Battle Rage

Battle Rage is a Barbarian skill unlocked at level 3, which grants a substantial increase in damage and critical chance.

Background

Diablo III Active Skill [e]
Battle Rage
Used by:	Barbarian
Enabled at:	Clvl 3
Skill Description
Enter a rage which increases damage done by X% and increases Critical Hit chance by Y%, lasts for Z seconds.
Type:	Buff
Resource Use:	Costs Fury
Skill Rune Effects
Alabaster rune:	Unknown
Crimson rune:	Unknown
Golden rune:	Unknown
Indigo rune:	Unknown
Obsidian rune:	Unknown

The Barbarian enters a rage during battle, hitting harder than his enemies initially thought.

Skill Design

This skill is good for times when fighting enemies with lots of hp, to speed things up or to maximize the chance of critical hits, and when combined with other passive skills in this tree, can make the Barbarian a dangerous machine without the use of signature skills like Whirlwind and Leap Attack.

Skill Rank Table

• Rank 1: Enter a rage which increases damage done by 32% and increases Critical Hit chance by 25%; lasts for 15 seconds.
• Rank 2: Enter a rage which increases damage done by 38% and increases Critical Hit chance by 30%; lasts for 18 seconds. (A)
• Rank 3: Enter a rage which increases damage done by 44% and increases Critical Hit chance by 35%; lasts for 21 seconds. (A)
• Rank 4: Enter a rage which increases damage done by 50% and increases Critical Hit chance by 40%; lasts for 24 seconds. (A)
• Rank 5: Enter a rage which increases damage done by 56% and increases Critical Hit chance by 45%; lasts for 27 seconds. (A)

(A) = Assumed

Synergies

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

Skill Rune Effects

• No rune effects for Battle Rage are known.

Development

Battle Rage was first seen in the BlizzCon 2008 demo. It originally increased damage by 100% and increased critical chance by 30% at rank 1. It was also placed in the Battlemaster Skill Tree.

For the BlizzCon 2009 version, the damage bonus and crit chances had been nerfed heavily, to be more balanced. It was also moved to the Berserker Skill Tree. As typical for buffs in gameplay demos, this skill wasn't used much, as Flux explained:[1]

I used this one a few times to test it out, and it worked, but I could hardly tell the difference, since monsters were dying so quickly anyway. As was the case with the Monk, the Barbarian was so strong and overpowered in the Blizzcon build that boosting him further with war cries wasn’t something many players bothered with. “Ugg too busy smash! Ugg not use stragedy!”

Battle Rage was available in the BlizzCon 2010 demo, but there are no gameplay reports detailing any use of the skill. Skill tiers were removed for the July 2011 Press Event, and Battle Rage became a level 3 skill.

Previous Versions

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

Media

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

• Diablo III screenshots and pictures
• Battle Rage specific gallery contents

References

• BlizzCon 2009 Full Barbarian Skill Trees and Stats
• JudgeHype.com July 2011 Press Event Coverage - The Barbarian (Translated by Zediono)