Double Swing Barbarian Endgame Build for Diablo 4 (Season 1)

Build Overview

Welcome to our comprehensive guide on creating a powerful Barbarian build focused on stunning enemies and dealing devastating blows with Double Swing. This build is designed to keep you in the thick of battle, stunning enemies and leaving a trail of destruction in your wake. In this guide, we will cover all the necessary mechanics, as well as the optimal setup for skills, Paragon points, and gear.

Strengths and Weaknesses

To get a comparison of this build with others, check out our build tier lists.

Build Requirements

Before this build can function properly, you’ll need several required Legendary Aspects. These Aspects must be found on Legendary Items and imprinted onto specific gear. The minimum required Aspects for the build to work at a basic level are:

1. Weapon Master’s Aspect
2. Exploiter’s Aspect
3. Earthquake Aspect
4. Aspect of Limitless Rage
5. Aspect of Berserk Fury
6. Accelerating Aspect

To fully optimize the build, we recommend having all the Legendary Aspects listed in this guide.

Season of the Malignant

Season 1 Patch Updates

This build was created for the current season and utilizes the latest in-game information and Aspects. Any future changes to this build will be noted here.

Patch 1.1.1

The second major update for Season 1, Patch 1.1.1 released on August 8th, 2023, brings positive changes to the Barbarian. Some of the changes that directly affect this build include:

• Lunging Strike: Increased Fury gained from 10 to 12.
• Double Swing: Increased damage from 40% to 50%.
• Aggressive Resistance: Increased damage reduction from 3% to 4%.
• Enhanced Charge: Increased damage from 30% to 60%.
• Mighty Charge: Increased Vulnerable duration from 2 to 4 seconds.
• Walking Arsenal: Increased bonus damage duration from 6 to 8 seconds.
• Earthquake Aspect: Increased damage bonus in Earthquakes from 5-15% to 15-25%.

Malignant Hearts

The theme for Season 1 introduces a new legendary gem called Malignant Hearts. These gems need to be socketed into matching colored sockets on all equipped jewelry. For more information on the Malignant Hearts theme, check out our Malignant Hearts guide. Here are the Malignant Hearts that are useful for this build, ranked by importance:

1. Caged Heart of the Dark Dance
2. Caged Heart of Revenge
3. Caged Heart of Punishing Speed

Video Guide

Please note that this written guide is continuously evolving, while videos cannot be easily updated. Therefore, the video below should serve as a guideline, while the written guide will always have the most accurate information.

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

Follow the allocated points in the image above for the complete 58-point build. The additional 10 skill points can be obtained through the Renown system.

Weapon Expertise – The Barbarian Specialization

Weapon Expertise is a set of benefits tied to the specific weapons you use as a Barbarian. Once you reach Level 5, you can unlock your Expertise. By using a certain weapon type, you will gain ranks with that weapon as you battle. The ranks range from 0 to 10 and level up as your character gains experience.

For the Double Swing build, we will focus on the Technique of a One-Handed Mace. This boosts our damage against stunned enemies, increasing overall damage as we continuously stun our foes.

Paragon

To fully maximize this build, we recommend using the following nodes and glyphs in your Paragon Tree.

Starting Board

1. Path towards the open Glyph slot on the right side of the board.
2. Along the way, pick up the Rare Node Brawn for increased flat damage and Maximum Life.
3. Insert the Glyph Bloodfeeder and take the Dexterity nodes shown for the bonus, which provides Weapon Mastery skills and bonus Physical Damage.
4. Inside the Glyph radius, take the Rare Nodes Raw Power for a damage boost.
5. Finally, path towards the connection point at the top of the board and attach our next Paragon Board, Decimator.

Decimator (2nd Board)

1. Path towards the open Glyph slots and pick up the Rare Node Destroyer.
2. Proceed to the open Glyph slot and insert Ambidextrous, which boosts the Magic Nodes in our Glyph radius and enhances our one-handed attacks.
3. Take both Rare Nodes inside the Glyph radius, Demolish and Arrogance, for advantages against Vulnerable enemies.
4. Head towards the right side of the board and pick up the Rare Node Pillage for additional damage against Vulnerable enemies.
5. Complete both pathways to the connection points shown in the image and attach the next Paragon Board, Carnage.

Carnage (3rd Board)

1. Take the pathway towards the Glyph slot and insert Might, which boosts the Magic Nodes within the radius and grants more Two-handed weapon damage.
2. Inside the Glyph radius, take both Rare Nodes, Brash and Fierce, for increased Berserking Damage and Damage Reduction against Vulnerable enemies.
3. Path towards the top connection point, branching off to pick up the Rare Node Enraged.
4. Complete the path upwards to the attachment point and attach the next board, Flawless Technique.

Flawless Technique (4th Board)

1. Head towards the open Glyph slot and pick up the Rare Node Havoc, which increases Critical Strike Damage and Physical Damage.
2. Insert Ire into the slot and take the necessary Strength to activate its bonus.
3. Take both Rare Nodes inside the Glyph radius, Brash and Heavy Blows, for improved defenses against Close Enemies and increased Critical Strike Damage with one-handed weapons.
4. Continue to the right-hand connection point and attach the Weapons Master Paragon Board.

