Thorns Barbarian Endgame Build for Diablo 4 (Season 3)

Build Introduction

This is your comprehensive guide for building a deadly warrior covered in magical thorns, pulling enemies to their deaths as every strike made against the warrior only brings more pain to the one who caused it. Welcome to our Thorns Endgame build. This build challenges any enemy, even Bosses and Elites, to stand and fight you as your thorns shred through them, leaving them in a bloody mess. With great mobility, you’ll use Aspect of Grasping Whirlwind to pull all your foes on top of you.

Our guide will cover all basic mechanics and deep dive into the optimal setup for skills, Paragon and gear for the build.

Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths

Amazing single-target and group damage
Easy to play
Strong defenses
Good mobility

Weaknesses

DPS can feel slow against certain enemy types
Requires Fury management

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

Build Requirements

Recommended Uniques

Required Aspects (Non-codex)

Season of the Construct

Season 3 Patch Updates

The following list details all changes of Season 3 that may pertain to Barbarians.

Skills

Flay
- Damage increased by 10%.
- Fury gain increased from 13 to 15.
Enhanced Flay
- Vulnerable duration increased from 2 to 3 seconds.

Passives

Gushing Wounds
- Bonus bleed amount increased from 115% to 140%.
- Overpower explosion damage increased from 70% to 85%.
Weapon Expertise
- Expertise leveling has been cut by 50%.

Paragon

Marshal
- Now reduces the cooldown of every non-Shout skill by 4 seconds, instead of every other Shout skill by 1.2 seconds.

Aspects

Aspect of Echoing Fury
- You now generate 6–10 Fury per second while any Shout skill is active, instead of 2–4 Fury per second for each Shout skill active.

Unique Items

Gohr’s Devastating Grips
- Ranks of Whirlwind increased from 2-3 to 3-4.
- Damage increased from 16-26% to 25-35%.

Seneschal Construct Companion Powers

The Season 3 theme introduces a Seneschal Construct Companion that can deal damage or provide support to complement your character. Equip the Seneschal with two Governing Stones to activate their abilities, and then link them to three Tuning Stones each to augment the abilities. There are 12 different Governing Stones and 27 different Tuning Stones that can be found in Vaults scattered across Sanctuary. Fuse together duplicate stones to level them up, increasing the potency of Governing Stones or adding augments to Tuning Stones.

Listed below are the general recommended Governing Stones and their linked Tuning Stones for Barbarians, ranked by importance.

Tempest: Electrically charge an enemy causing it to deal damage to themselves and 1 additional enemy each second over 5 seconds. If the enemy is killed, Tempest spreads to another enemy gaining 2 additional seconds and 20%[x] bonus damage. These bonuses are also applied if Tempest is reapplied onto the same enemy.
- Evernight: The supported Skill grants you +4 to all Skills when used for 2.0 seconds.
- Resource Support: Player gains an amount of Primary Resource when the supporting Skill first deals damage.
- Efficiency Support: When the supporting skill deals damage, you gain Critical Strike Chance to the same targets hit.
- Swift Support: The supported Skill gains 40% Attack Speed bonus.
Flash of Adrenaline: Administers a quick flash of adrenaline into the player, granting bonus damage for a duration.
- Genesis: Increase the effectiveness of the supported Skill by 150%.
- Safeguard Support: When used, the supported Skill grants Damage Reduction to you.
- Tactical Support: Decrease the cooldown of the supported Skill.
- Duration Support: Supported Skills have their durations increased.

Skill Tree Points and Skill Bar

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.

Priority Skills	Cluster
Flay Level 1, Enhanced Flay, Combat Flay	Basic Skill
Whirlwind Level 5, Enhanced Whirlwind, Furious Whirlwind	Core Skill
Rallying Cry Level 1, Enhanced Rallying Cry, Tactical Rallying Cry, Challenging Shout Level 1, Enhanced Challenging Shout, Strategic Challenging Shout, Imposing Presence Level 3, Martial Vigor Level 3, Outburst Level 3, Tough as Nails Level 3	Defensive Skill
War Cry Level 1, Enhanced War Cry, Mighty War Cry, Booming Voice Level 3, Raid Leader Level 3, Aggressive Resistance Level 3, Prolific Fury Level 3	Brawling Skill
Pit Fighter Level 3, Thick Skin Level 1, Counteroffensive Level 3, Hamstring Level 1, Cut to the Bone Level 3	Weapon Mastery Skill
Wrath of the Berserker, Prime Wrath of the Berserker, Supreme Wrath of the Berserker	Ultimate Skill
Gushing Wounds	Key Passives

Weapon Expertise – The Barbarian Specialization

Weapon Expertise is a set of benefits tied to which weapons you use as a Barbarian. To unlock your Expertise, simply hit Level 5 and the tab below will be made available. By using a certain weapon type, you will begin to gain ranks with that weapon as you fight. The ranks are from 0 to 10 and will level up moderately quickly as your character gains experience. Once your expertise hit rank 10, you will be maxed out on the benefit for using that weapon with your skills. As a reminder, to swap your assigned weapon to the skill you are using, go to your Skill selection list (not Skill Tree) and you will see how to switch it. For mouse and keyboard users, you can access this by pressing the middle mouse button. At Level 15, you will unlock the Masters of Battle quest. This quest will be available in the township of ‘Ked Bardu’ from the Forgemaster Gerti. Upon completing this quest you will unlock the Technique slots as seen below. This will offer you an additional permanent bonus from one of the weapons regardless of whether you have it equipped to a skill or not.

