Double Swing Barbarian Leveling Build for Diablo 4 (Season 4)

General Leveling Tips

To find out more general information about leveling as a Barbarian in Diablo 4, you can check out our main Barbarian Leveling guide. You can also go to our Barbarian Builds page for a list of other leveling and endgame Barbarian builds for you to choose from.

In regard to leveling up on the seasonal realm, you might also want to check out our season checklist, as it will give you some useful tips and tricks for Season 4 of Diablo 4. Don’t miss this chance to make the most out of your leveling journey!

Season Checklist

Build Introduction

The point of this leveling guide is to quickly take your character from level 1 to 50 while using Double Swing and prepare for your transition into our Dust Devil Double Swing Endgame Build. This guide will walk you through the skill point placement for levels 1-50 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 – Which will provide us with some minor healing and extra damage
Battle Lunging Strike – To provide us with a source of Bleeding to trigger some other skills and passives

Our core skill of choice is of course Double Swing. Our primary spender and what we will be using to carve demons into ribbons. We augment this skill with:

Enhanced Double Swing – Which causes us to gain our resource back if the enemy is stunned or knocked down
Violent Double Swing – To give us a source of applying the Vulnerable status to our foes

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.

Allocation of Skill Points

Your first 20 skill points are used to acquire all of your skills, filling in passives points only as needed to advanced to the next tier. The allocation of these points is listed below.

If you are making a Seasonal Character, you already start with 10 Skill Points, so it is even faster.

Your complete skill bar will look like this:

Skill Tree

Here is the completed skill tree for the build:

Skill Clusters

Let’s review each cluster in the skill tree and discuss our reasons behind each passive and skill choice so we have a good understand of the build before we transition into the Double Swing Endgame Build. Keep in mind, if you are leveling a new seasonal character you will have some additional points to start.

Basic Skills

Lunging Strike is our choice for the basic skill and fury generator. This is used constantly to generate our resources and chase down foes. Fury will not be much of a hassle with this build as Double Swing is not terribly expensive and thanks to Enhanced Double Swing it refunds its own cost when we stun things. The main draw of Lunging Strike is the mobility it provides to make sure we can chase down our foes.

Core Skills

Our core skill of choice is Double Swing which is used as our main spender and main source of damage. As we gain Fury through our generator as well as things like our Shouts such as Rallying Cry we will spam Double Swing as often as possible. Thanks to the aforementioned Enhanced Double Swing if we carve into something stunned or knocked down it will refund its cost and allow us to keep chopping away. This attack is very fast and we can quickly consume our pool of Fury if we aren’t careful.

Defensive Skills

Our defensive skill cluster has a few things of note. Of course our main active button here Rallying Cry and specifically Tactical Rallying Cry which gives us some Fury generation. We will pick up some life through Imposing Presence and with 1 point each in Outburst and Tough as Nails we can provide a source of Bleeding which will trigger other effects from our gear. Lastly of note here is Martial Vigor which will give us some mitigation against Elite monsters and bosses.

Brawling Skills

This cluster has a ton of passives and our main mobility skill Leap which will help us get around faster and generate some resource for us through Power Leap. It also brings an on-demand source of Berserking and Fortify through War Cry and its enhancing skills Enhanced War Cry for Berserking and Mighty War Cry for Fortify. We also take a ton of passives. Let’s review them below:

Swiftness – Movement speed to get around fast and keep on top of our targets
Aggressive Resistance – Damage reduction is at a premium in Season 4 and this helps our survival
Prolific Fury – Since we will almost always be Berserking, this gives us more control of our resource generation
Battle Fervor – Provides an easy way to enter the Berserking state through the use of Leap
Booming Voice – Increases the duration of our Shout skills to give us more resources and damage

Weapon Mastery Skills

Here we only focus on a few powerful passive skills. Let’s take a look:

Pit Fighter – Increases both our offense and defense against close enemies and since we are a melee class, that is everything we want to be fighting
Thick Skin – A small boost to give us more Fortify
Counteroffensive – A powerful damage boost as long as we have more than half of our life as Fortified health.

Ultimate Skills

For our Ultimate skill while leveling, we are choosing Call of the Ancients. This skill was improved in Season 4 and Patch 1.4.0 by a lot. It provides us with a source of stun for Enhanced Double Swing, Fury through Supreme Call of the Ancients and is just generally more useful before we move into an endgame build as what we don’t carve through, our ancients surely will.

Key Passive

Finally at the end of our tree our key passive of choice is Unconstrained due to its many interactions with the Berserking state which we will be in almost all of the time. It gives us longer duration on the state making it easier to keep up and gives a massive damage multiplier while we’re in the Berserking state making it a huge gain for this build.

