Famous World of Warcraft grinder DesMephisto has made his way to Diablo 4 and cooked up a whopper of a build: a nearly indestructible Thorn Barbarian that kills everything it touches.
"I wanted to try Hardcore for the first time and after losing two Barbarians following someone else’s guide I wanted to make my own tanky build that I knew could survive," DesMephisto says in a Reddit post.
"This build is fantastic for leveling," they add, and I believe it seeing as how they took it to Hardcore level 100. "It might not be as fast as others at certain points, but Thorn Barb? It means no worries, for the rest of your days."
Because most of your offense is tied to Thorn damage which mobs will self-inflict, this Barbarian build focuses on "defense upon defense upon defense." By stacking armor, life, and damage reduction, DesMephisto achieves a tanky and passive play style that lets enemies destroy themselves while you prioritize staying alive.
My Level 100 Hardcore Thorns Build (Guide and Details Inside) from r/diablo4
"Once we head into combat, most ranged mobs will one-shot themselves as you run by," DesMephisto says. "Werewolves, snakes, cannibals, zombies all delete insanely fast. For Aldurwood, the werewolf boss nearly one-shot himself with a lethal shrine on me (80% of his health). You’ll use Steel Grasp to pull mobs onto you (preferably getting all three elites lined up) and they’ll just… pop. Not all the time but you’ll often see packs of elites poof in [less than] one second if everything lines up correctly, sometimes maybe two-to-five seconds."
DesMephisto shares a link to their build layout and posts a few videos of their thorny creation in action. Against mobs 11 levels higher than him, DesMephisto absolutely cleaves through crowds, rarely stopping for more than a few seconds as the legions of hell impale themselves on his thorny exterior.
A level 68 Nightmare Dungeon proves to be a much greater challenge. Mobs, especially elites, naturally take much longer to die – though those ranged buggers thankfully still implode on sight – which means more time standing in nasty elite effects like poison pools. DesMephisto manages just fine until the final boss, which forces him to teleport out to avoid a Hardcore-ending death. Even so, this is a fine showing for a comfy build that plays very differently from most popular Barbarians.
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