Double Swing Barbarian Endgame Build for Diablo 4 (Season 3)

Build Introduction

This is your comprehensive guide for building a master of stuns who expertly eliminates his enemies with both weapons, delivering them to the afterlife with a single strike. Welcome to our Double Swing Endgame build. This build dives head first into packs of enemies and tactically stuns them before delivering a killing blow with Double Swing. The non-stop action of stunning and crashing into the demons of hell pumps up your damage and leaves a wake of destruction behind you.

Our guide will cover all basic mechanics and deep dive into the optimal setup for skills, Paragon, and gear for the build.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

Amazing Single Target And Group DPS
Double Swing Fury Cost Is Minimalized
Huge Critical Hits
Good Mobility

Weaknesses

Requires Stun
Skill rotation is very important

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

Build Requirements

Required Uniques

Required Aspects (Non-codex)

Season of the Construct

Season 3 Patch Updates

The following list details all changes of Season 3 that may pertain to Barbarians.

Passive

Weapon Expertise
- Expertise leveling has been cut by 50%.

Paragon

Marshal
- Now reduces the cooldown of every non-Shout skill by 4 seconds, instead of every other Shout skill by 1.2 seconds.

Aspects

Aspect of Limitless Rage
- Damage bonus now has a 5-second duration to be used.

Seneschal Construct Companion Powers

The Season 3 theme introduces a Seneschal Construct Companion that can deal damage or provide support to complement your character. Equip the Seneschal with two Governing Stones to activate their abilities, and then link them to three Tuning Stones each to augment the abilities. There are 12 different Governing Stones and 27 different Tuning Stones that can be found in Vaults scattered across Sanctuary. Fuse together duplicate stones to level them up, increasing the potency of Governing Stones or adding augments to Tuning Stones.

Listed below are the general recommended Governing Stones and their linked Tuning Stones for Barbarians, ranked by importance.

Tempest: Electrically charge an enemy causing it to deal damage to themselves and 1 additional enemy each second over 5 seconds. If the enemy is killed, Tempest spreads to another enemy gaining 2 additional seconds and 20%[x] bonus damage. These bonuses are also applied if Tempest is reapplied onto the same enemy.
- Evernight: The supported Skill grants you +4 to all Skills when used for 2.0 seconds.
- Resource Support: Player gains an amount of Primary Resource when the supporting Skill first deals damage.
- Efficiency Support: When the supporting skill deals damage, you gain Critical Strike Chance to the same targets hit.
- Swift Support: The supported Skill gains 40% Attack Speed bonus.
Flash of Adrenaline: Administers a quick flash of adrenaline into the player, granting bonus damage for a duration.
- Genesis: Increase the effectiveness of the supported Skill by 150%.
- Safeguard Support: When used, the supported Skill grants Damage Reduction to you.
- Tactical Support: Decrease the cooldown of the supported Skill.
- Duration Support: Supported Skills have their durations increased.

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Follow the points allocated in the image above for the complete 58 point build. The additional 10 skill points are completed using the Renown system.

Priority Skills	Cluster
Lunging Strike Level 1, Enhanced Lunging Strike, Combat Lunging Strike	Basic Skill
Double Swing Level 5, Enhanced Double Swing, Violent Double Swing	Core Skill
Ground Stomp Level 1, Enhanced Ground Stomp, Strategic Ground Stomp, Imposing Presence Level 1, Martial Vigor Level 3, Rallying Cry Level 1, Enhanced Rallying Cry, Tactical Rallying Cry	Defensive Skill
War Cry Level 1, Enhanced War Cry, Mighty War Cry, Booming Voice Level 3, Raid Leader Level 3, Aggressive Resistance Level 3, Prolific Fury Level 3	Brawling Skill
Thick Skin Level 3, Defensive Stance Level 3, Counteroffensive Level 3, Pit Fighter Level 3, No Mercy Level 3	Weapon Mastery Skill
Wrath of the Berserker, Prime Wrath of the Berserker, Supreme Wrath of the Berserker, Wallop Level 1, Concussion Level 3,	Ultimate Skill
Unbridled Rage	Key Passives

