Whirlwind

Whirlwind is a Fury Spending Barbarian skill unlocked at level 27, doing damage to enemies in close proximity to the Barbarian.

It's a signature skill of the Barbarian.

Background

Whirlwind in action

Of the Barbarian people, the Tribe of Thunder was the first to draw upon the primal forces of the weather. Tornadoes would ravage their plains as summer turned to the harvest season. The shaman of the tribe would interpret the tornadoes as an omen of evil during times of peace, and as a harbinger of great victory during wartime. Observing the strength of the whirlwind, these Barbarians learned to emulate the swirling melange of the cyclone in their attacks. As time went on and the tribes intermingled, the ability to attack in the manner of the whirlwind was passed down to all of the Barbarian people.

Whether or not the tribe has survived the destruction of the Worldstone inside Mount arreat is unknown, but it's still true that using this technique, the Barbarian becomes a cyclone of death, killing any enemies around him with great ease.

Skill Effects

The following is a very quick list. See the Whirlwind rune effects page for a more thorough summary of rune effects, or any of the individual rune pages for numbers, screenshots, blue quotes, and much more.

Skill		Effect
Whirlwind (Level 27)		Deliver multiple attacks to everything in your path for 44% weapon damage every 0.40 seconds. Cost: 8 Fury per second.
	Volcanic Eruption	Turns Whirlwind into a torrent of magma that inflicts 84% weapon damage every 0.40 seconds.
	Dust Devils	Generate harsh tornadoes that inflict 90% weapon damage to enemies in their path.
	Hurricane	Increase the movement speed of Whirlwind by 85%.
	Eye of the Storm	Reduce the cost of Whirlwind to 4.5 Fury per second.
	Blood Funnel	Critical strikes restore 7% of your maximum Life.

Note: Information is based on a level 60 character and rank 7 runestones.

Skill Design

Everyone's favorite spinning, multi-hitting tornado of a skill returns in D3. Once the player activates the skill, the Barbarian starts spinning for a limited duration of time, damaging anything that comes into close proximity with the Barbarian. The Barbarian is able to move while this skill is active, making this skill very good for killing masses of monsters.

Just like the D2 skill, Whirlwind lands multiple hits to anything in the barbarian's path, and it can strike multiple monsters per use. The whirling graphic is much improved in D3, with the weapon visible tracking around in a circle, leaving a glowing light as it spins and pausing an instant when it makes contact with a hapless enemy.

Whirlwind fully runed

Whirlwind Video

A video of Whirlwind in use can be seen below, courtesy of the DiabloInc You Tube channel.

Synergies

• No synergies with any of the passive skills are yet known.

Development

The old Whirlwind.

The new Whirlwind.

Whirlwind debuted in Blizzard's WWI 2008 with the announcement of Diablo III, as a Tier 4 skill on the Berserker Skill Tree.

During the BlizzCon 2009 Diablo 3 panel, the development team showed off visual changes to the skill. With the creation of the Desert Dervish, who also use a form of whirlwind, the D3 Team found out that the Dune Dervish's whirlwind is much better looking than the Barbarian's. In order to rectify this, they improved the Whirlwind animation with more blur, and more Barbarian copies in it.

The team showed off the new Whirlwind for the Barbarian, with a demonstration of him slaughtering multiple farm animals with it. The new Whirlwind is much more intense and as the barbarian spins, dust and sand is seen being around him, also, the whirlwind seems more vicious, giving a feeling of "weight of the weapon + the speed of spinning = very hard hits" to the player.

At BlizzCon 2010, Whirlwind was one of the Barbarian's skills available in the Battle Arena. According to Flux, however, it might not be the best skill for PvP:[1]

To my surprise, about his least useful skill was Whirlwind. It was damaging, and I saw it used well a few times in short spins, but FSM help you if you tried to do a long WW in a crowded screen. The odds of getting stuck by a Slow Time or GotD, or both, or spinning into a wall, or just taking about fifty spell attacks on you way, were very high.

Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, and Whirlwind became a level 22 skill.

Previous Versions

See the Barbarian skill archive for more details on previous versions of Whirlwind and other Barbarian skills.

In Other Games

This skill is an updated version of Diablo II's Barbarian skill Whirlwind, which also improved the Barbarian's Attack Rating.

Media

Whirlwind can be seen in action on video here:

• Gameplay: WWI 2008
• Gameplay: Blizzcon 2010 (in the Arena)
• Gameplay: July 2011
• Diablo 3 Barbarian Skill Animations

You can find pictures in the Diablo III screenshot and picture gallery:

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Whirlwind specific gallery contents

• 

  The old Whirlwind.

• 

  The new Whirlwind.

• 

  Whirlwind with every rune effect.

References

• BlizzCon 2009 Heroes and Monsters Panel
• BlizzCon 2009 Full Barbarian Skill Trees and Stats
• BlizzCon 2010 PvP Hands-on Report
• Zediono's translation of JudgeHype's pre-beta report -- IncGamers 1st Aug 2011
• Barbarian Overview -- Diablo 3 Official 13th Sep 2011

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