Diablo 4 Beginner Whirlwind Barbarian Leveling Build Guide: In this Diablo 4 Barbarian Class Build, I’ll show you how to play a Whirlwind Barbarian, which is a melee Diablo 4 Build for the Barbarian that quickly kills large groups of enemies. If you’ve been looking for a good Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian Build that focuses on slaying numerous enemies, then this guide is for you!

• Be sure to check out the advanced level 50+ Vortex version of this Diablo 4 Whirlwind Build, that’s aimed at World Tier 3, Helltides, Nightmare Dungeons and more!

Also, be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki and Interactive Map if you need help finding specific Altars of Lilith, Dungeons, or Side Quests!

Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian Build

The main feature of this Diablo IV Build is the Whirlwind Skill, which deals damage to multiple enemies at the same time allowing you to decimate huge groups in seconds.

The idea is to start by using Lunging Strike to close the gap between you and the enemies, followed by Rallying Cry to generate enough Fury before activating Whirlwind. Once you have them in your clutches, you should trigger War Cry to acquire Berserking in order to significantly improve your damage. These combinations of buffs will allow you to maintain Whirlwind while moving forward through any dungeon without having to worry about Fury as long as there are enemies you can hit.

For Elites and Boss fights, you can activate Wrath of the Berserker for an even greater boost in damage and movement speed. Since Shout Skills have a limited duration, you’ll need to manage them depending on the situation.

Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian Build – Skill Distribution

Each Diablo 4 Barbarian Build is made up of the 6 Active Skills they have equipped, and changing these Skills can drastically alter the way the Barbarian Class in Diablo IV plays. In this section, we’ll take a look at what Skills you should slot for the Whirlwind Barbarian Diablo 4 Build. Your Skill distribution should look something like this:

LEVEL 25 BARBARIAN SKILLS
Skill	Points Spent
Lunging Strike	1
Enhanced Lunging Strike	1
Battle Lunging Strike	1
Whirlwind	5
Enhanced Whirlwind	1
Furious Whirlwind	1
Pressure Point	3
Rallying Cry	1
Enhanced Rallying Cry	1
Tactical Rallying Cry	1
War Cry	1
Enhanced War Cry	1
Booming Voice	3
Aggressive Resistance	1
Prolific Fury	1
Wrath of the Berserker	1
Prime Wrath of the Berserker	1
Supreme Wrath of the Berserker	1

The above list gives you the general order to invest in Skills, but keep in mind that you should prioritize picking up new Active Skills over investing in passives, so pick up passives later if you can get new Active Skills when you level up.

How to Handle Packs of Enemies

So there are really several different strategies to employ with this Diablo IV Build for the Whirlwind Barbarian, and these change depending on whether you’re facing a large group of enemies or a Boss. Let’s start with a group of enemies first, and we’ll cover how to handle Bosses in the next section.

Lunging Strike

Against multiple enemies, regardless of the range, you’ll want to start by using Lunging Strike. Not only will this allow you to charge forward through the battlefield to compensate for your initial lack of mobility, but you’ll also deal moderate individual damage. The good thing about this Basic Skill is it generates enough Fury, which you’ll then use later on for Whirlwind. Next, we’ll be adding Enhanced Lunging Strike and Battle Lunging Strike, which will be useful against any type of enemy.

Enhanced Lunging Strike heals a portion of your HP when you attack a Healthy target whereas Battle Lunging Strike inflicts Bleeding to deal damage over time (DoT). Note that both upgrades increase single-target damage, which comes in very handy for Bosses.

Rallying Cry

This best way to enhance Fury generation and Movement Speed with this Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian Build, is by triggering Rallying Cry, especially with the Tactical Rallying Cry upgrade. This lets you automatically gain sufficient Fury to start using Whirlwind and to be able to quickly fill the gauge at the beginning of a fight. 

What makes it even better, is that with Enhanced Rallying Cry, you become Unstoppable, which essentially removes and prevents any crowd control effects inflicted on you. So for instance, if you’re Stunned or Slowed, you’ll be able to immediately break out of it in addition to receiving immunity over them. Overall, Rallying Cry is the best Skill to gain a consistent amount of Fury while protecting yourself from any impairments. It’s also a good fallback should things get too dicey on the battlefield, especially if you get stun locked.

Whirlwind

Once you have sufficient Fury, you should start channeling Whirlwind. This is the Whirlwind Barbarian’s bread-and-butter Skill that lets you deal massive AoE damage to as many enemies as possible with this Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian Build.

The reason why it’s best to be surrounded by multiple targets is that you’ll want to keep your Fury generation up at all times. The more of them you damage, the more Fury you end up saving thanks to Enhanced Whirlwind, allowing you to keep Whirlwind active at all times.

While casting Whirlwind, you’ll be able to move through enemies without impairments, so the trick is to keep spinning over as many enemies as possible, and to avoid hitting isolated enemies, otherwise, you’ll waste the resource you should’ve gained.

Last but not least, the Furious Whirlwind upgrade will apply a bleeding effect and the Pressure Point Passive will make enemies vulnerable, allowing you to take full advantage of most of the equipment effects.

War Cry

War Cry is another Shout Skill that further increases your damage output, and more so when you take Enhanced War Cry. Enhanced War Cry instantly grants Berserking, which considerably boosts your damage and Movement Speed, as well as enabling some Aspects and effects that require the Berserking Status. You’re going to need a lot of mobility for this Whirlwind Build to not only attack enemies, but also create breathing room if you need to.

During the early game, I don’t recommend getting an upgrade for War Cry because you’ll only get the boost for a very limited duration, so you’ll be best off using those points to increase your other passives with this Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian Build.

Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian Build for Boss Fights

Boss fights are handled a bit differently with this Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian Build because you won’t be able to sustain fury generation by hitting a single target. For this reason, we have to change our tactics a bit.

You’ll want to start off by landing a couple of Lunging Strike hits to set some bleeding and build up some fury. After you’ve done this, cast Rallying Cry, War Cry and Wrath of the Berserker and then start using Whirlwind moving in circles around the boss to avoid his attacks.

Wrath of the Berserker

Wrath of the Berserker is perfect for this Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian Build when used in combination with both upgrades, Prime Wrath of the Berserker and Supreme Wrath of the Berserker. When cast, you’ll gain Movement Speed, Fury Generation, Berserkering, and Unstoppable. The increased attack speed in combination with the other effects and Rallying Cry allows you to keep up with Fury Generation even when targeting a single enemy.

Berserker will provide 25% bonus damage for every 50 Fury spent, which we’re constantly using because of Whirlwind. The buff only lasts for 5 seconds, but you can use a single Lunging Strike to refresh its duration. This Basic Skill will also be useful in inflicting Bleed and whittling down the Boss’s Health in addition to momentarily escaping precarious situations. 

Once the buffs wear off, you won’t be able to sustain whirlwind. You’ll want to swap into Lunging Strike, hit a couple of times and use Whirlwind again. Repeat until you can cast both Rallying Cry and War Cry again and use them together to finish off the boss.

Maxing out the Booming Voice passive is crucial for this build, as it’ll allow you to maintain your shouts, and thus your whirlwind, for longer.

Arsenal System and Weapon Expertise

Arsenal System

The Barbarian has access to a unique mechanic called the Arsenal System. Each skill can use either one or several types of Weapons from your Arsenal, being: “Bludgeoning” (Left Slot), “Dual Wield” (Mid-Slots) and “Slashing” (Right Slot). When performing a skill, you can choose which Weapon you’ll use while attacking with that skill.

To set a specific Arsenal Weapon Type for a skill, open the skill menu, and hover over the skill on your toolbar. Press the “Cycle Weapon” button and select the type of weapon you want to use. Now, each time you attack with that particular skill, you’ll use that specific weapon.

This serves two purposes, first, each weapon has a unique Expertise passive that will apply when using that Weapon. For this build, you’ll want to use one of the following Weapon Types for your slashing weapon:

– Two-Handed Axe: Deal a % increased damage to vulnerable enemies (Perfect combo with Pressure Point Passive)

-Two-Handed Sword: A % of the direct damage you deal is inflicted as Bleeding damage over 5 seconds.

The second purpose is weapon swapping. Many Aspects and Passives provide you with bonuses each time you swap weapons. In this case, you’ll want to set Bludgeoning for Lunging Strike and Slashing for Whirlwind (Slashing for Whirlwind is a must, or your Furious Whirlwind effect will not trigger).

Weapon Technique

Once you hit Lvl 15, you’ll get access to the Class Mechanic Quest, Masters of Battle. Once complete, it will unlock the Technique Slot, allowing you to select a Weapon Expertise Effect that will be applied to all attacks, regardless of the weapon.

For this build, you’ll ideally want to have either a Two-Handed Axe or a Two-Handed Sword equipped. You should slot the Technique of the opposite weapon type to get both bonuses while using Whirlwind.

Don’t make this a priority though, and focus on getting the best possible weapon while you level up.

Final Tips

For this Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian Build, be on the lookout for Strength, +Rank to Active Skills, +Rank to Whirlwind, Damage to Close Enemies, Vulnerable Damage, Critical Strike Damage and Fury Cost Reduction.

You’ll notice that you have 1 empty active slot, this is intentional as you’ll want to maximize damage with your whirlwind instead of adding more active skills. When you level up enough, you can add Charge, as it provides Unstoppable allowing you to remove control impairing effects.

This is one of the most powerful Diablo IV Builds of the Barbarian Class due to how quickly you’ll clear mobs of enemies, but you’ll need some Aspects to get it going. Remember that the Barbarian has 4 Weapons Slots, and two of those are two-handed, which provide 100% bonus to their aspects. Here are some Codex of Power Aspects you’ll want to search for, but make sure to include any lucky drops as well:

Offense

• Aspect of the dire Whirlwind (Garan Hold in Scosglen): Whirlwind’s Critical chance increased based on time using whirlwind. (Two-Handed Weapon)
• Aspect of Berserk Ripping (Mournfield in Dry Steppes): While berserking, inflict part of the damage as bleeding (Two-handed Weapon)
• Aspect of Ancestral Echoes (Acient Reservoir in Hawezar): While using Whirlwind, summons an Ancient that mimics your whirlwind for a short duration.
• Aspect of Anemia (Kor Dragan Barracks in Fractured Peaks): Chance to stun bleeding enemies when damaging them

Defense

• Aspect of Disobedience (Halls of the Damned in Kehjistan): You gain increase armor while hitting enemies.
• Aspect of the Protector (Lost Archives in Fractured Peaks): Gain a barrier when you damage an Elite.
• Iron Blood Aspect (Forgotten Ruins in Kehjistan): Gain Damage Reduction for each nearby Bleeding enemy.

Fury Generation:

• Aspect of Echoing Fury (Sirocco Caverns in Kehjistan): Generates Fury per second while shouts are active.

Since you’re going to activate Berserk frequently, remember to also invest in Aggressive Resistance, mainly to gain access to Prolific Fury. So every time you enter this powerful state, your Fury increases, which will allow you to maintain Whirlwind longer. What we’re going for here is the maximum amount of Whirlwind uptime possible.

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Be sure to check out our Diablo 4 Wiki for any other questions you have about the game and the Builds page if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as our Ultimate Beginner Guide and Best Class to Play if you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!