Weapon Expertise – The Barbarian Specialization

Weapon Expertise is a set of benefits tied to which weapons you use as a Barbarian. To unlock your Expertise, simply hit Level 5 and the tab below will be made available. By using a certain weapon type, you will begin to gain ranks with that weapon as you fight. The ranks are from 0 to 10 and will level up moderately quickly as your character gains experience. Once your expertise hit rank 10, you will be maxed out on the benefit for using that weapon with your skills. As a reminder, to swap your assigned weapon to the skill you are using, go to your Skill selection list (not Skill Tree) and you will see how to switch it. For mouse and keyboard users, you can access this by pressing the middle mouse button. At Level 15, you will unlock the Masters of Battle quest. This quest will be available in the township of ‘Ked Bardu’ from the Forgemaster Gerti. Upon completing this quest, you will unlock the Technique slots as seen below. This will offer you an additional permanent bonus from one of the weapons regardless of whether you have it equipped to a skill or not.

For the Double Swing build, we will be focusing on the Technique of a One-Handed Mace. This boosts our damage to Stunned enemies, increasing our overall damage as we continually keep our enemies stunned.

Weapon Selection

Barbarians have an unique mechanic in Diablo 4 where you can assign a weapon type to certain skills. This is a critical component for all builds to function properly, and failure to match your weapon to the proper skill may cause the build to perform poorly. For this build, we will be assigning the following weapons to our skills:

Double Swing – Dual Wield
Lunging Strike – Bludgeoning

Paragon

We recommend using these Legendary nodes and Rare Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame. Note that each Rare Glyph’s information listed below is for the Level 21 version.

Rare Node	Effect
Exploit	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [3.85%] increased damage to Vulnerable targets. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Dexterity points are purchased in the glyph’s range: When an enemy is damaged by you, they become Vulnerable for 3 seconds. This cannot happen more than once every 20 seconds per enemy.
Territorial	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal +[9.6]% increased damage to Close targets. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Dexterity points are purchased in the glyph’s range: You gain 10% Damage Reduction against Close enemies.
Marshal	– Grants +[125%] bonus to all Magic nodes within range. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 40 Strength points are purchased in the glyph’s range: After casting a Shout Skill, the active Cooldown of every non-Shout Skill is reduced by 4 seconds.
Might	– Grants + [120%] bonus to all Magic nodes within range. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 40 Strength points are purchased in the glyph’s range: You deal x8% increased damage while wielding Two-Handed weapons.
Undaunted	– For every 5 Willpower purchased within range, you deal + [8%] increased damage while Fortified. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Willpower points are purchased in the glyph’s range: You gain 10% Damage Reduction the more Fortify you have.
Bloodfeeder	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [8%] increased damage to Bleeding targets. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Dexterity points are purchased in the glyph’s range: You have +5% increased Critical Strike Chance against Bleeding enemies.
Ire	– For every 5 Strength purchased within range, you deal +[8%] increased damage while Berserking. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 40 Strength points are purchased in the glyph’s range: While Berserking, you take 10% reduced damage from Elites.
Carnage	– While Berserking, Critical Strikes increase your Attack Speed by +2%, up to +16% for 6 seconds.
Blood Rage	– Killing a Bleeding enemy has 10% chance to grant Berserking for 5 seconds. Your Damage is increased by x25% of your Damage while Berserking bonus.

Let’s break down each of these beneficial nodes and where our Paragon Points are positioned in each of the Paragon Boards we use. This part of the build is presented in order of importance. If you do not have enough Paragon Points to use in your Paragon Tree, just slowly work towards each step.

