Welcome to the Whirlwind Barbarian Leveling Guide! This is a staple from the Diablo franchise and is an amazing leveling build for Barbarians. When played correctly you can gather and kill groups of monsters and rapidly move on. Fury generation is a consideration early on, but once that's solved this build can clear anything in the game.
To support Whirlwind we take a lot of the standard tools for leveling. Bash is our generator because it gives us Stun utility, Fortify, and the most Fury gained when compared to other Basic Skills. We then take our best shout, Rallying Cry, for Fury generation and mobility. Charge gives us some additional mobility and can serve as a secondary source of consistent damage, while Death Blow and Iron Maelstrom are pocketed for some big burst damage during tougher fights.
This guide takes you all the way through the campaign to Level 50 so you can blast the endgame. Let's get started!
This build guide takes you through the Campaign and Early Game up to Level 50. Check out Endgame Guides in our Barbarian Guides section!
Pros
- Iconic Spin to Win
- Decent Area Damage
- Beginner Friendly Playstyle
Cons
- Weak Single Target
- Requires Aspects to Work
- Difficult Fury Management
Season 4 - Loot Reborn
In Season 4, the Season Theme revolves around helping out the Iron Wolves. Compared to past themes, this one does not offer any borrowed power as the entire game has been redesigned with new itemization and crafting options, increasing player power substantially across the board. Instead, you can gather reputation similar to the Vampire Bounty Board from Season 2 to unlock rewards that supercharge your leveling journey to 100 with extra items, crafting materials and eventually even a Resplendent Spark to craft an uber unique.
We recommend to follow the seasonal questline until you unlock the reputation system, check which rewards suit you most and then follow your regular leveling path. To learn more, check out our full Season 4 guide for more information.
Skill Showcase
Whirlwind
Whirlwind is our main damage dealer. We rush towards our enemies to gather them before applying our buffs and sending them to the afterlife. It lacks on single targets but has some of the best clear potential given its speed and area of effect. Enhanced Whirlwind helps us with Fury management.
Bash
Bash is one of the best leveling generators because it provides you with Stun utility and the most Fury generation.
Charge
Charge is a skill we use for mobility. Later in the leveling process, we will unlock the ability for this to give us Berserking. It also breaks Crowd Control, can Stun our enemies, and can have a very low cooldown.
Death Blow
Death Blow is a great skill to fall back on for a huge burst of single target damage. It is best used against strong Elites and Bosses.
Iron Maelstrom
This ultimate skill works very well in leveling builds with Furious Impulse and Walking Arsenal because swapping weapons reduces its cooldown. Using this ability frequently allows us to quickly clear entire fields full of enemies.
Rallying Cry
Rallying Cry is the best shout in the game because it provides us with 2 critical things: Fury generation and Movement Speed. We take this immediately and will likely use it on every Barbarian build.
Skill Tree & Gameplay
Getting Started
To start off we have to put 2 points into Basic Skills to unlock the Core Skill section. Bash is a great choice because of its high base damage and added abilty to Stun and Fortify. It's primary purpose, however, is to generate Fury to fuel our main skill.
Whirlwind
Whirlwind is the centerpiece of this build. It is a close ranged attack that spins around you. We then take Enhanced Whirlwind which we are in dire need of to assist with Fury management. We also take take some additional ranks of Whirlwind to increase its damage.
Rallying Cry
Rallying Cry is a Shout skill that is incredibly useful at almost any point in the game. At base level, it gives us a burst of Movement Speed and a large increase to our Fury generation. With later additional investment, it provides even more Fury sustain, as well as the Unstoppable buff. While under this effect, we are immune to all forms of Crowd Control.
Charge
We'll be using Charge for some added mobility and additional Stuns. With enough ranks, it has a relatively low cooldown and can be used frequently as a traversal tool. This helps offset our inherent loss of speed while channeling Whirlwind.
Death Blow
Death Blow is a high damage skill that helps out withWhirlwind's biggest weakness: its single target damage. Keep this in your back pocket to quickly dispatch tough Elites and Bosses as needed.
Key Passive and Ultimate
We finally pick up our Key Passive skill Walking Arsenal, which has great synergy with Relentless Armsmaster. We activate this ability by assigning each of our skills different weapon types and using them in combat. While all parts of this passive are active, we get a substantial boost to our damage and attack speed, as well as a ton of Fury generation. Iron Maelstrom gives us some huge burst damage that covers a large area, and should be used during tougher encounters to quickly dispatch enemies. All of these things combined drastically speed up our leveling process and help alleviate any resource issues that may be present early on.