Weapons Master (5th Board)

1. Follow the pathway to the center of the board and take the Rare Node Brute for increased Physical Damage and Attack Speed.
2. Go back and insert Territorial into the open Glyph slot, which enhances our offenses and defenses against Close Enemies.
3. Take the correct nodes in the image above, including the Dexterity nodes for the bonus.
4. Finally, take the Rare Node Raw Power inside the Glyph radius for increased Physical Damage.
5. Now that this board is complete, go back to the upper connection point on the Decimator Paragon Board and attach Bone Breaker.

Bone Breaker (6th Board)

1. Select the Nodes towards the open Glyph slot and insert Exploit, which increases damage against Vulnerable enemies.
2. Take the Rare Node Vigor for damage reduction against Healthy enemies and a small damage increase.
3. Now head to the left-hand side of the board and attach our final Paragon Board, Warbringer.

Warbringer (7th Board)

1. Follow the pathway to the open Glyph slot and insert Wrath for increased Critical Strike and Fury gains on Critical Strikes.
2. Take the necessary Dexterity nodes to boost your damage output.
3. Lastly, take the Rare Node Raw Power for increased Physical Damage.
4. This completes the Paragon Tree for this build.

Please note that the Paragon board images are courtesy of d4builds.gg.

Build Mechanics and Playstyle

The playstyle of this build revolves around two major components: stunning enemies and utilizing Berserking. These elements dictate our skill rotations and help us prepare enemies for a devastating blow with Double Swing. The goal is to gather enemies and apply stun effects. Once stunned, Enhanced Double Swing removes the Fury cost for Double Swing, allowing us to gain Fury with every strike on a stunned enemy. Double Swing benefits from various buffs and quickly dispatches stunned targets, whether with a single blow or multiple strikes for stronger foes. Let’s take a look at the different methods of applying Stun to our enemies:

1. Lunging Strike has a chance to stun through the Concussion passive and triggers a Berserking state.
2. Charge can be used to slam enemies into walls or obstacles using Enhanced Charge, providing a 60% damage increase against the targeted enemy.
3. Ground Stomp immediately stuns enemies in the area.
4. Iron Maelstrom’s first strike stuns all enemies in a large radius around the player.
5. Weapon Master’s Aspect allows our Weapon Mastery Skills, Steel Grasp, to have a chance to stun.
6. Aspect of Anemia provides another chance to stun bleeding enemies, supporting Aspect of Berserk Ripping.
7. Aspect of Retribution helps stun ranged enemies and increases damage against stunned targets.

With numerous options to stun enemies, stunning your targets will become second nature, and the playstyle will feel increasingly smoother as you become more familiar with it. Now let’s delve into the second component of our build: Berserking.

Berserking

Berserking grants a base increase of 25% damage and 30% movement speed. Additionally, the Aggressive Resistance passive provides damage reduction. We utilize the Aspect of Berserk Fury to maintain a high Fury level. Easy triggers for entering a Berserking state are our basic attack, Combat Lunging Strike, and Fighter’s Steel Grasp. These two skills initiate Berserking, which can then be sustained through the use of Furious Double Swing with zero Fury cost.

Gear Choice and Stat Priority

As you progress through World Tier 3 and 4, you’ll start encountering Rare and Legendary drops more frequently. For the optimal gear setup, we recommend saving targeted Legendary items that possess the necessary Legendary Aspects listed below. Additionally, try to obtain Rare items with specific affixes suited for each slot. The importance of affixes is listed below in order of priority:

1. Crowd Control Duration
2. Rank ups to selected Skills
3. Cooldown

It’s important to note that some very specific affixes are required for this build, including:

• Crowd Control Duration
• Rank ups to selected Skills
• Cooldown

To obtain the right affixes and Legendary Aspects, you can use your Obols to target farm them. Obols are awarded through various activities in the game, allowing you to target specific slot loot. This method greatly increases your chances of finding what you need. For optimizing your Obol gambling, you can use the Obol Gambling Optimization Tool from Icy Veins.

Legendary Aspects

Here are the best-in-slot Aspects found on Legendary items that are crucial for the Double Swing Barbarian build. If you cannot find the proper Legendary drops, you can use Aspects from the Codex of Power, but they have weaker effects. Extract Aspects from lower-level Legendary items and imprint them onto better Rare items with preferred stats. The endgame goal is to imprint Aspects with the best values on Ancestral Rare items with Item Power above or close to 800, then upgrade them through the Blacksmith. Each aspect is listed with its matching gear slot. Try to keep each aspect in its designated slot.

Gems

For each slot type, here are the best gems to socket into your gear:

• Weapon: Royal Emerald for critical strike damage against Vulnerable enemies.
• Armor: Royal Sapphire for damage reduction while Fortified.
• Jewelry: Exclusively use our Malignant Hearts for these slots.

Elixirs and Health Pots

Craft helpful Elixirs at the Alchemist in any main town to increase your stats and experience gain for 30 minutes. Make sure to gather plants and necessary crafting materials during your adventures, as they randomly spawn in the world. Use an Elixir that provides the needed Resistance or the Assault Elixir to increase Attack Speed.

Once you reach Level 20, 30, 45, 60, 70, 80, and 90, return to the Alchemist to upgrade your potion for extra healing, which is vital for survival.

Changelog

• August 19th, 2023: Build Creation Season 1.