Welcome to the Rend Barbarian Guide! This master swordsman combines unparalleled speed with devious power. The Barbarian calls on the spirits of his ancestors to possess him and charge with him into battle. He slashes his foes faster than the eye can see, leaving fields of lesser demons in bloody heaps. Only the toughest monster is left standing, but it is already dead. In the blink of an eye, the Barbarian dashes into the remaining enemy and impales it on his sword. A shower of blood erupts from its broken body as he withdraws his legendary blade.
Rend is a Core Skill that quickly applies a large Bleed to all enemies directly in front of the Barbarian. It is one of the most Fury-efficient core skills and boasts the highest base damage per cast time. The only drawbacks are its small area of effect and the fact that its damage is dealt over time rather than immediately.
In order to solve these problems, we use Rupture to instantly deal our enemies' total Bleed damage to them in a large area. Let's jump in and see what it's all about!
This build guide assumesyou have a Level 50+ Character and finished the Campaign. Level up with ourRend Leveling Guide or Double Swing Leveling Guide. If you are looking for a different Barbarian playstyle, check out all of our Barbarian Guides.
DifficultyAverage
SpeedfarmingExcellent
NM DungeonsStrong
BossingAverage
DefenseAverage
Season 4 - Loot Reborn
In Season 4, the Season Theme revolves around helping out the Iron Wolves. Compared to past themes, this one does not offer any borrowed power as the entire game has been redesigned with new itemization and crafting options, increasing player power substantially across the board. Instead, you can gather reputation similar to the Vampire Bounty Board from Season 2 to unlock rewards that supercharge your leveling journey to 100 with extra items, crafting materials and eventually even a Resplendent Spark to craft an uber unique.
We recommend to follow the seasonal questline until you unlock the reputation system, check which rewards suit you most and then follow your regular leveling path. To learn more, check out our full Season 4 guide for more information.
Skill Tree & Gameplay
The general gameplay rotation with this build is .
- Flay is a good option for this build because it has a chance to make enemies Vulnerable, which is especially helpful status effect for Bleed builds.
- Rend deals huge damage, and is increased by a whopping 80% with the Ring of the Ravenous.
- Rallying Cry solves the problems of movement speed and Fury generation, which are particularly painful in the early game.
- War Cry increases in value in the late-game when our ability to clear content efficiently (or at all) may be limited by our damage output. Running this shout also gives us an easy way to gain Berserking.
- Challenging Shout is indispensable in situations where we are struggling to survive against higher-level enemies, especially when we have unoptimized equipment. This shout is preferred when tackling capstone dungeons early.
Rupture allows us to take advantage of high enemy density and avoid waiting for enemies to slowly bleed to death. This skill is best used on a boss after stacking enough Bleeds to kill them. The other time to use this skill is when we have piled up a large number of enemies in a small area. Enhanced Rupture creates one AOE of Bleed damage for each enemy hit by Rupture. The Bleed damage of a single AOE is comparable to Rend, and if multiple enemies are hit, there will be multiple AOEs. The explosion AOE is much larger than the initial hit, so it's not uncommon to hit 4 or more enemies, and cause 4 AOEs that each hit 10 or more enemies.
Barbarian Weapon Technique
The Barbarian Weapon Technique slot allows the player to choose a Weapon Expertise Effect that applies to all of their attacks, regardless of which weapon they are using. We select Two-Handed Axe Expertise. Make sure to use a Two-Handed Axe while leveling up in order to level up the Two-Handed Axe Expertise all the way to level 10.
We assign our Two-Handed Slashing Weapon to Rend and Rupture because of the Expertise bonus and Heavy Handed. We assign our One-Handed weapons to Flay because we will use this to passively stack Flawless Technique.
Learn more details and how to unlock this system in our full Barbarian Weapon Expertise Guide.
