Diablo 4 Thorns Barbarian Build Guide
May. 11, 2023Diablo 4 Thorns Barbarian Build Guide
Diablo 4 Thorns Barbarian Build Guide: In this Diablo 4Barbarian ClassBuild, I’ll show you how to play a Thorns Barbarian, which is a melee Diablo 4 Build for the Barbarian that taunts large groups of enemies and annihilates them withThornsby dealing huge Reflect Damage. If you’ve been looking for a goodDiablo 4 Thorns Barbarian Buildthat also focuses on enteringBerserkto greatly improve your overall damage and speed, then this guide is for you!
The way thisDiablo IV Buildworks is that you’ll initiate combat withLunging Strikefollowed byChallenging Shout. Lunging Strike closes the gap between you and your enemies while dealing average damage. You should then activate Challenging Shout in order to taunt the rest of the group, boost yourMaximum Life, and gainThorns. So that every time they directly attack you, the damage is automatically reflected back at them. This is made more effective with theNeedleflare Aspect, which has a chance to damage all nearby enemies based on the Thorn Damage you inflict.
Another reason why you’ll want to group up enemies is for theUpheaval Skill. As long as you damage at least two of them, you triggerBerserkfor 2 seconds. Berserk can be triggered once again withDeath Blow, which is also a powerful Skill to use against Bosses and other targets who are about to die.
For Elites and Bosses, you’ll want to trigger Death Blow andWrath of the Berserkerto not only deal massive damage but also keep Berserk active while increasing the damage buff it grants.
Each Diablo 4 Barbarian Build is made up of the 5 Active Skills they have equipped and changing theseSkillscan drastically alter the way the Barbarian Class in Diablo IV plays. In this section, we’ll take a look at what Skills you should slot for the Thorns Barbarian Diablo 4 Build. Your Skill distribution should look something like this:
The above list gives you the general order to invest in Skills, but keep in mind that you should prioritize picking up new Active Skills over investing in passives, so pick up passives later if you can get new Active Skills when you level up.
So there are really several different strategies to employ with this Diablo IV Build for the Thorns Barbarian, and these change depending on whether or not you’re facing a large group of enemies or a Boss. Let’s start with a group of enemies first, and we’ll cover how to handle Bosses in the next section.
Just like theWhirlwind Build, you’re going to start with Lunging Strike, which is your main engagement Skill. It’s a good way to deal moderate damage but more importantly, this lets you traverse quickly in encounters, especially since the Barbarian moves relatively slow compared to the otherClasses. Now with this Thorns Berserker D4 Build, you’ll want to unlockEnhanced Lunging Strikeas well asCombat Lunging Strikefor improved survivability and trigger Berserking, respectively.
Enhanced Lunging Strike not only amplifies damage but also heals you upon damaging a target with max Health. On the other hand, Combat Lunging Strike instantly grants Berserk to further increase damage and Movement Speed but the catch here is you’ll need to land crits with Lunging Strike. As such, one of the bonuses you should prioritize chasing after isCritical Strike Chance.
Challenging Shout is a very potent Skill that allows you to taunt enemies effectively while reducing the damage you take. The reason why you’re opting for this is to gather as many targets as possible to hit them with Reflect Damage brought about by Thorns. As a result, you’re going to be highly exposed so to keep increasing yourMaximum Life, you’ll needEnhanced Challenging Shout.
And then, you’ll be pickingStrategic Challenging Shoutto make use of half of your current Maximum Life to determine how much Thorns Damage you can inflict. What you’re aiming for here is to take advantage of surviving long-winded encounters while dealing huge Thorns Damage.
Upheaval is another useful Skill for this Diablo IV Build that will trigger Berserk. It’s Fury-centric, which means that you need a sufficient amount of this resource to activate the Core Skill and deal great damage against multiple enemies. It also has a terrific control-impairing effect when you gain access toEnhanced Upheavalto proc Stun while you’re dealing damage.
