Fans of Diablo 4's Barbarian class have had a rough go the past few seasons, with the class performing well below the ceiling of its counterparts. However, Diablo 4 Season 10 has the chance to turn things around for the Barbarian thanks to the game's new seasonal mechanics. While the addition of features like Chaos Armor and Chaos Perks in Season 10 leaves the door wide open for build options, one of Season 9's best Barbarian builds could sneak its way into the upcoming season's meta.
Despite the current hype surrounding Sorcerers and Druids heading into Diablo 4 Season 10, the pieces of the meta puzzle are still coming together. The new Diablo 4 Season 10 Uniques are not the only ways to predict which builds are going to perform well next season, with Chaos Armor flipping the script on buildcrafting. The Barbarian's new Sabre of Tsasgal Unique may not move the needle much, but the class has plenty of other tricks up its sleeve that could elevate the Lunging Strike build above its peers.
Lunging Strike Barbarian Could Be a Sneaky Meta Contender for Diablo 4 Season 10
The Lunging Strike Barbarian already received a healthy amount of attention among Diablo 4 Season 9 Barbarian builds due to the Hooves of the Mountain God. With this Unique giving the Barbarian's Basic Skills a damage buff and the ability to cleave, Lunging Strike's utility has skyrocketed since it can now deal AoE damage and inflict bleed. The other skills that support Lunging Strike include several Shouts and a crucial Ultimate:
- Lunging Strike
- Wrath of the Berserker
- War Cry
- Challenging Shout
- Rallying Cry
- Ground Stomp
While Lunging Strike is the main damaging skill players will use on this build, Wrath of the Berserker can be a real powerhouse of an Ultimate skill. Ground Stomp is useful for reducing the cooldown of Wrath of the Berserker so that the player can keep it active as much as possible. Additionally, Shouts like War Cry, Challenging Shout, and Rallying Cry provide the necessary support to keep the Barbarian alive while diving into enemy groups with Lunging Strike.
Diablo 4's Chaos Perks Make the Barbarian's Shouts Even Stronger
The addition of Chaos Perks in Diablo 4 Season 10 offers this build the chance to augment its Shouts to make them even more useful. The Barbarian's exclusive Deafening Chorus Legendary Perk makes Shouts constantly active with a 20-40% increased effect at the cost of a 20% reduction to maximum Fury for each Shout equipped. In this case, the benefits of having more powerful Shouts active at all times outweigh the reduced maximum Fury, especially since the Legendary Aspect of Adaptability lets players quickly regenerate Fury with Basic Skills.
The decreased maximum Fury will take away some of the damage scaling from a weapon like Ramaladni's Magum Opus, but this is a small price to pay for the benefits of having Shouts perpetually active.
Diablo 4's Chaos Armor Could Allow the Lunging Strike Barbarian Build to Shine Brighter Than Ever Before
What could really elevate the Lunging Strike Barbarian to the upper tiers of the Diablo 4 Season 10 meta is the presence of Chaos Armor, shaking up the Uniques players will be able to equip simultaneously. Two key Uniques on this build, Hooves of the Mountain God and the Rage of Harrogath, are in the Barbarian's pool of Chaos Armor, meaning players will be able to equip a Mythic like the Shroud of False Death in the chest armor slot while still using the Rage of Harrogath in another gear slot.
Players could also utilize the Flickerstep Unique Boots with the Hooves of the Mountain God equipped in a different gear slot to help reduce the cooldown of Wrath of the Berserker. Rage of Harrogath isn't as necessary on this build since it's mainly used for reducing the cooldowns of the Barbarian's Shouts, which are now permanently active thanks to the Deafening Chorus Perk, so players may want to opt for Flickerstep as a replacement for reducing their Ultimate's cooldown. There is still a lot of testing to be done once Diablo 4 Season 10 starts to see which combinations of Chaos Uniques synergize the best, but Barbarian mains should have more hope in a meta build than the past few seasons.
Diablo 4
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