Did Diablo 4 Season 8 make Whirlwind better in the PTR?

Modified Mar 18, 2025 00:37 IST

Diablo 4 Season 8 Whirlwind — There's a lot of talk about Diablo 4 Season 8's Whirlwind on Barbarians - is it better or worse? Let's talk about that (Image via Blizzard Entertainment)

A lot of Diablo 4 players have been discussing the Season 8 changes to Whirlwind, and I just don’t know how a nerf can be seen. In fact, there are two sets of very important changes that could lead to a Whirlwind build being the top build of the whole Season. We’ll just have to see, but if what I’ve seen on the PTR is anything to go by, it’s going to be a lot of fun to play a Barbarian in Season 8 — provided you pick up one required Unique.

While I think Whirlwind is better on its own as an ability in Diablo 4 Season 8, the buffs made to a specific Barbarian Unique will take it over the top and make it a must-run build going forward. While Season 8 is supposed to be harder, Whirlwind could easily trivialize everything.

Diablo 4 Season 8 made Whirlwind much better in two ways

Yes, I think Diablo 4 Season 8 made Whirlwind a much better option than it was before. The only part that could be considered confusing is that its Base damage increased from 24% to 32%, based on the attack speed of your weapon. That 32% is based on an attack speed of 1.0. So you’ll have to have the right weapon to really get the most out of the base Whirlwind skill.

Combine Whirlwind with the Wandering Death Beam, and you have a recipe for destruction (Image via Blizzard Entertainment/@Rob2628)

Then, you add the changes made to Violent Whirlwind. It does lose the 35% increased damage, so I can see why people are really talking about Whirlwind in Diablo 4 Season 8. Instead, once you’ve channeled Whirlwind for 2 seconds, it increases the damage of your next Weapon Mastery Skill by 35% if used immediately after Whirlwind ends.

So it’s less of a nerf or buff and more of a reallocation/adjustment. However, once you pick up Gohr’s Devastating Grips, Whirlwind becomes a real force of nature in Diablo 4 Season 8. Here’s why I really think it has been buffed. Here are the important takeaways:

Damage now deals and scales with Whirlwind damage.
Whirlwind now explodes every three seconds as Fire damage, dealing 300-600% increased damage. Critical Strikes with Whirlwind reduce the time until the next explosion by 0.2 seconds down to 1 second.

Sure, the explosion is now 3 seconds instead of 2 seconds, but it’s also 300-600% increased damage instead of 50-80% of the Base damage dealt. I do think this is going to be an incredibly powerful skill in the next season. Being able to reduce the time between explosions with crits is also a nice touch. Gohr’s Devastating Grips were nerfed back in 2023, but they’re back and better than ever in 2025.

Of course, this is all speculation — even the PTR is subject to change. We’ll have to see what happens on the live servers, but I’ve got a really good feeling about how Whirlwind is going to play out in the coming season.

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Edited by Ripunjay Gaba