Check out our Renown Guide to unlock all your additional rewards efficiently.
Barbarian Arsenal System
The Arsenal System allows Barbarians to use a specific weapon for every attack skill, each granting different Bonuses. The Technique Slot grants us 1 additional Arsenal Power of our choosing for every attack. The Weapon Expertise bonus we get from our currently equipped weapon and the Weapon Expertise bonus we get from the Weapon Technique slot stack with each other.
Unlocking the Arsenal System
The Arsenal System automatically unlocks when you reach Level 5. Opening the Expertise tab (Shift + C) shows all the different weapon types and their bonuses when using them. The Technique Slot unlocks at Level 15 via the Masters of Battle quest in the Dry Steppes which is very easy to complete. Simply walk northeast of town, kill some enemies, then walk west to a cave to slay the beast. After returning to town the Technique Slot will be yours!
How the Arsenal System Impacts Leveling
Whirlwind is special in that it can be performed with any weapon type in our arsenal.
Weapon type - We assign Bash our Two-Handed Bludgeoning weapon to increases its innate effects and to generate more Fury with Endless Fury.
We assign Whirlwind our Two-Handed Slashing weapon.
We assign our Dual-Wield weapons to Leap and Charge to meet the requirements to fully benefit from Walking Arsenal.
Weapon Technique - The Two-Handed Sword technique is a good choice while leveling because it will apply bonus Bleeding damage to all attacks. Most other Weapon Expertise options are only applicable under conditions that can be difficult to satisfy while leveling. We will eventually change to Two-Handed Axe technique when we have a reliable way of applying Vulnerable to our enemies.
Learn more details in our full Barbarian Arsenal System Guide.
Gear Progression & Global Stat Priorities
Leveling up in Diablo 4 is similar to most other ARPGs and MMOs - we're at the mercy of what drops. For the most part this means replacing Rares with better Rares all the way up to 50. If you're lucky enough to find some Legendaries or Uniques they can provide a significant power boost (discussed in the next sections). Assuming you don't find any of those, let's look at some key stats to look for along the way:
Hint: Press SHIFT over an item to compare it to what you're wearing!
Weapons
Since Whirlwind can utilize any type of weapons, you always want to be on the lookout for the highest item level (and therefore highest base DPS) weapons that you can find. On One-Handed Weapons, try to prioritize Strength, Damage, Life on Hit. On Two-Handed Weapons, try to prioritize Strength, Resource Cost Reduction and Fury on Kill.
Only upgrade the weapon you're using for Whirlwind at the Blacksmith and socket them with Emeralds.
Armor
Armor pieces typically grant us Defense and Utility stats, except the Gloves which offer a tidal wave of Offense. Here are the important stats to look for:
- Helm: Strength, Fury per Second, Ranks to Death Blow, Maximum Life, Cooldown Reduction
- Armor: Strength, Maximum Life, Fury per Second, Armor
- Gloves: + to Whirlwind, Critical Strike Chance, Strength
- Pants: Strength, Maximum Life, Armor
- Boots: Ranks to Charge, Movement Speed, Fury per Second, Strength, Maximum Life
Jewelry
Jewelry provides powerful Offensive stats that help us on our leveling journey. Pay close attention to the rolls as higher leveled pieces aren't always better:
- Amulet: Critical Strike Chance, Movement Speed, + to Weapon Mastery Skills, Cooldown Reduction, Fury on Kill
- Rings: Critical Strike Chance, Fury on Kill, Strength, Maximum Life
Do not upgrade Armor or Jewelry while leveling. Socket Armor with Rubies and Jewelry with Diamonds!
Read more about itemization in our Damage Explained, Defense Explained, and Stats Explained articles.
Legendary Aspects
The Codex of Power is a collection of Legendary Aspects you can imprint onto Rare or Legendary items at the Occultist. They unlock after completing specificDungeonslocated around Sanctuary. For leveling there are a few powers that can significantly help us if we have the funds to imprint them:
Top Codex Legendary Aspects
| Aspect | Dungeon |
| Relentless Armsmaster | Calibel's Mine - Scosglen |
Warning: DO NOT imprint your Weapons as they are constantly replaced while leveling. Put Offensive Aspects on your Amulet, Rings, or Gloves instead.
Learn everything about the Codex of Power here.
