Whirlwind Barbarian Leveling Guide

In Season 3, you obtain the Seneschal Construct through the Season Questline, then collect Governing Stones or Tuning Stones to add attacks and augment them to support your build. Only certain Tuning Stones work with a particular Governing Stone. Look at the bottom of any Tuning Stone tooltip to see if it is compatible with your Construct's currently equipped Stones. Lastly, they can be leveled up by getting duplicates to max out their power. Check out our full Season 3 guide for more information.

Flash of Adrenaline is a great Utility type Governing Stone that boosts our damage. However, like Tactical and Duration, it can be very difficult or impossible to obtain in the early game. Once we obtain it, we can use it to increase our damage, but that seems unnecessary. Still, you may want to try using this stone instead of Reconstruct.

Tempest - This offensive AOE Governing Stones is the best option because it persists after the target's death and grows over time, meaning its maximum damage is potentially unlimited. In addition, it is the fastest stone of all, so replace Lightning Bolt with this once you obtain it.

Registered Damage Support - When this Tuning Stone supports AOE attacks, the resulting damage scaling is overpowered in groups of many enemies. When used with Bleeding Support and Tempest, this combination has potential for exponentially scaling damage over time.

Evernight and Genesis are extremely powerful, but they are extremely rare drops from Echo of Malphas, an endgame boss.

Wrath of the Berserker 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.

Unconstrained is a game changer - it greatly increases our Berserking damage bonus and the length of time that we can keep the Berserking buff up. 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.

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 Weapon Expertise bonus we get from our currently equipped weapon and the Weapon Expertise bonus we get from the Weapon Technique slot stack with each other.

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!

Whirlwind is special in that it can be performed with any weapon type in our arsenal.

Weapon type - Our offensive skills will automatically be performed with the strongest option in our currently equipped arsenal of weapons. This is the best choice for leveling, as our weapons will change frequently, and attacking with our strongest weapon far outweighs any potential benefit we could get by restricting ourselves to one particular type of weapon. Always choose a weapon for its DPS & stats, and never for its Weapon Expertise while leveling!

Weapon Technique - The Two-Handed Sword technique is a good choice while leveling because it will apply bonus Bleeding damage to all attacks. Most other Weapon Expertise options are only applicable under conditions that can be difficult to satisfy while leveling. We will eventually change to Two-Handed Axe technique when we have a reliable way of applying Vulnerable to our enemies.

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:

You level in Diablo 4 by completing the Campaign, collecting Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers, grinding Dungeons, or interacting with Seasonal mechanics. While there are many ways to level up in Diablo 4, not all of them are made equal.

Let's look at some tips and tricks to remember when leveling up!

Written by Slothmaster
Reviewed by Snail