Resource & Cooldown Management
Slaking allows us to passively generate Fury when hitting enemies. This is particularly effective in AOE situations. In addition, the affix "Resource Cost Reduction" Efficient weapons has a huge impact on our efficiency by reducing the Fury cost of Rend to around 20. Ideally, we'll be able to spam Rend without needing to use Flay to generate Fury.
We depend on shouts for much of our functionality and survivability. To reduce the cooldowns of our shouts, we use Bold Chieftain and Rage of Harrogath. This is highly effective in AOE. It's even possible to get 100% uptime on all three of our shouts when hitting enough enemies at once.
These solutions depend on Lucky Hits, and the more enemies we hit, the more chances we have to trigger those effects. Unfortunately, Rend has a very small area of effect. It's important to get "Rend Size" tempering affix on weapons to help solve these problems.
Paragon Board
Carefully check your Paragon Boards to ensure correct board rotation. Glyphs go from a radius of 3 to 4 when they reach level 15!
Level the Paragon Board by scrolling. Each step optimizes progression.
Glyphs
We need to level up our Glyphs to increase their power and activate their Additional Bonus with surrounding nodes. Glyphs have a radius of 3 by default, this increases to 4 at Glyph level 15. Complete Nightmare Dungeons to obtain Glyph experience.
Note that there are some Glyph position swaps and a few adjustments to surrounding Paragon nodes once they reach level 15. See the last two steps in the Paragon progression above for details. The setup displayed by default is the final version of the build.
Glyph Leveling Priorities
Level 15
- Might
- Undaunted
- Territorial
- Wrath
- Marshal
- Ire
Max Level
- Might
- Undaunted
- Wrath
- Marshal
- Ire
- Territorial
Also check out our dedicated in-depth guides to learn more about Paragon Boards and Glyphs.
Endgame Progression & Variants
When you start diving into the Endgame, you don't have all the tools available to achieve the final build versions. Let us guide you through different progression points to give you a smooth transition from our Leveling Guides to the final build version.
Progression Goals
Starting at level 50, we'll need to take a few steps to bring this build fully online. we'll need to start collection all of our aspects. Third we need to fight tough bosses to target farm our Uniques. Finally, we should farm Nightmare Dungeons to level up our glyphs.
Unlock the following Aspects from Dungeons if you haven't already added them to your codex by salvaging a Legendary item with that Aspect
- Relentless Berserker from Hakan's Refuge in Kehjistan
- Edgemaster in Oldstones (Scosglen)
- Might in Dark Ravine (Dry Steppes)
- Iron Blood in Forgotten Ruins(Kehjistan)
- Slaking in Maulwood in (Fractured Peaks)
Find the following Legendary Aspects either as a random drop or by gambling with Obols.
- Limitless Rage
- Accelerating
- Fierce Winds
- Devilish
- Bold Chieftain
Acquire the following Unique items either as a random drop or by farming specific Boss drops.
- Rage of Harrogath
- Ring of the Ravenous replaces our Slaking ring.
If you're lucky enough to obtain the following Uber Uniques, they're useful for the build
- Harlequin Crest
- The Grandfather
Learn more details and how to farm Legendary Aspects and Uniques in our General Farming Guide.
Progression Steps
Follow the build's gearing progression from level 50 to 100, including the changes that need to be made as you obtain Legendary Aspects and Uniques.
Midgame
Endgame
Best-in-Slot
In this setup, you have access to all Legendary Aspects, allowing you to pilot a much stronger version of this build. Additional Legendary Aspects are used to fill slots that may be replaced with Unique items later on.
Gear
- Unlock all the Codex Powers mentioned above.
- Collect a set of Sacred gear in World Tier 3.
- Start farming Living Steel in Helltides and complete whispers to stockpile gold and Varshan Body Parts. Do not use these in World Tier 3 - it's best to save them for later.
- You can transition to the endgame progression setup when you find "Rend Size" tempering affix and Rage of Harrogath.
Skills
- In this stage of progression we use the Rend Leveling Build skill tree.
Gameplay
Alternate casting Flay and Rend. Use either Charge or Leap once every 10 seconds to keep Walking Arsenal up.
