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Diablo 4’sBarbarian can be tricky to level, with most builds requiring endgame talents and skills to become fully optimal. The Whirlwind build is not only the strongest choice once maxed out, but it also gives Barbarian the best chance at quickly leveling up to max.
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Focusing on dishing out constant AoE damage while maintaining a variety of powerful buffs, Whirlwind Barbarian is easy to play and fun to progress with. This guide will teach you how to effectively level as a Whirlwind Barbarian. It will cover Active and Passive skill priority alongside your best Expertise, Stats, and Aspects.
Updated July 08, 2025:We’ve added a video guide to this article that breaks down everything about leveling your Barbarian in Diablo 4.
Active Skill Priority
Whirlwind Barb’s active leveling skills willdiffer slightly from the full endgame setup, but you shouldn’t worry about needing to relearn the build, as the majority of skills are easy to make full use of. Bearing that in mind, here are the six actives you want to talent into for your leveling journey.
Lunging Strike Basic Skill
Your first ability point should be spent onLunging Strike. This basic ability will allow you to constantly jump between enemies, providing you with someexcellent mobilityandFury Generation. The damage is nothing to write home about, but for a low-point investment, Lunging Strike does everything you need a basic skill to do.
Upgrading your Lunging Strike will allow it toheal you for a small amount upon hitting a Healthy enemyand adds on asmall Bleed effect, both synergising nicely with your build.
At max level, you can startoffloading Lunging Strikein favor of a defensive ability such asIron Skin. However, you will most likely only make the switchwhen you can infinitely sustain Whirlwinding.
Whirlwind
This is yourCore Skill,and the entirety of this build is focused aroundmaximising the utility and damage output of this ability. A spinning attack thatconstantly drains Fury, Whirlwind excels at cleaving down multiple targets while allowing you to constantly stay on the move.
Upgrading your Whirlwind will allow it torefund a portion of Fury spent when hitting enemies, alongside applying aBleedeffect when using aSlashing Weapon. Due to this augment, you will want to selecta Two-Handed Slashing Weapon as this skill’s active weapon.
As your best skill, you will want to quicklylevel up Whirlwind to its maximum level of five. Other skills only serve to supplement this ability, and your priority is to optimise your uptime.
Rallying Cry
To supplement your two primary abilities, you will start to pick up severalShoutskills. These are an essential part of a Whirlwind Barbarian’s toolkit, and your eventual goal will be tokeep them up permanently.
Rallying Cryis one of the best shouts, granting you and nearby allies increasedMovement SpeedandResource Generation. As a resource-hungry class, high Rallying Cry uptime is pivotal in allowing you to constantly Whirlwind.
Upgrading your Rallying Cry will increaseResource Generationand make youUnstoppablewhile active.
you’re able to use shoutsduring your Whirlwindwithout canceling its effect, so don’t be afraid tospam them on cooldown.
War Cry
Another core shout skill you will want to pick up isWar Cry. A simple yet effective ability, War Cry will grant you and nearby allies adamage increasewhile active.
Your War Cry will eventually grant youBerserkingfor a few seconds on use, further adding to your Fury gain, and can increase the damage buff depending on if there areat least six enemies nearby.
As yourshout skills affect both you and your allies, Whirlwind Barbarian is agreat addition to groups, bringing some excellent buffs and utility to the team.
Leap Into Challenging Shout
While the end game build sees you taking yet another shout in the form ofChallenging Shout, for leveling you will find more use out of takingLeap. A basic jumping attack that generates Fury, Leap adds to your mobility and resources, both vital components of a quick level.
With both upgrades, Leap can either be used for pure mobility, with areduced cooldown if it does not hit an enemy, or togenerate 40 Fury upon initiating combat with one.
When you are nearing maximum level and have access tobetter Fury generation, you will typically want toswitch out Leap for Challenging Shout. This shout skilltauntsall enemies in a large radius and grants you a largedamage reduction.
With both augments, Challenging Shout will grant you temporary maximum life and Fury generation when hit. Both of these synergise perfectly with how Barbarian plays, so be sure to use this skill as often as possible.
