Diablo III- Skills Article XXX: The Barbarian, Theorycraft Two: Come At Me

It’s possible to set up the Barbarian to dish out terrible vengeance- inflicting huge amounts of pain and suffering in retribution to anyone who dares approach to strike them.

Primary Skill- Frenzy (Maniac)
Secondary Skill- Rend (Lacerate)
Defensive Skill- Ignore Pain (Contempt for Weakness)
Might Skill- Revenge (Provocation)
Tactics Skill- Battle Rage (Bloodshed)
Rage Skill- Wrath of the Berserker (Arreat’s Wail)
Passive Skills- Brawler, Relentless, Tough as Nails

This build doesn’t terribly care what weapon it has, as long as there is one and it’s damage is at least acceptable (preferably big).  Lacerate, Bloodshed and Maniac, with the aid of Brawler, will help you punish enemies for crowding in around you.  Contempt for Weakness and Tough as Nails should pair up with equipment that deals thorns damage to automatically mutilate anyone daring to actually strike the Barbarian, and when the going gets really tough and Relentless kicks in, Arreat’s Wail will let you blow the nearby foes away and still smash them moments later with your Maniac damage.  Bloodshed helps you spread the damage around, and alternating bundles of Frenzy with an occasional Rend lets you continually pump out damage to anything nearby.

You may find that Arreat’s Wail knocks things farther away than you like- if that’s true, then Slaughter might be an option, or you could trade out Maniac for Vanguard, giving you the speed to catch up to your enemy.  The main weakness here is a lack of ranged damage, but if you’ve got any sort of accompaniment, you should be fine anyways.  If nothing else, swapping Maniac to Vanguard will let you ambush the ranged attackers midway through pummeling their melee friends.

This build is considerably less hard on its Fury reserves, so you shouldn’t really find yourself needing to swap Passive skills.  Do keep an eye out for anything that can improve your thorns damage, though.  Also, some degree of improvement to overall movement speed from your boots, and it wouldn’t hurt to increase your Life total via gems or gear, if you can spare the resources.  You’re unlikely to have any damage woes, after all.