The New Barbarians: Nerfs, Buffs and New Additions in Season 4

Staff Avatar by Staff

Barbarians are getting a whole host of changes in Season 4, so it’s time to check them all out!

First off let’s take a look at the new Unique items and Legendary Aspects coming with Season 4, including the new Uber Unique and the one non-class-specific normal Unique. Double Swing and the Ancients themselves get some love, and even more Dust Devil sources appear.


Non-Class-Specific Unique Items

Tyrael’s Might – Unique Chest Armor

  • While at full Life, your Skills unleash a divine barrage dealing damage.

Yen’s Blessing – Unique Boots

  • Casting a Skill has a 40-60% chance to cast a Non-Mobility, Non-Ultimate Skill that is currently on Cooldown. This effect can only occur once every 8 seconds.

Non-Class-Specific Legendary Aspects

Aspect of Frosty Strides

  • While below 45-60% Life, Evade Freezes Close enemies for Cold Damage and applies Vulnerable to them for 3 seconds.

Aspect of Concussive Strikes

  • Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy has up to a 20% chance to Daze them for 2 seconds. You deal 5-20% increased damage to Dazed enemies.

Barbarian Unique Items

Arreat’s Bearing – Unique Pants

  • Ancients you summon are empowered.
    • Korlic creates an Earthquake that deals Physical damage over 4 seconds when he leaps.
    • Talic leaves behind Dust Devils that deal damage while he whirlwinds.
    • Madawc ignites the ground Burning enemies for an additional damage over 4 seconds when he upheaves the ground.

Twin Strikes – Unique Gloves

  • After casting Double Swing 4 times, your next Double Swing will hit 2 additional times, each dealing 10-25% increased damage.

Barbarian Legendary Aspect

Aspect of Fierce Winds

  • Your Shout Skills create 3 5 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.

You can read the entire official news post HERE

Then we’re on to all the actual changes. From skills to passives, Uniques and legendaries, with even the Barb-specific Weapon Expertise system getting modified, there’s plenty to see.

Dust Devils were dominating the Public Test Realm for the class, but got nerfed a little. The normalization of all Dust Devil-related powers was certainly a boon for them, nerf notwithstanding. They’ll definitely still be very popular when the season itself comes out, as they didn’t get hit quite that hard. Charge also took a hit, but it’s had quite the season already, so perhaps it was time to let go anyway!

There’s plenty to see, with Deathblow still looking good, thorns being viable, and more. Let’s dive in.


Barbarian

General

  • Barbarian’s 10% innate Damage Reduction has been removed.
  • Legendary powers that require Call of the Ancients to be equipped no longer have that requirement.
  • Previously, Dust Devils would have varying durations, speeds, and movement patterns based on which legendary Aspect created them. Now, they all behave consistently regardless of which Aspect they are from. Additionally, the following updates have been applied for Dust Devils:
      • The maximum number of Dust Devils that can be active at once is now 15. Dust Devils now move more quickly and dissipate sooner.

 

Skills

Charge

  • Damage reduced from 250% to 180%.

Power Charge

  • Cooldown Reduction per Target Hit reduced from 3 to 2 seconds.
  • Cooldown Reduction for hitting a Boss reduced from 6 to 4 seconds.
  • Maximum Cooldown Reduction reduced from 9 to 6 seconds.

Furious Hammer of the Ancients

  • Previous – Hammer of the Ancients deals 1%[x] increased damage for each point of Fury you had when using it.
  • Now – Hammer of the Ancients gains 2%[+] increased Critical Strike Chance for every 10 Fury you had when using it.

Violent Rend

  • Rend’s Damage against Vulnerable enemies increased from 12%[x] to 25%[x].

Rupture

  • The initial damage dealt from Rupture is now guaranteed to Overpower.

Call of the Ancients

  • Korlic Leap damage increased from 104% to 156%.
  • Korlic Frenzy damage increased from 39% to 59%.
  • Talic Whirlwind damage increased from 65% to 98%.
  • Madawc Upheaval damage increased from 195% to 293%.

Kick

  • Range of damage increased from 2.2 meters to 3 meters.
  • Additional damage when enemy is knocked into a wall increased from 70% to 105%.

Power Kick

  • Damage per 10 Fury consumed increased from 20% to 25%.

Passives

Unbridled Rage

  • Bonus damage reduced from 135%[x] to 100%[x].

Weapon Expertise

Polearm Expertise

  • Lucky Hit chance increased from 10%[x] to 15%[x].
  • Damage while Healthy increased from 10%[+] to 15%[x].

Two-Handed Mace Expertise

  • Fury gain increased from 2 to 5.
    • Previous – You deal 15%[x] increased Critical Strike damage to Stunned and Vulnerable enemies while Berserking.
    • Now – You deal 15%[x] increased Critical Strike damage while Berserking.

Two-Handed Axe Expertise

  • Vulnerable Damage reduced from 15%[x] to 10%[x].

One-Handed Axe Expertise

  • Critical Strike Chance against Injured enemies increased from 5%[+] to 10%[+].

 

Paragon

Marshal Glyph

  • Cooldown reduction reduced from 4 to 2 seconds.

