Build Introduction
Welcome to the guide for the Bleedbarian! If you enjoy a Damage Over Time (DoT) based playstyle with plenty of defense and carving a path through demons in your way, this is the build for you.
Strengths and Weaknesses
- Powerful DoT damage playstyle
- Large AoE clear
- Great defenses
- Good Berserking uptime
- Damage is not instant
- Struggles against very high level single-target bosses
- Requires cooldown management
To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier list.
Build Requirements
Rage of Harrogath
Fists of Fate
Ring of the Ravenous
Aspect of Giant Strides
Conceited AspectSkill Tree and Skill Bar
Rend 
Leap 
Rupture 
Rallying Cry 
War Cry 
Iron Skin 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.
Arsenal System and Weapon Selection
For this is 
Rend build we will be using the Two-Handed Axe Technique for its increase to Vulnerable damage.
Barbarians have a unique mechanic in Diablo 4 where you can assign a weapon type to certain skills. For our Rend build, we will be assigning the following weapons to our skills:
We want to be using a 2-Handed Polearm for its damage bonuses in our Slashing Weapon slot as well as to benefit from the 
Executioner glyph we’ll be using in our Paragon setup.
Paragon Board
We recommend using the following Legendary nodes and Rare Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame. Note that each Rare Glyph’s information and radius listed below is for the Level 21 version.
Starting Board
Warbringer
Rotate this board three times before attaching it.
Carnage
Rotate this board twice before attaching it.
Blood Rage
We attach this board to the Northern gate of the Carnage board. Do not rotate this board when attaching it.
Bone Breaker
Attach this board to the Southern end of the Carnage Board. Rotate this board twice before attaching it
Hemorrhage
We attach this board to the eastern gate of the Bone Breaker Board. Rotate this board once before attaching it.
Decimator
We attach this board to the Eastern gate of the Carnage board. Rotate this board three times before attaching it.
For a link to the full paragon board CLICK HERE.
Gear, Gems, Elixirs, and Stats
The Season of Loot Reborn brought us an incredible shift in how gear and itemization are done. It is a major and will affect the game beyond Season 4’s confines. For further details, make sure to read our Tempering and Masterworking section below.
Legendary Aspects
Below you will find all of the best-in-slot Aspects found on Legendary Items that are important to the build. Remember that all Legendary Powers can be added into your Codex once you salvage or extract the item. You can still find some aspects through dungeons as you could in previous seasons but you also have the option to upgrade these affixes if you find a higher roll of that affix. Let us go over what aspects you will need.
| Gear Slot | Gems | Legendary Aspect / Unique | Aspect / Unique Power |
| Helm |  Royal Ruby |  Aspect of Bul-Kathos | – Leap creates an Earthquake that deals [X] Physical damage over 4 seconds. While standing in Earthquakes, you gain [10-25%] increased Damage Reduction |
| Chest | Royal Ruby | Rage of Harrogath | – Lucky Hit: Inflicting Bleeding on an enemy has up to a [20-40%] chance to reduce the Cooldowns of your skills by 1 second |
| Gloves | N/A | Fists of Fate | – Your attacks randomly deal 1% to [200-300%] of their normal damage |
| Pants | Royal Ruby | Aspect of the Iron Warrior | – Iron Skin grants Unstoppable and [25-35%] damage reduction. |
| Boots | N/A |  Relentless Berserker’s Aspect | – Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy with a Core Skil has up to a [22-40%] chance to extend the duration of Berserking by 2 seconds. Double this duration if it was a Critical Strike. |
| Amulet |  Royal Diamond | Conceited Aspect | – Deal x [10-25%] increased damage while you have a barrier active |
| Ring 1 | Royal Diamond | Aspect of Giant Strides | – Reduces the cooldown of Leap by [2.5-5] seconds per enemy hit, up to a maximum of 9 seconds. Hitting a boss with leap provides the maximum cooldown reduction |
| Ring 2 | Royal Diamond | Ring of the Ravenous | – Rend’s duration is increased by [4-8] seconds. Damaging enemies with Brawling Skills applies 2 stacks of Rend’s Bleed. This can only affect each enemy once every 1 second. |
| 2-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon |  Royal Sapphire | Earthquake Aspect | – Ground Stomp creates an Earthquake damaging enemies for [X] Physical damage over 4 seconds. While standing in Earthquakes you deal x [10-25%] increased damage. (We only care about the second part of this aspect) |
