Best Barbarian builds in Diablo 4 season 6

Barbarians are a relatively simple class in Diablo 4: They smash stuff. However, Diablo 4 is underscored by math that’s so complex that even the simple act of smashing stuff becomes a dizzying equation. That’s where we come in, with our suggestions of the best Barbarian builds for Diablo 4 season 6.

Barbarians are big, muscular, and powerful. They excel at using Bleed to kill their enemies over time. And their unique weapon-swapping system means they get to have more Legendary powers at their disposal than any other class. Not to your taste? We also have builds for the Sorcerer, Rogue, Druid, Spiritborn, and Necromancer classes.

In this Diablo 4 guide, we’ve gathered and simplified the best Diablo 4 Barbarian builds for season 6. If you need even more information on item affixes or other more complex ideas, we’ve been sure to link out to the more detailed versions of these builds, as well as where to find their original creators.

Best Barbarian leveling build in Diablo 4 season 6 and Vessel of Hatred

Diablo 4’s Barbarian class

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

This build is based off Kondyss’ Barbarian leveling guide at Maxroll.gg, and is purely for leveling (i.e., allocating your 71 skill points between levels 1 and 60) and early Torment I. If you want more detailed information about the item affixes you want to look for on your gear, or which other Legendary powers are great for your build, check out the original Maxroll.gg guide.

Best skills for leveling

In this build, you’ll use Rend as your Core skill of choice. You’ll also use Flay, Ground Stomp, Rallying Cry, Leap, and Wrath of the Berserker.

Here are the best skills for a Barbarian leveling build, organized by the exact order you should purchase them in — bearing in mind that some skills require you to allocate a number of skill points in the tree in order to unlock them. As such, you’ll need to unlock new skills before enhancing existing ones:

  1. Flay/ Enhanced Flay / Battle Flay
  2. Rend / Enhanced Rend / Furious Rend
  3. Ground Stomp / Enhanced Ground Stomp / Tactical Ground Stomp
  4. Rallying Cry / Enhanced Rallying Cry / Tactical Rallying Cry
  5. Charge / Enhanced Charge / Power Charge
  6. Leap / Enhanced Leap / Power Leap
  7. Rend (rank 2-5)
  8. Pit Fighter (rank 1-3)
  9. Ground Stomp (rank 2-5)
  10. Leap (rank 2-5)
  11. Wrath of the Berserker / Prime Wrath of the Berserker / Supreme Wrath of the Berserker
  12. Unconstrained
  13. Aggressive Resistance
  14. Battle Fervor (rank 1-3)
  15. Wrath of the Berserker (rank 2-5)
  16. Prolific Fury (rank 1-3)
  17. Cut to the Bone (rank 1-3)
  18. Hamstring
  19. Swap to Violent Rend
  20. Imposing Presence (rank 1-3)
  21. Swiftness (rank 1-3)
  22. Belligerence (rank 1-3)
  23. Thick Skin
  24. Counteroffensive (rank 1-3)
  25. Defensive Stance (rank 1-3)
  26. Martial Vigor (rank 1-3)
  27. Invigorating Fury (rank 1-3)

Best Weapon Expertise setup for leveling

Once you unlock the Weapon Expertise system for your Barbarian, you’ll want to place the two-handed axe in your Technique slot.

Best Legendary Aspects for Barbarian leveling build

When you first start your new character, complete these three dungeons first in order to collect their Aspects. Then place them on a piece of gear (ideally jewelry and never weapons).

  • Slaking (Maulwood, Fractured Peaks)
  • Numbing Wrath (Heathen’s Keep, Hawezar)
  • Disobedience (Halls of the Damned, Kehjistan)
  • Vocalized Empowerment (Sirocco Caverns, Kehjistan)

Best Barbarian endgame build for season 6

Note: We’ll update this guide with a more up-to-date Barbarian build designed for the new expansion once the dust settles, so check back soon. The leveling guide above should get you most of the way through Torment I, so stick there in the meantime.

How to make a great Barbarian build

A barbarian sits next to a description of the barbarian class in Diablo 4.

Image: Blizzard/Activision via Polygon

Barbarians are Diablo 4’s only pure melee class, with the other classes having hybrid builds for multiple ranges. There are four main ideas that all Barbarian builds stem from:

  • Fury dumping
  • Weapon swapping
  • Bleed
  • Berserk

Fury dump builds make use of the Unbridled Rage Key Passive, which causes your Fury spenders to cost double the Fury but deal more than double the damage. These kinds of builds obviously require very steady Fury generation, as it’s easy to starve yourself. Berserk builds that use the Unconstrained Key Passive are all about keeping your Barbarian in the Berserk stage at all times, which nets you a hefty bonus. All Barbarian builds will likely use some skills that make them go Berserk, the Unconstrained Key Passive just enhances the effect.

Bleed builds use the Gushing Wounds Key Passive to create a critical strike heavy build that’s great for whittling down groups of enemies with damage over time and explosions. Weapon swapping builds offer what is almost certainly the most unique playstyle for Barbarians and takes advantage of the Walking Arsenal Key Passive. The idea here is that you’re constantly swapping between your skills and weapons to give yourself massive damage buffs.

When making a build, you want to have one of these Key Passives in mind and choose your skills accordingly. Thankfully skills that share certain aspects (like Bleed) are color-coded on the skill tree, and you can even use the in-game search function to find them all. Other Barbarian builds let you take advantage of mechanics like Thorns or Shouts. But they still typically end with one of these Key Passives.

Looking for other Diablo 4 builds? We have explainers on the Spiritborn, Sorcerer, Rogue, Druid, and Necromancer classes.