Diablo 4: Season 6 – Barbarian Leveling Guide (Bleed Thorns Build)

There was a lot of fear that the Barbarian builds would not have much relevance in the Season 6 meta for Diablo 4. However, despite a large amount of nerfs, the Bleed Thorns build has made a comeback and feels better than it did before. Fans of the Barbarian class will be thrilled as they get to have a strong endgame build yet again.

While it may not be as overpowered as the Spiritborn build in Diablo 4, this build still has a lot of strength. It will depend on a fair number of things happening at the same time and your equipment being in tip-top shape, but once you have the necessities down there is no reason not to run around tanking bosses without taking any damage in return. For those who were hoping for this comeback, you will not be disappointed.

Best Bleed Thorns Barbarian Build

Features & New Key Passive

This build has come back mostly because of a new key passive for the class that is explained by YouTuber Rob2628 in the above video. This build is going to be based off of his, which you can see the full breakdown of on the D4Builds website. There are some familiar features in this build that you can see in other high-ranking class builds for the Barbarian, but this is specifically a Thorns build.

Unlike other popular builds, this one does not make as much use of Earthquake and Dust Demon in the same way. You are going strictly for the Thorns and want the build to be as pure as it can be where that is regarded. While it may not be as fast as some of the other builds, this one can still handle a boss without taking a lot of damage and is meant for taking on The Pit.

What enables this build when it was not viable at the start of Season 6 is the new key passive Barbed Carapace, which gives you more Thorns the more Fury you spend. Additionally, it lets you deal all of your Thorns damage as physical damage to any enemies who make the mistake of getting close to you every second for 5 seconds. This is a lethal build, particularly for clearing out the Pit, and allows you to use your Thorns for their maximum potential.

The Needleflare Horned Cudgel will play off of your Thorns as well, making it a crucial piece of equipment that makes your Thorns even more important. Most of the equipment and gear will be the same way, and you should do your best to use the Forgotten Souls in Diablo 4 to re-roll your Enchantments to get your key stats up as high as possible.

Best Gear & Aspects For a Bleed Thorns Barbarian

All Equipment & Suggested Skills

For this one, you are going to be looking at some older gear that you should recognize for this type of build. While there are many cool new gear pieces in Diablo 4, the Barbarian will benefit most from those that are already interacting with their Thorns, with a little bit of Earthquake damage on the side.

Active Skills & Runes

The active or equipped skills that you choose are also very important, as they will determine how your character triggers some of the passive skills. You will want to have the best ones unlocked and ranked up to ensure that this is the case. The suggested active skills are:

• Bludgeoning Weapon
• War Cry
• Rallying Cry
• Challenging Shout
• Bash

You will not have to worry about Gems this Season, but you will have to worry about the Active Runes that you have on yourself or your equipment. You will want the runes you use for this build to trigger off of skills or actions you are doing already, and this will help you make it to the end of The Pit.

• Yul (Legendary/Ritual) & Xal (Rare/Invocation)
• Lith (Legendary/Ritual) & Tec (Rune Invocation)

The Lith/Tec combination gives you Offering when you stand still, which you often do as a Thorns Barbarian, and that Offering triggers to give you more uses of Earthquake. Meanwhile, the Yul/Xal combination gives you Offering when you cast a skill with Cooldown, and that gives you 20% Maximum Life when triggered, adding to your survivability. As always, you are welcome to deviate from the norm, but with multiple nerfs and a build that does not quite reach the levels of the top-tier meta, you may want to stick closer to the suggested Skills if possible.

Gear/Aspects

While there are many options for what gear and aspects you use, there are some by now familiar ones that are best for Thorns builds. There are pieces of your gear that will play off Earthquake, but you should be aiming to emphasize your Thorns above all else. Here are the suggested equipment pieces:

Needleflare and Razorplate are the ones that give you the most in terms of more Thorns and more Thorns damage. With the right roll, you might also get extra Earthquakes.

Skill Tree Upgrades

The Skill Tree is based on getting as much base damage, as much Overpower, and as much survivability as possible. Notably, you will not be focusing as much on the Bleed damage, although it is still part of your build in a smaller way. This is mainly because the Barbed Carapace Passive Skill is so important, so you won’t end up taking Gushing Wounds. However, there are still a few skills that deal with Bleed Damage, and more support to come in the Paragon Board.

With luck, you should have Fortify nearly always active, triggering massive amounts of Thorns, and being invulnerable to bosses when you have optimized this build.

Paragon Board

As for your Paragon Board, the Nodes you pick will be focused on increasing your base damage, as well as giving you bonuses when you use your Thorns.

• Starting Board, Rumble
• Up to Ambidextrous (Carnage), go both up and right from there.
• To the right lies Challenger (Blood Rage).
• Up from Ambidextrous lies the Undaunted One (Decimator)
• Continue further up one board and you will get to the Force of Nature (Revenge)

Blood Rage takes advantage of the bleed damage you will be doing and gives you even more damage potential, as well as a Berserking bonus. There are a lot of possibilities here, so feel free to experiment.

It was the
Rumble Glyph
that took such a big hit from the nerf, but it is a necessary glyph as it is the first one you will start with on your Paragon Board.

With that, your build should be in the best condition it can be as your Bleed Thorns Barbarian goes to take on more foes across the Eternal Realm in Diablo 4.

Source: Rob2628/YouTube; D4Builds