Diablo 4 Season 9 Whirlwind Barbarian leveling guide

Whirlwind Barbarian is one of the best levelling builds in Diablo 4 Season 9
Whirlwind Barbarian is one of the best levelling builds in Diablo 4 Season 9 (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Diablo 4 Season 9 added a lot of changes to the majority of meta builds by making significant changes to items as well as skills across all classes. The Barbarian class suffered from massive nerfs done to Overpower, sending most of the builds down the list you can play in Season 9.

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While in this season the sole focus has been put on the Lunging Strike skill of the Barbarians in the endgame, there are certain other builds that have seen good traction, especially during leveling up in Diablo 4. This build revolves around empowering the Whirlwind skill and implementing the new and updated Lunging Strike, Ground Stomp, and Leap to rotate the damage output.

In this guide, we will break down how to level up in this build and what items you require to make it work early on in the game.

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Also Read: Diablo 4: Lunging Strike Barbarian build guide


Pros and cons of the Whirlwind Barbarian in Diablo 4 Season 9

Here's a look at the pros and cons that you should keep in mind:

Pros

Cons

Heavy damage dealer

Gear hungry

Moderate AoE damage output

Low single target damage output

Early game friendly

Requires high fury management to run properly

Solid Earthquake chaining capability with the right items in the late game

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How to play the Whirlwind Barbarian in Diablo 4 Season 9

Empowering the Whirlwind and managing Fury is key to getting the most out of this build (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)
Empowering the Whirlwind and managing Fury is key to getting the most out of this build (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Leveling with Whirlwind is one of the easiest ways to level up faster in Diablo 4. Coordinating your skills is a key factor to making this build work even in the endgame. Whirlwind gains increased damage and fire infusion from Aspect of Incendiary Fissures. The key point of this build is to gain as much Berserking uptime as possible.

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We do this by using the Wrath of the Berserker ultimate skill, getting its cooldown as low as possible. When in cooldown, critical hits with Lunging Strike give Berserking for three seconds; so having higher critical strike chances will give you unlimited Berserking.

Whirlwind is used to create Dust Devils, which deal damage to surrounding enemies using the Dust Devil’s Aspect and Aspect of Fierce Winds to spawn three Dust Devils when using Rallying Cry.

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While the skills like Ground Stomp are used to reset the cooldown of both the Ultimate (five seconds per enemy hit) from Strategic Ground Stomp and Leap (damages done to any enemy) by using the Aspect of Perpetual Stomping. Both Ground Stomp and Leap now create earthquakes using the Aspect of Earthquakes and the Aspect of Bul-Kathos, respectively, allowing for a continuous chain of earthquakes.


Diablo 4 Season 9 Whirlwind Barbarian leveling progression guide: Skill point allotment

This build revolves around retaining the Berserking state from Wrath of the Berserker and Lunging Strikes (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)
This build revolves around retaining the Berserking state from Wrath of the Berserker and Lunging Strikes (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

Planning from the start is a good rule of thumb for crafting a perfect build in Diablo 4. By the time you reach Level 60, you might have to do some respec on your character. So here is how to properly plan your level progression:

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Level (2-3)

  • Lunging Strike
  • Enhanced Lunging Strike

Level (4-7)

  • Whirlwind
  • Enhanced Whirlwind
  • Furious Whirlwind
  • Combat Lunging Strike

Level (8-15)

  • Rallying Cry
  • Whirlwind
  • Ground Stomp
  • Whirlwind
  • Enhanced Ground Stomp
  • Enhanced Rallying Cry
  • Whirlwind
  • Ground Stomp

Level (16-22)

  • Tactical Rallying Cry
  • Strategic Ground Stomp
  • Whirlwind
  • Leap
  • Ground Stomp
  • Enhanced Leap
  • Mighty Leap

Level (23-32)

  • Ground Stomp
  • Leap
  • Ground Stomp
  • Belligerence
  • Imposing Presence
  • Martial Vigor
  • Outburst
  • Tough as Nails
  • Booming Voice
  • Guttural Yell

Level (33-60)

  • Aggressive Resistance
  • Prolific Fury
  • Battle Fervor
  • Wrath of the Berserker
  • Prime Wrath of the Berserker
  • Supreme Wrath of the Berserker
  • Unconstrained
  • Heavy Hitter
  • Wallop
  • Concussion
  • Brute Force
  • Heavy Handed
  • Leap
  • Wrath of the Berserker
  • Leap
  • Wrath of the Berserker
  • Wrath of the Berserker
  • Leap
  • Wrath of the Berserker
  • Imposing Presence
  • Imposing Presence
  • Martial Vigor
  • Martial Vigor
  • Belligerence
  • Belligerence
  • Outburst
  • Tough as Nails
  • Tough as Nails
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Level (61-72)

  • Outburst
  • Booming Voice
  • Booming Voice
  • Guttural Yell
  • Aggressive Resistance
  • Heavy Hitter
  • Heavy Hitter
  • Pit Fighter
  • Slaying Strike
  • Pit Fighter
  • Slaying Strike
  • Pit Fighter

The arsenal system of the Barbarians

At Level 5, you can access the arsenal system of your barbarian character in Diablo 4. This system allows barbarian players to use a single specific weapon type for all the attack skills and a single Technique Slot where you can allot an additional arsenal power.

