The Barbarian in Diablo 4 is your heavy-hitting meathead who loves getting up close and fighting. While the traditional impression of the Barbarian is exactly that, Blizzard Entertainment has added a brand new feature to the Barbarian called the Arsenal system. Players will find that the Arsenal system will allow the Barbarian to equip four weapons at any given time, giving them access to lots of stats, and weapons to boost their skills that rely on those types of weapons. Moreso, there are unique passive buffs per weapon type, offering plenty of personal statistical choices to boost your build wherever possible. Here is a look at everything you need to know about the Barbarian Arsenal system in Diablo 4.
Diablo 4 Barbarian Arsenal System Explained¶
Here is a look at the Diablo 4 Arsenal System for the Barbarian, showcasing how it works, its expertise, and more. Image via Blizzard.
The Diablo 4 Arsenal System is a feature that allows the Barbarian to equip four weapons. The main focus of this is to allow the Barbarian to carry two, two-handed weapons, alongside two, one-handed weapons. The one-handed weapons are designed for your duel to wield skill typically, while your two-handed mace is for Bludgeoning skills, and your sword, axe, or polearm is for slashing skills. If you have access to a skill that uses any weapon, which you toggle.
Barbarians can unlock this passive feature when they reach level 5 with their class. Once it is unlocked, press Shift + C, and you can see the weapon expertise system. You can also open your inventory and see the four weapon slots. You can start equipping your four weapons and build out those skills, and playstyles you like. Keep in mind the skills will more than likely require a specific weapon in most instances.
So, it means the Barbarian will be the most item-hungry class in the game, having to manage four weapon slots. However, this does mean you get creative opportunities, if there’s a particular core set of skills you like using, then it means other weapons may become stat sticks. Whereas the weapons you like using in your skills will be front and center on your build and will require better stats to boost your skills and playstyle properly.
Diablo 4 Barbarian Technique Slot¶
There is another feature called the Technique slot. The Technique slot is earned via the Barbarian Priority Quest at level 15, which requires you to go to Dry Steppes. It’s a short quest chain, requiring you to slap some bandits and beasts in a field, before fighting an elite in a story-instanced Cellar. Once that’s done, you go back to the Dry Steppes town, hand it in, and you get the slot.
All that slot is, is a permanent passive buff of any of the weapon buffs you want to use. For example, if you’re running a Whirlwind Build, and you take the bleeding perk, then you can opt for the Two-handed sword technique slot, so you always get the bonuses against bleeding enemies while you Whirlwind, while you still look for upgrade weapons, without having to worry about losing a much-needed bonus to your build. The same goes for other build types and desired technique slot weapon buffs.
- Read More: - Best Diablo 4 Barbarian Builds for Server Slam.
Diablo 4 Barbarian Weapon Expertise Stats¶
Leveling up your weapons grants new passives whenever you use that weapon in battle.
As alluded to in the D4 Barbarian Arsenal system, players can level individual weapons up too. In total, there are seven weapon types that Barbarians can use in their four slots. Each weapon comes with different passive bonuses, which are enabled when you reach level 1 with a weapon and are fully enhanced at level 10. These weapons are bonuses are:
| Weapon | Level 1 Expertise | Level 10 Expertise |
|---|---|---|
| One-handed Axe | Increases critical strike chances against injured enemies. Double the effect if you dual-wield axes. | Critical Strikes have up to a 55% chance to grant a 6% increased attack speed for 2 seconds. The attack speed is doubled when using two one-handed axes. |
| One-handed Mace | Increase damage to stunned enemies. Double the damage effect if you dual-wield maces. | Lucky hit: Up to 10% to gain berserking when you hit a stunned enemy. Doubles the chance when dual-wielding maces. |
| One-handed Sword | Lucky hit increases the chance to gain fury when hitting crowd-controlled enemies. Doubles if dual-wielding swords. | Killing a crowd-controlled enemy grants a 15% increased attack speed for 3 seconds. Doubles if you are dual-wielding swords. |
| Polearm | Increases lucky hit chance. | Deal 10% increased damage while Healthy. |
| Two-handed Axe | Increases damage to vulnerable enemies. | Increases critical strike by 10% against vulnerable enemies. |
| Two-handed Mace | Lucky hit increases the chance to gain Fury when hitting an enemy. Doubles the Fury gained while in berserking. | Deal 15% increased critical strike damage to stunned and vulnerable enemies while berserking. |
| Two-handed Sword | A portion of the damage you deal is inflicted as a bleed over five seconds. | You deal 30% increased bleeding damage for five seconds after killing an enemy. |
When you go into the Arsenal system, you will see the skills you use correspond to the weapon you have for those slots. So, if you use a heavy two-handed stun, it will be your two-handed mace. Meanwhile, a two-handed slashing weapon will either be the sword, polearm, or axe, depending on your equipment. In addition, these skills will use the affixes of the weapon’s stats, including legendary powers. However, your DPS and damage stats are only affected by the main weapon you assign to the skill, or is already preset to use. Therefore, the arsenal system largely assigns the weapon’s damage for the skill you use, while the rest of your weapons are modifiers and stat enhancements. When you use an ability that uses a particular weapon(s), those weapon expertise modifiers will come into play, presuming the weapon is higher than level 1.
This concludes the Diablo 4 Barbarian Arsenal and Weapon Expertise systems. There’s certainly a level of convolution, but, it’s something you can adapt to when you start figuring out your preferred build and playstyle. The result is that each Barbarian will likely look different, especially in class fantasy (except ladder pushers of course). So, have fun collecting all those weapons and hoarding even more legendary affixes that other classes can only dream of.
If you want to look at what the other class specializations do, you can see our pages on them as well:
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