In Diablo 4’s first major Season, the Season of the Malignant, Malignant Hearts were introduced, bringing a new dimension to planning out builds with their highly customisable and impactful effects. Season 2, the Season of Blood, takes this idea and runs with it, adding a range of new Vampiric Powers that players can equip to give themselves passive bonuses in battle. All 22 of these Powers are class-agnostic, meaning that all five classes can make use of all of them, but some work better with certain classes than with others. Read on to learn what the 5 best Vampiric Powers for Barbarian in Diablo 4 Season 2 are.
Best Vampiric Powers for Barbarian Class in Diablo 4 Season 2
Before we get started, I want to note that the 5 Powers listed below are not presented in isolation, but rather as a cohesive unit. Together these 5 form a synergistic package that complements the strengths of the Barbarian class, while adding new dimensions also. Some are generically useful, but for the most part the following should be taken as a build guide in addition to a top 5 ranking.
If you want to use this build in its entirety, which I’d definitely recommend, you’ll need a total of 4 Ferocity, 11 Divinity, and 8 Eternity Pacts across all of your Armor pieces. This totals 23, of the 25 possible Pact slots, meaning you’ll need at least 4 pieces of Legendary or better Armor to support all the Pacts necessary for this build.
Prey on the Weak
Effect: You deal 16% increased damage to Vulnerable enemies. Enemies are Vulnerable while affected by a Vampiric Curse from your other Vampiric Powers.
Pacts Needed: 2 Ferocity
This will undoubtedly be one of the most popular Vampiric Powers for all classes, and it works spectacularly for Barbarians too. Despite the nerfs, Vulnerable is still a highly effective status effect that can greatly boost your damage, and it’s easy for Barbarians to inflict thanks to the Whirlwind Core Skill, meaning this Power will be a straight-up damage boost for the most part.
In addition, Prey on the Weak also makes enemies who are affected by the Vampiric Curse effect Vulnerable too. This is a new status you can inflict via other Vampiric Powers, two of which I’ve built in later to maximize the extra damage from this Power and general Vulnerable effects. Speaking of which…
Accursed Touch
Effect: Lucky Hit: Up to a 44% chance to inflict Vampiric Curse on enemies. Enemies with the Vampiric Curse have a 15% chance to spread it to other surrounding enemies. Accursed Souls deal 200% increased damage.
Pacts Needed: 6 Divinity
This is one of the best sources of Vampiric Curse you’ll find among the Vampiric Powers, which makes it a must-include for our build. With a reasonable Lucky Hit chance, you’ll regularly be inflicting Vampiric Curse on your enemies with all of your attacks, which combines nicely with Prey on the Weak to make them Vulnerable. This results in a lot of extra damage, as well as the opportunity to collect a lot of Accursed Souls as you spin your way through an enemy horde.
Accursed Souls are a new resource dropped exclusively by enemies afflicted by Vampiric Curse. You can store up to 8 of these Souls at once, and using a Defensive, Macabre, or Agility Skill will release them, at which point they’ll deal big damage to nearby enemies. Regardless of build, nearly every Barbarian in the game makes use of both Rallying Cry and Challenging Shout, which are both Defensive Skills, meaning they can release your Accursed Souls for you. This gives you some nice extra burst damage every time you refresh your Shouts, which is something you were likely planning to do anyway.
Metamorphosis
Effect: When you Evade you turn into a cloud of bats, becoming Unstoppable for 4 seconds. Enemies along your path take 160% Physical damage and are inflicted with Vampiric Curse.
Pacts Needed: 2 Ferocity, 2 Divinity, 2 Eternity
Another great source of Vampiric Curse, Metamorphosis is actually even more reliable than Accursed Touch, turning your Evade into a powerful attack while also inflicting guaranteed Vampiric Curse on all in your path. We’ve discussed the benefits of inflicting Vampiric Curse above, but to recap: in this build it makes your enemies Vulnerable, and it lets you get extra value out of your already-excellent Rallying Cry and Challenging Shout Skills.
In addition, the value of turning your Evade into an attack in its own right shouldn’t be overlooked here. 160% physical damage is enough to do a serious number on smaller foes while taking chunks out of bigger ones, and the addition of Unstoppable makes it ideal for getting yourself out of sticky situations and repositioning for a second post-Evade strike.
Bathe in Blood
Effect: While Channeling a Skill, you form a pool of blood beneath you. While Channeling a skill in a pool, your Channeled Skills deal 40% increased damage and you gain 30% Damage Reduction. A pool can only form once every 8 seconds.
Pacts Needed: 3 Divinity, 3 Eternity
This one is specific to Whirlwind Barbarian builds, but it’s so good there that it may just push those builds to the top of the tier list by the time Season 2 is over. Whirlwind is a Channeled Skill, which means that, with this Power equipped, using it will create a pool of blood underneath you that massively boosts your damage and damage reduction as long as you’re using it within the pool’s borders.
The pool Bathe in Blood creates is of a generous size, giving you some wiggle room to move around and hit enemies as they approach. You can also spin in and out of the pool as needed, benefitting from the boosts it offers without compromising your mobility. It’s a great incidental boost to an already strong playstyle, and one that you can expect to see on a lot of Barbarian builds going forward.
Hemomancy
Effect: Your attacks deal 80% of your Maximum Life as Physical damage to nearby enemies. This can only occur once every 4 seconds. You heal for 1% of your Maximum Life for each enemy damaged this way.
Pacts Needed: 3 Eternity
Hemomancy is the most generically-useful Vampiric Power on this list. Its effect is simple: it adds an AOE damage effect to your attacks, scaling based on your Maximum Life, that resets every 4 seconds. It also provides some incidental healing based on the number of enemies it hits each time. The reach on this AOE is surprisingly large, meaning you’ll often end up weakening, or even outright killing, offscreen enemies with it as you explore Dungeons.
And while this power is useful for all classes, Barbarians, with their high potential Maximum Life, can benefit more from it than others. It doesn’t synergise with the other powers here, or even with any of Barbarian’s core Skills, so the fact that Hemomancy is still on this list should give you an idea of just how powerful it is.
And there you have it: a full guide to the 5 best Vampiric Powers for Barbarian in Diablo 4 Season 2. As mentioned above, these 5 Powers come together to improve upon the class’ existing strengths, while adding plenty of additional AOE damage in the process. As you delve deeper into Nightmare Dungeons and Endgame Boss fights, these 5 will give you the edge you need to overcome the odds.
