Death Blow Barbarian Endgame Build Guide for Diablo 4 (Season 4)

Build Introduction

This is your comprehensive guide to building the Death Blow Barbarian! A powerful execution-style skill that deals huge damage, costs no resources, and brings down any demon in your path. This build requires a bit of setup to get the most out of your Death Blow but brings the reward of extremely high damage, and the ability to nearly one-shot most enemies, even bosses, that dare stand in your way.

Strengths and Weaknesses

To see how this build compares to the other builds on our site, you can check out our build tier lists.

Build Requirements

Required Uniques

Overkill

Rage of Harrogath

Ring of Red Furor

Required Aspects (Non-codex)

Weapon Master’s Aspect

Skill Bar and Skill Points

Skill Bar Setup for the Death Blow Build (Order does not matter)

Death Blow War Cry Rallying Cry Rend Wrath of the Berserker Whirlwind

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 build, we be choosing Two-Handed Axe for our Technique due to its increase in damage to Vulnerable enemies.

Barbarians have a unique mechanic where they can assign specific weapons to specific skills. In order to take advantage of Earthstriker’s Aspect we’ll be assigning our skills in the following ways.

• Whirlwind – Dual-Wield Weapons
• Rend – 2-Handed Slashing Weapon
• Death Blow – 2-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon

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

Attach Blood Rage to the Northern gate of the Carnage Board. Do not rotate this board.

Flawless Technique

Attach Flawless Technique to Eastern Gate of Blood Rage. Rotate this board once before attaching it.

Decimator

Attach Decimator to the Western Gate of Carnage. Rotate this board three times before attaching it.

Hemorrhage

Attach Hemorrhage to the Southern Gate of Carnage. Rotate this board three times before attaching it.

To view the paragon boards in their entirety, CLICK HERE!

Gear, Gems, Elixirs, and Stats

The Season of Loot Reborn brings 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 for this build. Remember that with Patch 1.4.0 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 now you 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.

Slot	Gems	Legendary Aspect / Unique	Aspect / Unique Effect
Helm	Royal Ruby	Juggernaut’s Aspect	– Gain [X] Armor, but your Evade has a 100% increased Cooldown
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	Edgemaster’s Aspect	– Skills deal up to [5-20%] increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when you cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full primary resource
Pants	Royal Ruby	Tibault’s Will	– 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	Weapon Master’s Aspect	– Your Weapon Mastery skills have an additional charge. Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy with a Weapon Mastery Skill has up to a [37-55%] chance to Stun them for 2 seconds.
Amulet	Royal Diamond	Aspect of Encroaching Wrath	– After spending 100 Fury, your next Weapon Mastery skill within 5 seconds deals [40-70%] increased damage
Ring 1	Royal Diamond	Aspect of Accursed Touch	– Lucky Hit: Up to a [20-35%] chance to inflict Vampiric Curse on enemies. Enemies with Vampiric Curse are also Vulnerable. Vampiric Curse’s stored souls deal [20-50%] increased damage.
Ring 2	Royal Diamond	Ring of Red Furor	– After spending 100 Fury within 3 seconds, your next cast of Hammer of the Ancients, Upheaval, or Death Blow within 5 seconds is a guaranteed Critical Strike and deals [10-30%] bonus Critical Strike Damage
2-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon	Royal Ruby	Overkill	– Death Blow creates a shockwave dealing [24-38%] of its base damage to enemies. Enemies who die to this effect also reset Death Blow‘s cooldown.
2-Handed Slashing Weapon	Royal Ruby	Accelerating Aspect	– Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by [10-25%] for 5 seconds.
Dual Wield Weapon 1	Royal Ruby	Earthstriker’s Aspect	– After swapping weapons 8 times, your next non-basic skill Overpower and deal [15-30%] increased Overpower damage
Dual Wield Weapon 2	Royal Ruby	Aspect of Elements	– Gain + [20-30%] increased damage to a set of two types for 7 seconds. This effect alternates between 2 sets: Fire, Lightning, and Physical. Cold, Poison, and Shadow

Gems

Listed below are the best gems to socket into gear for each slot type.

Weapon Gems	Armor Gems	Jewelry Gems
Royal Ruby for increased Overpower 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 of a specific type such as Royal Sapphire to ensure all of your resistances are capped at 70%

Which Elixir 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 at the highest level you can craft due to its increase to your 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.

