Whirlwind Barbarian Leveling Guide

Diablo 4 Season 2 introduces a new questline to hunt down the Shadow Vampire forces of Lord Zir across Sanctuary. With Lilith's blood still residing within our bodies, the infliction put upon us is harnessed throughout our leveling, granting access to new Vampiric Powers. Completing the seasonal questline, partaking in the seasonal Blood Harvest event and collecting Potent Blood are the main ways of obtaining and empowering these abilities. Check out the full Season 2 Guide from Chewingnom to learn more!

With this in mind, let's look at the top 5 best Vampiric Powers and how they impact this build:

Most Vampiric Powers can be purchased with Potent Blood, which is acquired by participating in the Blood Harvest event in the overworld. A few powerful abilities, including Metamorphosis , are rewards for completing quests in the seasonal quest line. Getting Metamorphosis requires finishing the last quest in the seasonal quest line, but it's well worth the trouble. Note that one of the best Vampiric Powers for leveling, Hemomancy, is not automatically cast while channeling Whirlwind, so it will be necessary to interrupt channeling every 4 seconds to deal optimal AOE damage.

Whirlwind is the centerpiece of this build. It is a close ranged attack that spins around you. We then take Enhanced Whirlwind which we are in dire need of to assist with Fury management. We also take one additional rank of Whirlwind to increase its damage by 10%.

Our quality of life increases as we pick up our shouts. Rallying Cry is incredible because it gives us Fury generation and Movement Speed. War Cry gives us a nice damage boost and the invaluable Berserking buff for 25% Damage and 15% Movement Speed from Enhanced War Cry.

We grab Leap to increase our movement, jump over terrain, and to generate Fury from Power Leap. Make sure you land on an enemy or you don't get the Fury! If you are almost out of fury, use Rallying Cry before leaping onto enemies to gain almost 100 fury.

We also pump up our damage by maxing Whirlwind.

Now we head toward our ultimate: Wrath of the Berserker. This provides additional movement speed, fury generation, and a huge damage boost that solves this build's only weakness: low single-target damage. Tough Elites melt in seconds when you activate this ultimate ability.

We grab a few more passives that give us additional movement speed and fury generation. Swiftness gives us more much-needed movement speed and Prolific Fury boosts our Fury generation while Berserking.

Unbridled Rage is a game changer - it more than doubles our Whirlwind damage, but also doubles its Fury cost. This makes the gameplay feel significantly different, and takes some getting used to, but it's not a bad thing. Rather than spinning for 5 seconds dealing okay damage, we can dump our fury into Whirlwind and spin for 2 or 3 seconds and slaughter everything around us.

However, many players feel that getting Unbridled Rage this early in the game makes Whirlwind feel awkward. You may opt to get Unconstrained instead of Unbridled Rage during the leveling process. However, bear in mind that it is recommended to switch to Unbridled Rage in endgame content once you get enough Resource Generation bonuses to support the higher Fury per second cost.

We need to spend 6 points to unlock the Key Passive, so we'll put points into Prolific Fury and Counteroffensive to increase our fury generation and damage output.

We also get Battle Lunging Strike at this point since we'll be using our basic attack more frequently.

To further improve our fury generation and movement speed, we will take Battle Fervor which enables Leap to grant us Berserking. We will also get additional ranks in Leap to reduce its cooldown and increase its damage. Since we're using Lunging Strike more frequently, it makes sense to increase its power. Finally, we'll get Booming Voice to increase the duration of Rallying Cry and War Cry.

After gathering all Renown in Diablo 4 you have 10 extra Skill Points to spend on every character. Your first priority is to spend them toward the leveling progression we've shown above. Once you've reached the end, put them into these remaining passive skills to further increase your damage. The Wallop skill is recommended here for players using Bludgeoning weapons - however you should be using the highest item level weapon(s) that you have. If you're not using a Bludgeoning weapon, take Imposing Presence instead of Wallop.

Once you start collecting gear with Fury Cost Reduction and Resource Generation affixes, as well as Bold Chieftain's Aspect and Aspect of Echoing Fury, your build is ready to transition to the Whirlwind Barbarian Endgame Build Guide.

The Arsenal System allows Barbarians to use a specific weapon for every attack skill, each granting different Bonuses. The Technique Slot grants us 1 additional Arsenal Power of our choosing for every attack. The logic here is to use our 2 most powerful weapon bonuses to crush our enemies!

The Arsenal System automatically unlocks when you reach Level 5. Opening the Expertise tab (Shift + C) shows all the different weapon types and their bonuses when using them. The Technique Slot unlocks at Level 15 via the Masters of Battle quest in the Dry Steppes which is very easy to complete. Simply walk northeast of town, kill some enemies, then walk west to a cave to slay the beast. After returning to town the Technique Slot will be yours!

Until we get Metamorphosis we will take the Two-Handed Sword technique because this makes every attack apply a Bleed. However, once we can make our enemies Vulnerable, Two-Handed Axe technique will increase our damage more than Two-Handed Sword technique.

Leveling up in Diablo 4 is similar to most other ARPGs and MMOs - we're at the mercy of what drops. For the most part this means replacing Rares with better Rares all the way up to 50. If you're lucky enough to find some Legendaries or Uniques they can provide a significant power boost (discussed in the next sections). Assuming you don't find any of those, let's look at some key stats to look for along the way:

Hint: Press SHIFT over an item to compare it to what you're wearing!

Since Whirlwind can utilize any type of weapons, you always want to be on the lookout for the highest item level (and therefore highest base DPS) weapons that you can find.

Only upgrade the weapon you're using for Whirlwind at the Blacksmith and socket them with Emeralds.

Do not upgrade Armor or Jewelry while leveling. Socket Armor with Rubies and Jewelry with Diamonds!

The Codex of Power is a collection of Legendary Aspects you can imprint onto Rare or Legendary items at the Occultist. They unlock after completing specific Dungeons located around Sanctuary. For leveling there are a few powers that can significantly help us if we have the funds to imprint them:

Before we end this leveling guide, let's look at some general tips and tricks to remember for all classes and specs!

Compare your Items... Literally. Press Shift over an item in your inventory to compare it to what you're wearing. This makes it easy to determine what is and isn't an upgrade.

Renown is your Friend. While exploring the different zones, take time to gather Renown along the way. It has long-term benefits for your entire account, including more Skill/Paragon points and Potion charges. Renown is gained by activating Waypoints, finding Altars of Lilith, completing Side Quests/Dungeons and rescuing Strongholds.

Be Careful with Gold. A lot of endgame processes, like extracting and imprinting Legendary Aspects, are extremely expensive for a brand-new character. Don't spend all of your Gold along the way!

Don't Imprint Your Weapon. The most critical piece of gear while leveling up is your weapon, which gets replaced constantly. This makes imprinting a Legendary Aspect on it a waste of resources. Instead, put your best offensive Aspect on your Amulet, which can be used for a long time.

Written by Slothmaster
Reviewed by Snail