In this setup, you have access to all Unique items and Legendary Aspects. This allows you to pilot this build at its peak efficiency. Let's take a look at the changes you need to make to implement them. This setup is also used for Speed farming which is efficient in, Helltide zones, Tree of Whispers, regular Dungeons, and lower tier Nightmare Dungeons.
Gear
- By this point we've acquired all the regular unique items in our build except the ultra rare Harlequin Crest and Grandfather.
Skills
- We drop Leap and Charge and pick up War Cry and Challenging Shout.
- We drop Walking Arsenal and Furious Impulse and get Gushing Wounds.
Gameplay
With this setup, we should be spamming Rend more often and relying less on Flay. Use Rupture as often as possible, especially in high density AOE combat. Additionally, we should be able to use all 3 shouts frequently thanks to Bold Chieftain and Rage of Harrogath.
Once we have all the best gear we can dream of, we can enjoy pushing the limits of challenging endgame content.
Gear
- Harlequin Crest replaces our legendary helm.
- The Grandfather replaces our legendary Two-Handed Slashing weapon and we can move the Devilish aspect to our gloves.
Skills
- This is the standard endgame skill tree for Rend, the same as the previous step.
Gameplay
Follow the general skill rotation described in the previous section.
Build Scaling & Stat Priorities
Learn about the important build scaling mechanics and stat weights.
Damage
Defense
- Critical Strike Chance: once we run Gushing Wounds, although we don't stack Critical Strike Damage, this stat makes a big difference due to the inherent 50%[x] damage bonus that all critical hits receive. In addition we get Heavy Handed for another multiplier. Eventually we get The Grandfather which doubles the damage of Critical Strikes. With ideal gear, it is possible to get 100% Critical Strike Chance with this build. With maximum rolls on every piece of gear, Greater Affix and 3 Masterwork Criticals (procs) we should get over 100% Critical Strike Chance.
- Attack Speed: We get Attack Speed on jewelry and gloves.
- Ranks of Rend: We get Ranks of Rend on our gloves, as well as Harlequin Crest.
- Rend Size: This tempering affix greatly increases the size of Rend which enables us to clear large packs of enemies more quickly as well as score more Lucky Hits for Rage of Harrogath and Slaking.
- Strength: Strength is valuable for increasing our damage as well as armor.
- Damage while Berserking: thanks to Blood Rage, we get a multiplicative damage modifier equal to 10% of our total Damage while Berserking. This scales extremely well into the endgame when our total additive damage is so large that adding anything except a multiplicative bonus is just a drop in the ocean.
- Damage while War Cry is Active: This appears in the same Tempering Recipe as Damage while Berserking. This may be slightly more valuable than Damage while Berserking once Blood Rage is capped with 300% Damage while Berserking.
- Resistances: As we approach endgame, we focus on capping all of our elemental resistances at 70% through affixes on armor pieces and Jewelry sockets. If possible, get one Legendary ring with implicit affix Fire Resistance, and another with implicit Cold Resistance. We will complement these rings with clusters of Fire Resistance and Cold Resistance in our paragon boards.
- Armor: Similar to resistances, we aim to hit the 85% damage reduction armor cap which requires 9300 armor.
- Vulnerable: enemies that are Vulnerable deal less damage to us because of paragon nodes we got in the Decimator board in the glyph radius.
- Bleeding: enemies deal less damage to us because of paragon nodes we got in the Blood Rage board in the glyph radius.
- Fortify: We use Rallying Cry to maintain a Fortified state for some free Damage Reduction.
Our Damage Explained article explains how to scale your Offense.
Learn all you need to know to scale Defense with our Defense Explained Article.
Stat Priorities
Choosing the right stats for your gear can make or break your build. You won't always find perfect stats (also known as affixes or modifiers) though, and you may need to make a tough choice between two good pieces of equipment. Use the following list of priorities to compare your gear and pick the best.