Stat Priority and Tempering Affixes

With all of these new systems in mind, let us dive into what stats we want on gear, what tempers we would like, and what stat we would prefer to be pumped either through a Greater Affix or through Masterworking. Affixes that are bolded in yellow are the most important targets for Masterworking upgrades. The names of the tempering manuals you need to apply the affixes will be listed next to the affixes in parenthesis.

Slot	Gear Affixes	Tempering Affixes
Helm	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Strength 3. Ranks to Death Blow	1. Maximum Life Worldly Endurance 2. Stun Duration Barbarian Control
Chest	1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Needed Resistance	1. Maximum Life Worldly Endurance 2. Stun Duration Barbarian Control
Gloves	1. Strength 2. Attack Speed 3. Maximum Life	1. Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse 2. Stun Duration Barbarian Control
Pants	1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Needed Resistance	1. Maximum Life Worldly Endurance 2. Stun Duration Barbarian Control
Boots	1. Movement Speed 2. Strength 3. Fury Per Second	1. Movement Speed Natural Motion 2. Stun Duration Barbarian Control
Amulet	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Maximum Life 3. Ranks to Brute Force	1. Death Blow Damage Demolition Finesse 2. Death Blow Cooldown Reduction Weapon Mastery Efficiency
Rings	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Attack Speed 3. Fury On Kill	1. Death Blow Damage Demolition Finesse 2. Death Blow Cooldown Reduction Weapon Mastery Efficiency
2-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon	1. Strength 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Maximum Life	1. Death Blow Damage Demolition Finesse 2. Whirlwind Size Berserking Augments
2-Handed Slashing Weapon	1. Strength 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Maximum Life	1. Death Blow Damage Demolition Finesse 2. Whirlwind Size Berserking Augments
Dual-Wield Weapon 1	1. Strength 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Maximum Life	1. Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse 2. Whirlwind Size Berserking Augments
Dual-Wield Weapon 2	1. Strength 2. Critical Strike Damage 3. Maximum Life	1. Death Blow Damage Demolition Finesse 2. Rend Size Bleed Augments

Rotation and Playstyle

This is a setu- based build to get the most out of Death Blow in order to cut down demons in our path. Let’s review our skills and where we’re using them.

• Use Rallying Cry and War Cry to generate resources and for their buffs
• Cast Whirlwind and channel it for a few seconds
• Cast Rend in between whirlwinds to change weapons
• Once you have a guaranteed overpower ready to go, unleash Death Blow to decimate anything in front of you
• Use Wrath of the Berserker against Bosses and Elites to further enhance your Death Blow damage

Uniques and Uber Uniques

Below you will find information on Uniques and Uber Uniques that are useful for this build. Moreover, if you are interested in target farming Uber Uniques, check out our How to Farm Uber Uniques guide.

Unique Items

Below, you will find the unique items useful to this build.

• Rage of Harrogath – This powerful chest will provide us with a ton of cooldown reduction to help our Death Blow come up as often as possible as well as helping our survival.
• Tibault’s Will – Despite the nerfs in Patch 1.4.0 these pants remain powerful with a large bonus to our damage, additional they come with a damage reduction affix. Something that comes at a premium in Season 4
• Overkill – A core item for this build. Almost a MUST HAVE. It adds a shockwave to our Death Blow as well as providing ranks to it and tons of damage allowing us to reset it much easier.
• Ring of Red Furor – A powerful ring to help us guarantee overpowers for our Death Blow so we can ensure we kill with it

Uber Uniques

Here you will find the uber unique items that are useful to this build. If an Uber unique is NOT listed here, it is not useful to this build and does not provide any meaningful increase or effect.

• The Grandfather – The most powerful two-handed sword in the game. If you find yourself lucky enough to grab this legendary item, equip it replacing Accelerating Aspect. The massive bonus to your critical hits will make your Death Blow a force to be reckoned with
• Ring of Starless Skies – This ring will give us a crazy amount of control over our resources while we channel Whirlwind and alternate it with Rend so we can get a huge bonus for that big inevitable Death Blow! If you’re lucky enough to snag one, replace Smiting Aspect. If you pair it with Ring of Red Furor simply drop both aspects on your rings and wear those two unique rings instead.

