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While you’re mostly locked into a melee playstyle as a Barbarian in Diablo 4, you can at least make it fun by charging headfirst into the fray, headbutting horned demons. And no better Barbarian skill is more suited for charging than, well, Charge. It’s not exactly a Core Skill, but we can make it work with our Charge Barbarian build for Diablo 4. Surprisingly, it’s fun and functional thanks to the new buff to Charge.
Best Charge Barbarian Build (Whirlwind Variant)
Charge in Diablo 4 Season 3 got buffed and can now reach up to 900 percent damage which is huge. You can easily see the tooltip numbers in the hundred-thousands. The only issue with it is that it’s not a Core Skill so it has a cooldown.
Thankfully, you can lessen that drawback with cooldown-reducing item combinations and skill interactions. You can even wiggle down the Charge cooldown to as low as three seconds, letting you spam it more reliably. Here’s the build.
| Skill Bar | 1. Charge 2. Whirlwind 3. Rallying Cry 4. Challenging Shout 5. War Cry 6. Wrath of the Berserker |
| Passives/Other Skills | –Furious Whirlwind –Pressure Point (3/3) –Imposing Presence (3/3) –Martial Vigor (3/3) –Tactical Rallying Cry –Enhanced Challenging Shout –Mighty War Cry –Booming Voice –Power Charge –Aggressive Resistance (3/3) -Battle Fervor (3/3) -Pit Fighter (3/3) -Thick Skin (1/3) -Counteroffensive (3/3) -Heavy Handed (3/3) -Wallop (3/3) -Brute Force (3/3) -Supreme Wrath of the Berserker –Unconstrained |
| Weapon Techniques | –Two-Handed Axe Expertise |
| Gear | –Hellhammer or any Two-Handed Mace (Charge) –Two-Handed Sword or The Grandfather –2x Any One-Handed Weapon (Whirlwind) –Royal Ruby (Armor) –Royal Emerald (Weapons) –Resistance Jewels (Amulet & Rings) –Tibault’s Will –Other armor is up to you, but pick ones with +Strength, Cooldown Reduction, +Attack Speed, +Damage to Close Enemies, +Critical Strike Chance, +Movement Speed, +Core Skill Damage, +Total Armor, +Charge Skill, +Maximum Life, +Fury, +Resource Generation, +Damage while Berserking |
| Aspects | –Aspect of Grasping Whirlwind –Aspect of Disobedience –Conceited Aspect –Ghostwalker Aspect –Earthstriker’s Aspect (2H Bludgeoning) –Aspect of Ancestral Charge (2H Slashing) –Edgemaster’s Aspect –Brawler’s Aspect –Veteran Brawler’s Aspect –Bold Chieftain’s Aspect –Bear Clan Berserker’s Aspect |
| Governing Stones | –Lightning Bolt (with Duration, Evernight, & Tactical Support) –Slash (with Breaking, Efficiency, & Fortify Support) |
| Paragon Board | –Starting board (Brawl Glyph) –Bonebreaker (Mortal Draw Glyph) –Blood Rage (Marshal Glyph) –Carnage (Ire Glyph) –Weapons Master (Crusher Glyph) –Decimator (Dominate Glyph) |
Charge Barbarian Build Playstyle
The playstyle here is simple as well. It should be familiar for anyone who has used a Barbarian build with the Shout skills as an auxiliary. But just in case, here’s a step-by-step process for those who are new to the Barbarian class in Diablo 4 Season 3.
This rotation depends greatly on weapon swapping and triggering the Shout buffs before entering combat.
- Activate all three Shouts before entering combat.
- Also, cast Wrath of the Berserker.
- Use Charge against a cluster of enemies.
- If the enemies aren’t dead yet, use Whirlwind for a short burst.
- Hitting enemies with Whirlwind can lower Charge’s cooldown. Once it is ready again, use Charge interchangeably with Whirlwind bursts.
Your 8th Charge will almost always be an Overpower attack thanks to Edgemaster’s Aspect, so you might want to count. That is assuming there are still enemies left to charge into. With how powerful Charge is, you might not even have enough monster clusters left before the Shouts reset.
Keep in mind that hitting many enemies with Charge will reduce its cooldown by up to nine seconds (three seconds for each enemy). So make sure to find a sizable crowd to crash into if you want to keep spamming Charge. Whirlwind should also help in grouping the enemies though you shouldn’t use Whirlwind for damage.
Alternative Core Skills
Whirlwind is the ideal choice here since it can’t Overpower, which means Edgemaster’s Aspect’s effect will go solely to Charge. However, if you want to replace Whirlwind, you can do so.
This build is easy enough to modify and has good modularity. After all, Whirlwind can still be an acquired taste in Diablo 4 as it can leave you vulnerable. So consider the following Core Skills if you want something different. Do note that this will change the Aspect interaction and might lower Charge’s damage.
Upheaval
It’s a Core Skill as well, but it can Overpower, so consider using Banished Lord’s Talisman. This is a more reliable source of damage compared to Whirlwind so you can use it to finish off enemies after the Charge. Make sure to replace the Whirlwind Aspect you have with something else.
You can also use this as a single-target damage, which is handy when fighting bosses. That’s an area in which Whirlwind can’t perform well.
Hammer of the Ancients
Once you use Hammer of the Ancients, you might as well call our Charge Barbarian build a HotA Barbarian build since this Core Skill will take the spotlight. It deals higher damage compared to Charge and more frequently. The same idea goes here, you can opt to use Banished Lord’s Talisman and replace the Whirlwind Aspect with the HotA Aspect that gives it AoE.
You can still use the two damage skills interchangeably though there might be significantly fewer enemies to Charge into once HotA paves the ground flat.
