Build Introduction
Welcome to the comprehensive endgame guide for the Dust Devil
Double Swing Barbarian. This build utilizes high mobility, fast attacks, and screen-filling tornadoes to chop your way through The Pit, Uber Bosses, Nightmare Dungeons, and all other open-world content. We will walk you through everything you will need to cleave demons to bits and conjure powerful storms to clean up everything around you. With that in mind, let’s get rolling.
Strengths and Weaknesses
- High mobility/speed
- Screen clearing potential
- Lots of unstoppable for escaping CC
- Tons of damage potential
- More shout reliant gameplay
- Middling defensives outside of cooldowns
- Reliance on Tornadoes for damage over Double Swing
- Screen filling with storms can hinder visibility
Build Requirements
Quick Navigation
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Skill Bar and Skill Tree Points
Barbarian Class Mechanic – The Arsenal System
The Barbarian can wield four weapons simultaneously as well as choose a weapon expertise to use as their Technique allowing them to gain that weapon’s bonus even if they’re wielding another weapon type. Finally, the Barbarian can assign its skills to use different weapon types shuffling between Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapons, Two-Handed Slashing Weapons, and Dual-Wield Weapons.
For this
Double Swing build, we will be using Two-Handed Mace expertise for its Fury generation and additional Critical Strike Chance. Once you have
Ring of Starless Skies you can swap to Polearm expertise for its damage bonus while healthy (above 80% life) as your resources will be less strained.
For this build, we do not have to worry about weapon selection assignment.
Double Swing must use your Dual-Wield weapons. Our other skills,
Wrath of the Berserker,
Rallying Cry,
Challenging Shout, and
War Cry do not have weapon assignments. As such you can largely ignore this mechanic with one notable exception. You want the weapon that is not Ramaladni’s to be a One-Handed Mace to benefit from
Wallop and other effects so we can make the best use of
Enhanced Double Swing for resource stability.
Gear, Stats, Gems, and Runes
The following sections will cover all systems that are critical if you want to improve the power of your character and move towards the highest difficulties in the endgame of Diablo 4.
Legendary Aspects
Below you will find all of the best-in-slot Aspects found on Legendary items that are important for this build. Remember that all Legendary powers can be added into your Codex of Power once you salvage or extract the item. You can still find some aspects through dungeons though they will always be at the minimum power level. To get the most out of this system, combine these Aspects with the right stats.
| Slot | Gems | Legendary Aspects / Uniques | Aspect / Unique Power |
| Helm | – Casting | ||
| Chest | Wildbolt Aspect | – Every [3.5-2] seconds distant enemies are pulled in to you and take 10% increased damage for 3 seconds | |
| Gloves | N/A | Accelerating Aspect | – Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by [10-30%] for 5 seconds |
| Pants | | – You deal [10-20%] increased damage while Unstoppable and for 5 seconds after. When you become Unstoppable, gain 50 of your Primary Resource. | |
| Boots | N/A | Relentless Berserker’s Aspect | – Lucky Hit: Damaging an Enemy with a Core Skill has up to a [15-35%] chance to extend the duration of Berserking by 2 seconds. Double this duration if it was a Critical Strike |
| Amulet | Windlasher Aspect | – Casting | |
| 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 70% | |
| Ring 2 | Aspect of Vocalized Empowerment | – Your Shout skills generate [5-12] Primary Resource per second while active | |
| 2H Bludgeoning Weapon | OR | Aspect of Fierce Winds | – Your Shout Skills create 3 Dust Devils that deal damage to enemies along their path. Your Dust Devils are [5-25%] bigger and deal 1% increased damage for each 1% their size is increased |
| 2H Slashing Weapon | OR | Devilish Aspect | – After generating 100 Fury, your next direct damage creates 2 Dust Devils that deal [X] damage to enemies in their path |
| Dual Wield 1 | – Skills using this weapon deal [0.2-0.5%] increased damage per point of Fury you have, but 10 Fury drains per second. | ||
| Dual Wield 2 | Aspect of Anger Management | – While above 50 Fury, deal x[10-30%] increased damage and gain Berserking, but 3 Fury drains per second. |
To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.