Season 4: Loot Reborn

Unlike past seasons there is no overarching theme for season 4 as Blizzard are focused on the absolutely massive loot overhaul which is sure to change the game in big ways. There will also be a reputation to be gained with the new Ironwolves during Helltides and this faction grants several tempering manuals and even a resplendent spark! Below are the changes relevant to this build:

• Barbarian’s innate 10% Damage Reduction has been removed
• Tibault’s Will damage bonus reduced from 20-40% to 10-20% and damage bonus persists for 1 second longer after being Unstoppable
• Aspect of Retribution – Chance to Stun increased from 8% to 10% and now also increases damage to Stunned and Knocked Down enemies
• Aspect of Inner Calm Changed to now provide 5-10% increased damage at all times with the bonus being tripled if you stand still for 3 seconds
• Two-Handed Axe Weapon Technique has had its damage bonus reduced from 15% to 10%
• Crusher Overpower damage reduced from 30%x to 20%x
• Dominate Overpower damage per 5 Willpower reduced from 39.9% to 14.9% at glyph level 21. Bonus changed from After not Overpowering for 30 seconds, your next attack will Overpower to Every 30 seconds, your next attack will Overpower
• Earthstriker’s Aspect Bonus Overpower damage reduced from 35-50% to 15-30%
• Rage of Harrogath – Changed. Now Lucky Hit: Inflicting Bleeding on an enemy has a 20-40% chance to reduce the Cooldown of your skills by 1 second

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

This build requires a bit finesse to get the most out of it. We will be engaging enemies primarily with Whirlwind which is assigned to our dual-wield weapons. One of them must be a slashing weapon for Furious Whirlwind and the other should be a one-handed mace for Wallop.

Spin for a few seconds, 1-2 at most, and then apply Rend to your enemies and go back to Whirlwind. Doing this will alternate your weapons providing you stacks of Earthstriker’s Aspect. Through all of this we should also have spent enough Fury to proc our Ring of Red Furor ensuring our next Death Blow will crit.

Once we have the guaranteed crit and overpower, we unleash Death Blow on our foes and it should be plenty strong enough to crush most enemies resetting it to use again to mop up whatever is left if anything survives.

Paragon

We recommend using these Legendary nodes and Rare Glyphs to truly take this build into the endgame. Note that each Rare Glyph’s information listed below is for the Level 21 version.

Rare Glyphs and Legendary Nodes	Effects
Exploit	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [8%] increased damage to Vulnerable targets. – Additional Bonus once 25 Dexterity points are 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.
Territorial	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [10%] increased damage to Close targets – Additional Bonus once 25 Dexterity points are purchased within the glyph’s range: You gain 15% Damage Reduction against Close enemies
Ire	– For every 5 Strength purchased within range, you deal + [5.3%] increased damage while Berserking – Additional Bonus once 40 Strength points are purchased within the glyph’s range: While Berserking, you take 10% reduced damage from Elites
Crusher	– For every 5 Strength purchased within range, you deal + [5.3%] increased damage while wielding a Mace – While wielding a Mace, you deal x20% increased Overpower damage
Dominate	– For every 5 Willpower purchased within range, you deal + [14.85%] increased Overpower damage – Additional Bonus once 25 Willpower points are purchased within the glyph’s range: Every 30 seconds, your next attack will Overpower
Undaunted	– For every 5 Willpower purchased within range, you deal + [8%] increased damage while Fortified – Additional Bonus once 25 Willpower points are purchased within the glyph’s range: You gain 10% Damage Reduction the more Fortify you have
Might	– Grants + [125%] bonus to all Magic Nodes within range – Additional Bonus once 40 Strength points are purchased within the glyph’s range: You deal x8% increased damage while wielding Two-Handed Weapons
Carnage	– While Berserking, Critical Strikes increase your Attack Speed +2%, up to +16% for 6 seconds
Blood Rage	– Killing a Bleeding enemy has 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%
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

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

1. We want to begin this journey by heading right and grabbing Brawn and some Magic nodes nearby.
2. Next step is going left and grabbing Tenacity and the surrounding Magic nodes, and then make our way up to the glyph socket.
3. Slot in Exploit and start grabbing the Dexterity nodes to activate the secondary effect.
4. Lastly we head up and out of the right side through Iron Strength and then connect the Warbringer board at the top.

Warbringer

1. Start by heading up and to the right heading right for the glyph socket. Slot in Territorial.
2. Now we make our way south and grab Raw Power and the surrounding Magic nodes, and then right to Conditioned.
3. We should have enough Dexterity to activate our glyph now as we grab the last few nodes in the radius. We make our way up and right and connect the Carnage board.

