Diablo 4 was released to a lot of acclaim. The game took elements of prior entries and improved tremendously upon them. Besides the main quest, Diablo 4 has hours upon hours of endgame content that players can indulge in. Overall, it is safe to say that Diablo 4 is a major success thanks to the rich content it offers, the unique bosses and enemies, the lore, and the overall quality of the game.
Much like prior entries, Diablo 4's key focus is on its classes. The game lets players choose between the Barbarian, Sorcerer, Druid, Rogue, and Necromancer classes, each with its own playing style, skills, and surrounding builds. The Barbarian class is the beefiest of all these classes. With heavy reliance on Fury and melee attacks, Barbarian builds can be absolute powerhouses. In this guide, the best Barbarian skills in Diablo 4 will be covered to get the most out of the class.
9 Flay
Flay is a Basic Barbarian skill in Diablo 4 that requires a slashing weapon to be executed. Flay adds a Bleeding effect upon impact, causing bleed damage over time. While Flay does not deal a lot of damage by itself, the Bleed damage can be devastating. Besides this, Flay also generates 9% fury which is required to execute fury skills.
Players can also upgrade Flay, doing so grants various benefits such as increasing the damage inflicted by Bleed or making the enemy vulnerable. Overall, Flay is arguably the best Basic skill a Barbarian can go with.
8 Lunging Strike
Lunging Strike is another powerful Basic Barbarian skill in Diablo 4. This skill has no weapon requirement. Lunging Strike makes players lunge and hit their enemies for a good amount of damage while generating 9 Fury.
Players can also upgrade the Lunging Strike once to get added damage and slight health regeneration upon a hit and they can turn it into the Battle Lunging Strike which adds Bleed damage to the skill upon their second upgrade, making it a very powerful skill.
7 Whirlwind
Whirlwind is an iconic Barbarian skill in the Diablo series. Whirlwind is a Core skill that makes Barbarians move rapidly as they strike anything within range. This results in a rapid flurry of attacks that can build up to a high amount of total damage caused. Players are immune to knockback when this skill is active.
Upgrading this skill to Enhance adds Fury regeneration whereas the Furious version adds Bleed damage and the Violent version drastically increases damage. This skill perfectly captures the essence of being a Barbarian in Diablo 4 and goes well with almost every Barbarian build in the game.
6 Rend
Rend acts as a much-upgraded version of Flay that requires 25 Fury and a slashing weapon to be executed. Besides causing some physical damage, Rend deals a high amount of Bleed damage over 5 seconds.
This can be extremely useful, as the overall damage dealt here is very high. Upgrading Rend once extends the vulnerable duration on enemies and upgrading it twice can either generate Fury or increase the damage dealt when an enemy is in the vulnerable state. Overall, Rend is a great offensive skill that complements the nature of the Barbarian class.
5 Rallying Cry
Rallying Cry is a powerful Barbarian skill, especially for players that prefer to play in groups. Belonging to the Defensive node, what this skill does is increase a player and their group's movement speed and resource generation.
When upgraded, Rallying Cry adds unstoppable to a group, negating the effects of Crowd Control. Beyond all this, Rallying Cry also generates 10 Fury. Overall, Rallying Cry is the perfect defensive skill for Barbarian builds that play in a group.
4 Challenging Shout
Challenging Shout is another powerful Defensive Barbarian skill in Diablo 4. Challenging Shout greatly reduces incoming damage. Upgrading the Challenging Shout is essential for the Enhanced Challenging Shout increases players' health by 20% when it's active.
Players can further upgrade the Challenging Shout to get either the Tactical Challenging Shout which adds Fury regeneration upon impact or the Strategic Challenging Shout which adds Thorn health. All in all, the Challenging Shout is a well-balanced Barbarian skill that both solo and group players can utilize with ease.
3 War Cry
War Cry is a Brawling skill for the Barbarian class in Diablo 4. With War Cry, players increase their damage substantially for 8 seconds and for their group for 4 seconds, making it an excellent skill for all scenarios.
Upgrading War Cry to enhance grants players the Berserk buff that increases damage output and movement speed. Upgrading it further to the Mighty War Cry grants added base life in the form of the Fortify buff whereas the Power War Cry grants a higher damage buff if activated when surrounded by 6 or more enemies.
2 Rupture
Rupture is a Weapon Mastery skill for the Barbarian class. It requires a slashing weapon. Rupture attacks enemies within a line in a piercing manner, inflicting Bleed and physical damage. Enemies that die due to Rupture's Bleed effect will reset the cooldown for this skill. The Enhanced Rupture causes an AOE explosion that sticks around for 5 seconds.
Players can then choose between the Fighter's Rupture which increases health upon impact or the Warrior's Rupture which increases movement speed. Both are equally effective and it comes down to the kind of build players have.
1 Call of The Ancients
Call of The Ancients belongs to the Ultimate skill node of the Barbarian class. While all 3 Ultimate skills are very powerful, Call of The Ancients stands out.
What this skill does is summon three Ancients that act as very powerful companions. They serve as excellent entities of destruction, wreaking havoc wherever a Barbarian goes. Excellent for high-pressure scenarios where players are completely surrounded. Each Ancient has its own skillset and is equally devastating.
Upgrading this skill once adds damage and attacking speed whereas upgrading it twice makes every Ancient more powerful. Overall, Call of The Ancients is an OP skill that will be effective in almost every scenario but should be saved only for the toughest moments due to its high cooldown time of 75 seconds.
Diablo 4 is available on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.