Diablo 4: Endgame Double Swing Barbarian Build Guide (Patch 1.3.3)

Double Swing is a Skill that’s often overlooked. It might not hit as hard as the Barbarian’s other abilities in Diablo 4, but with the right setup, this simple Skill can become a fun and effective meat grinder that can take on the game’s more challenging difficulties.

Unlike the Barbarian’s more popular builds, Double Swing makes use of every mechanic that makes the class unique, from its many forms of Crowd Control to Bleed synergies, the weapon-swapping system, and the class’ big, meaty swings. It’s fast, dynamic, and deadly, perfect for the Diablo 4 player who’s bored of spinning and shouting all the time.

Updated April 2, 2024 by Marc Santos: There’s been multiple balance patches between versions 1.0.3 and 1.3.3 of Diablo 4, and that naturally included tweaks to how Barbarians play. Luckily, our Double Swing Barbarian build has remained largely the same in terms of how it’s set up and its general playstyle. This article has been updated to make the build more competitive in the endgame by introducing improved Aspect and Unique item choices and some tweaks to the passive skills selection.

Diablo 4: Barbarian Double Swing Build Main Skills

This build boasts long stuns, high DPS, and near-permanent Berserking uptime thanks to a combination of item bonuses and passive skill nodes.

Enhanced Lunging Strike is the preferred Basic Skill for its mobility. Neither of its branching upgrades are required for this build. This can be swapped for Bash for a consistent source of Stun and better Fury generation.

Furious Double Swing will be the build’s main damage dealer, and it will be supported by Warrior’s Death Blow. The latter deals extreme damage to bosses and can one-shot the majority of trash mobs on Diablo 4’s Torment difficulty. Both skills also provide Berserking, which the player can maintain just by hitting things with Double Swing. Furious Double Swing can be replaced with Violent Double Swing if you find that you have no trouble maintaining your Berserking buff.

The Enhanced Double Swing upgrade generates 25 Fury when hitting a Stunned or Knocked Down enemy, essentially making Double Swing free to use.

Challenging Shout and Rallying Cry are staple defensive skills in many Barbarian builds that help boost damage reduction, Fury generation, and movement speed while also providing a safety net against stuns. Charge can replace Rallying Cry if players want an on-demand Stun without losing an Unstoppable source.

Lastly, Iron Maelstrom is here to counter Double Swing’s and Death Blow’s weakness against large hordes. Use it to thin out an elite pack before cleaning up the rest with other abilities.

Passive Skills

Here, players will want to focus on building additional damage resistance and Fury generation — the latter is a particular pain point for Barbarians in Diablo 4, which is why all sources of Fury generation are beneficial for all the class’ builds.

Aggressive Resistance and Prolific Fury are two more great choices for this build since the player will be Berserking in every fight. The former increases your damage resistance, while the latter boosts Fury generation. Meanwhile, Invigorating Fury will heal the Barbarian for 9% of their max Life after spending 100 Fury. This passive is ridiculously good with Double Swing because of how quickly it attacks.

Walking Arsenal increases the player’s DPS by up to 45% when all three of its buffs are active. A quick rotation between the build’s three attacks enables this effect, and it will pile on top of Berserking’s added damage. Each cast of Iron Maelstrom will also proc the individual buffs.

For the Expertise bonus, use Two-Handed Axe for more damage against Vulnerable enemies. Two-Handed Sword is also good for proccing one of the Aspects listed below. If you want more Lucky Hit chance, use Polearm instead.

Gear and Aspects

The build relies on stunning enemies via Lucky Hits and abilities to get free casts of Double Swing. The Uniques listed above aren’t totally necessary, but they’ll make the build significantly stronger. You can get these by farming Helltides or by fighting certain Diablo 4 bosses.

Despite having Double Swing as its main DPS tool, this build will make heavy use of Death Blow for its burst damage and high Lucky Hit Chance. Aspect of Encroaching Wrath can buff this skill’s damage by up to 200% if slotted into a two-handed weapon, while Weapon Master’s Aspect gives it a chance to stun as well as an additional charge.

Aspect of Anemia gives players a chance to stun Bleeding targets whenever they deal direct damage. With the high Lucky Hit chances on this build’s attacks, this procs fairly often. You can opt to equip the 100,000 Steps Unique boots to get an AOE stun effect whenever you trigger Walking Arsenal.

As for weapons, use Dual Swords for Double Swing to gain increased attack speed when killing a Crowd-Controlled enemy. Make sure to assign Two-Handed Bludgeoning and Slashing weapons to Lunging Strike and Death Blow to proc Walking Arsenal.

Paragon Boards

Flawless Technique is a good first Paragon Board to use with Double Swing. It increases the player’s chance to crit when hitting enemies with one-handed weapons. Take Wild Force, Slayer, and Heavy Blows for bonus one-handed weapon damage, armor, and Critical Strike Damage respectively.

Once you’re ready to get more Paragon Boards, Carnage and Blood Rage are great options for any Barbarian build that uses Berserk. The former improves your attack speed, while the latter helps you keep Berserking between encounters. Both have nodes that further increase Berserking’s buffs as well.

For Glyphs, use Exploit on the starting board and Ambidextrous on Flawless Technique. These will increase the damage dealt by one-handed weapons while making every enemy Vulnerable for a few seconds during a fight. Ire can help you survive for longer, while Mortal Draw gives you a separate critical strike chance modifier on your skills.

Seneschal Setup

The Seneschal is a robotic companion introduced in the third season of Diablo 4. It aids you in combat like every other pet, either by attacking enemies directly or providing you with powerful buffs. The following is a Seneschal setup that’s good for buffing all classes:

• Governing Stone – Flash of Adrenaline
• Genesis Support – Increase the supported skill’s effectiveness by 150%.
• Duration Support – Increases the supported skill’s duration by up to 4 seconds.
• Fortify Support – Casting the supported skill also Fortifies the player.

As for the secondary Governing Stone line, players are free to slot-in their personal preferences. Anything will do as none of the other options benefit Double Swing or any other part of the kit in any way.