Helm: Harlequin Crest (Best-in-Slot)
- All Stats ↑
- Cooldown Reduction ↑
- Maximum Life
- Resource Generation
Otherwise Look For: Iron Blood
- Strength ↑
- Armor
- Resistance to All Elements
- Maximum Life ↑
⚒️Guttural Yell ↑
⚒️Crowd Control Duration
Chest Armor: Rage of Harrogath
- Lucky Hit: Inflicting Bleeding on an enemy ...
- Damage Reduction from Bleeding Enemies ↑
- Physical Critical Strike Chance Against Elites ↑
- Physical Damage
- Thorns
Gloves: Accelerating or Devilish
- Critical Strike Chance
- Ranks of Rend ↑
- Attack Speed
- Strength
- ⚒️Damage while War Cry is Active
- ⚒️Crowd Control Duration
Pants: Might or
- Strength ↑
- Armor
- Maximum Life ↑
- Resistance to All Elements
- ⚒️Guttural Yell ↑
- ⚒️Crowd Control Duration
Boots: Relentless Berserker's
- Movement Speed ↑
- Strength ↑
- Armor
- Resistance to All Elements
- ⚒️Movement Speed ↑
- ⚒️Tough as Nails
Two-Handed Bludgeoning Weapon (Mace): Fierce Winds
- Critical Strike Damage ↑
- Strength
- Resource Cost Reduction
- ⚒️Rend Size
- ⚒️Damage while Berserking
Amulet: Slaking
- Critical Strike Chance ↑
- Ranks of Heavy Handed ↑
- Ranks of Cut to the Bone ↑
- ⚒️Ranks of Guttural Yell
- ⚒️Movement Speed
Ring: Bold Chieftain
- Critical Strike Chance ↑
- Attack Speed
- Resistance to All Elements
- ⚒️Rupture Cooldown Reduction
- ⚒️Damage while War Cry is Active
Ring: Ring of the Ravenous
- Rend's Duration is increased ...
- Critical Strike Chance ↑
- Vulnerable Damage
- Damage to Bleeding Enemies
- Ranks of Brawling Skills
Dual-Wield Weapon 1 (Sword): Edgemaster
- Critical Strike Damage ↑
- Strength
- Maximum Life
- ⚒️Rend Size
- ⚒️Damage while War Cry is Active
Dual-Wield Weapon 1 (Sword): Limitless Rage
- Critical Strike Damage ↑
- Strength
- Maximum Life
- ⚒️Rend Size
- ⚒️Damage while War Cry is Active
Two-Handed Slashing Weapon (Sword): The Grandfather
- All Stats ↑
- Maximum life
- Damage
Otherwise Look For: Devilish
- Critical Strike Damage ↑
- Strength
- Resource Cost Reduction
- ⚒️Rend Size ↑
- ⚒️Damage while Berserking ↑
This build benefits the most from the following consumables:
- Elixirs: Elixir of Fortitude, or Heady Assault Elixir
- Incenses:
- Type I: Ancient Times
- Type II: Spiral Morning or Reddamine Buzz
- Type III: Chorus of War
FAQ & Mechanics
Once a guide is released, many players have questions on why and how we are approaching certain choices. In this section you can find the answers to the questions that have been asked the most.
Summary
The Rend Barbarian is a tough and versatile fighter that rewards patience and scales very well with endgame gear. When we get Rage of Harrogath and Ring of the Ravenous, this build really takes off. Rend and Rupture deal devastating damage while Rallying Cry, War Cry and Challenging Shout make us unstoppable killing machines.
Hungry for more Guides?
Barbarian Guides
- Complete Barbarian Overview
- Walking Arsenal Barbarian Endgame Guide
- Upheaval Barbarian Endgame Guide
- Hammer of the Ancients Barbarian Endgame Guide
General Guides
- Powering Up
- Paragon Boards
- Nightmare Dungeons
- Legendary Items
Credits
Written by Slothmaster
Reviewed by Snail