| 2-Handed Slashing Weapon | Royal Sapphire | Aspect of Creeping Death | – You deal x [30-50%] increased damage over time to enemies for each different crowd control effect they’re afflicted by. Unstoppable enemies and staggered bosses take x [90-150%] increased damage over time from you instead. |
| Dual-Wield Weapon 1 | Royal Sapphire | Aspect of Elements | – Gain x [20-30%] increased damage to a set of damage types for 7 seconds. This effect alternates between 2 sets: Fire, Lightning, & Physical. Cold, Poison, & Shadow. |
| Dual-Wield Weapon 2 | Royal Sapphire | Aspect of Retribution | – Distant enemies have a 10% chance to be Stunned for 2 seconds when they hit you. You deal x [15-30%] increased damage to Stunned and Knocked Down enemies. |
Gems
Listed below are the best gems to socket into gear for each slot type.
| Weapon Gems | Armor Gems | Jewelry Gems |
| Royal Sapphire for increased vulnerable damage | Royal Ruby for increased maximum life | Royal Diamond for all resistances |
For your jewelry it may be necessary to change the Royal Diamond for another gem for a specific type such as Royal Sapphire to ensure all of your resistances are capped at 70%
Which Elixirs Should You Use?
When in town you can visit the Alchemist to craft helpful elixirs which will provide a special effect and increase your experience gain. Crafting has been simplified in Patch 1.4.0, and there are fewer specific flowers to harvest; instead, almost all herbs in the world drop as 
Bundled Herbs, allowing you to craft the Elixirs you want. Some Elixirs cannot be crafted and only drop from things like Helltides or Nightmare Dungeons. For this build, we recommend 
Elixir of Advantage 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.
To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier list.
Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes
Below are the affixes to prioritize on gear. Each line of affixes is listed in order of importance. Tempering Manuals and their recommended affixes are provided in the second column, and the bolded yellow affixes are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades. To masterwork, you will need rare materials that only drop from The Pit. Be sure to check our Tempering guide, our Masterworking guide, as well as our guide about The Pit for more details about these topics.
| Slot | Gear Affixes | Tempering Affixes |
|---|---|---|
| Helm | 1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Strength 3. Armor | 1. Iron Skin Cooldown Reduction  Barbarian Strategy2. Lucky Hit: Chance to Freeze for 2 seconds Worldly Fortune |
| Chest | 1. Maximum Life 2. Strength 3. Needed Resistance | 1. Iron Skin Cooldown Reduction Barbarian Strategy 2. Crowd Control Duration Barbarian Control |
| Gloves | 1. Vulnerable Damage 2. Lucky Hit Chance 3. Maximum Life | 1. Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse 2. Lucky Hit: Chance to Immobilize for 2 seconds Worldly Fortune – Utility |
| Pants | 1. Maximum Life 2. Ranks to Flay 3. Needed Resistance | 1. Iron Skin Cooldown Reduction Barbarian Strategy 2. Earthquake Duration – Barbarian Innovation |
| Boots | 1. Movement Speed 2. Ranks to Leap 3. Strength | 1. Leap Cooldown Reduction Barbarian Motion 2. Lucky Hit: Chance to Immobilize for 2 seconds Worldly Fortune |
| Amulet | 1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Ranks to Heavy Handed 3. Ranks to Cut to the Bone | 1. Critical Strike Damage – Worldly Finesse 2. Brawling Cooldown Reduction Brawling Efficiency |
| Rings | 1. Attack Speed 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Critical Strike Chance | 1. Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse 2. Brawling Cooldown Reduction Brawling Efficiency |
| 2-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon | 1. Strength 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Maximum Life | 1. Rend Size Bleed Augments – Weapons 2. Critical Strike Damage – Worldly Finesse |
| 2-Handed Slashing Weapon | 1. Strength 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Maximum Life | 1. Critical Strike Damage – Worldly Finesse 2. Earthquake Size Wasteland Augments |
| Dual-Wield Weapon 1 | 1. Strength 2. Vulnerable Damage 3. Maximum Life | 1. Critical Strike Damage – Worldly Finesse 2. Rend Size Bleed Augments |
| Dual-Wield Weapon 2 | 1. Strength 2. Vulnerable Damage 3. Maximum Life | 1. Critical Strike Damage – Worldly Finesse 2. Leap Slam Size – Wasteland Augments |
Rotation and Playstyle
The iconic Bleedbarian comes to Diablo 4 and while not as powerful as some other builds does offer a unique damage over time based playstyle popular with many players. Let’s review our skills and go over how to use them effectively.
