Other popular skills to use as secondary skills include Battle Command for Barbs in a party, or Increased Speed for farming. Though helpful, more than 1 point in other skills is wasted. Additionally, Iron Skin and Natural Resistance are great choices for extra tankiness! Some players look to skills like Battle Orders and Shout to keep their party well defended and happy. Berserk is also the go-to for any PI monster/Boss you can’t spin over quickly. You should choose the weapon that best fits your build and max points in its mastery.įor PvP, skills like Berserk straight counter Necro skills like Iron Maiden. If you guessed max Whirlwind first, you were right! After that it only makes sense to max the only other skill that contributes to your Barb’s DPS which is Weapon Mastery. Keep in mind, any on-hit effects like Life Tap from items (Dracul’s Grasp or Last Wish) will not trigger in any instance of the WW animation. Luckily one point in Berserk is more than enough to take out small groups of these pesky PI monsters. WW deals little damage to them so you’ll need to try another skill to knock them down. Monsters with the dreaded PI identifier, Physical Immunity, make a tough tree to saw down. Unfortunately this means the WW Barb has trouble finding more DPS later on. The WW skill has only one damage synergy in Weapon Mastery. This forces most players to just stock up on potions and Mana Leech items to spam WW. Spending points in Energy is mostly a waste on WW Barbs. On the other hand, a WW Barb is mana intensive. This, combined with his easy customization, starts to make sense out of the crazy number of Barbs in Ladder games. Secondly, a WW Barb can solo Normal/Nightmare with little supervision and has a lot of options for the late game. The Weapon Mastery skill is the only skill that amps the damage on WW, and since you’re a Barbarian, it can be any weapon you want.

Firstly, he has a multitude of sub-builds because he only has to max Weapon Mastery and WW for damage. While spinning to win through a mob of bad guys it’s easy to see why a WW Barb is so popular. Take the iconic Barbarian build out for a spin and see for yourself!

This build is strong in a party or solo, from PvM to PvP. It simply takes away the ability to solo farm every level at every difficulty. In no way does this diminish a WW Barb’s ability to farm. There is a glitch (still!) that can cause some of your WW Barb’s attacks to not hit. This classic uses the ability to ignore unit collision with the Whirlwind attack animation, making your Barbarian a spinning top of death. The Whirlwind Build is probably one of the most famous builds in Diablo 2 from the beginning to now.

Diablo 2 lod deadly strike