As Diablo 4 Patch 2.0 PTR comes to an end, it’s no secret that every Diablo fan knows that big changes are coming to Vessel of Hatred DLC, which is set to release on October 8th. Here, we’ll talk about what’s happening to Barbarian in Patch 2.0 and give you an easy overview of what’s going to happen to your build and gameplay.
Patch 2.0 adds a new Active Skill, Key Passive, and four regular Passives to Barbarian, as well as a new Paragon Board. On Itemization side, we’re also getting new Uniques and Legendary Aspects.
General Changes
Before we get into the specifics of Barbarian, though, let’s talk about some of the big changes to the game itself.
First up, the max level has been dropped from 100 to 60, and once you reach this level, you’ll start earning Paragon Points, which can be used on any level 60 characters in your account. Not only does this mean you can earn Paragon Points while playing Barbarian, it also means you’ll have an extra 10 Skill Points to allocate to builds earned from level 51 to 60. That’s because there are 69 total Skill Points in Patch 2.0, up from 59 previously.
Additionally, to simplify the game and make the math easier for players, stats like Total Armor, Maximum Life, and Damage have been significantly reduced. Don’t worry, this won’t result in a nerf to your character, this is more of a backend change that’s reflected in the new numbers in your UI. Don’t panic if you find your weapon no longer does the same damage, it’ll still work just as well as before.
Finally, the difficulty system is changing in Diablo 4 DLC. Regular difficulty levels will be unlocked by leveling up your character, but Torment Difficulty Levels will need to be unlocked through an endgame activity called Pit of Artificers. This is a lot like Greater Rifts, with random dungeons and a boss at the end. This doesn’t really change how you play the game, it exists to allow players to more easily customize their preferred difficulty.
Skills Explained
Next, let’s move on to the specifics of Barbarian.
Active Skill
Let’s look at the skills first. Barbarian is given a new Active Skill called Mighty Throw, which causes your weapon to deal 60% weapon damage on impact and pierce the ground. Once on the ground, the weapon will begin Pulsating, dealing 15% weapon damage per second in a small area for 4 seconds.
Note that damage is only dealt on impact, and it takes about a second to activate even when used at melee range, so this may seem a bit slow the first time you use it. But multiple instances of this skill stack, so it synergies well with other Barbarian skills that can pull enemies together.
What’s more, Enhanced Mighty Throw increases your Attack Speed by 25% when you use a Throw weapon. Once you’ve enhanced your Mighty Throw, you can also upgrade it, giving you the following effects depending on which upgrade you choose.
- Fighter’s Mighty Throw: Creates the opportunity to fight in a Pulsating area, sustaining yourself by creating a Barrier while dealing more damage with additional pulses.
- Warrior’s Mighty Throw: Allows you to permanently stun enemies, as you can use this skill continuously as long as you generate enough Fury.
Key Passive
In addition, they are introducing a new Key Passive called Barbed Carapace. Barbarian has a ton of active and passive skills that synergize with Thorns. And this Key Passive will open up the possibility for a lot of viable Thorns builds, as it can directly deal damage to close enemies without requiring you to take damage yourself.
Other Passive Skills
The other Passive Skills are simple in their role, and most are welcome additions that address some persistent issues with Barbarian’s build.
Belligerence increases your damage for 4 seconds after using a basic skill. Barbarian’s basic skills are unused in most situations, so they don’t contribute much to the build. However, using them could create some synergies, such as being able to combine with Lunging Strike or other skills to increase damage.
Heavy Hitter increases your ultimate damage. A 45% damage increase seems like a big buff to ultimates, but you still have to wait out their long cooldowns. It will benefit builds that use ultimates as finishers in combat the most.
Warpath increases your damage for 4 seconds after Overpowering. Overpowering mechanic is really interesting because you’re usually lacking damage between combo buildups, and this will give you a nice little boost to clear out any enemies while you prepare for your next powerful attack.
Finally, Irrepressible makes it so that when you cast Weapon Mastery skill, you Fortify yourself for maximum life. This is a passive option that quickly builds up Fortify with Weapon Mastery to really help make your build more efficient.
Skill Tree Changes
Barbarian’s skill tree has multiple buffs and nerfs. So if you’re a returning player, you might want to check what’s changed with your favorite skills and adjust your build based on those changes.
The latest patch makes changes to Frenzy and Ground Stomp. Frenzy’s Fury generation has been increased from 4 to 7, damage has been increased from 13% to 15%, and the enhanced version that previously generated 3 flat Furies now has 25% less Fury cost for the core skill. That’s a huge buff.
