Build Introduction
The point of this leveling guide is to quickly take your character from level 1 to 70 while using 
Whirlwind and prepare for your transition into the endgame. This guide will walk you through the skill point placement for levels 1-70 and give some insight on how each passive and skill work together to create synergy able to tackle whatever form of leveling you choose to take. We will also give some insight on Legendary Aspects, Affixes, Gems, and the new Talisman we can utilize to accelerate our journey.
Our primary skill with this build are 
Lunging Strike as our primary Fury Generator as its increased mobility and movement helps us get into position to spin through our enemies.
Our core skill of choice is of course Whirlwind. Our primary spender and what we will be using to carve demons into ribbons. We will be upgrading this skill with the level 15 ability ‘Bursting’ which converts Whirlwind‘s damage to Fire and causes it to burn enemies giving us more clear ability.
Now that we know the two most basic skills, we can look deeper into how we will allocate our skill points as we level up.
Quick Navigation
Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points
Lunging Strike 
Challenging Shout 
War Cry 
Wrath of the Berserker 
Whirlwind 
Rallying Cry If you are unsure how to best use these skills, read our Build Mechanics section after setting up your skill bar.
Wondering what comes after level 70 or which Paragon Boards to choose? Head to the Barbarian Builds Page and choose an endgame build to continue progressing your character beyond level 70 and into the endgame.
Barbarian Class Mechanic – The Arsenal System
The Barbarian is unique among classes in Diablo 4. As a master of weapons and combat, it can wield four different weapons simultaneously and effortlessly swap between them when we use different skills. We have a Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon, a Two-Handed Slashing Weapon, and a pair of Dual-Wield Weapons. At Level 15, a quest becomes available in Ked Bardu called “Masters of Battle” given by Forgemaster Kerdi. After you complete this short quest chain, you gain access to the second part of the Arsenal System: Weapon Techniques.
Barbarians gain various bonuses by using specific weapon types that are only active while wielding those weapons. After unlocking the Weapon Technique class feature, you can choose any weapon type and slot it into your technique slot, and that bonus will always be active no matter what weapon you’re actually using.
For this Whirlwind setup, we want to use the Polearm weapon technique for its damage bonus while we have high health.
Keep in mind that while you will always benefit from the Polearm bonus once it’s slotted in your technique slot, you will still gain the bonuses of the weapon types you’re actually wielding as well as letting you gain more power through this system.
Finally, Barbarians can assign their skills to different weapons, allowing for seamless transitions when using various skills. For this leveling setup we always want our Whirlwind to utilize a Two-Handed Weapon either Two-Handed Bludgeoning or Two-Handed Slashing whichever weapon is stronger for your current items. For Lunging Strike you can leave it on automatic selection for the most damage as we are only utilizing this skill to generate resource for whirlwind and gain some minor bonuses and movement so we do not care as much which weapon it’s utilizing.
Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes
When selecting your items, higher item power generally indicates stronger gear, but you also need to consider the affixes and effects that are relevant to your class and build. When making gear decisions during leveling, keep an eye on both the item power and the specific attributes that complement the build.
Legendary Aspects
For general information on how to unlock the Codex of Power, head to our Aspects and Codex of Power guide. You can also imprint Aspects onto items by visiting The Occultist in town.
Listed below are all the aspects that are important to this build as well as what slot they are best placed in. However, you can move the slots around during the leveling process especially since early on some of these aspects can only be found via random drops and might not be on the most ideal slot.
