Diablo III- Skills Article VIII: The Barbarian, Secondary Skill- Whirlwind

Whirlwind (16 Fury): Travel at half your movement speed while spinning, dealing 110% weapon damage.

Whirlwind is probably the most iconic of the Barbarian skills in all Diablo games.  Not only has it been part of the Barbarian as long as the Barbarian has been a class, but it has always been one of the most popular Barbarian abilities- and with good reason.  Used properly, Whirlwind can bring devastation on an impressive level to anything that dares near your Barbarian.  Whirlwind is doled out in half-second chunks, though simply holding down the Secondary Skill button will turn it into a constant attack as long as you have enough Fury to fuel it, making it easier to use on a continuous basis than almost any secondary skill in the game.  During each half-second, every enemy that is within reach at any point during the Whirlwind will take the weapon damage from the skill- and Whirlwind allows you to travel at roughly half your usual movement speed while you use it.  This makes it very useful for blowing through ranks of minions or for constantly moving while dealing out damage in melee- something you will occasionally find yourself needing rather badly.

Dust Devils (16 Fury): Travel at half your movement speed while spinning, dealing 110% weapon damage.  Once per use when you hit an enemy you will generate a small whirlwind that travels in the direction the enemy was in, dealing 40% weapon damage.

Dust Devils is the first rune you unlock for Whirlwind, and while not staggeringly useful, it is still very nice for taking out large numbers of minions.  While you are using this rune, your Whirlwind will deal additional damage in the form of sporadic small whirlwinds that will spout off from your Barbarian in the direction of some of the enemies you hit.  While they only travel a short distance, they reach farther than your weapon does, and this can make them very handy for dealing with Fallen and other small enemies that like to run, dodge, or scatter.

Hurricane (16 Fury):  Travel at your movement speed while spinning, dealing 110% weapon damage.

Hurricane is your option of choice for spread out enemies who may not move faster than you but can be harder to reach all of.  Because it increases the movement speed of your Whirlwind attack, it allows you to tag more enemies- but doesn’t directly increase your damage.  While this doesn’t seem too big an advantage, with a bit of movement-boosting gear it should be easily possible to cut through not only large swaths of minions and destructible scenery, but entire chunks of level, gathering the attention of enemies you can then obliterate steadily with this or your other area-effect attacks.

Blood Funnel (16 Fury): Travel at half your movement speed while spinning, dealing 110% weapon damage.  When you score a critical hit, you will regain 1.0% of your maximum Life.

Blood Funnel is the Whirlwind rune for critical-hit monkeys.  While not as fancy as Birthright for the Hammer of the Ancients, it is much more reliable.  If you want to do fancy critical-hit things while wielding two weapons, then this is a better choice than Birthright- which works best with a single large weapon, since you can’t actually improve the speed of Birthright any.  Most notably, since Blood Funnel is based entirely on your maximum Life, it is almost unquestionably better than Birthright if you happen to not have any equipment on that pumps up the Life Orbs.  (Birthright can pull ahead with other Life Orb skills accompanying it, but again- in that case you should be wearing gear that boosts Life Orbs anyhow.)

Wind Shear (16 Fury): Travel at half your movement speed while spinning, dealing 110% weapon damage.  Gain 1 Fury for each enemy you hit.

While Hurricane’s movement boost can go a long way towards extending y our Whirlwind into a longer-use effect by putting you in things’ faces so they’ll hit you and give you Fury, Wind Shear is the real gem here, and with the right gear accompanying it can come close to putting the Barbarian back up with Diablo II Barbarians in permanent Whirlwind mode.  It won’t quite manage it, just because of how quickly Whirlwind eats through Fury, but it goes a long way towards extending how long you can spin.  Just hope you can boost your movement speed enough to keep up with your allies.

Volcanic Eruption (16 Fury): Travel at half your movement speed while spinning, dealing 143% weapon damage of Fire.

Volcanic Eruption is the rune to go to if you just want your Whirlwind to be plain old strong.  Be careful, though, there are enemies out there who won’t be bothered by fire at all.  If you try to abuse this Rune, you’re going to run up against a few roadblocks where you have to switch to your other skills- or back off and switch runes.  That said, the damage is pretty tasty.