Build Introduction
The point of this leveling guide is to quickly take your character from level 1 to 60 while using 
Whirlwind and prepare for your transition into the endgame. 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 we can utilize to accelerate our journey.
Our primary skills with this build are 
Lunging Strike as our primary Fury Generator. We’ll be augmenting this skill using:
- Enhanced Lunging Strike – Provides minor healing and extra damage.
- Battle Lunging Strike – A source of Bleeding to trigger certain other skills and passives.
Our core skill of choice is of course Whirlwind. Our primary spender and what we will be using to carve demons into ribbons. We augment this skill with:
- Enhanced Whirlwind – This generates extra fury when Whirlwind deals damage and more for elites including bosses.
- Furious Whirlwind – Causes a powerful bleed when we hit with a slashing weapon using Whirlwind, allowing us to really speed up our kills and our leveling.
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
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
Lunging Strike 
Ground Stomp 
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 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 Whirlwind setup, we want to use the Two-Handed Axe weapon technique.
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 our Whirlwind to our Two-Handed Slashing Weapon to get the benefit of Furious Whirlwind so we bleed our enemies. We will want to assign Lunging Strike to the same Two-handed Slashing Weapon.
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 | Aspect Power |
| Helm |  Aspect of Might | Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2-10] seconds. |
| Chest | Iron Blood Aspect | Gain [2-6%] damage reduction for each nearby Bleeding enemy up to [10-30%] |
| Gloves |  Aspect of the Moonrise | Damaging an enemy with a Basic Skill grants you +4% Attack Speed for 10 seconds stacking up to 5 times. Upon reaching Maximum stacks, you enter a vampiric bloodrage gaining x[40-60%] increased basic skill damage and 15% movement speed for 10 seconds. |
| Pants | Aspect of Bul-Kathos |  Leap creates an Earthquake that deals [X] Physical damage over 4 seconds (We DO NOT care about this line)While standing in Earthquakes and for 4 seconds afterwards, you gain [10-25%] increased Damage Reduction |
| Boots |  Hectic Aspect | After casting 5 Basic Skills, one of your active cooldowns is reduced by [1-2.5] seconds. |
| Amulet | Dust Devil’s Aspect | Whirlwind leaves behind Dust Devils that deal [X] damage to enemies in their path. Enemies hit by Dust Devils take x25% increased damage from all of your other sources for 3 seconds. |
| Ring 1 |  Bold Chieftain’s Aspect | Whenever you cast a Shout Skill, its active cooldown is reduced by [10-30%] per nearby enemy up to a maximum of 70% |
| Ring 2 | Aspect of Adaptability | Basic Skills generate 5 additional Primary Resource once per skill. Basic Skills deal x[0.4-0.6%] increased damage for each point of primary resource you have. |
| 2-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon | Aspect of Earthquakes |  Ground Stomp causes an Earthquake that deals [X] Physical damage over 4 seconds. While standing in Earthquakes and for 4 seconds afterwards, you deal x[25-60%] increased damage. Your Earthquakes deal x[20-60%] increased damage. |
| 2-Handed Slashing Weapon | Aspect of Elements | Gain x[15-35%] 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 1 | Edgemaster’s Aspect | Skills deal up to x[5-25%] 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 [55-40] Fury, you are Berserk but 2 Fury drains per second |
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 | 1. Whirlwind Size  Berserking Augments |
| Chest | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Needed Resistance | 1. Whirlwind Size Berserking Augments |
| Gloves | 1. Attack Speed 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Strength | 1. Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse |
| Pants | 1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Needed Resistance | 1. Dust Devil Size Wasteland Innovation |
| Boots | 1. Movement Speed 2. Fury Per Second 3. Ranks to Leap | 1. Movement Speed Natural Motion |
| Amulet | 1. Movement Speed 2. Strength% 3. Fury on Kill | 1.  Wrath of the Berserker cooldown reduction Ultimate Efficiency — Barbarian |
| Rings | 1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Attack Speed 3. Fury on Kill | 1. Wrath of the Berserker cooldown reduction Ultimate Efficiency — Barbarian |
| 2-Handed Weapons | 1. Strength 2. Fury on Kill 3. Maximum Life | 1. Chance for Whirlwind to deal double damage Core Augments — Barbarian |
| Dual-Wield Weapons | 1. Strength 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Maximum Life | 1. Chance for Whirlwind to deal double damage Core Augments — Barbarian |
Gems and Runewords
Gems
Listed below are the best gems to socket into gear for each slot type. For Season 9, you can slot Horadric Jewels into your Amulet and Rings. For more information on these Jewels, see our Seasonal section below.
