resistances.
- Friend of the Bog - Extra Core Stats improve both skill damage (which includes Earthquakes) and the Executioner's damage multiplier. Maximum Life is self-explanatory; more life = less dying. Unhindered doesn't help us much since we are typically using Leap or under the effects of Rallying Cry, but it's there if needed.
- Hungering Void - Another way to pull mobs together, on an 8 second timer. It can also just be used as a replacement for Piranhado.
Alternate Occult Gems
- Dust Stone - We have one Aura and one Hex in this setup, so this Gem gives enemies a total of 4% increased damage taken.
- Killing Wind - Provides some extra Critical Strike Chance and Movement Speed. It has some use in the early gearing process.
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 needed 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 our Berserking status any time it is used. Against Stunned enemies, it even becomes spammable because of Enhanced Double Swing.
- Hammer of the Ancients is our method of exploding our active Earthquakes when it is paired with Mantle of Mountain's Fury. In addition, it causes Knock Down on enemies, which disables them and keeps our Fury topped off while using Double Swing.
- Rallying Cry gives us a substantial Movement Speed boost, Unstoppable, Fortify, and increases our Fury generation while active.
- Ground Stomp does several things. Its primary uses are helping reset our Ultimate, and most importantly, spawning Earthquakes. Additionally, it's great for taking advantage of Enhanced Double Swing since it always inflicts Stun on normal enemies.
- War Cry is typically our primary way of initiating the Berserking status, and aside from that, it functions as a generic damage multiplier while we are under its effect.
- Wrath of the Berserker is just a great skill to fall back on when more damage is needed, especially against Bosses.
Skill Rotation
- Generally, always try to initiate encounters while under the effects of Berserking and Shout buffs.
- Ground Stomp groups of enemies to Stun them and create Earthquakes.
- Proceed to shred enemies with Double Swing! With Fists of Fate and Concussion support, enemies quickly become crippled while even more Earthquakes from the Tec Rune spawn underneath them.
- With Mantle of Mountain's Fury equipped, end their suffering at any time with one press of Hammer of the Ancients, which causes a massive eruption and consumes all active Earthquakes.
- Wrath of the Berserker is always in your pocket for when it's needed - always try to make sure it's back up in time for Boss fights at the very least. Strategic Ground Stomp helps keep it off cooldown.
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 our main weapon choices since we are dual-wielding. With two of them equipped, we get a very nice 20% damage multiplier against Stunned enemies. With Ground Stomp and Concussion support, this happens very frequently, but unfortunately it doesn't have any effect against Bosses (unless they are Staggered). Another benefit of wielding a Mace is being able to use the Wallop passive, which is another pretty decent generic multiplier.
In the Technique Slot, the Two-Handed Axe allows us to deal 10% more damage to Vulnerable enemies. This build has high Vulnerable uptime when using the gear affix "Lucky Hit: Chance to Make Enemies Vulnerable." 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 class specification in our full Arsenal System Guide.
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.
Glyph Leveling Priorities
Level 15
- Rumble
- Ire
- Territorial
- Challenger
- Ambidextrous
Level 21
- Rumble
- Challenger
- Ire
- Territorial
- Ambidextrous
There are a total of 328 Paragon Points. After reaching level 60, you gain up to 300 Paragon Levels, 24 from Renown and 4 from Altars of Lilith. Check out our dedicated in-depth guides to learn more about Paragon Boards and Glyphs.
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
- Tam + Tec - While in combat, this Runeword constantly spawns Earthquakes when we cast either of our Core Skills. This is where the majority of our damage comes from.
- Igni + Gar - This Runeword passively helps us cap our Critical Strike Chance. It's a simple but effective boost to our overall damage output.
Alternative choices
If you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top runes, you can also benefit from these options:
- Lith / Poc - Alternatives for Tam.
- Ohm - Gives us a way to cast War Cry without having it on our skill bar. For Barbarians, this Rune scales with any additional ranks we have in the skill tree or on gear.
- Lum - Helps with Fury sustain.
- Zec - Can assist with keeping our Ultimate off cooldown; useful early on when lacking Cooldown Reduction.
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.
Reinforcement: Raheir
He uses the Crater skill, which helps keep enemies grouped up. This can act as an extra defensive layer as well since it has the ability to inflict Stun.