Starting Board

Take the pathway up the right hand side of the board towards the open glyph slot.
Along route pick up the Rare Node Brawn, this will boost our flat damage and offer us an increase to Maximum Life.
Now cross over and take the Rare node on the opposite side of the board, Tenacity, for the bonus Maximum Life.
Insert the glyph Territorial, and take the Dexterity nodes shown to get the bonus. This will help us with fighting Close Enemies and Damage Reduction against Close Enemies.
Inside the glyph radius, we take both Rare Nodes, Raw Power and Iron Strength, for the increase Armor and Physical Damage boost.
Finally, path towards the connection point at the top of the board and attach our next Paragon Board, Warbringer.

Warbringer

Path towards the open glyph slot and insert Exploit. This glyph will help us do more Damage to Vulnerable Enemies, be sure to take all the Dexterity.
Next we will take both Rare Nodes inside the Glyph radius, Raw Power and Conditioned, these nodes will grant us an increase in Physical damage and Resistances.
Head towards the left hand side of the board and attach the next Paragon Board Carnage.

Carnage

Take the pathway towards the glyph slot and insert Ire into the glyph slot. This glyph will boost our damage while Berserking.
Inside the glyph radius take both Rare Nodes, Brash and Fierce, these Nodes will grant you an increased Berserking Damage and give you an increased Damage Reduction for Vulnerable Enemies.
Now path towards the bottom connection point (for use later) and pick up the Rare node Enraged.
Next path to the left hand connection point (for use later) and pick both, Berserker and Carnage, these will amplify our Berserking.
Complete the path upwards to the attachment point and attach the next board, Blood Rage.

Blood Rage

Head up towards the open glyph slot and pick up Rare Node Enraged, this will increase our Berserking Damage and duration.
Now take the Legendary node Blood Rage for the chance to gain Berserking if a Bleeding Enemies dies.
Path to the glyph slot, picking up Grit along the way, and insert Marshal. This will help our Cooldown for our non-Shout skills.
Now take the other Rare Node inside the glyph radius, Revel. These will help us increase our damage to Bleeding Enemies.
Now continue to the left hand connection point and attach the Hemorrhage Paragon Board.

Hemorrhage

Follow the pathway to the open glyph slot, picking up Butcher along the way. This will increase our Physical Damage over Time.
Now go and insert Bloodfeeder into the open Glyph slot. This will increase our damage and Critical Strike Chance against Bleeding Enemies.
Be sure to take the correct nodes in the image above, including the Dexterity for the bonus.
Now that this board is complete, go back to the left hand connection point on the Carnage Paragon Board and attach Decimator.

Decimator

Select the path towards the open glyph slot and insert Ambidextrous, this will boost the Magic nodes inside the glyph radius and increase our one-handed damaged.
Next, take both the Rare Nodes, Demolish and Arrogance, for the Damage Reduction and damage increase against Vulnerable Enemies.
Now head back to the Carnage paragon board and use the bottom connection point to attach our final paragon board Weapons Master.

Weapons Master

Select the nodes towards the open glyph slot, and insert Undaunted for the increases to damage while Fortified.
Take the needed Willpower nodes to boost your damage output.
Lastly, take both the Rare Nodes, Raw Power and Iron Strength, this will increase our Physical Damage and Armor.
This completes the Paragon Tree for this build.

Paragon board images courtesy of d4builds.gg.

Build Mechanics and Playstyle

The playstyle for this build is designed behind two major components; Stunned Enemies and Berserking. These two elements drive our skill rotations and help us prep enemies for a killing strike with Double Swing. Your goal is simply to round up enemies and apply Stun using Ground Stomp. Once they are stunned, Enhanced Double Swing will minimalize the our Fury cost for Double Swing by allowing us to gain Fury when we strike a stunned enemy. Our Double Swing will benefit from countless buffs and quickly strike down any stunned targets using a single or multiple blows for heavier targets. Let’s take a look at the different methods that allow us to apply Stun to our enemies.

Lunging Strike has a chance to Stun due to the Concussion passive, this is also our trigger to enter a Berseking state.
Ground Stomp offers an immediate Stun to any enemies in the area.
Aspect of Anemia – gives us a chance to Stun bleeding enemies. This works in tandem with the Aspect of Berserk Ripping.
Aspect of Audacity – stuns nearby enemies.