For the Thorns build, we will be focused using the expertise of Two-Handed Axe for the bonus damage against Vulnerable Damage.

Weapon Selection

Barbarians have an unique mechanic in Diablo 4 where you can assign a weapon type to certain skills. This is a critical component for all builds to function properly, and failure to match your weapon to the proper skill may cause the build to perform poorly. For this build, we will be assigning the following weapons to our skills:

Flay – Slashing
Whirlwind – Slashing

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 Node	Effect
Exploit	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [3.85%] increased damage to Vulnerable targets. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Dexterity points are purchased in 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 +[9.6]% increased damage to Close targets. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Dexterity points are purchased in the glyph’s range: You gain 10% Damage Reduction against Close enemies.
Revenge	– Grants +[100]% bonus to all Rare nodes within range. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Willpower points are purchased in the glyph’s range: Dealing Thorns damage to an enemy increases all damage it takes from you by x1%, up to x8%, for 10 seconds.
Might	– Grants + [120%] bonus to all Magic nodes within range. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 40 Strength points are purchased in the glyph’s range: You deal x8% increased damage while wielding Two-Handed weapons.
Marshal	– Grants +[125%] bonus to all Magic nodes within range. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 40 Strength points are purchased in the glyph’s range: After casting a Shout Skill, the active Cooldown of every non-Shout Skill is reduced by 4 seconds.
Wrath	– For every 5 Dexterity purchased within range, you deal + [15%] increased Critical Strike Damage. – Additional Bonus unlocked after 25 Dexterity points are purchased in the glyph’s range: Skill that Critical Strike generate 3 Fury
Warbringer	– For every 75 Fury you spend, gain 15% of your Maximum Life as Fortify.
Blood Rage	– Killing a Bleeding enemy has 10% chance to grant Berserking for 5 seconds. Your Damage is increased by x25% of your Damage while Berserking bonus.

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 to use in your Paragon Tree, just slowly work towards each step.

Starting Board

We are going to head up the right hand side of the board and take the Rare Node Brawn. This node will give us a small increase to our Maximum Life and Physical damage bonus.
Next path towards the Glyph slot and insert Territorial, this glyph will grant us increased Damage towards Close Enemies. Be sure to collect all of the Dexterity Nodes shown above.
Take the two Rare Nodes, Raw Power and Iron Strength, these will gives us another Physical damage boost and some flat armor increases.
Now down towards Tenacity at the bottom left of the Glyph radius, these Magic and Rare nodes will grant us increases in Life and Armor.
Head to the top of the board and attach our next Paragon Board, Warbringer.

Warbringer

Path towards the open glyph slot and insert Wrath. This glyph will help us with our Fury generation, giving us 3 Fury for every Critical Strike.
Take both Rare nodes inside the glyph radius, Raw Power and Conditioned, these will boost both Physical Damage and Resistances.
Take the pathway up to the next Rare node above the glyph radius, Core Reserve, this will increase our Maximum Life and Fury.
Path to the right hand side connection point for use later.
Now goto the left side of the board and path towards the Legendary Node.
Pick up Hungering Fury along the way for the increase to Fury Generation and Maximum Fury.
Take the Legendary Node Warbringer.
Now path to the left hand side connection point and pick up Fire Resilience along the way for the Maximum Life.
Finally, use the left hand connection point to attach the next Paragon Board Decimator.

Decimator

Take the pathway towards the glyph slot and pick up Brawn on the path going up, then Demolish along the way to the open glyph slot.
Finish pathing towards the open glyph slot and insert Disembowel into the Glyph slot. This Glyph will help our Cooldowns when we kill a bleeding enemy.
Inside the Glyph radius take the other Rare Nodes, Arrogance, for the Damage Reduction to Vulnerable Enemies.
This board is complete, so go back to the previous board Warbringer and add Blood Rage to the right hand connection point.

