Rend Wastes Barbarian Skills and Runes

Active Skills
Ancient Spear Rage Flip Whirlwind Wind Shear 1 Rend Bloodbath 2 Ground Stomp Wrenching Smash 3 Battle Rage Swords to Ploughshares 4 Wrath of the Berserker Insanity
Passive Skills
Berserker Rage Brawler Ruthless Boon of Bul-Kathos

This build starts and ends runs with a continuous Whirlwind; this all-in-one tool serves for mobility, Fury upkeep (through Wind Shear), damage reduction (through the Wastes 4-piece bonus) and Rend application (through the Ambo's Pride legendary power). To keep the relentless engine of mayhem going, apply Wrath of the Berserker on cooldown, maintain Battle Rage active at all times, and keep a close eye on your Band of Might — using Ground Stomp at least once every 8 seconds to keep the damage reduction effect going. Through the rune Wrenching Smash, the latter will also be used to create density for your Rends; though when it comes to long range pulls, you will have to turn to the "fishing" staple Ancient Spear Rage Flip.

The primary damage dealer of the build is Rend, a classic AoE tool known from vanilla. With its percentage and duration bumped by the Wastes 2-piece bonus, its damage output tripled by the Wastes 4-piece bonus, and then skyrocketed even further by the Wastes 6-piece bonus as well as the powers of the Lamentation mighty belt (see this build's gear page for more information), it turns from a mediocre spender into a fearsome DoT that will bleed your enemies dry. The newfound legendary powers of Ambo's Pride allow you to apply Rends by simply Whirlwinding through the enemy, and also turn its considerable DoT effect into a near-instantaneous nuke. The recommended rune choice is Bloodbath, as its on-kill bleed procs interact with the Wastes set and Lamentation bonuses and brings the highest damage to the table.

Whirlwind is regarded as the most fluid Barbarian spender, as it removes collision with the enemy and its low cost makes it easy to maintain. The Rend Barbarian adopts this skill for a myriad of reasons: the automatic Rend applications of Ambo's Pride, the Fury maintenance utility of the Wind Shear rune, the damage reduction properties from the Wastes 4-piece bonus and even the added damage and mitigation bonuses from the legendary gem Taeguk.

The signature barbarian steroid Wrath of the Berserker is strengthened further by the damage increasing rune Insanity. With a combination of high Cooldown Reduction and the powers of the Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac, you should be able to harness the potential of this skill permanently and boost your Dodge, Crit Chance, Attack and Movement Speed by significant percentages. As soon as you obtain the powers of the Mortick's Brace, which adds all the runes of Wrath of the Berserker to the build, this skill slot selection becomes a no-brainer.

One of the best utility skills at the disposal of Barbarians, Ground Stomp brings a powerful AoE stun, coupled with a massive 24-yard pull towards the character from the Wrenching Smash rune. This skill should be used at least once every 8 seconds for the damage mitigation buff from Band of Might, and certainly in the thick of every meaningful fight; it is an excellent lead up to Rend, stacking enemies on top of each other for maximum carnage. It even brings a minor Fury regeneration aspect, ensuring your resource stability in and out of fights. Note that in a Captain Crimson set variant of this build (discussed in the Gear page), this skill slot should be replaced by Ignore Pain Ignorance is Bliss — in order to make up for some of the toughness lost from losing Band of Might.

As previously mentioned, your long-range counterpart to Ground Stomp will be Ancient Spear Rage Flip; a precise and supremely effective tool to bring enemies right within your Whirlwind path. Alternatively, you can double up on mitigation in this slot and take the aforementioned Ignore Pain Ignorance is Bliss.

Battle Rage boosts both your overall damage and your Crit Chance. While it can be considered a fire-and-forget skill with its impressive 2-minute duration, never neglect to activate and keep it up. The recommended rune is the healing Swords to Ploughshares, which adds some nice health sustain to the build and procs consistently off your Whirlwind crits. (Note that the usual recommendation for this skill, Bloodshed, does not work with a DoT skill like Rend, since DoTs do not crit. They do, however, factor in Crit stats in their damage calculation, making Into the Fray another viable option for the slot.)

This concludes the overview of the Active Skills, now let us look through the Passives.

Considering this build thrives in density and assigns two of its active skills to creating massive pulls of enemies, it also becomes a natural adopter of the Brawler passive for its 20% additive damage buff. In lower tier GR runs, when you are not pushing against the upper limits of your damage output and clear potential, you will have an easier time maintaining the stronger, but kill speed-reliant, Rampage. With the potential to stack up to 25% additional Strength, this passive can dramatically increase your DPS and Toughness, but it becomes exponentially harder to keep up. In an ideal scenario, you will have both passives via a nicely rolled Hellfire Amulet of Strength.

With the help of Wind Shear, the Rend Barbarian becomes a breeze to maintain Fury-wise — and this supreme method of resource generation even enables Berserker Rage as a passive for yet another source of damage multiplication.

Ruthless is a Barbarian staple, compensating for the single target weakness of the class — Rend build included. Once you bring your target below 30% health, your damage skyrockets with an additional 40%, ensuring the mortal blow will be dealt well ahead of the timer.

Boon of Bul-Kathos is a rather straightforward addition to the setup, shaving a hefty 30-second chunk off your vital Wrath of the Berserker cooldown and easing the strain on the Obsidian Ring of the Zodiac resets and your CDR rolls on gear.