Helpful Legendary Aspects
If you're lucky enough to find a Legendary while leveling, chances are it'll be an upgrade for you and you should equip it immediately. However, they are not all created equal, and some of them can accelerate your journey tremendously. Let's look at the top powers you could find and how to take advantage of them.
- Dust Devil is designed specifically for Dust Devil builds that use Whirlwind.
- Fierce Winds is one of the best aspects for any Dust Devil build in endgame.
- Devilish is another good aspect for Dust Devil builds.
- Ancestral Charge turns Charge into one of the best abilities in the game. With this Legendary Aspect equipped, if we have both Iron Maelstrom and Charge on our skill bar, we use Charge. Sometimes it takes longer than the cooldown just to find a monster that survived.
- Brawler - in case you are worried that having our strongest ability hit the entire screen every five seconds won't be enough power, this Legendary Aspect is for you. If even a single enemy dies to Charge, it sets off a chain reaction and every enemy we touch turns to dust.
- Veteran Brawler, while not as powerful as the previous two aspects, is also very useful. The only down-side is that you have to hit things with a Core Skill to benefit from it, which can be difficult when Charge leaves nothing but ashes in its wake.
- Bear Clan Berserker helps to solve Charge's only weakness: it has a cooldown.
How To Level
In Diablo 4 you level by completing the Campaign, collecting Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers, completing Helltide activities, grinding Dungeons, or interacting with the Seasonal mechanics. While there are many ways to level up in Diablo 4, not all of them are made equal.
Campaign Leveling
- For your first character in Diablo 4, completing the Campaign provides the best gameplay experience and gives you access to key unlocks like your Mount.
- If you don't have your Mount, you MUST progress the Campaign until you complete the quest Donan's Favor at the start of Act 4.
- After obtaining your Mount you can skip the remainder of the campaign at any time.
- The Campaign is the slowest way to level, but it's worth experiencing the Campaign and Diablo 4's storyline at least once.
- To play Seasonal Content you need to have completed or skipped the Campaign.
Seasonal / Alt Leveling
- Complete the Seasonal questline, progress your Seasonal Journey to unlock Legendary Aspects and work on your Seasonal powers.
- If your account is below Rank 5 Renown in each zone, focus on completing your Renown.
- This only needs to be done once per realm (Softcore / Hardcore).
- Complete the Dungeons needed for any Legendary Aspects from your Codex of Power.
- From level 1-50 you should focus on getting experience in Helltides by combining Helltide activities with Grim Favors for the Tree of Whispers or complete Gathering Legion Events.
- After level 50 you need to balance leveling up, Glyph Experience and participating in Endgame activities like Helltide, Tree of Whispers and Bosses. The fastest experience possible after reaching World Tier 3 is completing Nightmare dungeons with monsters exactly 10 levels above your current level. Check out our Nightmare Dungeon Tier List for the best Nightmare Dungeon layouts!
- Around level 30-45 you should move to World Tier 3.
- Around level 50-65 you should move to World Tier 4.
- Alternatively: Get boosted by a friend to World Tier 4 then leech experience/loot and Glyph exp (post 50), in Nightmare dungeons.
- Find the most efficient way of leveling your character in detail in our Speed Leveling Guide.
Leveling Tips and Tricks
Let's look at some tips and tricks to remember when leveling up!
- Level Up Your Potion. You need to farm materials to upgrade your character's potion.
- Make sure you collect all materials as you explore Sanctuary, especially Gallowvine which is used in many Elixir recipes!
- Compare your Items... Literally. Press Shift over an item in your inventory to compare it to what you're wearing.
- This makes it easy to determine what is and isn't an upgrade.
- Don't Imprint Your Best Aspect Onto Your Weapon. The most critical piece of gear while leveling up is your weapon, which gets replaced constantly.
- It is a better idea to put your best Offensive Aspect on your Amulet, which can be used for a long time.
- Sacred is just better. Between level 30 and 50 you're able to beat the Capstone Dungeon and enter World Tier 3, you gain access to powerful Sacred items which have higher item power and better stats. Getting a Sacred weapon significantly improves your farming speed.
- The same happens with World Tier 4 and Ancestral gear.
Summary
- The Whirlwind Barbarian is a fantastic leveling build in Diablo 4.
- Generate Fury with Rallying Cry and Bash to unleash Whirlwind on dense groups of enemies.
- Save Death Blow and Iron Maelstrom for Elites and Bosses.
- Look out for helpful Legendary Powers in the Codex of Power.
- Read the Next Steps above to continue your journey.
Credits
Written by Slothmaster
Contributions by Snail