Blood Rage

Head towards the open glyph slot and insert Exploit, for the increased Damage against Vulnerable Enemies.
Now take both Rare Nodes inside the Glyph radius, Grit and Revel, these will help our offenses and defenses against Bleeding Enemies.
Go and pick up Restorative for the increase to Maximum Life.
Next go up and get Enraged for the bonuses to Berserking.
Take the Legendary Node Blood Rage. This will allow kills on Bleeding Enemies to have a chance to grants us Berserking with a bonus damage buff.
Finish with the connection point on the right hand side of the board and add Hemorrhage.

Hemorrhage

Take the Rare Node along the way to the open glyph slot, Grit, for the Damage Reduction against Bleeding Enemies.
Select the open glyph slot and insert Might, this will boost the Rare nodes around it and help us with a small buff to two-handed damage.
Next, take the Rare Node Butcher for the increase to Physical Damage over Time.
Now head to the bottom side of the board and attach the Carnage board.

Carnage

Path to the Rare node Enraged for the bonuses to Berserking.
Select the nodes towards the open Glyph slot, and insert Revenge to boost the Rare nodes and add a buff for doing Thorns Damage.
Now take the two Rare Nodes, Brash and Fierce, these will boost our Berserking damage and our Damage Reduction to Close Enemies.
This completes the Paragon Tree for this build.

Paragon board images courtesy of d4builds.gg.

Build Mechanics and Playstyle

The great thing about a Thorns build is how much fun it is to play. Thorns has very little setup and all it needs to start working is you, and some angry enemies. First, you want to activate both of your shouts, Rallying Cry and War Cry. The first shout is going to boost your Movement Speed and Fury Generation so you can maintain your Whirlwind. The second shout is going to put you in a state of Berserking. At this point of your skill rotation you have a choice to make with the Ultimate Skill Wrath of the Berserker. It offers a massive boost in damage and movement speed, and makes us Unstoppable, which can help us reposition or charge through packs of enemies. You can either use it for large packs of enemies or save it for Elite mobs.

Once you are in a Berserking state through either War Cry or Wrath of the Berserker, you can begin to Whirlwind. This offers us a vacuum to pull all enemies towards us with Aspect of Grasping Whirlwind and an explosion of fire every two seconds because of our Unique Gohr’s Devastating Grips. The other important element of using Whirlwind with Thorns is the Needleflare Aspect. This Aspect gives us a high percent chance of triggering an AoE of Thorns to all enemies around us. This is very important, as Whirlwind has the ability to hit so many times that we will see this proc quite often, adding a huge amount of damage to the enemies surrounding us.

Lastly, we have our two remaining skills, Challenging Shout and Flay. Our shout offers us a great defensive tactic to use in tough situations and a huge boost of Thorns damage. Flay will actually build up our Damage Reduction and Thorns Damage, making it a great skill to fall back on in a bad situation.

Berserking

Berserking gives us a base increase of 25% damage and 30% movement speed. We also benefit from the passive Aggressive Resistance for an increase in our Damage Reduction. We will gain the benefit of more Thorns through the Death Wish Aspect. Berserking also allows for an interesting combination to happen through the Aspect of Berserk Ripping and our Key Passive Gushing Wounds. This will not only give us added bleed damage on top of every Thorns retaliation, but it with Gushing Wounds these strikes can now be Critical Strikes.

Thorns

Thorns is a unique type of damage in the Diablo 4, as it is limited in the ways you’re able to boost its damage output. First, of course, is Thorns damage which can be found on Pants, Chest, and Amulets gear slots. It can also be added to your gear through the Royal Emerald gems for your Armor pieces. The next way Thorns can be boosted in damage is through the Strength stat. Strength acts as a multiplier for Thorns; the more Strength you have, it directly correlates to an increase in Thorn damage. Lastly, Thorn’s damage will be increased as Physical Damage increases are taken either through Gear Affixes or Paragon Tree Nodes.

Gear Choice and Stat Priority

As you begin to farm in World Tier 3 and 4, Rare and Legendary item drops will begin to appear with some regularity depending on your luck. We recommend saving the targeted Legendary items that have the needed Legendary aspects listed below. We also recommended to keep multiple copies of the build’s Aspects in your Stash for future upgrades.

As for the Rare items, you will need to inspect each one for targeted affixes for use in each specific slot and do your best to match the recommended rolls. We have listed our targeted affixes in order of importance. Check the chart below and make note of what affixes you are searching for when you see a Rare gear piece drop.

Season 2 Update (1.2.0): Critical Strike Damage and Vulnerable Damage affixes are changed to be additive with other damage increases. All additive damage increases of the same amount are equal in value, as long as their conditions are active.

