Diablo 4 – Barbarian Expert and Weapon Swap Guide

Barbarians can destroy a wide range of enemies in Diablo 4, thanks to a wide range of weapons. However, each gear unit offers its own benefits, and you’ll also want to learn about how the entire system works. Here’s our Diablo 4 barbaric weapon and expertise swap guide to help you tackle the class’s unique quirks.

Diablo 4 Barbarian Expert Mechanic and Arsenal Weapon Swap

We’ve divided the Diablo 4 Barbarian guide into sections to explain each mechanic in detail. First, let’s talk about how the class Arsenal Weapon system works.

Diablo 4 Savage Weapon Weapons

Diablo 4 Barbarian features the Arsenal system, allowing the class to equip four weapons simultaneously:

• A few one-handed weapons for dual use – i.e. one-handed ax (shear), sword (cut) and mace (slash).
• A two-handed baton weapon – i.e. two-handed mace and hammer.
• A two-handed cutting weapon – i.e. a two-handed ax, sword and spear.

Many of active/usable skills of the class tend to have an essential weapon in mind. For example, Flay needs a slicing weapon (i.e. one-handed/two-handed or two-handed slicing). Meanwhile, Whirlwind can use any Arsenal weapon (i.e. two-handed weapon, two-handed baton, or two-handed slash). However, things like Frenzy are only for two-handed weapons, meaning two-handed weapons will not be used.

How to Swap Barbarian Weapons in Diablo 4

To trade weapons as the Barbarian in Diablo 4, you just need to use your own skills. The game will automatically switch to the required weapon when activating a skill. Therefore, if you use Double Swing, it will attack the enemy with your dual-wield weapon. Then, if you continue with Hammer of the Ancients, it will automatically use your two-handed baton weapon.

But, there is one more caveat to consider: you can still trade Barbarian weapons manually depending on skill. To do this, you need to open the Skill Assignment panel. You can either press the “S” key on your keyboard, or go to the abilities menu and press your left thumb (“L3”) on your gamepad.

Next, hovering over a specific skill has various weapon options (e.g. Tornado, Attack, Flay, and others). By default, the “Select Automatically” option selects the most powerful weapon available that you have equipped. However, if you press the middle mouse button or the “X” button on the gamepad, you can change to other types. This allows you to use your dual-wield weapon on Whirlwind instead of using a two-handed weapon.

Expert system

So why exactly would you want to trade weapons as a Barbarian in Diablo 4? Well, there are a few reasons. First, some skill and passive upgrades provide rewards depending on the weapon type. A good example is that Flay has a 10% chance of making enemies vulnerable (two-handed/single-handed), but this becomes 20% if you’re using a two-handed weapon.

The second reason is because of Diablo 4’s savage Specialization system, which you can access by opening the character palette and going to the relevant tab. Basically, each weapon has its own advantages that increase as you kill more people and this depends on the skill you used. Here is an example:

• Frenzy uses your dual-use weapon. Let’s say you have a one-handed sword and a one-handed mace, and you kill a mediocre Skeleton with just Frenzy. That means both your one-handed sword and one-handed mace receive Expertise.
• Now let’s say you also smash the Skeleton a few times with Frenzy, but then you rotate with Whirlwind. You’ll gain Expertise for the one-handed sword and one-handed mace (Frenzy), as well as the active two-handed weapon (Whirlwind).

Diablo 4’s Barbarian Specialization system goes deeper because in addition to the cumulative bonus for each level of the weapon, you’ll also get a fixed bonus after reaching rank 10 with it.

As such, this mechanism allows for increased focus and specifications when building. You probably won’t worry about it too much while you are leveling up, especially when you change your gear parts frequently. But it will become very important in the late game when you have the ideal weapons for your favorite construction. In any case, here’s the Expertise bonus for each weapon:

One-handed weapon

• axis
  • Increases the chance of critically injured enemies (i.e. below 35% HP).
  • 10th – Lucky Hit; Critical hits have a 55% chance to gain +6% attack speed for two seconds.
• mace
  • Increases damage against stunned enemies.
  • 10th – Lucky Hit; max 10% chance to go insane for 1.5s when you hit a stunned enemy.
• sword
  • Lucky Win; chance to get extra rage as you attack mob-controlled enemies.
  • Rank 10 – +15% attack speed for 3 seconds when you kill mob-controlled enemies.

Two-handed weapon

• axis
  • Increases damage dealt to vulnerable enemies (i.e. takes 20% more damage).
  • Rank 10 – +10% increases critical hit against vulnerable enemies.
• pole weapons
  • Chance to Win Lucky Prize.
  • Rank 10 – +10% increase damage while healthy (ie 80% HP or more).
• sword
  • A percentage of the damage you take is applied as bleed.
  • Rank 10 – +30% bleed damage increases for 5 seconds after you kill an enemy.
• mace
  • Lucky Win; chance to get +2 fury every time you hit an enemy.
  • Rank 10 – +15% Critical Damage Bonus to Stunned and Vulnerable Enemies While Crazy Active.

weapon technique

Diablo 4 Barbarian has a Skill and Weapon Swap mechanic. In addition to these, there are also Techniques, which are unlocked through a quest when you reach level 15. Unfortunately, this quest takes place in the northwest part of the map near Dry Prairie. Since this area wasn’t part of the beta, we kept getting teleported whenever we tried to go there.