- Use
War Cry and 
Rallying Cry to generate Fury and for their buffs - Spend your Fury using Rend to apply bleeds to them
- Once a target has enough bleed applied to them, you can either wait for them to die or use
Rupture to finish them off, useful against Bosses and Elites - Cast
Iron Skin whenever you need the defense or are caught in a tight spot - Use
Leap for Fury generation, mobility and to proc your quake aspects for damage and damage reduction whenever you’re up against an elite pack or boss
Uniques and Mythic Uniques
Below you will find information on Uniques and Mythic Uniques that are useful for this build. Moreover, if you are interested in target farming Mythic Uniques, check out our How to Farm Mythic Uniques guide.
Uniques
Below you will find the uniques useful to this build. As a reminder you MUST be using at least one slashing weapon in your dual-wield weapon setup to be able to cast Rend and Rupture.
- Fists of Fate – What was once a meme unique has become quite powerful with the season 5 revamp thanks to an absolutely absurd range on its rolls granting up to a 51.8% lucky hit chance which we will use to apply numerous small crowd controls and get the most benefit from the new creeping death aspect. The 1% on its power scares a lot of players off of it but the amount of times we’ll be hitting and applying rend leads to an overall increase of around 50% damage. A solid item this season.
- Rage of Harrogath – Thanks to the rework last season this now triggers when you apply a bleed to an enemy which this build excels at and will be doing at all times. It will provide us a much needed reset for all of our cooldowns and makes the build incredibly versatile.
- Ring of the Ravenous – With the updates to Leap last season and more damage from quakes, we can use this to apply our rends as well as generate fury and get a ton more damage with the new range thanks to its season 5 update. 8 more seconds on a Rend is a large chunk of damage for the DOT as a whole which will making blowing them up with Rupture all the sweeter. A must have for fun and power.
Mythic Uniques
Here are the useful Mythic Uniques for the Rend Barbarian. If a Mythic unique is NOT listed here, it is not useful to this build in any meaningful capacity.
Harlequin Crest – The infamous “Shako”. One of the most powerful items in the game comes as no surprise. If you’re lucky enough to find one, you simply replace your helm with it and drop Rage of Harrogath entirely and move the Aspect of Bul-Kathos to your chest. The new buffed cooldown on this item is not be underestimated
Season 5: Season of the Infernal Hordes
The biggest new activity in Season 5 is, of course, the titular Infernal Hordes. A new endgame activity where you can earn powerful rewards for surviving waves of enemies and defeating a new boss, The Fell Council, at the end of these waves. There will also be a reputation to be gained with the season which provides numerous rewards and even a Resplendent Spark at maximum reputation! Below, you will find the changes in Patch 1.5.0 that affect this build.