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. 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
- 80%+ Critical Strike Chance (with Gar)
- 70%+ Chance for Earthquakes to Cast Twice
- 70%+ Earthquake Size
- 25% Earthquake Duration
- 450%+ Damage while Berserking (Blood Rage)
- 500%+ Damage to Close Enemies (Force of Nature)
- 3000+ Strength
- Armor Capped 1,000
- Resistance Capped 70%+
- 15,000+ Life
- 160%+ Movement Speed
- 60%+ Ultimate Cooldown Reduction
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.
- Focus on acquiring and improving the Earthquake themed Aspects, as these contribute the most to our damage output:
- Bul-Kathos
- Earthquakes
- Executioner's
- Incendiary Fissures
- 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.
- The Ancestral Charge and Brawler's combination is very powerful early on; these are great for staying mobile and providing supplemental damage.
- Giant Strides helps keep our Leap off cooldown, which improves our mobility and lets us create more Earthquakes via Bul-Kathos.
- Ghostwalker is used in tandem with Rallying Cry and Charge 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.
- Ugly Bastard Helm is an incredibly strong item that gives some damage reduction from ranks of Aggressive Resistance, as well as a hefty damage multiplier via its Unique effect. The Wrath of the Berserker Cooldown Reduction is extremely helpful for improving uptime on our Ultimate.
- Mantle of Mountain's Fury turns our Hammer of the Ancients into a detonation device and allows us to lean into the "HotaQuake" style of play. Once this item is acquired, the priority becomes blowing up our active Earthquakes for huge bursts of explosive damage.
- Fists of Fate, when rolled well, is a 50% damage multiplier on average and provides a lot of good stats along with it. The Lucky Hit-based Crowd Controls are great for locking down enemies and staggering Bosses. The high amount of Lucky Hit Chance this item provides also ensures we have good uptime on any ability or effect that relies on it.
- Wrath of the Berserker is also taken at this point, since our gear choices allow it to have significant uptime.
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
- Ring of Starless Skies is a rather obvious choice; it gives a bunch of Critical Strike Chance, Attack Speed, and a large damage multiplier that is very simple to keep active.
This Speedfarming variant optimizes the build for easy activities like Helltides, Whispers, Nightmare Dungeons and lower Pit Tiers after you have finished the Mythic variant and reached a plateau in your progression.
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Gear & Skills
- For a setup that is focused purely on speed, Harlequin Crest is a great choice for the sheer amount of Cooldown Reduction it gives to all of our skills, especially ones that keep us mobile like Charge and Leap.
- Yen's Blessing gives us essentially permanent uptime on a Shout of our choosing, since it will auto-cast it periodically when it is on cooldown.
This setup optimizes the build to push the highest possible Tiers in The Pit after you have finished the Mythic variant and reached a plateau in your progression.
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Gear & Skills
- The Grandfather is used in this setup to help maximize damage. The increase to Maximum Fury helps us scale Ramaladni's Magnum Opus, and its Unique effect serves as a permanent 2x damage multiplier since we have 100% Critical Strike Chance.
- Challenging Shout is taken here for some extra damage reduction.
- We don't prioritize Damage to Close Enemies in this setup because Tec is our only source of Earthquakes, and these are not affected by the damage bonus given by Force of Nature.
- Elixirs and Incenses:
- Elixir of Resourcefulness II.
- Chorus of War.
- Soothing Spices.
- Ancient Times.
(WIP)
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.
Why am I running out of Fury?
How do I assign skills to the correct weapon?
Mechanics
Learn about the mechanical details which makes the build tick.
Coming Soon
Summary
The Double Swing Barbarian is a fast-paced powerhouse that excels in most content. Here's why it's a great build:
- Permanent Berserking uptime thanks to Furious Double Swing.
- Self-sufficient Fury costs from Stuns thanks to Enhanced Double Swing.
- Permanent Wrath of the Berserker uptime with Cooldown Reduction-focused gear.
- High mobility when using Leap and Charge.
- High Attack Speed with help from Warrior's Rupture.
- Great area of effect and damage via Dust Devils and Earthquakes, with multiple ways to generate them.
Credits
Written by snail