These three options will help stun your targets naturally and the playstyle will feel smoother the more you play it. Let’s take a look at our next component, Berserking, which boosts our damage and keeps our mobility high.

Berserking

Berserking gives us a base increase of 25% damage and 30% movement speed. We also benefit from the passive Aggressive Resistance for an increase in our Damage Reduction. We also use the Aspect of Berserk Fury to keep our Fury high while Berserking. These benefits are easily triggers by both our basic attack, Combat Lunging Strike, as well as our Core Skill’s augment Furious Double Swing. We can also use our War Cry and Wrath of the Berserker to stay in a state of Berserking.

Defensive Aspects

Aspect of Berserk Ripping and Iron Blood Aspect provides us with a unique defensive layer while Bleed enemies around us. These two aspects combine to give us a significant increase in our Damage Reduction based on the number of bleeding enemies near us. We support this further by our Paragon Tree for even more Damage Reduction against Bleeding Enemies. The Bleeding effect also occurs automatically while you are Berserking, you don’t need to trigger anything or do anything special. While there will be some adjustment to keeping your Berserking going, with a decent amount of duration on your items you will find this to become very routine.

Gear Choice and Stat Priority

As you begin to farm in World Tier 3 and 4, Rare and Legendary item drops will begin to appear with some regularity depending on your luck. We recommend saving the targeted Legendary items that have the needed Legendary aspects listed below. We also recommended to keep multiple copies of the build’s Aspects in your Stash for future upgrades.

As for the Rare items, you will need to inspect each one for targeted affixes for use in each specific slot and do your best to match the recommended rolls. We have listed our targeted affixes in order of importance. Check the chart below and make note of what affixes you are searching for when you see a Rare gear piece drop.

Season 2 Update (1.2.0): Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage affixes are changed to be additive with other damage increases. All additive damage increases of the same amount are equal in value, as long as their conditions are active.

Ground Stomp — Please note we have left the affixes for Helm if you do not have the Unique Godslayer Crown.

Gear Slot	Targeted Affixes
Helm	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life 4. Needed Resistances
Chest	1. Damage Reduction while Fortified 2. Damage Reduction from Close Enemies 3. Damage Reduction 4. Maximum Life 5. Ranks to Ground Stomp
Gloves	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Ranks of Double Swing 3. Strength 4. Lucky Hit Chance 5. Critical Strike Chance Against Injured Enemies
Pants	1. Damage Reduction while Fortified 2. Damage Reduction while Injured 3. Damage Reduction from Close Enemies 4. Maximum Life 5. Damage Reduction
Boots	1. Movement Speed 2. Strength 3. Fury Cost Reduction 4. Needed Resistances
Amulet	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Fury Cost Reduction 3. Movement Speed 4. Ranks of Counteroffensive 5. Damage Reduction
Rings	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Lucky Hit Chance 3. Critical Strike Damage 4. Maximum Life
Weapons	1. Strength 2. Core Skill Damage 3. Damage to Close Enemies 4. Critical Strike Damage 5. Damage to Bleeding Enemies

Please note that these affixes are the recommended picks for this Double Swing build, but that is simply our opinion. Other affixes could certainly work instead of the ones listed above, but may not be optimal.

Rank ups to selected Skills
Cooldown Reduction – this is for Wrath of the Berserker and Shouts.

A final point on acquiring the right Affixes and Legendary Aspects, use your Obols to target farm them. Obols are awarded from many different activities in the game, you will always stockpiling them until you hit your maximum. Instead of just randomly spending them on a random pick, use them to target what you might be missing from this build. It is a great way to target a specific slot of loot and find what you need.

If you are interested in checking out a new tool for gambling Obols check out this link below from Icy Veins.

