The Rend Barbarian build in Diablo 4 is one of the most fun ways to play the class. Here’s everything you need to know to get it online.
Diablo 4 got a major boost to its build crafting with the arrival of the Vessel of Hatred expansion and the simultaneous release of Season 6. Changes made in the game’s back end have resulted in new possibilities for each of the five classes.
The Rend Barbarian build has managed to climb the ranks of our tier list for the class. Pulping your enemies into puddles of viscera is a pretty fun way to mince through hordes of monsters.
If you want to set up a Rend Barbarian build in Diablo 4 Season 6, this guide will go over all the key pieces to get it up and running including skills, gear, and more.
The Rend Barbarian build differs from many others in Diablo 4 in that it relies more on damage over time than direct damage. Because of this, the type of damage scaling you focus on is particularly important.
The two key components are finding ways to increase your Critical Strike and Vulnerable damage bonuses. The Hemorrhage Paragon node increases the amount of Bleed you deal based on your Vulnerable damage bonus while the Gushing Wounds Key Passive does the same based on your Critical Strike damage.
As an added bonus to this Key Passive, whenever you land a Critical Strike, it deals an extra 70% more Bleed. Overpowers on Bleeding enemies also cause explosions of Bleeding damage.
The primary aim is to use the Rend skill to dole out absurd amounts of Bleed damage and then explode enemies with a guaranteed Overpower from the Rupture skill. All the while, hordes of monsters will slowly die from damage over time.
Best Rend Barbarian skills
With the new level cap of 60 and the Skill Points afforded by grinding renown, you should have a total of 72 to invest in your Frenzy Thorns Barbarian build for Diablo 4. These are the ones we recommend.
Active skills
Keep in mind that skills marked with an asterisk are invested in but not added to the Action Bar. Flay is used to unlock the Skill Tree while War Cry is specced to maximize the benefits of the LithOhm Rune combination that we’ll explain in the gear section of this guide..
| Active Skilll | Upgrades | Points Allocated |
|---|---|---|
| Flay * | Enhanced | 1 |
| Rend | Enhanced, Violent | 5 |
| Challenging Shout | Enhanced | 1 |
| Rallying Cry | Enhanced, Strategic | 1 |
| War Cry* | Enhanced, Power | 1 |
| Rupture | Enhanced, Warrior’s | 1 |
| Steel Grasp | Enhanced, Fighter’s | 1 |
| Call of the Ancients | Prime, Supreme | 5 |
Passive skills
| Passive Skill | Points Allocated |
|---|---|
| Warpath | 3 |
| Pressure Point | 1 |
| Martial Vigour | 3 |
| Imposing Presence | 3 |
| Raid Leader | 3 |
| Booming Voice | 3 |
| Guttural Yell | 3 |
| Aggressive Resistance | 3 |
| Pit Fighter | 3 |
| Slaying Strike | 3 |
| Cut to the Bone | 3 |
| Thick Skin | 1 |
| Counteroffensive | 3 |
| Concussion | 2 |
| Wallop | 3 |
| Gushing Wounds | Key Passive |
Best Arsenal setup for Rend Barbarian
The Barbarian’s Arsenal mechanic allows you to assign different weapons to different skills. It’s especially useful for proccing buffs from Passive Skills or Legendary Aspects that reward you for ‘Swapping Weapons’.
Using a particular type of weapon will upgrade a passive boost that affects that weapon for up to 10 levels. For this build, you’ll assign all of your offensive skills to your dual-wielded weapons. With a sword and a mace, you’ll receive bonus damage and attack speed for hitting crowd-controlled enemies, as well as increased damage to stunned enemies and the chance to Berserk.
You can add a specific weapon type to the Technique Slot and apply its buff to all of your weapons. For the Rend Barbarian, we suggest the Two-Handed Axe which causes all your attacks to deal increased damage to Vulnerable enemies which interacts well with the build.