Blood Rage Legendary Node

  • Damage increased by Berserking bonus reduced from 25% to 10%, and caps at 30%[x] damage bonus.

Crusher Glyph

  • Additional Bonus: Overpower damage reduced from 30%[x] to 20%[x].

Dominate Glyph

  • Bonus Overpower Damage per 5 Willpower reduced from 39.9% to 14.9% at Glyph level 21.
  • Additional Bonus
    • Previous – After not Overpowering for 30 seconds, your next attack will Overpower.
    • Now – Every 30 seconds, your next attack will Overpower.

Seething Glyph

  • Additional Bonus: Fury gain on enemy kill increased from 3 to 5.

 

Legendary Aspects

Aspect of Sundered Ground

  • Description reworded for clarity, no functional change.
    • Previous – Every 25 seconds, Upheaval is guaranteed to Overpower and deals 10–25%[x] increased damage. This timer is reduced by 4 seconds when Upheaval Overpowers a Boss or an Elite enemy.
    • Now – Every 25 seconds, your next Upheaval cast is guaranteed to Overpower and deals 10-25%[x] increased damage. This timer is reduced by 4 seconds when Upheaval Overpowers a Boss or an Elite enemy.

Earthstriker’s Aspect

  • Bonus Overpower Damage reduced from 35-50%[x] to 15%-30%[x].

Aspect of the Relentless Armsmaster

  • Fury Generation while all three Walking Arsenal bonuses are active increased from 20-35% to 35-65%.

Windlasher’s Aspect

  • Previous – Casting Double Swing twice within 1.5 seconds creates a Dust Devil that deals 0.22-0.32 damage to enemies behind the target.
  • Now – Casting Double Swing creates a Dust Devil that deals 0.35-0.5 damage to enemies in its path.

Devilish Aspect

  • Previous – After generating 100 Fury, your next attack that deals direct damage creates a Dust Devil that deals 0.24-0.38 damage to enemies behind the target.
  • Now – After generating 100 Fury, your next direct damage creates 3 Dust Devils that deal 0.4-0.6 damage to enemies in their path.

Dust Devil’s Aspect

  • Previous – Whirlwind leaves behind Dust Devils that deal 0.22-0.32 damage to surrounding enemies (1 Dust Devil every 1.5 seconds).
  • Now – Whirlwind leaves behind Dust Devils that deal 0.4-0.6 damage to enemies in their path (1 Dust Devil every 0.75 second).

Aspect of Fierce Winds

  • Dust Devils created reduced from 5 to 3.

Veteran Brawler’s

  • Now increases the damage for Charge, Leap, and Kick.
  • The timer on the buff has been removed.

Of Giant Strides

  • Previous – Reduces the Cooldown of Leap by 3-5 seconds per enemy hit, up to a maximum of 9 seconds.
  • Now – 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.

Of Anemia

  • Previous – Lucky Hit: Direct damage against Bleeding enemies has a 15-30% chance to Stun them for 2 seconds.
  • Now – Lucky Hit: Damaging Bleeding or Vulnerable enemies has a 15-30% chance to Stun them for 2 seconds.

Of Vocalized Empowerment (Previously Of Echoing Fury)

  • Now equippable by both Barbarians and Druids.
    • Previous – Your Shout Skills generate 2-4 Fury per second while active.
    • Now – Your Shout Skills generate 5-10 Primary Resource per second while active.

Unique Items

Rage of Harrogath

  • Previous – Lucky Hit: Up to a 20-40% chance to reduce the Cooldowns of your non-Ultimate Skills by 1.5 seconds when you inflict Bleeding on Elites.
  • Now – Lucky Hit: Inflicting Bleeding on an enemy has up to a 20-40% chance to reduce the Cooldowns of your Skills by 1 second.

Azurewrath

  • Damage dealt when Freezing enemies increased from 2.0-3.0 to 3.0-4.5.
  • Can now trigger from Non-Core skills.

Fields of Crimson

  • The blood pool now makes enemies take increased damage from all damage types.
  • Damage bonus increased from 20% to 30%.

Ancient’s Oath

  • Bonus damage duration increased from 3 to 5 seconds.

Bug Fixes

  • Fixed an issue where Iron Skin did not benefit from bonus Barrier Generation sources.
  • Fixed an issue where Upheaval cast by Madawc with Call of the Ancients would not stun with the Supreme Upgrade enabled.
  • Fixed an issue where the tooltip for the Aspect of Ancestral Charge did not denote that the damage bonus is multiplicative.
  • Fixed an issue where the Rumble Glyph did not fully give bonus damage to all Earthquake effects.
  • Fixed an issue where some non-skill damage effects, such as Metamorphosis or Gohr’s Devastating Grips, could grant stacks of Furious Upheaval.
  • Fixed an issue where the Aspect of Ancestral Charge legendary could occasionally stop functioning properly.
  • Fixed an issue where the guaranteed Overpower from the Earthstriker’s Aspect could not be used by Ground Stomp.
  • Fixed an issue where each hit from Ancients summoned by the Aspect of Ancestral charge would grant stacks of the Flawless Technique Legendary Paragon node.
  • Fixed an issue where Call of the Ancients was not properly scaling with Ultimate Skill Damage affixes.

You can read the entire official news post HERE