Whirlwind Barbarian Endgame Build Guide
The Whirlwind Barbarian Guide provides an iconic playstyle that is loved by many - the classic "hold down one button and destroy everything in my path" playstyle, or as it is more commonly known, "spin to win."
Whether it's speedfarming Nightmare Dungeons, circling the Infernal Hordes, blasting through The Pit or anything in between - Whirlwind does it all. It is extremely versatile in both what it can accomplish and also in its choice of gearing. Feel like bludgeoning your foes to death in a whirling fit of rage? Pick up that Two-Handed Mace and go ham. Want to just spin faster and rip things to shreds? Then dual-wielding a One-Handed Mace and One-Handed Sword might be for you. In this guide, our primary focus will be on wielding a Polearm, as it offers us a good balance of power and comfiness for much of the game.
In Season 7, we're completely abandoning the familiar Dust Devils-themed setups that previously made Whirlwind great, and instead focusing on the newly buffed Earthquakes, which have some amazing new supporting Aspects such as Executioner's and Incendiary Fissures. The good news is, the build plays practically the same - just with much more power!
If becoming a human blender and conjuring up natural disasters sounds like your idea of a good time, then let out your loudest Rallying Cry as we Whirlwind our way through this Endgame Barbarian Guide!
Requirements for this build
- Tec (this is how we make Earthquakes!)
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
- 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 is extremely useful for this build, as it removes the inherent Movement Speed penalty from channeling Whirlwind. For all of these reasons, especially the latter, make this your first priority!
- 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.
- 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 5% 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 needed to progress the skill tree. This is not used in the build but can have its uses during the early leveling process.
- Whirlwind is the core of our build, but not because of the base damage of the skill itself. We instead use it as a Bleed source and as our main way of spawning Earthquakes, which is where the bulk of our damage comes from.
- Rallying Cry provides us multiple buffs, including Fury regeneration, movement speed, and the invaluable Unstoppable effect while active.
- War Cry grants us the Berserking buff and a generous multiplicative damage boost while active.
- Challenging Shout gives us huge damage reduction and a boost to our Maximum Life. This is a crucial skill for surviving the more difficult content in the game, such as higher levels of The Pit.
- Rupture is a damage multiplier for our Earthquakes when combined with Warpath and Decimator. This is technically a flexible slot; Ground Stomp is also a fine choice here.
- Call of the Ancients is taken for its multiplicative damage boost, and also as a secondary high damage source when combined with Arreat's Bearing and Heavy Hitter.
Skill Rotation
- Spin. Yeah. That's kind of it. Spin and cast Shouts.
- Call of the Ancients can generally be cast whenever it's off cooldown for another big damage spike. It also pulls enemies when linked with Raheir's Crater.
- Rupture should be used on Elite packs and Bosses as needed for, you guessed it, more damage.
- Earthquakes from the Tec Rune also passively generate Dust Devils thanks to Force of Nature for a slight overall damage increase.
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 Polearm Expertise is our main weapon choice. This is a great weapon to wield because it enables us to inflict Bleeds with Furious Whirlwind. The inherent 15% damage multiplier it gives us is quite nice, and it also has one of the best weapon-based damage Glyphs, Executioner.
In the Technique Slot, the Two-Handed Axe allows us to deal 10% more damage to Vulnerable enemies. This build has high Vulnerable uptime with Tactical Ground Stomp and Shaken Soul. 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.
Whirlwind 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.
Optional Glyphs
- Marshal
- Used in Pit Pushing variant.
Glyph Leveling Priorities
Level 15
- Rumble
- Ire
- Territorial
- Challenger
- Executioner
Level 46
- Rumble
- Challenger
- Ire
- Territorial
- Executioner
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 Whirlwind Barbarian focuses on the following combos:
Best in Slot
- Bac + Tec - This combination allows us to spawn Earthquakes while channeling Whirlwind. We get the majority of our damage from this Runeword.
- 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:
- Poc - Alternative for Bac.
- 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 Whirlwind 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
- 200%+ Movement Speed
- 60%+ Ultimate Cooldown Reduction
Item Progression Goals
Before you dive into the Endgame with the Whirlwind 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 Whirlwind 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 Whirlwind 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, 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. Offset Anger Management with Fury per Second rolls.
- Bold Chieftain's helps keep our Shouts off cooldown so we can benefit from them as much as possible.
- Elements is a solid generic multiplier that increases our damage when it changes to Physical.
- Ghostwalker is used in tandem with Rallying Cry for a large Movement Speed increase.
- If Resource is an issue:
- Roll Resource Cost Reduction instead of Vulnerable Damage on weapons.
- Use Poc (or any other trigger) + Lum to recoup some Fury.
- Use Lunging Strike! Optional points can be taken in Endless Fury as well.
- Roll Fury per Second (can be rolled on Helm, Chest and Boots).
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.
- Arreat's Bearing allows tremendous uptime on Call of the Ancients and helps us cap our Resistances. Aside from that, the Ancients themselves are very powerful; the Dust Devils and Earthquakes that they generate benefit from pretty much all of the modifiers we're already using to buff our own.
- 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.
- Don't use this item if it is rolled poorly. The Unique effect is the most important (aim for 280%+), but consider the other stats as well (Critical Strike Chance in particular, as it can roll as low as 0.1%). Legendary Gloves with Strength and an Offensive Aspect like Elements are solid placeholders, and in some cases they are just the better option.
- Vocalized Empowerment is taken here to help with our Fury costs.
- Continue using Lunging Strike at this stage if needed.
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.
- Why Rupture?
- This activates Warpath and Decimator for a total of 34% more damage for 5 seconds.
- Why not Hammer of the Ancients?