| Gear Slot | Legendary Aspect | Aspect Power |
|---|---|---|
| Helm |  Aspect of Heavenly Strength | While wielding a Two-Handed Weapon, gain [30-40%] Damage Reduction |
| Chest | Aspect of Might | Basic Skills grant [20-30%] Damage Reduction for 4 seconds |
| Gloves |  Crushing Aspect | While Fortified you deal [45 – 65%]x increased damage |
| Pants | Battle-Mad Aspect | After swapping weapons 5 times, gain Berserking for 4 seconds (We do not care about this line). Additionally, you deal [15 – 20%]x increased damage while Berserking |
| Boots |  Wildbolt Aspect | Every [3.5 – 1.5] seconds, distant enemies are Pulled In to you and take 15%x increased damage from you for 3 seconds. This effect cannot occur while you are in Stealth |
| Amulet | Aspect of Elemental Fate | Gain [40-60%]x increased damage to a set of damage types for 7 seconds alternating randomly between 2 sets: Fire, Lightning, Holy, & Physical. Cold, Poison, & Shadow. Fate can favor you granting the same bonus more than once stacking up to 6 times. At Maximum, it’s your lucky day! |
| Ring 1 |  Aspect of Berserk Fury | You gain [7 – 11] Fury per second while Berserking |
| Ring 2 | Aspect of Vocalized Empowerment | Your Shout Skills grant you [10 – 15] Primary Resource Regeneration while active |
| 2-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon | Aspect of Channeling | While Channeling a Skill, all damage is increased by [50-70%]x |
| 2-Handed Slashing Weapon | Vehement Brawler’s Aspect | Casting an Ultimate Skill increases your damage by x[35-55%] for 8 seconds. Gain 2 additional Ultimate Skill Ranks. |
| Dual Wield Weapon 1 | Edgemaster’s Aspect | Skills deal up to [40-60%]x 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 Anger Management | While above 50 Primary Resource, you deal x[15-20%] increased damage and gain Berserking but lose 3 Primary Resource Regeneration |
Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes
During your leveling journey, you may stumble across items with incredible affixes. Tempering these items can provide you with a significant boost in power, so make sure you understand how tempering works!
As a reminder, tempering is only possible if you’ve found the tempering manuals while leveling.
Keep an eye out for the following stats that are beneficial for this build. We will list the most ideal stats and the best tempering affixes if you’re lucky enough to find the relevant manual.
| Gear Slot | Targeted Affixes | Tempering Affix |
| Helm | 1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life 4. Armor | + Resistance to All Elements |
| Chest | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Fury Regeneration 4. Armor | + Resistance to All Elements |
| Gloves | 1. Attack Speed 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Strength 4. Critical Strike Damage Multiplier | + Critical Strike Damage |
| Pants | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Fury Regeneration 4. Armor | + Resistance to All Elements |
| Boots | 1. Movement Speed 2. Fury Regeneration 3. Strength 4. Maximum Life | + Movement Speed |
| Amulet | 1. Strength 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Critical Strike Damage Multiplier 4. Cooldown Reduction | + Cooldown Reduction |
| Rings | 1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Attack Speed 3. Critical Strike Damage Multiplier 4. Strength | + Cooldown Reduction |
| 2-Handed Weapons | 1. Weapon Damage 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life 4. Critical Strike Damage Multiplier | + Critical Strike Chance |
| Dual-Wield Weapons | 1. Strength 2. Critical Strike Damage Multiplier 3. Maximum Life 4. Fire Damage Multiplier | + Critical Strike Chance |
Gems and Runewords
Gems
Listed below are the best gems to socket into gear for each slot type.
Runes
While leveling in Lord of Hatred, you may come across Runes, a unique gem that can be placed into an item with two sockets, such as a helm, chest, pants, or two-handed weapon. Putting one Ritual Rune and one Invocation Rune into the same item creates a Runeword, which can enhance your gameplay and grant powerful boons. Ritual Runes generate Offering when the conditions are met, and once enough Offering has been met, the associated Invocation Rune’s effect will trigger. Here are some early Rune suggestions for leveling.
| Rune Name | Rune Effect |
|---|---|
 Cir | Gain 30 Offering: Cast the same Non-Channeled Skill 3 times in a row |
 Que | Requires 300 Offering. Cooldown 1 second. Invoke the Druid’s  Earthen Bulwark granting yourself a barrier |
 Moni | Requires 100 Offering: Cast 2 Mobility or Macabre Skills |
 Gar | Requires 25 Offering, Cooldown 1 second: Gain 2.5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds, up to 10% |
Season Mechanics
There are no specific seasonal mechanics in Season 13. Instead the Lord of Hatred expansion and all of its features are available to explore. These include:
- War Plans
- New Skill Trees
- Talisman Sets
- The Horadric Cube
- Echoing Hatred
For an overview of Diablo 4’s latest expansion CLICK HERE!