Best Rend Barbarian skill rotation
The following skill rotation is how you should approach encounters in Diablo 4 Season 6 with this Rend Barbarian build:
- Rallying Cry
- Challenging Shout
- Steel Grasp
- Rupture
- Rend
- Rupture
- Call of the Ancients
It’s best to enter encounters with the buffs from your Shout skills and with Berserking active as a result. With these in effect, start by popping Steel Grasp to draw in enemies and make them Vulnerable which helps with a number of synergies.
Once you’ve achieved this setup and you have enough enemies in close, use Rupture. Coupled with the active Shouts, your gear, and some passives, this will kick off your resource generation and you’ll be able to use Rend.
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Spam Rend for massive amounts of Bleeding to all nearby enemies. After you’ve applied as much as possible, you can use Rupture again to cause explosions of damage and rack up instakills.
Call of the Ancients can be used whenever its cooldown has reset for massive spikes of damage and your Shout skills and Rupture will reset fairly often thanks to some cooldown reduction. Earthquakes from the Tec rune will boost your damage output and your Warcry skill will proc automatically thanks to the LithOhm combo.
Best Rend Barbarian Legendary Aspects
As you’re building up to your optimized Rend Barbarian build for Diablo 4 and waiting for key Uniques to drop, focus on tracking down these important Legendary Aspects for the build.
| Aspect | Power | Dungeon | Region | Obol Gamble |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Aspect of Inner Calm | Deal 5-13%[x] increased damage. Triple this bonus after standing still for 3 seconds. | Raethwind Wilds | Scosglen | One-Handed |
| Relentless Berserker’s Aspect | Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy with a Core Skill has up to a [15-35%] chance to extend the duration of Berserking by 2 seconds. Double this duration if it was a Critical Strike. | Hakan’s Refuge | Kehjistan | Boots |
| Aspect of Creeping Death | You deal [5.0 – 20.0]%[x] increased damage over time to enemies for each different Crowd Control effect they’re afflicted by. Unstoppable enemies and Staggered Bosses take [10 – 40]%[x] increased damage over time from you instead. | Salvage from found Gear | – | Gloves |
| Earthquake Aspect | Ground Stomp creates an Earthquake damaging enemies for [X] Physical Damage over 4 seconds. While standing in Earthquakes, you deal [10-25%] increased damage. | Salvage from found Gear | – | Two-Handed |
| Rapid Aspect | Basic Skills gain [15-35%] [+]Attack Speed | Buried Halls | Dry Steppes | One – Handed |
Best Rend Barbarian Paragon Boards and Glyphs
Once you hit Level 60, Skill points become a thing of the past, and Paragon Points take over.
This system makes you pick upgrades from themed boards loaded with buffs. Each path is unique, but the upside is you can tweak your Rend Barbarian build with specific Boards and Glyphs to boost your build exactly how you want in Diablo 4.
Paragon Board progression
For your Rend Barbarian build in Diablo 4 Season 6, you should unlock the following Paragon Boards in the indicated order:
- Starting Board
- Blood Rage
- Warbringer
- Decimator
- Hemorrhage
Best Glyphs
The Paragon Glyphs below are the best ones available for this particular build. We’ve outlined which Glyphs to slot into which of the above Boards.
- Rumble Level 100 (Starting Board)
- Ambidextrous Level 100 (Blood Rage)
- Wrath Level 100 (Warbringer)
- Challenger Level 100 (Decimator)
- Ire Level 100 (Hemorrhage)
Best Mercenaries for Frenzy Thorns Barbarian
Vessel of Hatred introduced Mercenaries to Diablo 4 and they’ve become an integral part of build crafting. Like most Barbarians, the Rend build benefits the most from having Raheir as your Hired Mercenary.
Raheir’s Ground Slam and Bastion combos offer both offensive and defensive buffs with the added bonus of Slowing enemies so they have a tougher time escaping your Rupture explosions.
As a Reinforcement, Aldkin is the best option for this build. Bind his Field of Languish to Steel Grasp to Slow and reduce the damage of enemies you pull inward.
