After watching this guide you will have a clear understanding of how to play a Pull Barb for the upcoming Season 10 of Diablo 3.

Zhanji has done a great job of editing the guide into two distinct sections, a gearing guide, and a playstyle guide, which you can view below.

There are a couple of key points to playing a Barbarian correctly, that I want to go over in detail in this post so that every group has a more competent Pull Barb going into next season:

Rageflip is amazing, but it requires a bit of thought before you hit the button

Do not overpull the mobs : Let Toxin do the work for you

: Let Toxin do the work for you Run with your dps to protect them, use furious charge to create a path

Location. Location. Location. Location of where you setup to fight is key to success

It is the Barbarian’s job to not only coordinate where to move, but when to move

A Pull Barb is nearly invincible, and should probably never die (Be careful of furnaces, just ask Turgor)

Let’s Talk about Rageflip

This short video is a perfect example of the different reactions mobs have to your position when you hit the Ancient Spear button.

The first mob is only able to be pulled a short distance, because the area behind my character is not clear in a direct line of sight path. The second mob, however, is able to be rageflipped behind me, because I moved forward and the area behind me was clear

It is important to understand that because of the changes Blizzard made to Diminishing Returns in Season 7, attempting to spear a mob more than 2 times is absolutely pointless. Actually, it’s worse than pointless, you are actually just slowing the mob from entering the group damage, and wasting time that could otherwise be spent making sausages.

Update in regards to CC and Diminishing Returns:

There are timers for different types of spells that when they hit the limit your spell no longer affects the target other than to damage it.

Certain spells have different timers than other spells, and it’s not exactly 2:1 ratio, but the simplest thing to remember is this:

If you hit a mob twice, it will no longer be able to be Crowd Controlled (CCed) for about 3 seconds. Meaning you can’t stun/pull/move the mobs.

This is why you go back and forth as you build your sausage, to avoid the Diminishing Returns of your CC ability on the mobs.

Protecting your DPS

Use your Furious Charge to your advantage. It is one of the most powerful abilities in the entire game, because of your 4 piece Raekor’s Set.

With the set you will be able to move virtually forever throughout the rift at a breakneck pace. On top of that, your charge will stun the mobs and give vital protection to your teammates who run past.

Remember, the key to clearing rifts efficiently is bringing the right density to good locations, which means you will be moving a lot, to find these locations.

I personally make sure to charge once, wait a second, charge backwards through the mobs, and then forwards again on my way out. This will generate health globes, stun the mobs, and you will greatly increase the chance of your DPS staying alive.

Positioning

Ok, so you understand that you need to run with the group, you need to pull mobs in, and not over-pull them.. but what is the real key to finishing rifts?

SKIP MORE MOBS

There has rarely ever been a time in the last 5 seasons where skipping mobs was the reason we failed a rift. On the other hand, I can tell you about dozens of rifts we failed because we simply made poor decisions not to skip.

Density is king in Diablo 3, in every sense. All dps classes benefit from density (leading up to the boss), and it will help you blast through rifts.

Not only is density safer to fight in, it’s also easier to deal with. The same amount of progression that you would get from hanging on for a few elites could kill you, where you will almost never die to white mobs.

The best place to stop is almost always an intersection, because you can pull mobs from multiple directions. Especially with the changes to DR on mobs, you need to let your Gem of Efficacious Toxin do the work for you. Gone are the days of infinitely pulling the Yellow Succubus through 87 rooms of a Cathedral only to find you can’t kill her.

The idea when moving through a rift is to find enough density, while making sure there is enough still available to pull from multiple directions.

Over time, you will develop muscle memory, and a much better understanding of where you group needs to go, but if you are having trouble you can always throw down a flag!

Finally, it is important to make a note of where pylon spawn locations are, and be sure to only uncover them when the time is right. The general formula for pylon spawns is 1%+ 3% chance for every % of progression completed, resetting every time you uncover a pylon. We talk a bit about pylons in the playstyle video, but we will get more in depth on this subject in our video on how to properly clear a rift. (Coming in the future).

Gearing & Playstyle

Pull Barb gear and spec have not really changed in a few seasons, so there’s nothing particularly eye-catching about this build.

That being said, we took the time to throw the entire build together over at DiabloFans Here as well as a couple of video guides.

The first video will be the gearing guide, where I go over the abilities and items, and what you can change around. Surprisingly, there isn’t a whole lot. The only meaningful change is swapping between Stomp for globes with a Witch Doctor, and Sprint for movespeed when you are doing speeds with a Wizard.

And finally, if you want to watch a full Rift with Bear, Zhanji & Myself, explaining our decisions and thoughts as we go through the Rift, please check out the video below. I think this has a ton of valuable information, that isn’t communicated anywhere else on the internet:

As always, if you have any questions/comments please leave them on Reddit in r/diablo or r/diablo3, DiabloFans, or Youtube, or even hit me up on Twitter.

Don’t forget to check out TSLoot.com for Zhanji’s articles and other work.