Rend Barbarian Endgame Build Guide
Welcome to the Rend Barbarian Guide! Rend is an ability that is quite different than the other Core Skills the Barbarian has access to. Rather than direct damage, it excels at dealing damage over time by applying many layers of Bleed.
Being a Bleed-focused build changes the way we scale our damage compared to most direct damage builds. We prioritize Critical Strike Damage to juice up our Gushing Wounds Key Passive and Vulnerable Damage to increase the effectiveness of the Hemorrhage Paragon node. We also get to benefit from Aspects not typcially seen, such as Creeping Death.
For support, we take the all-too-familiar Shout skills, specifically Challenging Shout for defense and Rallying Cry for the Unstoppable buff, Fury generation and Movement Speed. Rupture is a very visually satisfying skill that causes our Bleed effects to explode and deal tremendous (and gratuitous) area of effect damage. Steel Grasp is there to group enemies and grant Berserking, and lastly, we have Call of the Ancients to grant us a damage and Attack Speed buff, as well as some extra Fury recoup.
While Bleed isn't currently the most meta-defining style of play, it can still do most things the game has to offer fairly efficiently, and let's face it, Rupture spam with tempered Explosion Size is way too fun and awesome. With that said, lets get our hands messy and see what Rend can do.
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 6 is the Season of Hatred Rising. It features the Zakarum Remnants faction which hunts Realmwalkers, massive behemoths that roam outdoor zones and beckon Mephisto's hellspawn. Participate in these zone events and take down the Realmwalkers to spawn a portal to a Seething Realm. There you can acquire Seething Opals, new consumables that stack with Elixirs for a XP buff and the chance to gather extra rewards when defeating enemies. The types of Opals are:
- Seething Opal of Equipment
- Seething Opal of Gold
- Seething Opal of Materials
- Seething Opal of Torment
- Seething Opal of Socketables
Use these Opals at all times to earn reputation with the Zakarum Remnants faction and unlock further rewards.
Learn more details about the season theme in our full Season Guide.
Skills & Gameplay
- Flay is needed to advance the skill tree. This skill isn't used in the final version of the build, but it has some use during early progression.
- Rend is the Core Skill that this build revolves around. It inflicts Bleed damage and has some great built-in functionality, being able to extend the duration of Vulnerable and multiplicatively increase its damage in the process.
- Rallying Cry provides us multiple buffs, including Fury regeneration, Movement Speed, and the invaluable Unstoppable effect while active.
- Challenging Shout boosts our defenses even higher with its massive damage reduction and health increase, while also Taunting any monsters in range.
- Rupture is a fantastic skill for swiftly executing enemies that have had heavy Bleed damage applied to them. It erupts in an explosion of crimson and decimates everything within its area of effect. In many cases, this skill can even dispatch large groups of enemies by itself.
- Steel Grasp is a helpful tool for grouping of enemies, and has the added functionality of applying Vulnerable and granting Berserking.
- Call of the Ancients is taken for its multiplicative damage boost and a decent amount of Attack Speed, as well as some Fury generation. With Arreat's Bearing equipped it has a very low cooldown, meaning we benefit from it quite often.
Skill Rotation
- Generally, always try to initiate encounters while under the effects of Berserking and Shout buffs.
- Use Steel Grasp to group up enemies and apply Vulnerable.
- Rupture for an Attack Speed boost, as well as Warpath and Decimator activation.
- Proceed to Rend everything in sight! When enough Bleed has been applied, Rupture again for a fatally bloody explosion.
- Call of the Ancients can generally be cast whenever it's off cooldown for another big damage spike. At the very least, make sure it's back up in time for Boss fights.
- Earthquakes from the Tec Rune passively activate the Earthquakes Aspect and Rumble Glyph while we fight, granting us additional damage multipliers.
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 Sword Expertise and One-Handed Mace Expertise are our main weapon choices since we are dual-wielding. The first offers us a way to help offset our Fury consumption, and to better utilize Ramaladni's Magnum Opus when it is acquired in the endgame. Our second choice has great utility when used against Stunned enemies, offering us a generic damage multiplier as well synergy with other damage sources such as the Wallop passive.
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 Rend's natural ability to extend it. 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.
Rend 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
- Exploit
- Replaced by Rumble once our Vulnerable Damage reaches 300% and we have access to Earthquakes.
- Territorial
- Replaced when we get Wrath to level 46.
- Executioner
- Replaced by Ambidextrous when we obtain Ramaladni's Magnum Opus.
Glyph Leveling Priorities
Level 15
- Territorial
- Ire
- Exploit
- Executioner
- Challenger
Level 46
- Ire
- Wrath
- Ambidextrous
- Challenger
- Rumble
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 Rend Barbarian focuses on the following combos:
Best in Slot
- Lith + Ohm - While in combat, this Runeword casts 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.
- Tam + Tec - This combination spawns an Earthquake for us whenever we cast Rend 4 times. We use Earthquakes to benefit from the Rumble Glyph and Earthquakes Aspect.
