D2R 2.5 Whirlwind Barbarian Build - The Most Relaxing Barbarian Build in Diablo 2 Resurrected

D2R 2.5 Whirlwind Barbarian Build - The Most Relaxing Barbarian Build in Diablo 2 Resurrected

1/11/2023 11:06:52 AM

The whirlwind barbarian is both a classic, and frankly one of the most relaxing barbarian builds to play in the game - and while he suffers from the "melee character curse" of hit chance being absolute garbage early on, and needing to find a good weapon - when he gets running, it's literally just right click to win, with the option to sometimes hork enemies if you want.

Skill Tree of 2.5 Whirlwind Barbarian Build

Combat Masteries: Our skill section is pretty simple and point friendly with 20 points in our weapon of choice which you see as swords here sends grief phase blades are generally the top pick for the slot, though when you're talking mid-range equipment, two-handed options with blunt to use ik mall or ribcracker or solid pick, or if you're talking super budget, pull arms are a great choice for a balance of speed power and range, not to mention some decent Rune words, that said swords are fine along the entire path if you really need one-handed, being middle of the road early on and among the top two picks later on, in this tree, we also pick up our one point wonders Natural Resistance which boosts our resists a decent amount, and makes even no Shield setups fairly resilient against elements even with mid to range gear, and we also pick up increased speed to increase our movement speed to keep our whirlwinds at a decent pace.

Combat Skills: Over in the actual combat skills tree, we have Whirlwind which should be obvious considering the name of the build, and it is a skill that is often misunderstood, the main function of this skill is to serve as a solid area of effect option to deal with swarms of enemies, though it can be used to focus down solo enemies depending on how you actually choose to spin, for large crowds, you can skim along them with longer whirlwinds to recover the Mana cost of using the skill while against solo targets or small crowds, you'll want to use smaller tighter formations like the popular triangle for dealing with these smaller targets and packing more hits on them, the other skill and one we generally get one point in until all of our other skills are done is berserk, this is our answer to physical immunes and you do want at least one point in it by the time you get to hell for just that reason, and you'll find most physical immunes with the exception of specific frenzy tours in act 5 pretty easy to take down with it, that said it is the last skill we invest in after that one point since other things are more important for us, especially when not using a shield, you'll also use leap attack a decent amount if you're going with a non-enigma version of the build or when you're doing budget or solo self found, since it allows for a lot more Mobility especially in Acts 3 and 4 where you can jump over various rivers or through certain grades.

Warcries: What you get here kind of depends on your goals, if you're doing magic find maxing out fine potion is usually a good pickup later on, since it has a Synergy with find item and if you use it Grim Ward as well making them both quite effective, and we personally even use this on some trash mob whenever we're looking for D2R item bases in level 85 areas, when we'd go with low magic find setups for crowd farming rather than for Target farming, that said you also of course want to pick up battle orders for the life in Mana boost in general since it lets the Barbarian have his tankiness, and while it's not necessary to max it for shield list builds, and it's pretty much a given if you're doing hardcore as well, we usually max this after weapon Mastery and Whirlwind with one point in Battle Command of course for the bonus plus skills prior to dropping orders, but it is still kind of a really nice thing to have just for regular their old durability, that said all of this should seem fairly familiar to most Barbarian players as it is pretty much the standard go-to for most barbarian builds, since they all follow the pattern of primary combat skill weapon Mastery and choice of warcries with the one exception being the cry Barb itself which skips the combat skill, and the growth pattern is fairly similar among all of them where in normal your investment is pretty much going to be weapon Mastery and one point wonders until you reach the combat skill of choice, just using your one point wonders along the way to kind of beat your way through, in this case bash into leap attack and concentrate into Whirlwind in berserk, with the one point warcries to help you out along the way.

Attributes & Stats of 2.5 Whirlwind Barbarian Build

Strength-138

Dexterity-140

Vitality-401

Energy-41

Gear of 2.5 Whirlwind Barbarian Build

Weapon: Phase Blade (Grief)/ Flail (Heart of The Oak)
Body Armor: Archon Plate (Runeword: Fortitude)
Amulet: Highlord’s Wrath
Head Armor: Slayer Guard (Arreat’s Face)
Belt: String of Ears

String of Ears

Defense: 102-113 (varies)(Base Defense: 29-34)
Required Level: 29
Required Strength: 20
Durability: 22
16 Boxes
+150-180% Enhanced Defense (varies)
+15 Defense
6-8% Life Stolen Per Hit (varies)
Damage Reduced By 10-15% (varies)
Magic Damage Reduced 10-15 (varies)
(Only Spawns In Patch 1.09 or later)

Ring: Doom Loop/ Blood Coil
Gloves: Laying Of Hands
Boots: Gore Rider

Mercenary of 2.5 Whirlwind Barbarian Build

2023-01-11 104354

Weapon: Giant Thresher (Infinity)

Gameplay Tips for 2.5 Whirlwind Barbarian Build

Though there are actually a lot of choices beyond these which is why we made the Rune World set and unique Series, so you can browse through and find things that fit your personal play style a bit better and maybe easier for you to make, that said there are also a few crafting options, but we usually only see those as we start approaching Nightmare and Hell difficulty, with hit power weapons, actually being really solid picks for Solo's self-found characters who just can't seem to find a good weapon or ruin word base since it will often give you a powerful rare blunt weapon to hold over until you get some of the two-handed budget D2R items like rib cracker that can drop a nightmare or Immortal kings that can drop in Hell, most people will still favor Rune words if they want to avoid resetting their skills though since they're generally the best way to get solid swords, as far as what attributes you want to be looking for, open wounds ignore Target defense and just more damage are going to be the big ones, as is crushing blow for your budget gear, and there are a decent number of gear options with these though in some situations, you may find your attack rating struggling a little bit if you're not going for the high Dex blocking build, so stuff like Angelic's rings and amulet are really easy to get options for a pretty significant attack rating bump, as are charms which while you prefer plus damage oriented charms usually plus attack rating can really smooth things out so hold on to them, as far as the mercenary that can also help you out, in budget gear and act 1 mercenary can actually seriously drop enemies defense, to let you have a solid hit chance thanks to her inner sight, and will generally help you even more than a blessed aim or might mercenary until you get up to a reasonable chance to hit without her, now you will not need to get Chase gear to have that chance much less GG gear, but you will eventually want to get at least reasonable equipment eventually if you want to fully realize your Whirlwind Barbarian, and there's pretty much three versions you can go with, the two-handed Barbarian The Sword and board and the dual wielding.

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