Barbarian Leveling Guide

The fastest way to level a Barbarian is by starting as a Double Swing Barbarian to begin, focusing on battlefield mobility and cheap skills granted from the Combat Skills tree and the buffs from your Combat Masteries tree. After you reach Level 30, however, you will begin to plateau, and it is most efficient to respec into a Warcry (or “Singing”) Barbarian, which bares some similarities to Casters while still maintaining Barbarian’s heartiness, mobility, and damage. That build will easily carry you to around level 75, where you can respec again into the endgame build of your choice.

Leveling General Tips

• Barbarians have a very unconventional leveling approach, and you should be ready for some unexpected and expensive skill investments.
• You will need to select a weapon mastery to focus on, and boost it entirely. Mace Mastery has more options during normal difficulty, so it is usually the best, but you can choose whichever Mastery suits your best.
• The Barbarian begins to slow down around level 30, which is when you will respec from a Double Swing Barbarian into a Shouting/Singing Barbarian (becoming a caster)
  • You will want at a point in every Shout skill on the left side of the Warcries tree. War Cry and Battle Cry should be your first priority, followed by Taunt, and then Battle Orders, but you will have some flexibility here.
• By the time you enter hell, you should consider putting some points into Natural Resistance, which will greatly improve survivability and open up gear options.
• Because Flails take 41 Strength to wield, you will want to make sure you can hit that by around level 12 or 13.

Attribute Distribution

While Vitality remains the most important Attribute to boost for Barbarian, many levels will also need to go into Strength (and, to a lesser extent, Dexterity) in order to use the best gear for him. When you transition to Shouting Barbarian after your Respec, you will become more of a Caster, so will need some improvements to Mana with Energy.

• Level 2: Dexterity
• Level 3-7: Vitality
• Level 8-9: Dexterity.
• Level 10-11: Strength
• Level 12: 1 Point in Strength, 4 in Vitality
• Level 13-30: Vitality

For your Respec at Level 30:

• 30 to Energy
• 20 to Strength
• 15 to Dexterity
• Remainder to Vitality for the rest of the build.

Skills

Gear

Resources and Links