Best Rend Barbarian gear and Runewords
Like most endgame builds, the Rend Barbarian in Diablo 4 does rely on some Uniques for true optimization. You should also note that while certain Aspects related to Earthquakes rely on Skills that aren’t equipped in the Action Bar, their real benefit comes from proccing Earthquakes with the TamTec Runeword combo.
| Item | Socket | Item type | Power |
|---|---|---|---|
| Heir of Perdition | 2 Rubies | Helm | Give in to hatred and earn Lilith’s Favor, increasing your damage dealt by 60%[x]. Slaughter enemies to briefly steal Lilith’s Favor from Nearby allies. |
| Rage of Harrogath | 2 Rubies | Chest | Lucky Hit: Inflicting Bleeding on an enemy has up to a [20-60]% chance to reduce the Cooldowns of your Skills by 1.0 second. |
| Fists of Fate | – | Gloves | Your attacks randomly deal 1% to [200-300]% of their normal damage. |
| Arreat’s Bearing | 2 Rubies | Pants | Ancients you summon are empowered.Korlic creates an Earthquake that deals [158 – 338] Physical damage over 4 seconds when he leaps.Talic leaves behind Dust Devils that deal [315 – 675] damage while he whirlwinds.Mawdac ignites the ground Burning enemies for an additional [158 – 338] damage over 4 seconds when he upheaves the ground. |
| Relentless Berserker’s Runic Cleats | – | Boots | Lucky Hit: Damaging an enemy with a Core Skill has up to a [15-35%] chance to extend the duration of Berserking by 2 seconds. Double this duration if it was a Critical Strike. |
| Bonebreaker of Inner Calm | LithOhm – Invoke the Barbarian’s War Cry by standing still in combat for 0.3 seconds. | Two-Handed Mace | Deal 5-13%[x] increased damage. Triple this bonus after standing still for 3 seconds. |
| Ramaladni’s Magnum Opus | Emerald | Left Hand | Skills using this weapon deal [0.20 – 0.50]%[x] increased damage per point of Fury you have, but you lose 10 Fury every second. |
| Skullsplitter of Creeping Death | Emerald | Right Hand | You deal [5.0 – 20.0]%[x] increased damage over time to enemies for each different Crowd Control effect they’re afflicted by. Unstoppable enemies and Staggered Bosses take [10 – 40]%[x] increased damage over time from you instead. |
| Demonblade of Earthquakes | TamTec – Spawn an Earthquake whenever you cast Rend. | Right Hand 2 | Ground Stomp creates an Earthquake damaging enemies for [X] Physical Damage over 4 seconds. While standing in Earthquakes, you deal [10-25%] increased damage. |
| Edgemaster’s Ocelot’s Eye | Skull | Amulet | Skills deal up to [5- 25%] increased damage based on your available Primary Resource when cast, receiving the maximum benefit while you have full Primary Resource. |
| Ring of Starless Skies | Diamond | Ring | 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]. |
| Ring of the Ravenous | Skull | Ring | Rend’s duration is increased by [4.0 – 8.0] seconds. Damaging enemies with your Brawling Skills applies 2 stacks of Rend’s Bleed. This can only affect each enemy once every 1 second. |
Best Rend Barbarian PVP build for Diablo 4 Season 6
The setup above is the best possible version of the Rend Barbarian build to bring into PVP. The bad news is that it suffers for resource generation against single opponents but if you can get the engine going, it will decimate certain challengers.
Any opponent using a melee-oriented build is going to struggle against you because they are severely punished by your damage over time and if you can manage to Rupture them, it’s an instant victory. If you come up against long-ranged casters or projectile-focused Rogues, you’re in a bit of trouble because they innately avoid your primary source of damage. If you’re struggling in PVP, it might be best to try the Bash Barbarian.
Now that you know how to craft this top-tier Barbarian build, make sure to check out our guides for the Druid, Sorcerer, Rogue, Necromancer, and Spirtiborn. There’s also our Diablo 4 Class tier list so you can see where this build fits in the current meta.