- It's not needed in pretty much all content, and at the time of this writing, still a little buggy. If you like seeing the explosions though, it's a perfectly viable choice (and it's fun).
- Why no Movement Speed on Boots?
- Once Friend of the Bog is acquired, this is no longer needed. This is because the Unhindered effect from this Gem removes the Movement Speed penalty that Whirlwind usually possesses, so we only need +100% total. We get this from:
- Ghostwalker (+30%).
- Rallying Cry (+30%).
- Berserking (+15%).
- Tempers (as needed).
- Furthermore, Rank 5 Call of the Ancients gives another +50% while active. With the correct gear, this is essentially a permanent buff, which means Rallying Cry and Berserking are practically enough to cap Movement Speed on their own. Always be cautious of this fact when tempering or rolling gear! Relentless Berserker's, Concussive Strikes, or Grasping Whirlwind all have their uses if Ghostwalker is not needed.
- Once Friend of the Bog is acquired, this is no longer needed. This is because the Unhindered effect from this Gem removes the Movement Speed penalty that Whirlwind usually possesses, so we only need +100% total. We get this from:
- Tempering Jewelry:
- This can be a little tricky depending on gear choices. With a Cooldown Reduction greater affix on Arreat's Bearing, especially with masterwork hits, it's entirely possible that this stat becomes almost meaningless when tempered on a Ring or Amulet. Likewise, as explained above, Movement Speed isn't needed with good gear either. That leaves these as our best remaining choices:
- Rupture Cooldown Reduction.
- Ground Stomp Cooldown Reduction (if playing this skill instead).
- War Cry Cooldown Reduction.
- Resource Generation.
- Basically, it's a good idea to figure out which option suits your playstyle before strictly committing to the choices described here, especially if you're planning on playing a different build.
- For example, if you have trouble managing your Movement Speed buffs, the build will feel vastly better by prioritizing Movement Speed rolls and tempers on gear.
- This can be a little tricky depending on gear choices. With a Cooldown Reduction greater affix on Arreat's Bearing, especially with masterwork hits, it's entirely possible that this stat becomes almost meaningless when tempered on a Ring or Amulet. Likewise, as explained above, Movement Speed isn't needed with good gear either. That leaves these as our best remaining choices:
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 Leap.
- Grasping Whirlwind instead of Fists of Fate gives us some more grouping utility and eliminates random damage.
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
- Shroud of False Death is the best Armor choice when combined with Unconstrained and Supreme Wrath of the Berserker. The huge amount of All Stats is great (Strength naturally scales our Earthquake damage, even more so with Executioner's), but the ranks to All Passives is the main draw here, especially since this (likely unintentionally) includes Unconstrained.
- Damage multiplier without Shroud of False Death: 1 + (0.6 (Unconstrained) * 2 (Supreme Wrath of the Berserker)) = 2.2x
- Damage multiplier with Shroud of False Death: 1 + (0.95 (Unconstrained) * 2 (Supreme Wrath of the Berserker)) = 2.9x
- This is a total of ~31.8% more damage.
- Damage is increased further from the additional extra ranks of various offensive Passives:
- Damage multiplier from Passives without Shroud of False Death: (1.12 (Warpath) * 1.18 (Pit Fighter Rank 6) * 1.15 (Slaying Strike) * 1.12 (Counteroffensive ) * 1.36 (Heavy Handed Rank 6) * 1.15 (Wallop) * 5.05 (Heavy Hitter Rank 27)) = ~13.4x
- Damage multiplier from Passives with Shroud of False Death: (1.16 (Warpath) * 1.21 (Pit Fighter Rank 7) * 1.2 (Slaying Strike) * 1.16 (Counteroffensive ) * 1.42 (Heavy Handed Rank 7) * 1.2 (Wallop) * 5.2 (Heavy Hitter Rank 28)) = ~17.3x
- This is a total of ~29.1% more damage.
- This gives us a grand total of ~70.2% more damage (not including the increased All Stats).
- To compare, Mantle of Mountain's Fury is 60.7% more damage on average.
- Additionally, we also reap the benefits of extra ranks of defensive and utility passives such as Martial Vigor, Imposing Presence , Booming Voice, and Raid Leader.
- Exploiter's gives us a large multiplicative damage boost against enemies that become Unstoppable from Crowd Control effects, mostly from Fists of Fate.
- Concussive Strikes gives us a 1.25x damage multiplier against Dazed enemies, which is inflicted by both this Aspect and Fists of Fate. This is effective versus Staggered Bosses as well.
- Violent Hammer of the Ancients grants a 1.4x global damage multiplier when it lands an Overpower hit with the Igni + Xan combo. This hit also activates Warpath and Decimator.
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 skills to the correct weapon?
Why am I running out of Fury?
Mechanics
Much of the information in this section has been carefully and thoroughly tested by Icytroll and is extracted directly from the Barbarian Compendium. This should be your main source for the most accurate and up-to-date explanations on all mechanics that pertain to the Barbarian class.
Earthquake
Whirlwind
Unconstrained
Rumble
Blood Rage
Force of Nature
Weapons Master
Mantle of Mountain's Fury
Ugly Bastard Helm
Berserking
Fortify
Summary
The Whirlwind Barbarian is a very relaxed build that does well in most content, especially speedfarming. Here's why it's a great build:
- Extremely relaxed and chill gameplay!
- High uptime on all Shout buffs: Rallying Cry, War Cry and Challenging Shout (as needed).
- High Ultimate uptime with Call of the Ancients and Arreat's Bearing.
- High mobility; Whirlwind is one of the few skills that can be used continuously while moving.
- Great area of effect and damage via Earthquakes, with multiple ways to generate them.
Credits
Written by snail
Contributions by Icytroll