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. Be sure to check our Tempering and Masterworking guides for more details about these topics.
| Slot | Gear Affixes | Tempering Affixes |
| Helm | 1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Maximum Life 3. Strength 4. Resistance to All Elements | Dust Devil Size |
| Chest | 1. Maximum Life 2. Strength 3. Armor 4. Resistance to All Elements | Dust Devil Size |
| Pants | 1. Maximum Life 2. Strength 3. Resistance to All Elements 4. Armor | Stun Duration |
| Glove | 1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Attack Speed 3. Strength 4. Ranks to | Dust Devil Damage |
| Boots | 1. Movement Speed 2. Armor 3. Ranks to War Cry 4. Fury Per Second | Movement Speed |
| Amulet | 1. Cooldown Reduction 2. %Strength 3. Ranks to 4. Attack Speed | Damage While Berserking |
| Rings | 1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Fury on Kill 4. Resistance to All Elements | Damage while Berserking |
| 2H Bludgeoning Weapon | 1. Strength 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Fury on Kill 4. Maximum Life | Chance for Dust Devils to Cast Twice |
| 2H Slashing Weapon | 1. Strength 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Fury on Kill 4. Maximum Life | Chance for Dust Devils to Cast Twice |
| Dual Wield Weapons | 1. Strength 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Maximum Life 4. Vulnerable Damage | Dust Devil Damage |
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.
Unique Items
Below you will find the useful uniques for this build.
Tibault’s Will – This item is recommended for those wishing to go for a more offensive setup at the cost of some toughness. This will also help with resource management for bosses which can be a weakness of the build, by generating a large amount of resource whenever you become Unstoppable
Ugly Bastard Helm – While this helm was changed to only work during
Wrath of the Berserker instead of general berserking, it remains powerful and potent for the builds that use it so it is a must have for its massive 100% damage multiplier
Ramaladni’s Magnum Opus – This extremely powerful sword allows us to stack resources to gain large damage increases to any skill that uses this weapon. Since
Double Swing must use our dual wield weapons, we’re forced to use this weapon which allows us to gain its benefits.
Mythic Uniques
Here are the useful mythic uniques for this build. If a mythic unique is NOT listed, it is not used by this build in any meaningful capacity.
Ring of Starless Skies – Our Mythic Unique of choice should you be lucky enough to find one. If you do find it, you will replace the ring that uses
Aspect of Vocalized Empowerment.
The Grandfather – A powerful Mythic Unique two-handed sword. This will replace your Two-Handed slashing weapon. If you find one you will move
Devilish Aspect to your Dual-Wield weapon and replace
Aspect of Inner Calm.
Heir of Perdition – The new helm on the block proves to be extremely powerful ,even more so than the famous “shako” above. If you acquire one equip it and enjoy the benefits it provides such as ranks to double swing, increased crit chance and lucky hit as well as a 60% damage multiplier that can go higher if you’re grouping with others wearing this item.
Tyrael’s Might – The pound for pound best chest in the game returns to prominence in Vessel of Hatred. If you’re fortunate enough to run into this item, equip it over every other chest in the game. It’s massive toughness boost will allow you to push harder and harder content through sheer force of being able to survive whatever comes your way.
Gems and Runewords
Listed below are the best gems to socket into your items for each slot type
Gems
| Weapon Gems | Armor Gems | Jewelry Gems |
For your jewelry, you can freely swap between Diamonds and Skulls based on your needs. Armor and Resistances no longer have hard caps you need to hit to reach your defensive potential. Instead you can now freely swap the gems between them depending on what you need the most. Are you dying to physical strikes? Use Skulls for more armor. Are you dying to elemental abilities light lightning damage or poison pools? Use Diamonds for more resistances. Always be sure to check your Toughness stat and use what works best for you!
Runes
Runewords return from Diablo 2 in Vessel of Hatred! You are limited to two Runewords across your gear and it requires two sockets in the same item. So this limits creating Runewords by combining two Runes to either Helm, Chest, Pants, or Two-Handed Weapons. We generally recommend them in both of your Two-Handed Weapons for Barbarian. Let’s jump in.
| Rune Name | Rune Effects |
| Gain 25 Offering; Cast a Non-Channeled Core Skill | |
| Requires 5 Offering; Cooldown 1 second, Restore 3.5% Primary Resource | |
| Gain 25 Offering; Stores offering every 0.3 seconds. Cast a Non-Basic Skill to gain the stored offering | |
| Requires 100 Offering; Cooldown 1 second, Evoke the Necromancer’s |
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 100 version. Keep in mind, Glyph’s reach their maximum radius at 46 and unlock their Legendary bonus at 45. Let’s take a look!