In group contentChallenging Shoutwill allow you to take on the role of aTank, drawing aggro away from your friends and focusing their enmity onto you. Be sure to try andstack them together, both for your Whirlwind and the group’s abilities.
Call Of The Ancients Into Wrath Of The Berserker
While Whirlwind is one of the best end-game specs, it can have a down period during leveling. You can often find that you don’t have the Fury to Whirlwind all the time, leaving your damage somewhat to be desired.
Thankfully your first choice of Ultimate is here to help.Call of the Ancientssummons three immortal warriors to aid you in combat and will effectivelycarry you throughout the leveling process. The spirits do monstrous damage, and with the augments, CotA will be your go-to cooldown for large groups of enemies.
While CotA is active, you will receive a variety of benefits, includingincreased Fury Generation,damage,andMovement Speed.
When your Whirlwind starts to come online, you can start thinking about swapping out CotA forWrath of the Berserker. Essentially an extremely powerful shout, this skill will give you everything a Barbarian could ever want.Damage,Movement Speed,Fury Generation,Berserking,Unstoppable, and buffs toBerserkall combine to make this ability a great cooldown.
Call of the Ancients is yourkey abilitywhile leveling, so make sure to use it often to give you aburst window of Whirlwinding.
Passive Skill Priority
After picking up the majority of your active skills and improvements, you should look to round out your Whirlwind build with somekey passives.
These not only help you to further empower your active abilities but also serve to help keep you alive.
Your Specialisation passive inUnbridled Rage. An extremely important talent, this will amp up your Whirlwind damage but make it noticeably more difficult to keep using the spell.
Without specific Legendary powers orFury Cost reductionstats, you will find yourself running out of Fury a lot, making you even more reliant onCall of the Ancients.
Expertise Priority
Barbarian is a pretty simple class when it comes to its unique specialisation. TheExpertisemechanic grants youdifferent passivesdepending onwhat weapon type you are currently using.
Using a specific weapon will level up yourexperiencewith it, strengthening this bonus. Atlevel ten, you will unlock a new passive for each weapon.
The choice for Whirlwind Barb is betweenTwo-Handed SwordandTwo-Handed Axe.
TheTwo-Handed Swordwill give all your attacks a Bleed effect, making every tick of Whirlwind even more valuable.
While this is an amazingly strong choice, your perfect build will see you using a Two-Handed Sword as your primary weapon. This frees up the Technique slot for theTwo-Handed Axe, whichincreases damage dealt to Vulnerable targets, another amazing passive.
Due to how the gear works during leveling,try to prioritise whatever weapon gives you the highest DPS and stats. You can then switch your Technique accordingly, using theTwo-Handed Swordpassive if you are not currently wielding one to keep applyingBleeds, but otherwise sticking with theTwo-Handed Axe.
Stat Priority
The Whirlwind build is relatively simple to gear for while leveling, requiring some stacking of easily accessible bonuses.
Your primary stat will be Strength, so try to always prioritise items with big main stat increases, as the higherArmorwill also provide a large defensive benefit.
Your major stats to look out for are:
These skills will provide the core of your Whirlwind build, but while leveling, you will tend to take whatever you find, sodon’t worry about holding onto lower-level gearjust to try and min-max every stat.
Often the higher the item level, the stronger the item, and you will have plenty of time in the endgame to fully optimise your stats.
It can be worthusing certain Legendaries over better-statted itemsif the passive effect is strong enough. Aspects such asGrasping Whirlwindcan be extremely effective in speeding up your AoE clearing, and you shouldmake sure to extract these powers at the Occultistso you can upgrade later pieces.
For your gems, you will want to search forthreespecific types:
Best Aspects
While obtaining all of your best Aspects while leveling can be tricky, certain ones can be farmed from specific dungeons and added to yourCodex of Power.
Halls of the Damned
Hawezar
Other randomly acquired Aspects that will benefit you are:
There is no guarantee of acquiring all of your best powers while leveling, so just try to grab whatever you can, as even a few of them will provide an excellent power increase and greatly speed up your pace.
