Diablo 4 Rend Barbarian Build Guide

The Rend Barbarian Build works off of the Bleed damage effects and dealing all that damage at once in Diablo 4. Here's how to make it!

By Shavez Arif

Rend Barbarian Build in Diablo 4 is about making your enemies bleed and then procing it for massive damage. This build is going to help you cheese through all sorts of activities you throw at it.

Whether is it Nightmare Dungeons, World Bosses, or other content. It’s best used for singling out enemies and then delivering enormous single-target DPS damage. 

Although this is an end-game build, you can start small and level up your character while focusing on skills that provide the Bleed effect. Rend will be the main focus as evident by the name of the build and we will be building the Barbarian skill tree around it.  

The Rend Barbarian Build is perfect for anyone looking for a carnage-filled time that will make quick work of anything the game throws at you.

Skill Tree Distribution 

The Rend Barbarian Build is among the most flexible builds in Diablo 4. Close combat is the bread and butter for the Barbarian class. As such, this build enhances the Barbarian playstyle and allows them to deal extra damage with Bleed effects.

All of the skills required for this build are based on maximizing your single-target damage as opposed to AOE damage.

Our Rend Barbarian build is well thought-out and has been put together to serve a wider spectrum of activities. Let’s look at all the active and passive skills as well as modifiers you will need for this build. 

  • Flay (1/5) 
    • Enhanced Flay
      • Combat Flay 
  • Rend (5/5) 
    • Enhanced Rend 
      • Furious Rend 
  • Pressure Point 
  • Rallying Cry (5/5) 
    • Enhanced Rallying Cry 
      • Tactical Rallying Cry 
  • Challenging Shout (5/5) 
    • Enhanced Challenging Shout 
      • Tactical Challenging Shout 
  • War Cry (1/5) 
    • Enhanced War Cry 
      • Mighty War Cry 
  • Charge (1/5) 
    • Enhanced Charge 
      • Power Charge 
  • Booming Voice (1/3) 
  • Aggressive Resistance (1/3) 
  • Prolific Fury (3/3) 
  • Pit Fighter (3/3) 
  • Hamstring (1/3) 
  • Cut to the Bone (3/3) 
  • Thick Skin (1/3) 
  • Counteroffensive (3/3) 
  • Wrath of Berserker 
  • Heavy Handed (3/3) 
  • Gushing Wounds 

Unlock Order 

Kicking things off with the core skills, the stars of the show. Rend is going to be the main skill you should invest your skill points into. It is going to serve as the main source of damage and bleed pricing.

When you are starting things off, your focus will be on dealing damage and doing it quickly. During the course of time, we are going to be aiming to max out Rend as well. 

If you are going to be spamming Rend, you are going to need a source of Fury. Fortunately for the Barbarian, your basic skills are what does that for you. They deal damage and also gain Fury up to a certain amount.

Since we’re focusing on Bleed effects, we’ll be picking Flay as our Fury generator. Although the basic damage is low, it makes up for it in bleed damage that stacks up.

You’ll be picking the Enhanced Flay and Combat Flay modifiers as well. The former gives you a chance to turn an enemy Vulnerable while the latter gives damage reduction and Thorns.

You’ll want to pick the Pressure Point modifier which is going to work in combination with Rend. It will increase your chances of making an enemy vulnerable. This will in turn will increase the damage dealt to them. 

Shouts are an essential part of the Barbarian Class. Not only do they help you but also your allies fighting alongside you. For this build, Rallying Cry and Challenging Shout are going to be your way out during a pinch situation.

Combined together, you will get increased movement speed and resource generation while lowering the damage taken from enemies. 

All of the skills we have worked on till now can be developed from an early point in time all the way to higher levels. Though the complete build expects you to be above level 50 you’ll need to start early and build your way up to the point where you can one-shot most enemies. 

War Cry and Charge are going to multiply your damage. You can put points toward Charge early on. Not only does it make you Unstoppable, but it also increases the overall damage dealt. This is best for when you want to go for an aggressive playstyle.

The Ultimate we are gonna be going for is Wrath of Berserker. While it might seem tempting to unlock this early on, you should take your time and build your way up to it.

Wait until level 45 to unlock it because by that time you will be efficient enough with the rest of the skills. You can use this ultimate as your get-out-of-pinch card and won’t have to rely on it excessively. 

Barbarian Arsenal System 

The Barbarian Arsenal System is the quality that makes this class in Diablo 4 stand out from the rest. This allows you to carry four weapons at any given time. This opens a whole new world of possibilities for buffs, modifiers, and all sorts of bonuses.  

The whole point of the Rend Barbarian build is to Bleed enemies and procing them for massive damage. You will need a Slashing-type weapon for it to work. For that reason, we are going to be using the Two-Handed Sword Weapon as our main with the Two-Handed Sword Expertise.  

We are also using the Hamstring skill which is going to slow the enemies down, on top of the bleed we have already inflicted.  

For the second slot, we are going to be using the Two-Handed Axe Expertise to boost our damage dealt to vulnerable enemies. 

Gameplay and Skill Rotation 

For this Rend Barbarian Build, we are going to be up close and personal with your enemies in Diablo 4. The first step towards a successful battle is to get as close the distance with Charge. You’ll get all up on your enemies and also damage them along the way.

Now is the time to envelope yourself with every buff possible, use all of your shouts; Challenging Shout, War Cry, and Rallying Cry. This is going to give you a temporary boost so that you can go all out.