Season 11 Mechanics
Divine Gifts
As you complete the season journey and fight across Sanctuary you will earn the ire of the lesser evils. Defeating them will grant you corrupted essences which you can then purify into Divine Gifts. There are 8 of these in total and you will have four Purified and four Corrupted allowing you to modify various content and get different boons and reward as a result. For this build our recommended setup is below:
Purified
- Essence of Lies
- Essence of Pain
- Essence of Screams
- Essence of Sin
Corrupted
- Essence of Squalor
- Essence of Shadows
- Essence of Anguish
- Essence of Hellfire
Sanctification
Season 11 brings a new way to “Finish” an item called Sanctification. Any item of item power 750 or higher can be Sanctified, but BE WARNED: Sanctification will make it so that you cannot alter the item any further so it should always be the final step in the crafting process! It provides many powerful options to enhance your builds. While there are no bad outcomes with all Sanctification bonuses providing some power, there are some options that provide larger bonuses than others, so we recommend the follow options if you’re fortunate enough to acquire them:
- %Strength
- Cooldown Reduction
- Attack Speed added to your 2-Handed Weapons
- Adding
Edgemaster’s Aspect to your item - Physical Damage
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 Subo, The Drunken Archer:
- Opportunity Skill:
War Cry - Reinforcement Skill:
Trip Mines
Build Mechanics
Rotation and Playstyle
This build rushes in and shouts to begin spamming
Double Swing which will spawn a myriad of Dust Devils thanks to our aspects such as
Windlasher Aspect,
Devilish Aspect,
Aspect of Fierce Winds, and our Tempered affixes. We use our
Challenging Shout and
Wrath of the Berserker as survival cooldowns and use
War Cry to gain Unstoppable and avoid crowd control.
Additionally, for those wishing to truly optimize their weapon setup, a Two-Handed Axe is recommended for the Two-Handed Slashing Weapon slot due to its implicit “Damage to Healthy Enemies” so our Dust Devils will hit mobs for high initial damage and ideally one shot them fueling our
Double Swings even further thanks to all of our Fury on Kill stats on our gear.
Runeword Synergy
Let’s take a moment to review our runes and how they interact with this build
Tam generates 25 Offering every time we cast a non-channeled core skill such as our main attack
Double Swing
Lum requires only 5 Offering to restore 3.5% primary resource which helps with our sustain. Since we generate 25 when paired with this rune, we have 20 offering that goes into “overflow” and the Overflow on the Lum rune increases the amount of resource restored further helping with our Fury sustain.
Igni builds 25 Offering every 0.3 seconds and then when we cast a non-basic skill such as
Double Swing or our Shout skills, we gain the stored offering.
Wat requires 100 offering which requires Ignite to build for 1.2 seconds to trigger Wat and then we invoke
Horrid Decrepify from the Necromancer which slows enemies, reduces their damage, and lets us execute them at low HP helping speed up our clear and fuel our Fury on Kill stats.
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 Bundles of Dried 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 Dust Devil build, we recommend
Elixir of Advantage II for the increased attack speed to spam more
Double Swing and conjure even more Dust Devils to fill our screen and mop up every demon in sight. Craft the highest value Elixir of Advantage you can to get the most attack speed possible.
Season 11 Updates
For a comprehensive look at what’s new in Season 11, please check out our Season Hub.
Here is a quick list of the changes this season that are relevant to this build:
- Damage bonus per 10 points of Strength increased from 1% to 1.1%
- Carnage damage increased from 30% to 45%
- Blood Rage damage increased from 45% to 60%
- Decimator damage increased from 20% to 25%
- Flawless Technique critical strike damage increased from 30% to 45%
Aspect of Anger Management now grants 10-30% increased damage while above 50 Fury in addition to Berserking instead of only granting Berserking
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. With the expansion when a level 60 Character spends Obols, all gear from that vendor will be 750 item power, the highest non-ancestral power allowing you to fill out gear with the affixes or Legendary Aspects you need while also having a small chance to grant Ancestral item power 800 gear.
Check out our Obol Gambling Tool Guide HERE.
Changelog
- December 5th 2025: Build updated for Season 11
- September 20th 2025: Chaos Armors and Season 10 section updated
- September 17th 2025: Build updated for Season 10
- July 1st 2025: Runes updated and clarified, paragon boards updated
- June 28th 2025: Build updated for Season 9
- April 25th 2025: Reformatted and updated for Season 8
- March 31st 2025: Skill tree recommendations updated
- January 19th 2025: Tooltips and Seasonal section updated for Season 7
- January 14th, 2025: Build updated for Season 7


