Normally it’s easy to swap weapons in Diablo 4, as they automatically switch to being equipped depending on the particularly skills you’re using, but if you’re playing as a Diablo 4 Barbarian then it’s not quite so simple. With the other four magic Classes in Diablo 4 – Sorcerer, Rogue, Druid, or Necromancer – you just need to activate your various magic and weapon skills to use the appropriate weapon from your inventory, which means you don’t have to think about switching weapons as it’s all taken care of for you depending on which button you press. Barbarians, on the other hand, are the only Class that use more than two weapons, and it is possible to swap between them for certain skills. To optimize your Barbarian in combat, it’s very useful to know exactly how to swap weapons in Diablo 4, so I’ve laid out how the system works below.
How to switch your Diablo 4 weapons
All Diablo 4 Classes have a ‘Main Hand’ and an ‘Off Hand’ slot that can hold weapons, shields, or other items that fit your Class, but you automatically swap weapons based on the skill you’re currently using. The same rules apply if you’re playing as a Diablo 4 Barbarian, but since they are treated to two extra weapon slots – ‘Two-Handed Bludgeoning’ and ‘Two-Handed Slashing’ – you’ll find that certain skills are compatible with multiple weapons. For example, the Frenzy Skill can only be used with Dual Wield weapons, but the Flay Skill can be used with any Slashing weapon, which includes one and two-handed weapons. Therefore, it’s up to you to decide which weapon you use, so to swap your Diablo 4 weapons, follow these steps:
- Open the Character menu and navigate to the Abilities tab.
- Choose ‘Skill Assignment’. On PC you can click the button at the bottom of the Abilities tab, and on controller you can click in the left stick.
- Move the cursor over a Skill that you have unlocked and lock under the ‘Arsenal Selection’ section. It’ll show you what weapon types can be used with this skill.
- Cycle through the available weapon types by pressing the middle mouse button, X on your Xbox controller, or Square on your PlayStation controller. You can also settle for Auto-Select and let the game choose, but I recommend that you choose your most powerful weapons manually.
Once you’ve chosen your weapons, back out of the Skill Assignment menu and you’ll have your desired armaments ready for each of your Barbarian Skills. While it might not seem like it, this is important for optimizing your Barbarian as you might focus your build around certain Skills and effects that can only be used by certain weapons. As an example, the Barbarian Skill Tree has several Skills that revolve around Bleed damage. They can only be used by Slashing weapons, so you’ll want to make sure you’ve got your most powerful Slashing weapon selected for those skills if you’ve got more than one.
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