Barbarian skills history

This page lists the progression of the Barbarian's skills over the years.

BlizzCon 2008

The Barbarian's skills and skill trees were first seen at BlizzCon 2008 as a mix of active and passive skills (mostly passive), with only a few enabled and many showing nothing more than vague descriptions in the skill trees. The Barbarian's skills were divided among his skill trees thusly:

• Berserker Skill Tree: 6 active skills and 12 passives
• Juggernaut Skill Tree: 6 active skills and 12 passives
• Battlemaster Skill Tree: 5 active skills and 12 passives

• See the Barbarian skills 2008 page for full descriptions of all the Barbarian's skills available then.

BlizzCon 2009

For BlizzCon 2009, the list of the Barbarian's passive skills had greatly shrunk, but the active skills were mostly just shuffled around. The Barbarian gained 4 new active skills: Sprint, Wrath of the Berserker, Bloodthirst, and Weapon Throw.

Only 10 passive skills were kept: Bad Temper, Double Strike, Strong Constitution, Berserker State, Slashing Strike, Inspiration, Stubborn, Recovery, Invigorated, and Scavenge. The other 26 were lost.

5 new passives were also introduced: Scavenge, Strong Constitution, Second Wind, Retaliation, and Cripple.

BlizzCon 2010

For BlizzCon 2010, the skill system was greatly overhauled. Skill trees were removed, and all active skills were placed on a single list. All passives were renamed traits and placed in a separate list.

5 new active skills introduced: Rampage, War Cry, Ancient Spear, Rend, and Call of the Ancients.

4 active skills lost: Battle Cry, Onslaught, Bloodthirst, and Enrage.

All 31 of the Barbarian traits were new skills except for two passives that were turned, more or less directly, into traits: Bad Temper and Second Wind. The other 15 passives were removed.