Mechanics and Playstyle

The majority of our power with this build comes from fast attacks with Double Swing and a few new Legendary Aspects that provide powerful Dust Devils when we swing. We want to start any encounter by Lunging Strike to get into the group and then Double Swing away once we’re in carving the demons to ribbons. If Leap is available, you’ll want to engage with that instead of Lunging Strike. Use your War Cry liberally for its damage bonus, use Rallying Cry to help manage your resources and whenever it is available or when you’re running into a boss or powerful elite, summon the squad with Call of the Ancients and get to swinging.

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 through Leap which counts as a Brawling Skill and will put is in the state whenever it hits an enemy thanks to Battle Fervor. Enhanced War Cry also provides us with an on-demand source of Berserking and lets us keep the flow going. Leaping in, double swinging, war cry, more double swinging and leap to the next group to keep the chain going. Once we have our key passive Unconstrained maintaining this chain and status will be much smoother and provide a large damage bonus for doing so, rewarding your management of this buff.

Leveling Options

There are many options to level your character: kill monsters, do quests in each region if you need the Renown, follow a Seasonal storyline, farming dungeons, or participating in regional events. With so many methods at your disposal we’ve chosen some methods that will accelerate your path to the endgame. As always check out our Barbarian Leveling Guide for the best options.

The open world is full of monsters and activities, you are welcome to find your own path or leveling areas but if you are looking for some great options, here are two great suggestions for this build:

Helltide

With the revamp to Helltide in Patch 1.4.0 it will be available right from World Tier 1 and 2. It comes with a new coat of paint and a massive amount of loot and experience. For more details check out our Barbarian Leveling Guide.

Questing

Questing is a necessary evil if you are still grinding out your renown levels for each zone. If you need to complete your Renown, it can be a relatively easy way to get some quick experience along the way. If this is something you need to do, take as many quests as you can from one area and complete them all in one go. It may not feel necessarily faster, but going back and forth for each one is a waste of time.

Gear Affixes

In the early levels, targeting affixes on your gear can be very challenging. Part of the reason is we will be playing in world tier 2 and the best opportunity for rare gear is a maximum of 2 affixes. We will show three recommended affixes to give you some flexibility in what you will want. We will also be listing a Tempering Affix for each slot, keep in mind that tempering is more of an end-game system and with the frequency of gear replacements may not be the optimal thing to do while leveling. As a final reminder, non-ancestral items can only have 1 temper applied to them so we will be listing the best temper for each slot should you want to apply it.

Gems

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

Weapons: Topaz for basic skill damage until around Level 20, and then Sapphire for Vulnerable damage after.
Armor: Ruby for Maximum Life.
Jewelry: Diamond for all resistances.

Legendary Aspects

As a reminder, all Legendary items can be put into the new Codex of Power once salvaged. These are simply recommendations for the easiest to acquire early on during your leveling path.

Capstone Dungeon and Early Paragon

Once you hit Level 50 with this leveling build, you will be ready to complete your first Capstone Dungeon and unlock World Tier 3. This will open up the true endgame and allow you to collect new Sacred Rares and Legendary Aspects you will need to transition into the Endgame Upheaval Build. Once you upgrade your build to the Endgame build, you will be ready to push into Nightmare dungeons, World Tier 3 Capstone Dungeon, the Paragon Board system and so much more.

Here are some starter Paragon Boards for you to try.

Starting Board

We want to head right and pass through Brawn and the physical damage amplifying magic nodes as we make our way up.
We head to the glyph socket and unlock it, slotting in Exploit.
We pick up both rare nodes Iron Strength for mitigation and Raw Power for more physical damage.
We grab enough Dexterity nodes to activate the secondary effect of our glyph. It isn’t likely to be level 15 yet so it won’t have the increased radius so we can grab enough to just barely turn it on
Make our way out on the left side of the board and connect Warbringer.

Warbringer

We begin by heading left and grabbing Hungering Fury and the surrounding fury nodes to smooth our resources out even more.
Now we head right and unlock the glyph socket and slot in Ire for its damage to berserking.
We grab the rare node to the south Raw Power and Conditioned for their strength bonuses as well as the magic nodes around them.
We finish by snapping up any other strength nodes necessary to activate the secondary effect of our glyph. It is unlikely to be level 15 at this point and won’t have the increased radius but we have plenty of strength nodes to activate it regardless.
We make our way out to the right of the board and at this point, we should look to transition into the Dust Devil Double Swing Endgame Build.

Paragon Board images provided d4builds.gg

Elixirs and Health Pots

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 100 even faster.

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.