- Rend ‘s damage increased by 10%
- Violent Rend ‘s damage bonus increased from 25% to 30%
- Furious Rend ‘s fury gain increased from 4 to 5 and maximum Fury gain increased from 20 to 25
Imposing Presence ‘s health bonus reduced from 6/12/18% to 5/10/15% 
Gushing Wounds changed. Now when causing an enemy to Bleed, you have a chance equal to your critical strike chance to increase the Bleed amount by 70%[x] and then by 100%[+] of your Critical Strike Damage. Overpowering a Bleeding enemy causes an explosion that inflicts 120% Bleeding damage over 5 seconds. Changed from 140% multiplicative critical strike damage bonus, and bleed explosions from 85% damage.
Advanced Information
Below, you will find every additional piece of information you need to know for a more in-depth look at this build.
Build Mechanics
Immediately you are going to notice the lack of generators and this is by design. Thanks to the reworks in Patch 1.5.0 and resource generation being vastly improved we don’t actually need it. We’re going to get our Fury through Shouts and Leap; simply run into a group and get your shouts up and start spamming Rend. This should proc Rage of Harrogath frequently and allow you to spam even more. When something big like an Elite, The Butcher, or a boss is nearby, we’ll throw out enough Rends to get a big DoT on them and then hit the big Rupture now guaranteed to overpower on initial hit and do a pretty hefty chunk. This is a DoT based build and that means our damage is delayed and not instant which can be a turn off for some people but for those who invest this build is looking quite solid if this is a playstyle you enjoy!
Berserking
A status unique to Barbarian’s that grants damage, movement speed, resources and even damage reduction with the right setup. We can enter this state through 
Battle Fervor when we Leap, War Cry, and 
Blood Rage which should give us an incredibly high uptime on this state.
Defensives
Our main defensive options come from easily hitting the new armor cap thanks to a single roll of armor on our gear and of course capping our Resistances via gear affixes, gems and a few paragon nodes. Beyond this, our main defensive option will be Iron Skin which we should have high uptime on thanks to our Rage of Harrogath providing a hefty amount of resets. We also get a ton of defense standing in our quakes thanks to Aspect of Bul-Kathos which should give this build incredible tankiness.
Paragon
The recommended Paragon boards for this build are listed above, and further down below, you can find a more thorough route for allocating the Paragon points, as well as some notes on why specific nodes were chosen and why they are essential for this build.
| Rare Glyphs and Legendary Nodes | Effect |
 Exploit | – For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [8%] increased damage to Vulnerable targets – Additional bonus once 25 Dexterity has been purchased within 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. |
| Ire | – For every 5 Strength purchased within range, you deal + [5.3%] increased damage while Berserking – Additional bonus once 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s range: While Berserking, you take 10% reduced damage from Elites. |
| Might | – Grants + [125%] bonus to all Magic Nodes within range – Additional bonus once 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s range: You deal x8% increased damage while wielding two-handed weapons |
| Marshal | – Grants + [125%] bonus to all Magic Nodes within range – Additional bonus once 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s range: After casting a Shout Skill, the active cooldown of every other Non-Shout Skill is reduced by 2 seconds. |
| Executioner | – For every 5 Strength purchased within range, you deal + [5.3%] increased damage while wielding a Polearm. – Additional bonus once 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s range: While wielding a Polearm, you deal x10% increased damage |
| Rumble | – For every 5 Strength purchased within range, your Earthquakes deal [39.6%] increased damage – Additional bonus once 40 Strength has been purchased within the glyph’s range: You deal x10% increased damage to Bosses and Crowd Controlled enemies for each active earthquake. |
| Carnage | – While Berserking, Critical Strikes increase your Attack Speed by 2% up to 16% for 6 seconds. |
| Decimator | – Each time you make an enemy Vulnerable, your damage is increased by 10% for 5 seconds. Overpowering a Vulnerable enemy grants an additional x10% bonus for 5 seconds. |
| Blood Rage | – Killing a Bleeding enemy has a 10% chance to grant Berserking for 5 seconds. Your damage is increased by x10% of your Damage While Berserking bonus, up to a maximum of x30% |
| Hemorrhage | – Your Bleeding damage is increased by x15% of your Vulnerable Damage 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 for use in your Paragon Tree, just slowly work towards each step.
