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.
Diablo 4 Endgame Thorns Necromancer Build
Here's a tanky, spicy, and very spiky off-meta minion build for Necromancers that can clear most content in Diablo 4's endgame.
Unlike the Barbarian's more popular builds in Diablo 4, 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 May 17, 2024 by Marc Santos: Double Swing has become stronger than ever in Diablo 4 Season 4 thanks to the numerous balance changes the game has received in the past, not to mention the new Legendary Aspects and Unique items that have become available. This guide has been completely overhauled to focus more on Double Swing and Dust Devils empowered by buffs from Berserk, Frenzy, Wrath of the Berserker, and multiple new Legendary Aspects.
Diablo 4: Barbarian Double Swing Build Main Skills
|
Skills |
Total Points |
|
Battle Frenzy |
3 |
|
Furious Double Swing |
7 |
|
Tactical Ground Stomp |
3 |
|
Power Leap |
3 |
|
Warrior's Death Blow |
5 |
|
Supreme Wrath of the Berserker |
3 |
This build focuses on keeping the Berserk effect active while constantly stunning enemies to effectively make Double Swing free to cast.
At full stacks, Battle Frenzy makes Double Swing attack faster, allowing players to capitalize on the stuns they inflict. It's not a bad skill for killing all enemy types either, even on Diablo 4's highest world tier.
Warrior's Death Blow works together with Double Swing's Furious upgrade to allow for near-permanent Berserking uptime. Hit something with Death Blow to gain Berserk, then use Double Swing to extend the effect's duration. The former is great for dealing huge chunks of damage, especially against bosses, so use it whenever it's available.
The Enhanced Double Swing upgrade generates 25 Fury when hitting a Stunned or Knocked Down enemy, essentially making Double Swing free to use.
Apart from serving as Fury generators, Leap is here for mobility and defense, while Ground Stomp is for stunning tough enemies. Both these skills will be upgraded with the ability to create Earthquakes later on when it comes to choosing Legendary Aspects.
Passive Skills
|
Skills |
Points |
|
Pressure Point |
3 |
|
Imposing Presence |
3 |
|
Swiftness |
3 |
|
Quick Impulses |
3 |
|
Aggressive Resistance |
3 |
|
Prolific Fury |
3 |
|
Pit Fighter |
3 |
|
No Mercy |
3 |
|
Duelist |
3 |
|
Tempered Fury |
1 |
|
Invigorating Fury |
3 |
|
Unconstrained |
1 |
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. The other passives are here as general improvements for offense, defense, and qualilty of life.
Diablo 4: The Unwritten Rules of Playing a Necromancer Explained
The Necromancer is consistently one of Diablo 4's best classes, but there are some unwritten rules for the class that players will want to follow.
Since the build primarily uses the Berserk buff, Unconstrained is the preferred Key Passive. It makes Berserk last longer and provide more damage. When paired with item stats, the damage bonus players enjoy from this can get extremely high, often skyrocketing their base Power value by over 200% when Berserk and Wrath of the Berserker are active.
Gear and Aspects
|
Double Swing Barbarian Gear Setup |
||
|---|---|---|
|
Gear |
Aspect/Effect |
Recommended Stats |
|
Helmet - Tuskhelm of Joritz the Mighty |
Unique - While Berserking, you have a chance to become even angrier, gaining more damage, additional Fury per second, and bonus cooldown reduction. |
- |
|
Chest |
Disobedience - Gain Armor after dealing any damage to enemies. |
|
|
Gloves |
Earthquake - Ground Stomp creates an Earthquake that damages all enemies on it. When standing on the Earthquake, deal x[15-25%] increased damage. |
|
|
Pants |
Bul-Kathos - Leap creates a damaging Earthquake that grants you Damage Reduction while standing on top of it. |
|
|
Boots |
Metamorphosis - Dodging turns you into a cloud of bats, making you Unstoppable. Enemies along your path take Physical damage and are inflicted with Vampire's Curse. Evade's cooldown is increased by [10-5] seconds. |
|
|
Amulet |
Anemia - On Lucky Hit, have a chance to stun Bleeding or Vulnerable enemies. |
|
|
Rings |
|
|
|
2H Bludgeoning |
Windlasher - Casting Double Swing launches a Dust Devil. |
|
|
2H Sword |
Retribution - Distant enemies have a chance to be stunned. Deal up to 30% more damage to stunned enemies. |
|
|
1H Swords |
|
|
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.
As of writing, this build is powerful enough to allow a Level 56 Barbarian with unoptimized gear to kill Elias, the Level 70 boss in Diablo 4's Fallen Temple capstone dungeon, in approximately 15 seconds.
Paragon Boards
|
Paragon Board |
Glyph |
|---|---|
|
Starting |
Exploit |
|
Flawless Technique |
Ambidextrous |
|
Carnage |
Twister (max level) |
|
Blood Rage |
Disembowel (max level) |
Feel free to prioritize whichever one of these Paragon Boards first. Unlocking the Legendary Nodes is recommended, but ultimately optional.
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 for bonus Vulnerable damage and Ambidextrous on Flawless Technique for more damage with one-handed weapons. Use Twister on the Carnage board to significantly increase the strength of Dust Devils, and if you want to decrease the cooldowns of Leap and Earthquake, use Disembowel on the Blood Rage board.
Diablo 4
- Released
- June 5, 2023
WHERE TO PLAY
- Developer(s)
- Blizzard
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Xbox One, PC
- Genre(s)
- Action RPG, Hack and Slash
- Metascore
- 88