Changelog

May 8th 2024: Guide created

Skill Point Number	Allocation
1	Lunging Strike
2	Enhanced Lunging Strike
3	Battle Lunging Strike
4	Double Swing
5	Enhanced Double Swing
6	Violent Double Swing
7	Rallying Cry
8	Enhanced Rallying Cry
9	Tactical Rallying Cry
10	Double Swing Level 2
11	Double Swing Level 3
12	Leap
13	Enhanced Leap
14	Power Leap
15	War Cry
16	Enhanced War Cry
17	Mighty War Cry
18	Thick Skin
19	Counteroffensive
20	Counteroffensive Level 2
21	Counteroffensive Level 3
22	Double Swing Level 4
23	Double Swing Level 5
24	Call of the Ancients
25	Prime Call of the Ancients
26	Supreme Call of the Ancients
27	Swiftness
28	Swiftness Level 2
29	Swiftness Level 3
30	Pit Fighter
31	Pit Fighter Level 2
32	Pit Fighter Level 3
33	Outburst
34	Unconstrained
35	Tough as Nails
36	Aggressive Resistance
37	Battle Fervor
38	Battle Fervor Level 2
39	Battle Fervor Level 3
40	Prolific Fury
41	Prolific Fury Level 2
42	Prolific Fury Level 3
43	Aggressive Resistance Level 2
44	Aggressive Resistance Level 3
45	Wallop
46	Concussion
47	Concussion Level 2
48	Concussion Level 3
49	Wallop Level 2
50	Wallop Level 3
51	Imposing Presence
52	Imposing Presence Level 2
53	Imposing Presence Level 3
54	Booming Voice
55	Booming Voice Level 2
56	Booming Voice Level 3
57	Martial Vigor
58	Martial Vigor

Gear Slot	Targeted Affixes	Tempering Affix
Helm	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life	1. + Ranks to Concussion Barbarian Control
Chest	1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Needed Resistance	1. + Ranks to Concussion Barbarian Control
Gloves	1. Attack Speed 2. Critical Strike Chance 3. Strength 4. Ranks to Double Swing	1. Damage While Berserking Berserking Finesse
Pants	1. Strength 2. Maximum Life 3. Needed Resistance	1. + Ranks to Concussion Barbarian Control
Boots	1. Movement Speed 2. Fury Per Second 3. Ranks to Leap	1. Movement Speed Natural Motion
Amulet	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Attack Speed 3. Fury on Kill	1. Resource Generation with Dual Wield Weapons Weapon Attunement — Barbarian
Rings	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Attack Speed 3. Fury on Kill	1. Resource Generation with Dual Wield Weapons Weapon Attunement — Barbarian
2-Handed Weapons	1. Strength 2. Fury on Kill 3. Maximum Life	1. Double Swing Size Berserking Augments
Dual-Wield Weapons	1. Strength 2. Fury on Kill 3. Maximum Life	1. Dust Devil Size Sandstorm Augments

Gear Slot	Legendary Aspect	Aspect Power
Helm	Aspect of Numbing Wrath	Each point of Fury generated while at Maximum Fury grants [X] Fortify
Chest	Juggernaut’s Aspect	Grant [X] Armor, but your Evade has a 100% increased Cooldown
Gloves	Accelerating Aspect	Critical Strikes with Core Skills increase your Attack Speed by [10-25%] for 5 seconds.
Pants	Aspect of Bul-Kathos	Leap creates an Earthquake that deals [X] Physical damage over 4 seconds and provides [10-25%] Damage Reduction
Boots	Relentless Berserker’s Aspect	Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy with a Core Skill has a [22-40%] chance to extend the duration of Berserking by 2 seconds. Double this duration if it was a Critical Strike
Amulet	Windlasher Aspect	Casting Double Swing creates a Dust Devil that deals [X] damage to enemies in its path
Ring 1	Bold Chieftain’s Aspect	Whenever you cast a Shout Skill, its Cooldown is recduced by [1-2] seconds per nearby enemy up to a maximum of 6 seconds.
Ring 2	Aspect of Giant Strides	Reduces the Cooldown of Leap by [2.5-5] seconds per enemy hit, up to a maximum of 9 seconds. Hitting a Boss with Leap provides the maximum cooldown reduction
2-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon	Aspect of Fierce Winds	Your Shout Skills create 3 Dust Devils that deal damage to enemies along their path. Your Dust Devils are [5-20%] bigger and deal 1% increased damage for each 1% their size is increased
2-Handed Slashing Weapon	Devilish Aspect	After generating 100 Fury, your next direct damage creates 3 Dust Devils that deal [X] damage to enemies in their path
Dual Wield Weapon 1	Edgemaster’s Aspect	Skills deal up to [5-20%] 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 Elements	Grant + [20-30%] increased damage to a set of damage types for 7 seconds. This effect alternates between two sets: Fire, Lightning, and Physical. Cold, Poison, and Shadow.