Updated for Season 8
Build Introduction
The point of this leveling guide is to quickly take your character from Level 1 to 60 while using 
Rend and prepare for your transition into our Rend Barbarian Endgame Build. This guide will walk you through the skill point placement for levels 1-60 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 Elixirs you can use to accelerate our journey.
Our primary skill will be 
Lunging Strike for our Fury Generator. We’ll be augmenting this skill with:
- Enhanced Lunging Strike – Which will provide some minor healing and damage to healthy enemies as we chase them down.
- Battle Lunging Strike – To provide a source of Bleeding in addition to our Rend
Our Core Skill of course will be Rend. Our primary spender. We’ll be augmenting this skill with the following:
- Enhanced Rend – Which allows us to extend the Vulnerable state on our enemies to make them take more damage from our bleeds.
- Furious Rend – To help Rend restore some of its cost when we’re hitting a large group of demons with it so we can cast the skill more frequently and stack its bleed up and up on everything around us.
Quick Navigation
Allocation of Skill points
Below is the recommended order for spending your points as you level up. If you are missing skill points, complete Renown tiers 1-3 in every zone.
Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points
Rend 
Lunging Strike 
Rallying Cry 
Death Blow 
War Cry 
Call of the Ancients 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 60 or which paragon boards to choose? Head to the Barbarian Builds Page and choose an endgame build to continue progressing your character beyond level 60 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 Rend build we will be using the Two-Handed Axe technique for its bonus damage to vulnerable enemies.
Keep in mind that while you will always benefit from the Two-Handed Axe 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 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. We want to assign Rend to our Two-Handed Slashing weapon. Lunging Strike can be assigned to any weapon type as well as it isn’t our main source of damage. A small quality of life is to assign it to your Dual-Wield Weapons for their faster attacks so you can build resources faster but this is relatively minor.
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 compliment 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 | Legendary Aspect Power |
|---|---|---|
| Helm |  Aspect of Might | Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2.0-6.0] seconds. |
| Chest | 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%]. |
| 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 | Iron Blood Aspect | Gain [2.0-4.0%] Damage Reduction for each Nearby Bleeding enemy up to [10-20%] maximum. |
| Boots |  Ghostwalker Aspect | While Unstoppable and for 4 seconds after, you gain [10- 25%] increased Movement Speed and can move freely through enemies. |
| Amulets(50% bonus) |  Slaking Aspect | Lucky Hit: You have up to a [40-60%] chance to gain 20 Fury when Rend deals direct damage to at least one Bleeding enemy. |
| Ring | Aspect of Berserk Fury | You gain [1-6] Fury per second while Berserking |
| Ring | Aspect of Voracious Rage | Killing an enemy with a Core Skill refunds [10.0-20.0%] of its base Fury cost. Can only happen once per Skill cast. |
| Bludgeoning Weapon (200% bonus) |  Aspect of the Expectant | Attacking enemies with a Basic Skill increases the damage of your next Core Skill cast by [5-10%], up to 30%. |
| Slashing Weapon (200% bonus) | 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 1 | Rapid Aspect | Basic Skills gain [15-30%] Attack Speed. |
| 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. |
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 Affixs |
|---|---|---|
| Helm | 1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Attack Speed 3. Maximum Life | Rend Size  Bleed InnovationMaximum Life Worldly Fortune |
| Chest | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Needed Resistance | Rend Size Bleed Innovation Maximum Life Worldly Fortune |
| Gloves | 1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Ranks of Rend3. Attack Speed | Physical Damage Over time Slayer’s Finesse Rend Size Bleed Innovation |
| Pants | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Needed Resistance | Rend Size Bleed Innovation Maximum Life Worldly Fortune |
| Boots | 1. Movement Speed 2. Strength 3. Fury Per Second | Movement Speed Natural Motion Berserking Duration Berserking Innovation |
| Amulet | 1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Attack Speed 3. Ranks to  Cut to the Bone | Death Blow Cooldown Reduction Weapon Mastery Efficiency Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse |
| Rings | 1. Attack Speed 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Fury on Kill | Death Blow Cooldown Reduction Weapon Mastery Efficiency Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse |
| Weapons | 1. Fury on Kill 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life | Chance for Rend to Hit Twice Bleed Augments Damage to Close Enemies Natural Finesse |
Gems and Runewords
Gems
Listed below are the best gems to socket into gear for each slot type.