- Weapons:
Topaz for basic skill damage until around Level 20, and then 
Emerald for critical strike damage after. - Armor:
Ruby for more Strength - Jewelry:
Diamond for 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 in a row |
 Gar | Requires 25 Offering, Cooldown 1 second: Gain 2.5% Critical Strike Chance for 5 seconds, up to 25% |
 Moni | Requires 100 Offering: Cast 2 Mobility or Macabre Skills |
 Tec | Requires 50 Offering, Cooldown 1 second: Invoke the Barbarian’s Earthquake dealing damage to enemies within |
Chaos Perks (Season 10)
Season 10 brings a new set of perks that change how to gear and play your character. In addition to the perks, there are also ‘Chaos Armors’ that allow you to equip certain uniques in different slots. Let’s start with the parks that we’ll want for this build.
| Perk | Description |
| A Beast Cornered | For every 10% Life your are missing, you gain x20% increased damage and 5% Damage Reduction. Spending Resources also drains a percentage of your Life equal to 30% the resources spent, refunding those resources. This cannot reduce you to below 10% Life |
| Power Siphon | Your Core Skills deal 100% increased damage, but also reduce your maximum current resource by 20 for 6 seconds. This reduction stacks but does not refresh |
| Accelerating Chaos | Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy has up to a 10% chance to trigger a Chaotic Burst on the enemy, dealing 400% damage. Your Chaotic Bursts that hit an enemy reduce a random active Cooldown by 0.5 seconds. |
| Unstable Power | Chaotic Magics erupt from your Basic Skills making them guaranteed to Critically Strike and Overpower for 100% increased damage, but the power is unstable giving them a 3 second cooldown. |
The last new spin on Season 10 is Chaos Armors which are uniques that drop on different slots than their normal slot either as Helms, Boots, Gloves, Pants, or Chests. Unfortunately, these items cannot drop below level 60 and can’t be utilized while leveling. Please make sure to check out the Season 10 section of our Endgame guides for the ideal setups!
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 Raheir, the Shieldbearer
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. Ground Stomp is used to cause Earthquakes and stun enemies as well as do a large chunk of damage in its own right.
Berserking
Perhaps the most critical component of getting the most out of this build is managing your Berserking state. We have a few options to enter it. Our main way will be 
War Cry because of Enhanced War Cry and of course our ultimate of choice Wrath of the Berserker. Once you acquire Aspect of Anger Management you should be in constant Berserking state and thus benefitting from our chosen Keystone skill point, 
Unconstrained.
While Berserking we benefit from things like 
Aggressive Resistance and 
Prolific Fury as well as increased damage and movement speed making our leveling a breeze.
Which 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. Use 
Elixir of Advantage for the attack speed but any Elixir you have for the extra experience as they all grant between 5 and 8% increased experience to help you fly to level 60 even faster.
Return to the Alchemist again each time you return to town in case it is time to upgrade your potion. The extra healing is essential to survival.
Season 10 Updates
For a complete overview of Season 10, its mechanics and theme, new leveling activities, and other changes coming with the Season of Chaos, please check out our Season Hub!
Season 10 brings some new updates to the Barbarian. Below are the changes related to this build:
- TBD
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!
