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"Moving, spinning, attacking". Here we have the Tasmanian Devil of the Barbarian's arsenal. On selecting a target or location, the Barbarian spins to that spot, hitting everything on the way with an uninterruptible attack. This is one of the most powerful skills in the game, so much so that Blizzard has nerfed it several times, and it's still very powerful.
The Barbarian is virtually invulnerable while doing this. Most monsters fail to hit the moving target, and he can hit everything he passes several times with each WW, scoring dozens of hits when spinning through a big crowd.
In D2X Whirlwind is weaker than in the past, but it's still very effective. Weapon speed is now a factor, the faster your weapon the more chances to hit you get while spinning. Faster is much better. Weapons with more reach (Weapon range is listed for every weapon in our Items section.) have more chances to hit per target. Attack Rating is very important as well, you want at least 75-80% to be most effective, and over 90% is extremely deadly, usually giving an extra hit on every monster you pass.
Dual Wielding while WW'ing gives you 50% more to/hit checks, and the weapons used alternate. If one has much less durability (for example you have a Gull for the magic find) that one will constantly be needing repair, and half of your hits will do much lower damage.
Some mana steal is required to use WW constantly. Barbarians do so much damage that not much leech is needed, but it depends on your weapon. Stopping in the middle of a mob with no mana to spin out is very bad, so always be prepared to drink a fast purple, and try to aim your sweeps fully across the mob of monsters. You must have at least enough mana to do 2 WW's in a row, or one miss will force you to Bash or Attack to leech back enough to spin again. Ideally you'll have 200+ mana, which isn't hard with any +mana stuff on your equipment and high level Battle Orders, and can miss several spins, due to de synch or poor AR, and keep going. Barbs do such high damage that generally 2 or 3 hits on a WW is more than enough to fill their mana bulb completely.
You can not drink a potion while in the middle of a WW, so if you are in trouble, you need to drink something when you stop. If you start a spin with low hit points you might die before you stop.
You need a clear area to WW through. Sometimes your Barbarian will move up and down stairs or around small corners, but usually he'll get stuck on a wall or rock, chest, urn, barrel, etc. Stopping in the middle of a mob since you hit a chest is a bad thing, so learn to aim around such obstacles.
Technique: You can WW constantly while keeping the right click depressed, just move your mouse around, and each time one WW finishes, another one will start immediately, aiming towards wherever you are pointing at that time. It's best to aim for a location, rather than a particular monster. As long as you keep the right click down, you can target anywhere and move to it, even right on top of monsters.
If you target a monster or player that runs, you will sometimes spin after them until you hit a wall or chest or something that stops you. It's possible to travel multiple screens, hitting everything on the way, before you reach an obstacle. This is usually bad, since you might run into far more monsters than you want active at a time. It's very bad in PvP, since the target you are after will run faster than you move in WW, and if they have a ranged attack they can keep just ahead of you and kill you easily. Always try to target an open spot on the ground, not a monster or player.
On big packs you tend to get more hits in if you go across the edges of it, rather than right through the middle. A good way to work this is to go back and forth in straight lines, but steadily moving away from the mob, as they walk towards you. You'll spin across the leading edge repeatedly, cutting them to bits while taking hardly any attacks yourself. Try to concentrate your hits on a few monsters, rather than hitting each of the 20 or 30 monsters in a mob once. You are better off hitting half a dozen monsters 6 or 8 times each and killing them than hitting twenty monsters 3 times each and killing nothing, while they heal back your damage.
Some poison damage is mandatory, with the longest duration you can find. You want to prevent healing, the damage from poison is inconsequential compared to the massive WW physical damage. One or two poison charms should suffice.
For solo targets, such as bosses, you should move in short back and forth spins, or better yet do small triangles or squares around the outside of the monster. Passing right next to a target is better than moving directly over it; you get more to/hit checks skimming. Playing on the realms the exact location of the monster is never clear, with lag and desynch, so you can't be entirely precise. It's good to run up and Bash or Berserk the target one time, to get an exact fix on the location before you start spinning around it.
Try not to overshoot your target, spinning to the edge of the screen and then having to come back is a waste of time. Most monsters will move right into your spinning, so rather than aiming past them, aim across their motion, and they'll walk into your spin, and will follow you a step or two each spin as you pass over them. If there is a mixed mob, with some running monsters and some melee attackers, you should spin after the runners, since the melee ones will move after you, right into your weapon.
Being hit with cold is not a bad thing. You'll move a little slower as you spin, staying on top of each monster longer, and getting more hits. Less footspeed is actually useful while WW'ing. Most Barbs notice this clearly when fighting Izual, since if he gets you with a Frost Nova as you spin towards him, and follows you as you move past, you'll get around triple the hits you normally would on a single pass. Of course monsters have a better chance of hitting you as well if you move over them slowly.
On very difficulty packs, especially if there is a boss monster with Mana Burn, you want to do longer spins. You can't be interrupted mid-spin, but you can be swarmed when you stop, and hit too fast to start another one. Barbs can take tremendous damage while they are spinning, but get it all back with leech, as long as they keep hitting. This works with Mana Burn as well, you can be hit and sucked dry, but then hit several times as you keep moving on that spin, and refill your mana enough to keep going. Often a single Mana Burn monster will require you to stop WW and kill it with Bash, or at least mix in a lot of Bashes to keep getting back enough mana to WW again.
Most Barbs max out WW, or at least get it to 10 or 15 for the AR and the damage bonuses. Generally you want to get WW to 6 or 8, to get out of the negative damage, then max out your weapon mastery first, since it helps with every attack, then max out WW if you want more damage. Higher Attack Rating can help more than bigger damage.
[[category:Barbarian]]