And since you’re more likely to attract a lot of targets thanks to Challenging Shout, you’ll gain Berserk and be able to maintain it much longer. Berserk amplifies your damage and improves Movement Speed, which the Diablo 4 Thorns Barbarian Build greatly needs.
Boss fights are handled a bit differently with this Diablo 4 Thorns Barbarian Build because they’re not straightforward to go up against if you’re limited to dealing Thorns Damage. It’s for this reason that we have to change our tactics a bit.
The great thing about Death Blow is it’s very effective against regular mobs and Bosses. This Weapon Mastery Skill even rewards you further upon defeating just a single enemy. As such, you trigger it over and over again since the cooldown will be reset. So you won’t have to wait for 15 seconds before using it.
Particularly, Death Blow is best used to finish off targets who are nearing their demise. It’s made all the more essential in tougher encounters due toEnhanced Death Blow. This upgrade will significantly boost damage when facing Bosses by +100%! Since you want to make sure to keep Berserk up for the most part of combat, you’ll be takingWarrior’s Death Blow. Here, you’re not required to kill enemies to activate Berserk but, of course, it would be better. Instead, damaging them with Death Blow is enough.
Remember to also allocate points toMartial Vigorin order to reduce the damage this D4 Build takes against Bosses. And if in case the enemy is too beefy, you’ll need to weaken them first with Upheaval and Wrath of the Berserker.
Wrath of the Berserker is best used against Elites, and it’s the last Skill to use in order to activate Berserk while generating enough Fury to repeatedly cast Upheaval. At its basic form, you’re guaranteed to go Berserking once Lunging Strike comes into effect. You can even Knock Back enemies and becomeUnstoppableto break free from crowd control. So you won’t be vulnerable to getting Stunned, Slowed, or Blinded so you can perform at your best.
Meanwhile, you’ll be gaining access to two of Wrath of the Berserker’s upgrades, namelyPrime Wrath of the BerserkerandSupreme Wrath of the Berserker. These will increase both Movement Speed and Fury Generation in addition to boosting the damage provided by Berserk when Upheaval is triggered, making it so that Bosses will no longer be a threat to you.
For this Diablo 4 Thorns Barbarian Build, be on the lookout forStrength,Dexterity, Critical Strike Chance,Critical Strike Damage Bonus, Thorns, andCooldown Reduction. Meanwhile,Maximum Life,Life on Kill, andDamage Reductionwill help you live longer in combat, which you’ll need to rely on given the massive damage you take in the melee range. Once you have these, this will be considered one of the strongest and most resilient Diablo IV Builds of the Barbarian Class.
When it comes to passives, you’ll be investing inImposing Presence,Outburst, andTough as Nails. Imposing Presence raises your Maximum Life, and in doing so improves survivability and Thorns Damage whereas Outburst further increases Thorns % based on your current Maximum Life, making them synergize well with each other. And finally, Tough as Nails raises Thorns by a fixed percentage while also dealing a bit of Bleeding damage over time (DoT).
For the Legendary Aspects, the must-have for this Diablo 4 Build is theNeedleflare Aspect, which will give you a chance to deal Thorns Damage to all nearby enemies regardless of whether or not they hit you. Remember to slot this in your Two-Handed Weapon to boost its power by 100%! Next is theDeath Wish Aspectto gain more Thorns while Berserking whereas theAspect of the Protector, which should be slotted in Amulets to increase the Power by 50%, creates a Barrier to absorb damage. Lastly, there’s theAspect of Echoing Furyto allow Challenging Shout to generate Fury for Upheaval while the Skill remains active.
Be sure to check out ourDiablo 4 Wikifor any other questions you have about the game and theBuildspage if you are looking for more Diablo IV Builds, as well as ourGetting Started GuideandBest Class to Play in the Beta Guideif you are looking for more Diablo 4 content!
Reiku
Writer at Fextralife. I enjoy playing RPGs, narrative-driven games, and platformers. Outside of gaming, I like watching meaningful movies and reading sci-fi and dystopian books.
In the skill distribution list it says Battle Lunging Strike which should be Combat Lunging Strike.