Talisman
Lord of Hatred introduces Talisman Sets. The Talisman is a Seal and Charms are placed within. Charms have some general affixes from a limited pool and can have Set bonuses which can grant significant power.
While leveling through Lord of Hatred you will be limited by what Seals you drop which determine the number of Charm slots available to you as well as what Charms drop.
For this build we recommend keeping an eye out for any Charm that allows Movement Speed, Bonus Experience, or Resistance to All Elements as these can help make your journey to level 70 significantly easier!
Mercenaries
As you play through the campaign in Vessel of Hatred, you will unlock various NPC Mercenaries who can join you on your quest to slay demons. Each Mercenary has their own small talent tree that will give them bonuses and skills to help you. Additionally, you can assign a Mercenary that you don’t take with you as a reinforcement to jump in when you activate certain skills. Let’s take a look at how we want to set this up for this build
We hire Raheir, the Shieldbearer
- Core Skill:
Ground Slam - Core Skill Passive:
Raheir’s Aegis - Iconic Skill:
Bastion - Iconic Skill Passive:
Inspiration
Our Reinforcement Mercenary will be Varyana, the Berserker Crone
- Opportunity Skill:
War Cry - Reinforcement Skill:
Bloodthirst
Build Mechanics
Rotation and Playstyle
The playstyle of this build is to build up resources with Lunging Strike and then to spin with Whirlwind to carve through our foes with flames leaving burning corpses in our wake. We support this playstyle with the various Shouts available to Barbarians giving us movement speed, resource generation to spin for longer, and a large damage boost thanks to War Cry. Combining these traits with our Ultimate of choice 
Wrath of the Berserker gives us even more damage and burst against tough Elites and Bosses throughout the campaign and leveling.
Berserking
Perhaps the most critical component of getting the most out of this build is managing your Berserking state. We have a few ways of obtaining this state early on in our journey and with a combination of Legendary Aspects can maintain it indefinitely for a major boost in speed and power. The primary method early on will be Wrath of the Berserker, our ultimate which puts us in this state for a period of time. We can also trigger it via the Berserking choice node on Lunging Strike which will make critical strikes with our generator grant us Berserking for a few seconds.
The final pieces of the puzzle in maintaining this state are two aspects. Aspect of Anger Management and Aspect of Berserk Fury. Anger Management grants us the Berserking state whenever we’re over 50 Primary Resource. Berserk Fury grants us a large amount of resource every second we’re berserk. With these two combined we have functionally indefinite uptime on Berserking as well as a pretty nice method of maintaining resources so we can spin for longer with Whirlwind. If you find yourself with either of these aspects as you level you should definitely slap them on as they are a major comfort boon to the build allowing you to spin and burn everything around you with ease.
Season Updates
For a complete overview of Season 13, its mechanics and theme, new leveling activities, and other changes coming with the launch of Lord of Hatred, please check out our Season Hub!
Lord of Hatred breathes new life into Whirlwind and brings back a fan favorite Barbarian build that is powerful for both leveling and endgame. It adds new flare by converting whirlwind to a fiery swirl of death that will burn up all the demons in your way in a nod to the old function of 
Gohr’s Devastating Grips. This allows for powerful fire scaling at endgame and a fun exciting blazing path through leveling.
Difficulty & Endgame
Once you hit level 70 with this build, you will be ready to tackle harder difficulties as you transition into more challenging content. Make sure to pick one of our recommended Endgame Builds to continue the journey. Additionally, we recommend keeping your Obols until you reach maximum level (70), then spend them on a weapon to help kickstart your preferred endgame!
Changelog
- April 22nd 2026: Updated for Season 13 and Lord of Hatred
- March 5th 2026: Updated for Season 12
- December 4th 2025: Updated for Season 11
- September 18th 2025: Guide created for Season 10