Carnage

1. This is an important and central board for this build so we’ll be coming back to it multiple times as we make our journey. Start by heading in on the lower right path to the glyph socket.
2. Slot in Ire and start grabbing the rare nodes in the radius Fierce and Brash.
3. We make our way out of the radius to the south and towards the Legendary Node to pick up Carnage.
4. Our first trip will head north from the glyph socket to grab Enraged and the three Berserk Magic nodes in front of it. We connect the Blood Rage Board to the northern gate here. After finishing both the Blood Rage Boards and Flawless Technique boards, we’ll come back.
5. After finishing Flawless Technique, come back here and head to Berserker from the legendary node to the right and make your way right. Connect Decimator to the eastern gate.
6. After finishing the Decimator board, make the last trek here to the southern gate and connect the Hemorrhage board and at long last we’re done with this central board.

Blood Rage

1. Start by going straight north and take a small detour to grab Revel and then right to the glyph socket.
2. Slot in Dominate and then march north to Grit and out of the radius. You will notice, we do not pick enough points to activate the secondary effect of our glyph. That is intentional. We need to control we proc an Overpower so we can ensure it affects our Death Blow and not something like Rend or Whirlwind which is useless to this build for damage.
3. We take a left turn after heading north and make our way to the Legendary Node, Blood Rage.
4. We then head to the north west and grab Enraged and the surrounding Magic nodes.
5. Finally we head right and connect the Flawless Technique board to the eastern gate.

Flawless Technique

1. We start this board by heading straight right and going to the socket.
2. Slot in Undaunted and begin to pick up the willpower around it.
3. Finish by grabbing Brash and the Magic nodes around it and then head back to the Carnage board once we’re done here.

Decimator

1. Head in to the right and take the northern right path to the glyph socket.
2. Slot in Crusher once it is unlocked.
3. Grab the necessary Strength nodes to unlock the secondary effect on our glyph and be sure to grab Arrogance.
4. Finally we make our way right to the Legendary Node, Decimator and then head back to the Carnage board once finished.

Hemorrhage

1. We move immediately left once we enter this board and rush to the glyph socket grabbing Grit on the way.
2. Slot in Might and begin snapping up the nearby Strength nodes.
3. Finally grab Butcher and finish off any Strength points in the radius to activate our glyph and with that we should come to our conclusion and finish our paragon journey!

Tempering and Masterworking

The Season 4 update (Patch 1.4.0) introduces a rework for itemization. Tempering and Masterworking bring the biggest change to itemization since the release of Diablo 4, so make sure you understand the new systems explained in this section.

The amount of affixes on items has been changed to reflect its rarity: Normal Items have no affixes, Magic Items have 1 affix, Rare Items have 2 affixes, Legendary Items have 3 affixes, and Unique Items have 4 affixes. Upgrading a Rare Item to a Legendary Item by imprinting a Legendary Aspect from the Codex of Power will not add a third affix. Therefore, Legendary Items are superior to lower rarity items for a min-maxed character.

Greater Affixes are a newly added mechanic that increases the value of an affix by 50%. Ancestral Legendary Items and Unique Items can now drop with up to 4 Greater Affixes! Search for items with your preferred Greater Affixes to upgrade with Tempering and Masterworking.

Tempering and Masterworking is an important system, even mandatory in the endgame, for character progression. You are able to add 2 additional affixes on any Rare Item or Legendary Item, exclusive to the Tempering System. An Ancestral Legendary Item can have up to 5 total affixes! Unfortunately, Unique Items cannot be tempered to add affixes.

Masterworking uses new crafting materials found in The Pit to further enhance the stats of an item. These upgrades can be applied on an Ancestral Legendary Item that has its Tempering Slots filled out. Unique Items can be upgraded with Masterworking right away, as tempering does not apply to them. Each item has 12 upgrade slots. On upgrade Ranks 4, 8, and 12, a random affix is increased in value by 25%. Every other upgrade Rank applies a 5% increase to all affixes on an item. Attempt to apply the bonus 25% upgrade to your preferred affix multiple times by resetting the Masterworking Ranks to repeat the process.

Obol Gambling

A final point on acquiring gear in Season 4 and beyond 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 Patch 1.4.0 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

• May 9th 2024: Ownership of page transferred, guide restructured, updated for season 4
• January 30th 2024: Marshal Glyph changes.
• January 21st 2024: Season 3 speculative changes.
• November 13th, 2023: Build Revamp
• October 16th 2023: Build adjusted to prepare for Season 2 launch.
• August 12th 2023: Updated Build for Season 1.
• August 8th 2023: Added notes about Patch 1.1.1.
• August 5th 2023: Malignant Hearts and Paragon updated for clarity.
• July 19th, 2023: Season of the Malignant section added.