Important Notes
- Make sure you select the correct Legendary Boards and rotate them into the correct orientation to match the images shown above.
- Attach the boards in the order shown as bonus requirements of Rare Nodes increase with their placement order.
- Additional bonuses on Rare Glyphs may not be obtainable until they gain the increased radius at level 15.
Starting Board
- We start off by heading to the right side of the board and grabbing
Brawn and move further up the right side. - Head to the glyph socket and unlock it slotting in Exploit . Next we pick up the dexterity nodes nearby to start activating our glyph.
- We turn around the left side of the board and head up to
Iron Strength and its Magic nodes - We head back down to pick up
Tenacity and then connect out to the north and attach Warbringer
Warbringer
- We head straight for the glyph socket and unlock it slotting in Ire
- We grab the surrounding strength nodes as well as Raw Power and
Conditioned and the surrounding rare nodes - Lastly we head out fairly quickly to the east and connect the Carnage board.
Carnage
- The carnage board is the central board to many Barbarian builds and serves as a hub. We’ll be coming back to this board more than once. Start by heading in and taking the lower right path to the glyph socket.
- Unlock the socket and slot in Might and pick up enough strength to unlock it.
- Grab
Brash and 
Fierce in the glyph radius and their surrounding magic nodes - Make your way north and pick up Enraged and the three nodes in front of it. Connect the Blood Rage board to the Northern Gate here. Return to the Carnage Board after Blood Rage is done.
- From the glyph socket head right and unlock the board’s legendary node
Carnage - Head south and connect Bone Breaker to the Southern Gate. Return to this board after both Bone Breaker and Hemorrhage are done.
- Continue right and grab Berserker and the magic nodes nearby. Finally connect the Decimator board to the eastern gate and at long as we are done with this central board.
Blood Rage
- We begin by heading straight up and turning slightly right for the glyph socket where we’ll slot in Marshal.
- We’ll pick up the rare node
Grit and some strength nodes to unlock Marshal’s secondary bonus. - Finally we’ll head left and swing down to grab the board’s namesake, the legendary node
Blood Rage and then return to the Carnage Board.
Bone Breaker
- We dash down and right to the glyph socket, unlock it and slot in Rumble
- We pick up the strength nodes to unlock its bonuses and grab Vigor and the magic nodes nearby
- We head out through a southern route from the glyph socket and swing down and left to pick up Tenacity and the nearby magic nodes
- Finally connect the Eastern Gate and attach the Hemorrhage board.
Hemorrhage
- We simply head up and unlock the legendary node
Hemorrhage - After this board is complete we head back to the Carnage board.
Decimator
- We begin by heading in and taking the upper right path to the glyph socket.
- Slot in Executioner once it’s unlocked and begin to grab the strength nodes
- Pick up
Arrogance and Demolish nearby and their magic nodes - Make your way east and finish our paragon journey by unlocking the board’s namesake, the legendary node
Decimator and with that we’re finished!
Obol Gambling
A final point on acquiring gear is using your Obols to target farm specific slots instead of randomly spending them on random drops. Similar to Kadala in Diablo 3, you can use Obol vendors in town to try and get what you’re missing. When a level 100 Character spends Obols, all gear from that vendor will be 925 item power, the highest in the game, allowing you to fill out gear with the affixes or Legendary Aspects you need.
Check out our Obol Gambling Tool HERE!
Changelog
- August 4th 2024: Build and guide updated for season 5 and patch 1.5.0
- May 6th 2024: Ownership of page transferred, guide restructured, build updated for Season 4.
- March 5th 2024: Updates for Patch 1.3.3.
- February 5th 2024: Added Charge to build.
- January 21st 2024: Season 3 speculative changes.
- October 26th 2023: Build Revamped for Season 2.
- October 13th 2023: Build Adjusted to prepare for Season 2 launch.
- September 7th 2023: New format and build revamp.
- August 2nd, 2023: Patch 1.1.1 section added with build specific changes.
- July 18th, 2023: Guide updated for Season 1.