- Weapon:
Amethyst for the increase to Damage over Time effects. - Armor:
Ruby for the increase to Strength - Jewelry:
Diamond for the All Resistances.
Runes
While leveling in Vessel 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 |
 Zan | Gain 150 Offering: Cast an Ultimate skill |
 Ceh | Requires 100 Offering: Cooldown 1 second, Summon a Spirit Wolf to attack enemies for 8 seconds |
 Lum | Requires 5 Offering: Cooldown 1 second, Restore 3.5% Primary Resource |
Boss Powers (Season 8)
Season 8 brings a slew of powers to equip from slaying bosses, world bosses, and special boss encounters from Belial’s summoning events! You can equip a total of 4 powers. A single main power that will trigger its primary effect when certain conditions are met, and three modifier powers that modify the main power and other skills for even more power. As a reminder, you cannot acquire the lair boss powers until Torment 1. So while leveling, we’ll be recommending the powers acquired from the enemies slain during the Apparition Events. For this build, we recommend the following combination:
Main Power
- Allek’s Talons – Gives our Basic Skills a damage over time effect, which helps our other DoTs like Rend mow through mobs faster
Modifier Powers
- Torusk’s Rage – Grants us extra attack speed to spam Rend faster
- Flesh Reaper’s Disruption – Gives some extra vulnerable damage that is a multiplier making our damage even stronger
- Blackmailer’s Sabotage – Gives us some extra barrier whenever we Fortify our health which as a Barbarian we do very frequently giving us more survival against tougher foes
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 Varyana, the Berserker Crone
- Core Skill:
Cleave - Core Skill Passive:
Hysteria - Iconic Skill:
Bloodthirst - Iconic Skill Passive:
Bloodlust
Our Reinforcement Mercenary will be Rahier, the Shieldbearer
Build Mechanics
Rotation and Playstyle
The build is a pretty straight forward playstyle. We engage using Lunging Strike to build up our Fury. We spend our Fury on Rend to get large bleeds on enemies and then we use 
Death Blow to finish things off or against strong single targets once they have Rend applied. We can summon our squad through 
Call of the Ancients whenever we encounter a powerful boss, The Butcher, or strong Elites as we make our way towards the endgame.
Bleeding
The majority of our damage comes from Bleeding enemies, we do this through our skills, but also trigger some enhancements from our Legendary Aspects. See the list below:
Defenses
The majority of our Defenses come from our Legendary Aspects and Passives. See the list below:
What Elixirs Should You Use?
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. We recommend using 
Elixir of Advantage for the increased attack speed or any elixir that provides a needed resistance or toughness advantage. Elixirs grant anywhere from 5% to 8% increased experience while leveling to help you reach further into the endgame even faster, so you should worry less about specific elixirs and always have at least one active while leveling.
Return to the Alchemist again about every 5 to 10 levels to upgrade your potion. The extra healing is essential to survival.
Season 8 Updates
For a complete overview of Season 8, its mechanics and theme, new leveling activities, and other changes coming with the Season of TBD, please check out our Season Hub!
Season 8 brings some new updates to the Barbarian. Below are the changes related to this build:
- Rend fury cost reduced from 35 to 30
Hamstring now applies its slow the first time you apply a bleeding effect to an enemy slowing them by 70% for 2/3/4 seconds.
Difficulty & Endgame
Once you hit level 60 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 (60), then spend them on a weapon to help kickstart your preferred endgame build.
Changelog
- April 25th 2025: Reformatted and updated for Season 8
- March 31st 2025: Skill tree recommendations updated
- January 19th 2025: Tooltips and seasonal sections updated for Season 7
- January 16th 2025: Updated for Season 7.
- October 3rd 2024: Updated for Season 6 and Vessel of Hatred.
- August 4th 2024: Updated for season 5 and patch 1.5.0.
- May 8th 2024: Ownership of page transferred, guide restructured and updated for season 4.
- January 21st 2024: Season 3 speculative changes.
- October 23rd 2023: Revamped build for season 2.
- October 13th 2023: Build Adjusted to prepare for Season 2 launch.
- September 16th 2023: Leveling Guide revamp