Obol Gambling Optimization Tool

Legendary Aspects

Listed below are all the best-in-slot Aspects found on Legendary items that are important for the Double Swing Barbarian build. Aspects from the Codex of Power can be used if you cannot find the proper Legendary drops, but they have weaker effects. Extract Aspects from lower level Legendary items and imprint them onto better Rare items with preferred stats. The endgame itemization goal will be to imprint Aspects with the best values Ancestral Rare items with Item Power above or as close to 800, then upgrade them through the Blacksmith. Each aspect is listed with its matching gear slot. Do your best to keep each aspect in the slot it was posted with.

Gear Slot	Legendary Aspect	Legendary Aspect Power
Helm	Godslayer Crown
Chest	Iron Blood Aspect	Gain [2.0-4.0%] Damage Reduction for each Nearby Bleeding enemy up to [10-20%] maximum.
Gloves	Aspect of Anemia	Lucky Hit: Direct damage against Bleeding enemies has up to a [20-30%] chance to Stun them for 2 seconds.
Pants	Aspect of Might	Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2.0-6.0] seconds.
Boots	Aspect of Audacity	When there are at least 5 Close enemies, Stun them for [2-4] seconds. This can only occur once every 20 seconds.
Amulets (50% bonus)	Aspect of Disobedience	You gain [0.6-1.1]% increased Armor for 4 seconds when you deal any form of damage, stacking up to [36-66]%.
Ring	Aspect of Berserk Fury	You gain [3-6] Fury per second while Berserking.
Ring	Bold Chieftain’s Aspect	Whenever you cast a Shout Skill, its Cooldown is reduced by [1.0-1.9] seconds per Nearby enemy, up to a maximum of 6 seconds.
Bludgeoning Weapon (200% bonus)	Aspect of Limitless Rage	Each point of Fury you generate while at Maximum Fury grants your next Core Skill [1-2]% increased damage, up to [15-30]%.
Slashing Weapon (200% bonus)	Accelerating Aspect	Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by [15-25]% for 5 seconds.
Dual-Wield Weapon 1	Edgemaster’s Aspect	Skills deal up to [10- 20%] increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource.
Dual-Wield Weapon 2	Aspect of Berserk Ripping	Whenever you deal direct damage while Berserking, inflict [20-30%] of the Base damage dealt as additional Bleeding damage over 5 seconds.

Uber Uniques

The chart below is our recommendation for Uber Uniques that will work within this build. However, all Uber uniques are extremely powerful and can shine in different situations. Good Hunting!

Gems

Listed below are the best gems to socket into gear for each slot type.

Weapon: Royal Emerald for critical strike damage to Vulnerable enemies.
Armor: Royal Ruby for Maximum Life.
Jewelry: Royal Diamond for All Resistances, however, certain bosses may require you to switch to their corresponding resistances.

Elixirs and Health Pots

Visit the Alchemist in any main town to craft helpful Elixirs that increase stats, and experience gain for 30 minutes. Make sure to forage plants and pick up the necessary crafting materials during your adventures; they randomly spawn around the world. Use an Elixir providing any Resistance you need most, or the Assault Elixir to increase Attack Speed.

Return to the Alchemist again when you reach Level 20, 30, 45, 60, 70, 80 and 90, to upgrade your potion. The extra healing is essential to survival.

Changelog

February 5th 2024: Adjusted for more reliable Vulnerability.
January 30th 2024: Marshal Glyph changes.
January 21st 2024: Season 3 speculative changes.
October 26th 2023: Revamped Build for Season 2.
October 13th 2023: Build Adjusted to prepare for Season 2 launch.
August 19th 2023: Build Creation Season 1.

Uber Uniques	Recommended(Y/N)	Replaces
Andariel’s Visage	No
Harlequin Crest	Yes	Replaces Godslayer Crown
Melted Heart of Selig	No
Ring of Starless Skies	No
Doombringer	Yes	Edgemaster’s Aspect will be dropped
The Grandfather	Yes	Accelerating Aspect will be dropped
Ahavarion, Spear of Lycander	No