Combat Frenzy Upgrade, which previously gave you damage reduction per stack of Frenzy, will now provide slightly less damage reduction, but will also increase your movement speed, greatly improving mobility. Not only that, but Combat Frenzy Upgrade also increases attack speed by 1%, and the increase in mobility combined with the reduction in core skill cost could give Frenzy a spot in the best combo builds.
Looking at Ground Stomp, the base damage has been increased from 9.5% to 20%. But the more obvious change is Enhanced Ground Stomp, which now generates 60 Fury, which was previously the full effect of Tactical Ground Stomp Upgrade.
In addition to increasing the stun duration by 1 second, Tactical Ground Stomp Upgrade will now turn your Ground Stomp into a Brawling Skill that deals 800% more damage to bosses and leaves you vulnerable for 4 seconds. What’s more, their Tactical Ground Stomp Upgrade will now reduce the cooldown of their Ultimate by 4 seconds. This is insane!
Paragon Boards & Glyphs
Next up we’ll talk about what changes are coming to Barbarian’s Paragon Boards and Glyphs in Patch 2.0.
Players can now only equip five Paragon Boards at a time, including Basic Board, so you can’t just zip through a board like a ninja to complete a node and then quickly leave, but instead use your boards wisely.
But each class gets a new board, bringing the total from eight to nine, and some rare nodes have changed as well. On top of that, players can now earn a total of 300 Paragon Points, which should greatly increase the power of all builds.
Barbarian’s new Paragon Board is called Force Of Nature, and its Legendary Node is directly related to Ground Stomp, as it greatly enhances Earthquake you create by combining it with Earthquake Aspect.
As a reminder, Earthquake Aspect enhances Ground Stomp, which deals physical damage over 4 seconds and increases the damage you deal by 30% when you stand on it, thanks to the complementary changes to Ground Stomp. It will become a fantastic tool against bosses and elite enemies. In addition, it also deals a lot of AOE damage over time, increases your damage when fighting in an Earthquake, and can be used to trigger Berserking.
Overall, I think this board is a great addition to Barbarian Arsenal System, opening up more possibilities for us to try other builds.
In addition to this, Glyphs have also undergone major changes, and instead of improving through Glyph XP, they are now upgraded by completing different levels of Pit of Artificers and trying to improve them again at the end. Just like Diablo 3, the higher the level of your completed Pit, the greater the chance of improving your Glyph.
Glyphs can now also be upgraded to level 100, further expanding their power. However, the higher the level of Glyph, the more difficult it is to upgrade.
Uniques & Legendary Aspects
Next, we’ll look at Barbarian’s Uniques and Legendary Aspects. Remember that Codex of Power changed in Season 4 and now stores Legendary Aspects you’ve earned for a specific character. You can also use Codex of Power as many times as you want, as long as you have enough Diablo 4 Gold and materials.
If you haven’t played in a while, you should head to your Inventory as soon as you log back in, take out your saved items, and salvage other items at Blacksmith as soon as possible to unlock higher characters in Codex of Power and free up valuable inventory space.
This patch changes three Aspects. Among them, the damage of Aspect of Bul-Kathos and Earthquake Aspect has been increased by 30%, and the cooldown of Aspect of Giant Strides has been significantly reduced, from 2.5-5 seconds to 1.3-2.5 seconds per hit, and the maximum reduction time has been reduced from 9 to 7 seconds.
All in all, you can see that these changes are consistent with the improvements to Ground Stomp, so these Aspects are likely to be used in Ground Stomp builds.
The new unique item for Barbarian is called Ugly Bastard Helm, this helm looks great and is obviously aimed at Fury Barbarian builds.
What Do These Changes Mean For Barbarian?
So what does all this mean for Barbarian? I believe that most Barbarian enthusiasts enjoy the fun of destroying enemies with violence and just want to go all out and attack the enemy with their entire arsenal. Vessel of Hatred DLC will give us more tools to achieve this goal.
The new Mighty Throw skill and Ground Stomp will allow Barbarians to effectively deal with large groups of enemies, without having to rely on small precision finisher builds as before. Barbarian players who prefer face-to-face combat can now also legitimately use Thorns, instead of relying solely on enemy attacks. And the new changes to Paragon Board and the increase in available skill points will open up many new possibilities and viable Barbarian builds.
Anyway, this concludes our introduction to Barbarian changes in Diablo 4 Patch 2.0, which will be released with DLC update on October 8. We are very much looking forward to trying all of these changes, as well as the many new builds!
If you have any new ideas, you may wish to enter IGGM Discord and communicate with the old players here. What’s more, the giveaway channel here often hosts some lucky draws, and if you are lucky enough, the gold coins and materials obtained from here are enough to help you quickly enter the next stage!