Gear Slot	Targeted Affixes
Helm	1. Cooldown Reduction 2. Strength 3. Maximum Life 4. Needed Resistances
Chest	Razorplate
Gloves	Gohr’s Devastating Grips
Pants	1. Thorns 2. Maximum Life 3. Damage Reduction while Fortified 4. Damage Reduction while Injured 5. Damage Reduction from Close Enemies
Boots	1. Movement Speed 2. Strength 3. Damage Reduction while Injured 4. Needed Resistances
Amulet	1. Rank up Outburst 2. Strength 3. Cooldown Reduction 4. Movement Speed 5. Thorns
Rings	1. Critical Strike Chance 2. Maximum Life 3. Damage to Close Enemies 4. Lucky Hit
Weapons	1. Strength 2. Damage to Close Enemies 3. Critical Strike Damage 4. All Stats 5. Damage to Bleeding Enemies

Please note that these affixes are the recommended picks for this Thorns build, but that is simply our opinion. Other affixes could certainly work instead of the ones listed above, but may not be optimal. Also, there are several very specific affixes that are required to make the build work, they are as follows:

Thorns
Rank ups to selected Skills
Maximum Life

A final point on acquiring the right Affixes and Legendary Aspects, use your Obols to target farm them. Obols are awarded from many different activities in the game, you will always stockpiling them until you hit your maximum. Instead of just randomly spending them on a random pick, use them to target what you might be missing from this build. It is a great way to target a specific slot of loot and find what you need.

If you are interested in checking out a new tool for gambling Obols check out this link below from Icy Veins.

Obol Gambling Optimization Tool

Legendary Aspects

Listed below are all the best-in-slot Aspects found on Legendary items that are important for the Thorns Barbarian build. Aspects from the Codex of Power can be used if you cannot find the proper Legendary drops, but they have weaker effects. Extract Aspects from lower level Legendary items and imprint them onto better Rare items with preferred stats. The endgame itemization goal will be to imprint Aspects with the best values Ancestral Rare items with Item Power above or as close to 800, then upgrade them through the Blacksmith. Each aspect is listed with its matching gear slot. Do your best to keep each aspect in the slot it was posted with.

Gear Slot	Legendary Aspect	Legendary Aspect Power
Helm	Relentless Berserker’s Aspect	Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy with a Core Skill has up to a [22-40%] chance to extend the duration of Berserking by 2 second. Double this duration if it was a Critical Strike.
Chest	Razorplate
Gloves	Gohr’s Devastating Grips
Pants	Aspect of Might	Basic Skills grant 20% Damage Reduction for [2.0-6.0] seconds.
Boots	Aspect of Grasping Whirlwind	Whirlwind periodically Pulls enemies to you.
Amulets (50% bonus)	Rapid Aspect	Basic Skills gain [15-30]% Attack Speed
Ring	Aspect of Echoing Fury	Your Shout Skills generate [2.0-4.0] Fury per second while active.
Ring	Bold Chieftain’s Aspect	Whenever you cast a Shout Skill, its Cooldown is reduced by [1.0-1.9] seconds per Nearby enemy, up to a maximum of 6 seconds.
Bludgeoning Weapon (200% bonus)	Death Wish Aspect	Gain [.65-.85] Thorns while Berserking.
Slashing Weapon (200% bonus)	Needleflare Aspect	Thorns damage dealt has a [20-40%] chance to deal damage to all enemies around you.
Dual-Wield Weapon 1	Aspect of the Dire Whirlwind	Whirlwind’s Critical Strike Chance is increased by [3-8%] for each second it is channeled, up to [9-24%] .
Dual-Wield Weapon 2	Aspect of Berserk Ripping	Whenever you deal direct damage while Berserking, inflict [20-30%] of the Base damage dealt as additional Bleeding damage over 5 seconds.

Uber Uniques

The chart below is our recommendation for Uber Uniques that will work within this build. However, all Uber uniques are extremely powerful and can shine in different situations. Good Hunting!

Gems

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

Weapon: Royal Emerald for critical strike damage to Vulnerable enemies.
Armor: Royal Emerald for increased Thorns.
Jewelry: Royal Diamond for All Resistances, however, certain bosses may require you to switch to their corresponding resistances.

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 an Elixir providing any Resistance you need most, or the Assault Elixir to increase 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.

Changelog

March 5th 2024: Updates for Patch 1.3.3.
January 30th 2024: Marshal Glyph changes.
January 21st 2024: Season 3 speculative changes.
October 23rd 2023: Build Revamped for Season 2.
October 13th 2023: Build Adjusted to prepare for Season 2 launch.
August 29th 2023: Build Creation Season 1.

Uber Uniques	Recommended(Y/N)	Replaces
Andariel’s Visage	Yes	Relentless Berserker’s Aspect moves to the Boot Slot
Harlequin Crest	Yes	Relentless Berserker’s Aspect moves to the Boot Slot
Melted Heart of Selig	No
Ring of Starless Skies	No
Doombringer	Yes	Aspect of the Dire Whirlwind will be dropped
The Grandfather	Yes	Needleflare Aspect would be moved to 1-Handed Weapon, drop Aspect of the Dire Whirlwind
Ahavarion, Spear of Lycander	No