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Diablo 4: Barbarian Leveling Build Guide (Season 3)

Barbarians can be a slow but powerful option for Diablo 4 Season 3, so let's see how to level them up most efficiently!

Barbarians are Diablo 4’s tankiest class, built to deal heavy amounts of damage while buffing themselves and their allies. One of my least favorite aspects of Barbarians is how slow they can feel in the early game, so efficiently leveling them up is a must. Luckily, Barbarians are one of if not the strongest classes for endgame content, and this holds true for Diablo 4 Season 3.

I’m going to break down the ideal skills and passives you should be using to level up your barbarian as smoothly as possible, as well as cover the best play style to help you break through the early levels and reach your Barbarian’s full potential.

Best Skills for Leveling a Barbarian in Diablo 4 Season 3

Frenzy

diablo 4 frenzy
Blizzard / Drew Swanson

I like using Frenzy as the Basic Skill for this leveling build because it allows you to unleash multiple strikes at once dealing damage and increasing your attack speed when it hits. Additionally, it’s a great way to quickly generate Fury so that you can use your other skills to finish off enemies.

Hammer of the Ancients

diablo 4 hammer of the ancients
Blizzard / Drew Swanson

Hammer of the Ancients is the Core Skill for this build, as well as its focal point. In my opinion, Hammer of the Ancients is the best Barbarian Skill in Diablo 4, and it is fantastic at quickly mowing down an area of enemies. Upgrading it to Enhanced Hammer of the Ancients also helps generate Fury for each enemy hit, so you can continue your melee onslaught.

Rallying Cry

diablo 4 rallying cry
Blizzard / Drew Swanson

A key part of any Barbarian build in Diablo 4 is the shouts you will want to invest in. While I find that shouts are at their most useful during co-op play since they also buff allies, they are important for survival during the early-game leveling portion of Diablo 4 as well. I prefer Rallying Cry since it increases your movement speed and resource generation which are crucial for farming enemies efficiently.

Challenging Shout

diablo 4 challenging shout
Blizzard / Drew Swanson

Another shout I recommend including on this build is Challenging Shout. I find the ability to taunt enemies and gain damage reduction is very useful for surviving overwhelming situations. Using both of these shouts in tandem when tackling a horde of enemies can help you plow through them quickly while also ensuring your survival.

Charge

diablo 4 charge
Blizzard / Drew Swanson

Charge is another important skill for efficiently leveling Barbarians because it gives you a brief period of Unstoppable while rushing forward and knocking back enemies for 250% damage. I find this skill rounds out the offensive skills in the Barbarian’s kit and gives you a solid amount of mobility for when you need to reposition yourself. I like to use Charge after Challenging Shout since taunting enemies will help line them up into a position where Charge can take out multiple foes at once.

Wrath of the Berserker

diablo 4 wrath of the berserker
Blizzard / Drew Swanson

Berserking is key to getting the most damage possible out of a Barbarian build, so I heavily recommend including Wrath of the Berserker as the final skill on this build. While it won’t be available for the first few levels of this build, once it’s unlocked, Wrath of the Berserker allows you to knockback enemies while becoming Unstoppable and keeps you Berserking while you deal damage to enemies. Berserking allows you to deal 25% more damage and increases your movement speed by 30%, making your attacks even more lethal and greatly increasing the rate at which you can take out foes.

Best Passives for Leveling Barbarians in Diablo 4 Season 3

Most of the early-game passives I’d recommend investing in are geared toward keeping your Barbarian alive while facing early-game challenges. Swiftness will increase your movement speed while Imposing Presence will increase your maximum life. As you progress through this build, I tend to like to invest in Thick Skin and Counteroffensive as soon as possible since they can help mitigate damage by granting your Barbarian Fortify, and then increasing the damage you do while Fortified.

 Passives like Aggressive Resistance and Prolific Fury encourage you to continually enter a Berserking state, so you’ll want to invest in them after gaining Wrath of the Berserker. Some of the passives I recommend investing in later on are ones like Heavy Handed, Wallop, Brute Force, and Walking Arsenal since they all benefit from the use of a Two-Handed Weapon and/or Bludgeoning Skill, which you will constantly be using with Hammer of the Ancients.

swiftnessSwiftness
imposing presenceImposing Presence
thick skinThick Skin
counteroffensiveCounteroffensive
aggresive resistanceAggressive Resistance
prolific furyProlific Fury
endless furyEndless Fury
pit fighterPit Fighter
heavy handedHeavy Handed
wallopWallop
brute forceBrute Force
walking arsenalWalking Arsenal (Key Passive)

Best Ways to Level Up a Barbarian in Diablo 4 Season 3

Compared to other Diablo 4 builds, the ideal way to play this Barbarian build for leveling is pretty straightforward. I like this build because it gives you a lot of options for dealing with hordes of enemies using an aggressive playstyle that is both satisfying and cuts down on the tedium of grinding in the early game. As such, you will want to trade off between using your shouts and damaging skills to maintain a constant output of damage.

To start an encounter, I would recommend using Wrath of the Berserker, Rallying Cry, and Challenging Shout to increase your movement speed and resource generation while taunting enemies, allowing you to engage them while Berserking. My next move would be to use Frenzy to build Fury until I have enough to use Hammer of the Ancients to start clearing out as many enemies around me as possible. Charge makes a good finishing move since it can also give you some space to reset and start back into your same combat loop.

 

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