Rend is one of the Barbarian's strongest Core Skills in Diablo 4, capable of dealing massive Bleed ticks in the endgame for quick and efficient slaying. It sacrifices instant gratification for freedom of movement and extra safety, but with the right build, players can blaze through high-level content as if they were using any other build the class has to offer.
The following setup is optimized for farming around the Level 70 mark on Torment difficulty. Players can find success with this as early as Level 50, but the build truly starts to shine once Unique items come into play. Here's how to make this bloody Barbarian build work in Diablo 4.
As of patch 1.0.3, our Diablo 4 endgame Barbarian Rend Build guide remains accurate and relevant.
Diablo 4 Barbarian Rend Build - Main Skills
Skills | Total Points |
Flay/Lunging Strike | 2 |
Rend (Violent) | 7 |
Rallying Cry (Tactical) | 3 |
Challenging Shout (Tactical) | 7 |
Rupture (Fighter's) | 7 |
Flex Slot | 3 |
Take either two points into Flay or one into Lunging Strike and Enhanced Lunging Strike. Basic Skills won't matter much here as long as they're using Two-Handed Weapons, and they are generally just used to generate Fury. The Violent Rend upgrade makes the build's main damage dealer inflict even more damage against Vulnerable targets, which this build can take advantage of for the majority of the time.
Challenging Shout and Rallying Cry are mandatory for this build. They both help with survivability by providing damage reduction and Unstoppable, respectively, and the latter is needed to maintain Fury in long fights.
Rupture is another mandatory Skill—it is the build's source of sustain and burst damage. Spam Rend into a pack of monsters and detonate their Bleeding stacks with Rupture for a burst of health and quick kills.
The fourth ability slot here is flexible. On Torment difficulty, going down the Triple Shout route with War Cry enables far greater consistency across all activities. However, players can opt for a different Skill like Iron Skin for survivability, Charge for Crowd Control and mobility, or Call of the Ancients for more damage and Fury generation.
Passive Skills
Skill | Points |
Endless Fury | 3 |
Swiftness | 3 |
Booming Voice | 3 |
Guttural Yell | 3 |
Pit Fighter | 3 |
No Mercy | 3 |
Hamstring | 1 |
Thick Skin | 3 |
Defensive Stance | 3 |
Gushing Wounds | 1 |
Gushing Wounds allows Rend and all Bleeding effects to scale with Critical Strike stats, increasing the amount of Bleed damage they deal equal to the player's Critical Strike Damage. This build deals very little direct damage, so the other Key Passives are far less valuable for it.
Take Two-Handed Axe as the Expertise bonus for increased damage against Vulnerable targets. The main weapons for this build are Two-Handed Swords with the optional use of one-handed variants. Players can also choose Polearms as their Expertise bonus for the added Lucky Hit Chance, which this build makes use of relatively effectively.
Pit Fighter and No Mercy boost the Barbarian's outgoing damage, while the Thick Skin and Defensive Stance combo boost survivability via Fortify. Players can opt to use Invigorating Fury instead of the latter for extra healing.
Gear and Aspects
The following Aspects offer a mix of damage, Crowd Control, defense, and utility. Players should try to place important damage Aspects on Two-Handed Weapons or Amulets:
Offensive | Defensive | Utility |
Edgemaster | Iron Blood | Slaking(*) |
Accelerating | Protector | Anemia |
Skullbreaker | Might | Weapon Master's |
Berserk-Ripping(*) | Umbral |
Aspects marked with (*) are optional.
Slaking can help sustain Fury in boss fights whilst Berserk-Ripping can increase DPS if players can find a way to go Berserk. The build can work with other Aspects as well, though the ones listed above seem to be the most effective.
As for item stats, prioritize the following:
- Vulnerable Damage
- Core Skill Damage
- Damage against Bleeding
- Damage against Crowd-Controlled
- Cooldown Reduction
Ideally, players should have Critical Strike Chance on their Rings and Gloves and extra Critical Strike Damage wherever they can get it from. Two-Handed Swords have implicit crit damage rolls, and Rings can roll with both.
The preferred Unique weapon here is Fields of Crimson, a Two-Handed Sword that causes Rupture to leave pools of blood that cause enemies to Bleed while they're on top of it. This makes Rupture useful even against enemies that aren't already struck by Rend, as it will still leave pools thanks to Rupture's small amount of impact damage on-hit and the Two-Handed Sword Expertise passive.
Rage of Harrogath makes fighting bosses and elite packs a breeze—it reduces the cooldowns of all non-Ultimate abilities upon scoring a Lucky Hit. With the high Lucky Hit Chance of both Rupture and Rend, players will get their abilities back in no time.
Paragon Boards
Take Hemorrhage as the first board and try to reach its Legendary Node and Lacerator as soon as possible for extra damage against Bleeding targets. From here, players can choose to open the Blood Rage Paragon Board and work their way toward its Legendary Node or open up Hemorrhage's Glyph Socket.
The Exploit Glyph allows all attacks to inflict Vulnerable, making it a must-have on any build. Upon opening a second Glyph socket, insert Bloodfeeder to double down on damage against Bleeding monsters.
Later down the line, consider taking the Weapons Master board for the Hunter Killer node for better damage versus elites. Warbringer is also a great choice for all resource-hungry Barbarian builds, thanks to its Fury bonuses and Fortify generation.
Diablo 4 is available on PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and PS5.