The Barbarian's Death Blow skill is one of the most visceral and gratifying attacks in Diablo 4. It's capable of outright deleting monsters with its high damage values, and its innate ability to reset its own cooldown means players can go on a rampage, one-shotting demons left and right.
As powerful as Death Blow is, players need to invest in it in order to turn it into a boss-slaying nuke. With enough Aspects and effects, Barbarians can forego Core Skills in favor of having Death Blow as their main damage dealer. Here's one endgame build for Diablo 4 that focuses on making this amazing skill reach its maximum potential.
Diablo 4: Barbarian Death Blow Build Main Skills
Skill | Total Points |
Battle Lunging Strike | 3 |
Warrior's Death Blow | 7 |
Tactical Ground Stomp | 7 |
Strategic Rallying Cry | 7 |
Power Leap | 7 |
Power Kick | 7 |
This is a variant of the endgame Earthquake build—Ground Stomp and Leap will set up most of the player's damage and defense, while Kick and Death Blow will be responsible for killing everything on-screen. Death Blow resets its cooldown when it delivers the final hit on an enemy, so players shouldn't need to worry about not having a Core Skill unless their damage isn't strong enough. Its Warrior upgrade also makes players Berserk whenever the skill connects with an enemy.
Ground Stomp and Leap, with their respective Earthquake Aspects, deal enough damage to clear groups of common monsters while simultaneously providing Crowd Control effects. Additionally, they provide large bursts of extra Fury every time they're used, and players will be able to easily top off their main resource for their next use of Kick.
Power Kick deals high damage to a single target at the cost of 100% of the player's Fury. This will increase Death Blow's damage via the Aspect of Encroaching Wrath while simultaneously softening enemies up for a guaranteed cooldown reset.
Use Strategic Rallying Cry only to break stuns and gain Fortify. Ground Stomp, Leap, and Lunging Strike can generate enough Fury to keep Encroaching Wrath primed most of the time, so it's best to use Rallying Cry as a panic button in case players get stunned or immobilized.
Passive Skills
Skill | Points |
Endless Fury | 3 |
Aggressive Resistance | 3 |
Battle Fervor | 1 |
Pit Fighter | 3 |
No Mercy | 2 |
Hamstring | 1 |
Tempered Fury | 3 |
Invigorating Fury | 3 |
Walking Arsenal | 1 |
Two-Handed Axe Expertise | - |
This setup features a decent mix of offense, defense, and sustain. Invigorating Fury makes Kick heal players every time it's used when at full Fury, while Battle Fervor lets players deal the most damage possible with their first use of Death Blow by giving them Berserk for one second.
Two-Handed Axe Expertise is the preferred Technique bonus here to further increase Death Blow's one-shot potential. Tag enemies with Lunging Strike to cause bleeding that slows, go Berserk and make them Vulnerable with Kick, then smack them down with a final, massive strike.
Walking Arsenal grants the biggest damage bonus to Death Blow out of all the Barbarian Key Passives, but its buff duration is limited. Make sure to bind Leap, Lunging Strike, and Death Blow to different weapons in order to trigger this passive consistently.
Gear and Aspects
Offense | Defense | Utility |
Edgemaster | Bul-Kathos | Weapon Master |
Encroaching Wrath | Might | Giant Strides |
Inner Calm | Disobedience | Perpetual Stomping |
Retribution | ||
Smiting | ||
Earthquake |
Ground Stomp's Earthquake plays a big part in buffing this build's damage output. The quake deals damage and increases the Barbarian's outgoing damage as long as they're standing in it. Ground Stomp also stuns targets, opening them up to bonuses against Crowd-Controlled and Stunned enemies.
Retribution increases all damage dealt versus Stunned targets, while Smiting increases the duration of Ground Stomp's stun, protecting players from danger while increasing the window of increased damage. These two, when combined with the Aspects of Inner Calm and Encroaching Wrath, multiply Death Blow's damage astronomically, letting it one-shot elites and even Nightmare Dungeon bosses if players have good-enough gear.
Perpetual Stomping and Giant Strides greatly reduce the downtime between Leap uses. The mobility and damage reduction buff from Aspect of Bul-Kathos is enough to keep players alive in most cases—just make sure to always have Leap ready in case things go sour.
Players will need all the Critical Strike Chance they can get on their rings and gloves to make this build shine. Use anything with bonuses to Critical Strike Damage, Damage against Crowd-Controlled/Slowed/Stunned, and Damage against Vulnerable.
Armor-wise, players should get the usual host of defensive stats (Life, Armor, damage reduction, etc.) and as many bonus points to Death Blow and Weapon Mastery skills. The Overkill Unique 2H Mace is nice to have but not necessary.
Paragon Boards
Slot the Exploit Glyph into the starting board's Glyph Socket, then take Warbringer. Equip Mortal Draw onto its Glyph Socket for increased Critical Strike Chance, and take the Legendary Node plus the ones that grant Max Fury so Kick can do more damage.
Next, take Blood Rage for increased uptime on Berserking as well as more damage against bleeding targets. Follow this up with the Carnage board for even more damage while Berserking.
Good Glyphs include Bloodfeeder on Blood Rage and Territorial on Carnage. Spec additional Paragon Points into nodes that increase damage or survivability as needed.
Diablo 4 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.