For this build, we will be using a Two-handed Slashing weapon as the arsenal weapon type to benefit from the 120% multiplicative bleeding damage from Whirlwind (Furious); additionally, this helps with increased Fury generation when using Lunging Strike.

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And we will be using the Two-handed Mace expertise in the Weapon Technique slot, which allows you to have a longer uptime on the Barbarian’s Berserking.


Diablo 4 Whirlwind Barbarian leveling gear

The build heavily relies on empowering Whirlwind and dealing as much damage as possible while bombarding the enemies with continuous Earthquakes with Ground Stomps and Leap.

Best gears to look for in D4 (if you have acquired them):

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1) Gohr’s Devastating Grips

  • +22.5% Critical Strike Chance Against Close Enemies
  • +12.5% Movement Speed
  • +15.0% Attack Speed
  • +5 to Whirlwind
  • Whirlwind explodes every 3 seconds, dealing 600% increased damage as Fire. Critical Strikes with Whirlwind reduce the time until the next explosion by 0.4 seconds, down to 1 second.

2) Ring of Starless Skies

  • +12.5% Resistance to All Elements
  • +12.5% Resistance to All Elements
  • +17.5% Attack Speed
  • +12.5% Critical Strike Chance
  • +12.5% Lucky Hit Chance
  • +2 to Core Skills
  • Spending your Primary Resource reduces the Resource cost of your Skills and increases your damage by 10% [x] for 3 seconds, up to 50% [x].
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3) Rage of Harrogath

  • +457 Maximum Life
  • 12.5% Damage Reduction from Bleeding Enemies
  • +8.0% Critical Strike Chance
  • +95.0% Damage Over Time
  • Lucky Hit: Inflicting Bleeding on an enemy has up to a 60% chance to reduce the Cooldowns of your Skills by 1.0 second.

Best aspects to get

Having the right Aspect equipped can make or break your build, so keep an eye on the proper aspect while exploring in Diablo 4 (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)
Having the right Aspect equipped can make or break your build, so keep an eye on the proper aspect while exploring in Diablo 4 (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

1) Aspect of Grasping Whirlwind

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  • Whirlwind pulls enemies to you every 3.0 seconds.

2) Aspect of Bul-Kathos

  • Leap creates an Earthquake that deals 1411 Physical damage over 4 seconds. While standing in Earthquakes and for 4 seconds afterwards, you gain 30% increased Damage Reduction.

3) Steadfast Berserker’s Aspect

  • Gain 846 Fortify whenever you deal direct damage while Berserking.

4) Aspect of Perpetual Stomping

  • Gain 846 Fortify whenever you deal direct damage while Berserking.

5) Dust Devil’s Aspect

  • Whirlwind leaves behind Dust Devils that deal 1820 damage to enemies in their path.
  • Enemies hit by Dust Devils take 25%[x] increased damage from all of your other sources for 3 seconds.
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6) Aspect of Earthquakes

  • Ground Stomp creates an Earthquake damaging enemies for 1242 Physical damage over 4 seconds. While standing in Earthquakes and for 4 seconds afterwards, you deal 60% [x] increased damage.
  • Your Earthquakes deal 60% increased damage.

7) Aspect of Anger Management

  • While above 40 Fury, you are Berserk, but 2 Fury Drains per second.

8) Aspect of Dire Whirlwind

  • Whirlwind's Critical Strike Chance and Critical Strike Damage are increased by 20%[x] for each second it is channeled, up to 100%[x].
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9) Aspect of Incendiary Fissures

  • Your Earthquakes deal 90% [x] increased damage, and their damage is converted into Fire.

10) Veteran Brawler’s Aspect

  • Each time a Core Skill deals direct damage to an enemy, your next Charge, Leap, or Kick deals 10.0%[x] increased damage, up to 50%[x].

11) Aspect of Fierce Winds

  • Your Shout Skills create 3 Dust Devils that deal 520 damage to enemies along their path.
  • Your Dust Devils are 25% bigger and deal 1% [x] increased damage for each 1% their size is increased.
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12) Battle-Mad Aspect

  • Gain 40% [x] increased damage and Berserking for 4 seconds after swapping weapons 8 times.