Now is the time to bring out the big guns. Use your Swords with Flay and inflict Bleed on your enemies. Then use Rend to proc it and deal all of the bleed damage to the target all at once.

If you attack an enemy and their health bar turns into a darker shade of red, that means the bleed damage is applied and will kick in over time.

If you are in a pinch, you can use your Ultimate, Wrath of Berseker, to escape and also to gain some extra damage.

For the crowd control part of the build, Ground Stomp serves with honor. It is best used when you are surrounded by a whole lot of enemies. Using it will also stun enemies for a couple of seconds. The window will be enough to either get out of there or go all out and take down as many as you can. 

Gems, Stats, and Modifiers 

For the Rend Barbarian Build in Diablo 4, you will need to increase your chances of Critical Strike. You can do this with the help of Royal Emeralds.

You will deal even more damage than normal with every critical strike you land on a Vulnerable Enemy. 

To keep the build well-balanced, we need to make the defenses strong. Covering the defensive base are the Royal Skulls on your Jewelry There are going to go well with our choice of Legendary Aspect as well give us additional armor for our protection. 

Adding an additional layer of protection is going to be the Royal Sapphire socketed onto your armor. This will grant damage reduction when fortified. The overall gems situation is going to look like this: 

Gear Gem  Effect 
Weapon Royal Emerald Additional Critical Strike damage to vulnerable enemies 
Jewelry Royal Skulls Increase damage reduction by giving additional armor 
Armor Royal Sapphire Boost damage reduction when fortified 

Stat Preference

Stats Priority for Barbarian Builds in Diablo 4 remains constant pretty much all the time. Strength is going to be your main focus when it comes to core stats. Next on the list is Dexterity. 

Last on the list is Willpower. With all those skills you are going to be using you will run out of Fury fast. As such, you will need a way to recover from them. Willpower improves your fury generation and healing from received. 

You can put intelligence on the last since you aren’t really using any magic spells but is nice for the resistance to elements. The stat priority is listed below as well. 

  1. Strength 
  2. Dexterity 
  3. Will Power 
  4. Intelligence 

With everything else aside, it is time you pick your modifiers. Modifiers are like the cherry on top. Here are the modifiers you can pick for Rend Barbarian Build in D4. 

  • Increase Vulnerable Damage 
  • Increase Critical Strike Chance 
  • Increase Critical Strike Damage 
  • Increase Cooldown Reduction 
  • Increase Fury Cost Reduction 

Legendary Aspects 

There is a list of best legendary aspects for Rend Barbarian Build in Diablo 4 and we have covered them down below. 

You can kick things off with the Ghostwalker Mobility Aspect. It works well in sync with your ultimate, Wrath of Berserker, which makes you unstoppable. After you activate the ability, you will be able to move like butter through any number of enemies, for a few seconds. 

There should always be a way to trade off your extra resource for something else. Worry not because now with the Offensive Aspect of Limitless Rage. For every point of extra fury you generate, your core skill with deal additional damage.  

As mentioned before, this build is all about closing the gap and then dealing damage. Sometimes you are not able to close the gap and for that reason, we can use Offensive Aspect of Retribution. This will stun any enemy who is at a distance and hits you and will increase your damage when you damage them in a stunned state.

Being surrounded by enemies all the time is going to be fatal if your defense is not strong enough. Defensive Aspect of Disobedience is going to give you extra armor for every strike you land successfully.  

You can pair up the Offensive Aspect of Inner Calm with Limitless Rage to double down on the damage dealt. But the only thing you need is to stand still because it will only work if you are stationary. 

Shouts might be feeling a little left out at this point, so we have equipped ourselves with the Resource Aspect of Echoing Fury. This will help us generate more Fury for the time a shout remains active. 

Unique Items 

There aren’t many unique items that are specific to this build since they are quite rare to come across in D4. If you can find some Unique Items for Barbarian that help with damage reduction or critical strike damage then  

You can greatly increase the Bleed Effect and overall damage dealt with the Fields of Crimson, a unique weapon for Barbarian. This is the perfect weapon for a build that relies on Bleed, just like Thorns Barbarian Bleed Build or Rend Barbarian Build. Its special affix creates a damaging pool underneath the enemy when Rend deals damage to them.

Paragon Boards and Glyphs 

Skill Trees are only going to help you up to a certain level. Since the Rend Barbarian Build is an end-game build, Paragon Boards are going to unlock the hidden potential of this build.  

Starting Board 

Glyph: Territorial 
Board Attachment Gate: Raw Power 

Board #2 

Glyph: Marshal 
Board Attachment Gate: Blood Rage 

Board #3 

Glyph: Disembowel 
Board Attachment Gate: Decimator 

Board #4 

Glyph: Wrath 
Board Attachment Gate: Warbringer 

Elixir and Incense 

The final piece of the puzzle for this build is a visit to the Alchemist to craft some Elixirs and Incense. You will need two Elixirs for this. The Precision Elixir and Elixirs of Slaying will work like magic for this build.  

Prior will increase your chances of Critical Strike and the latter will increase the damage dealt to certain kinds of enemies. If you want something for the defensive side of things then you can go with Elixir of Magic Resist.

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About the Author
Shavez Arif

Shavez Arif is a senior writer at SegmentNext.com. He is caffeine-dependent, not-so-hardcore gamer who for some reason loves every FPS game with a toxic fanbase - Rainbow Six Siege and Valorant to name a few.