Alternative choices
If you haven't unlocked the final setup or found the top runes, you can also benefit from these options:
- Cir - Alternative for Tam.
- Gar - Helps cover gear options when trying to reach 100% Critical Strike Chance.
- Lum - Helps with Fury sustain.
- Zec - Can assist with keeping our Ultimate off cooldown; useful early on when lacking Cooldown Reduction.
- Wat - Can be used as an extra defensive layer and to Execute enemies at 10% health or lower.
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: Raheir
He has a lot to offer us from a defensive standpoint. Skills like Valiance and Bastion help protect us from heavy hits and grant Unstoppable. Bastion also works in tandem with Ground Slam to provide some very strong offensive buffs with Inspiration. Lastly, he provides a pretty decent boost to all of our Resistances, which can help compensate for low rolls on gear.
Reinforcement: Aldkin
He serves as a nice panic button for dangerous encounters by casting Field of Languish, which slows enemies and reduces their damage.
Learn more about Mercenaries and how they work in our dedicated Mercenaries Overview.
Stat Priorities & Item Progression
To enable the Rend 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
- 90%+ Critical Strike Chance
- 80%+ Chance for Rend to Hit Twice
- 30%+ Rend Size
- 450%+ Damage while Berserking (Blood Rage)
- 300%+ Vulnerable Damage (Hemorrhage)
- 2,000%+ Critical Strike Damage (Gushing Wounds)
- 2500+ Strength
- Armor Capped 1,000
- Resistance Capped 70%+
- 8,000+ Life
- 180%+ Movement Speed
- 200+ Maximum Fury
- 70%+ Ultimate Cooldown Reduction
Item Progression Goals
Before you dive into the Endgame with the Rend 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 Rend 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 Rend 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.
- Juggernaut's, Steadfast Berserker's, and Anger Management are all extremely important, especially at this progression point. The former is very helpful for reaching Armor cap, while the latter two provide worry-free ways of keeping Fortify and Berserking.
- Might provides some additional damage reduction for a duration whenever we attack with Flay.
- Bold Chieftain's helps keep our Shouts off cooldown so we can benefit from them as much as possible.
- Vocalized Empowerment is useful for helping offset our Fury expsenses while we have Shouts active.
- Edgemaster's, Inner Calm, and Earthquake are all generic multipliers that increase our damage. Earthquakes are created with Ground Stomp and the Tec Rune.
- Inevitable Fate and Berserk Ripping are DoT-focused damage sources that have good synergy with Bleed.
- 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.
- 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 can be completely ignored; even though this is a wasted stat, everything else is too good to pass up.
- Rage of Harrogath is a great choice for this build because of our ability to inflict Bleed from Rend and Rupture. This allows us to keep our Shouts and other abilities off cooldown very frequently. It also inherently gives a decent chunk of Critical Strike Chance.
- Arreat's Bearing allows tremendous uptime on Call of the Ancients and helps us cap our Resistances.
- Ramaladni's Magnum Opus is an item that gives us a huge damage multiplier that is based on our Maximum Fury. For this reason, we prioritize this stat on gear and through other means, such as the Core Reserve and Hungering Fury paragon nodes.
- 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.
- Note: In the event this item has a bugged interaction with Ramaladni's Magnum Opus (needs to be re-tested in Season 6) and doesn't work, use Devilish here instead.
- Temper Earthquake Size and Critical Strike Damage.
- See more information about this bugged interaction in the FAQ section.
- Ring of the Ravenous is a Unique that was designed specifically for Rend. On top of the large amount of skill ranks it gives, it also increases the duration of Rend up to a whopping 8 seconds. If that wasn't enough, it also comes packed with a decent chunk of Critical Strike Chance.
- Slaking is a useful Aspect that increases our Maximum Fury and gives a Lucky Hit-based chance of restoring it. It is especially good when combined with Fists of Fate.
- Relentless Berserker's is used alongside Steel Grasp and Blood Rage to keep our Berserking status.
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 loaded with great stats for this build and is pretty much a no-brainer. It easily lets us hit Critical Strike Chance cap, gives a ton of ranks to Rend, and comes with a built-in 60% damage multiplier.
- 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
- Shattered Vow is great for speed content, especially with Charge and Rupture spam. Group stuff up, press Rupture, and watch entire packs instantly explode.
- Giant Strides helps keep Leap off cooldown, but alternatively, Ring of Starless Skies can be played here instead.
- Ancestral Charge is used to make grouping up enemies much more efficient.
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.
How do I assign my weapons to the correct slot?
Summary
The Rend Barbarian is a Bleed-focused that shines mostly in lower tier content. While not the strongest build in the game, it's still fun and very visually satisfying. Here's what makes it good:
- High Berserking uptime with help from Relentless Berserker's.
- High uptime on Shout buffs and other cooldowns with Rage of Harrogath.
- High Ultimate uptime with Call of the Ancients and Arreat's Bearing.
- Visually satisfying Bleed explosions that are made possible by Rupture.
- Offers a unique gameplay experience with damage over time, rather than the direct damage that is present in many other builds.
Credits
Written by snail