Best gems for Whirlwind Barbarian build in Diablo 4

Increasing the strength and damage reduction is the key in the early game, and the best way to increase these stats is by slotting the proper gems in your gear.

1) Ruby: (Armor pieces)

  • Chipped Ruby- +10 Strength
  • Ruby- +20 Strength
  • Flawless Ruby- +30 Strength
  • Royal Ruby- +40 Strength
  • Grand Ruby- +60 Strength
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2) Emerald: (Weapons)

  • Chipped Emerald- +12 Critical Strike Damage
  • Emerald- +24 Critical Strike Damage
  • Flawless Emerald- +36 Critical Strike Damage
  • Royal Ruby Emerald- +48 Critical Strike Damage
  • Grand Ruby Emerald- +72% Critical Strike Damage

4) Diamond: (Jewellery)

  • Chipped Diamond- +2 Resistance to All Elements
  • Diamond- +4 Resistance to All Elements
  • Flawless Diamond- +6 Resistance to All Elements
  • Royal Diamond- +8 Resistance to All Elements
  • Grand Diamond- +12 Resistance to All Elements

Best Season gems: Horadric Jewels

1) Idol from Below

  • +120 Armor and 6% Resistance to All Elements
  • You gain 6%[x] Primary Core Stat, 6%[x] Maximum Life, and Unhindered.
  • However, you will be hunted in Sanctuary's darkest places by Jewel Guardians who were entombed to protect this relic.
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2) Seal of Power

  • +120 Armor and 6% Resistance to All Elements
  • While you have two or more Arcana from the School of Power equipped, gain 25% [+] Movement Speed and 15% [+] Critical Strike Chance.

3) Willbreaker

  • +120 Armor and 6% Resistance to All Elements
  • Physical damage you deal shatters enemies' spirits, causing them to take 40% [x] more Physical damage for 6 seconds.
  • This effect applies when first damaging a Boss or Elite, or when they are affected by Crowd Control.

Best runecrafting for the Whirlwind Barbarian

While the runecrafting choice varies for every players, here’s a few options you can use:

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1) Cem-Lum

  • Cem: Cast Evade (get 75 offerings)
  • Lum: Restore 52.5 Primary Resource (spend 5 offerings)

2) Moni-Tec

  • Moni: Cast 2 Mobility or Macabre Skill (gain 100 offerings)
  • Tec: Invoke the Barbarian's Earthquake, dealing damage to enemies within.

3) Bac-Wat

  • Bac: Travel 10 meters (get 50 offerings)
  • Wat: Invoke the Necromancer's Horrid Decrepify Skill, Slowing enemies, reducing their damage, and letting you Execute them.

Mercenary and reinforcement

Mercenaries were intoduces alongside the Vessel of Hatred expansion in Diablo 4 (image via Blizzard Entertainment)
Mercenaries were intoduces alongside the Vessel of Hatred expansion in Diablo 4 (image via Blizzard Entertainment)

You can access the mercenary system once you have reached Nahantu, in the Vessel of Hatred expansion. Out of the four available mercenaries to choose for this build, we will be picking Raheir and Varyana.

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1) Raheir (Hired): Ground Slam-Raheir’s Aegis-Bastion-Inspiration

2) Varyana (Reinforcement): Bloodthirst every time you use Ground Stomp, giving you 30% [+] attack speed, 200% [+] movement speed and most of all gives you Unstoppable for 7 seconds.


Seasonal powers in Season 9 of Diablo 4

Season 9 of Diablo 4 introduced the Horadric Spellcrafting as the seasonal power, which allows players to craft and customize spells. For this build we will be using the following to create our prell:

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1) Infusion

  • Smoldering Ember: Catalyst deals fire damage and destroys monster's Chilling Wind effect for 8 seconds.

2) Arcana

  • Bloody Charm: Execute non-boss enemies with life under 20%.
  • Sapping Crux: Apply Vulnerable for 8.0 seconds.
  • Invigorating Helix: Get Fortify and 10% heal of your max life from the catalyst.

Skill rotation

The whirlwind barbarian is one of the easiest builds to play in Diablo 4.

  • Use Rallying Cry to gain Unstoppable and increased movement speed.
  • Cast Wrath of the Berserker to main Berserking for 10 seconds and increase damage output.
  • Charge in using Leap, which now causes Earthquakes to spawn and follow up Ground Stomp to further weaken enemies.
  • Cast Whirlwind to inflict bleeding on the enemies.
  • Use Lunging Strike in between cooldown to keep up your Berserking status.
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Edited by Abu Amjad Khan
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