A Barbarian's Cleave Ability

Diablo 3 Barbarian Active Skills

Like the other four classes, the Diablo 3 Barbarian active skills are divided into three types. You don’t, however, need to choose between each section. If you want only Fury Generator skills, you can build your character as such. The goal of a good Barbarian build is to find a careful balance between generating and spending fury while maintaining enough survivability to stay alive early in a fight.

Diablo 3 Barbarian Active Skills – Fury Generator

Fury Generator attacks are less powerful but still deal some amount of damage as you build your character’s Fury for more powerful foes. They are generally fairly simple attacks, but that doesn’t mean they are not effective when used properly:

• Bash
• Cleave
• Leap Attack
• Ground Stomp
• Frenzy
• War Cry
• Furious Charge
• Ancient Spear

Of special import here, Cleave is an AoE attack and War Cry is a straight generator, acting as a Shout to rapidly fill your meter. Some see it as a waste of a skill slot but to reach max DPS as fast as possible, this is the way to go. Furious Charge is considered a must for PvP and Ancient Spear gives you one of your only ranged attack options, acting like a Grip attack – pulling enemies toward you.

Diablo 3 Barbarian Active Skills - Fury Spender

Your Spender skills are a mishmash of debuffs and powerful attacks. Not all Fury Spenders will result in higher DPS, but the support skills here are incredibly useful when timed properly:

• Threatening Shout
• Hammer of the Ancients
• Battle Rage
• Weapon Throw
• Rend
• Seismic Slam
• Sprint
• Whirlwind

A few skills here are especially good. Weapon Throw is useful due to your lack of ranged options, giving you time to build Fury before a melee enemy can actually close on you and attack. Sprint is very useful in getting away or in pitched PvP battles. Whirlwind is considered one of the must have attacks for Barbarians too – it’s useful in every aspect of the game as a high DPS AoE attack.

Diablo 3 Barbarian Active Skills - Situational

The Situational Barbarian active skills are designed to provide buffs and added damage in key situations. They don’t fall into any one category but in some cases may save you from a tight spot:

• Ignore Pain
• Revenge
• Overpower
• Earthquake
• Call of the Ancients
• Wrath of the Berserker

It’s extremely tempting to choose Call of the Ancients as one of your skills, but keep in mind the raw Fury cost and the fact that this ability is rarely needed in standard fights. On the other hand, Wrath of the Berserker is fantastic, providing a huge array of buffs that will decimate opponents in PvP, especially when your Fury is capped. For slow Fury builders, Ignore Pain and Revenge are highly valuable – allowing you to mitigate damage much better.

Choose the perfect Diablo 3 Barbarian active skills for your next foray into Diablo III with this fantastic all around guide.